Question: Has your niche changed since you began your business?

Most entrepreneurs I know are convinced that the word entrepreneur might just be a French word for failure. They’ve tried so many things that haven’t worked. In my experience, this is normal. 

Most of my colleagues (who are now very successful) went through a number of niches before they landed on their current one.

My mother Laura and her husband Sherwood run a tree farm near Edmonton, Alberta. Of course, it your name is Sherwood and you run a tree farm – you basically have to name it Sherwood’s Forests. When they first began their business, they felt pretty clear about who two of their target markets were – garden centers and landscapers.

Easy!

Niching problem solved.

But, it wasn’t so easy as that.

It turned out garden centers had their own suppliers already and wanted trees for less money than made sense to them to sell and weren’t as concerned about quality as they were. And landscapers had their own trusted suppliers too and needed bigger trees because, when someone hires a landscaper, they want an instant landscape. They don’t want little, healthy trees that will eventually grow big and strong. They want larger trees (that will likely die).

But then, they began to be approached by reclamation companies who told them, ‘your trees are the perfect size for us!’. They had to spend a few years spiraling around their niche before it was clear. 

When I first began my career, I thought my niche would be helping green retail stores and restaurants. But it ended up being almost entirely service providers. 

I could give you this exact same story for countless entrepreneurs who began their business imagining that Audience A would be their people, only to find out it was really Audience Q.  In the beginning, we’re only making educated guesses about what our best niche will be. If your niche has switched a number of times – it’s normal. 

If your niche has changed, can you fill in the blanks below and tell us about it? I’d love to include it in my new ebook I’m working on called The Niching Spiral. By posting it below you’re giving me permission to share it in my ebook. Please include your website if you like. 

“When I began, I thought my niche would be _________ because _______ but it turns out it’s _________ because __________.”