The most important part of any business is having someone to serve and sell to, which is why it’s crucial to find your perfect niche. You cannot shout into the void and expect things to happen, followers to randomly appear and customers to be knocking at your door. You need to know who you are talking to in order to have a profitable and successful business. Its part of a strong strategy, it’s the lifeblood of your biz. Even if you have the most amazing, awesome, blow-your-mind product, if you’re not reaching the right people, all you’ll hear is crickets.

Never fear! Help is here! I’m going to walk you through my 5 step process to find the absolute perfect audience for your business.

Why it’s Super Important to Find Your Perfect Niche

AKA, your target market, yo’ tribe, band of loyal followers, community, subscribers, internet BFFs. If you think you are going to setup a business and appeal to everyone, think again. One of the biggest mistakes new entrepreneurs make is that they try to be everything to everyone. Know that you cannot make everyone happy and it will hurt you in the long run. You need to find that sweet spot of perfect people who you appeal to, who are hungry to get their hands on what your selling. You are offering the solution to their specific problems. You can’t help everyone in the world, but your biz is perfect to help them.

Just because you start a business in a certain niche doesn’t mean that you have to stick to that niche forever. Many successful startups have changed multiple times because they discovered that their chosen niche wasn’t right for them and that’s totally ok! Others expand their niche and venture outside their current services and products because their business and vision grew.

Either way, if you are starting out you need to nail down your niche and serve to them. Worry about expanding later and start on the right foot today.

Step 1: Find Your Passion!

To find your perfect niche, first you need to know what your passion is. You need to know what you’ll be happy doing! There’s no point in running a business and being your own boss if you’re gonna hate every minute of it. So first find your passion. Then find your talent and see where they intersect.

For example… My passion is to help others achieve their Dreams. I’m a Graphic Designer and I love to Illustrate. Therefore, I want to help other Dreamers like myself to achieve their ultimate goals through teaching and design.

This helps you get a rough idea of who you will likely be serving and understanding your WHY. It’s super super important to hold on to that WHY. Why you’re building this biz, why you’re passionate about it, so when times get tough, you can remind yourself why you’re doing it in the first place.

Step 2: Who Are You?!

Answer this question: What do I want to be the go-to-hub for? A cool way to start narrowing down your audience and find your perfect niche is to answer that simple question. What do you want people to associate you with? What do you want to be recommended for doing?

For example, when you think of Nike, what problems do they solve? What are they the go-to-hub for? A healthy exercise driven lifestyle comes to mind. If I want to start exercising to be healthier they have the equipment, clothes, mobile app, a community, information, health clubs, a run club… etc… It all falls under one umbrella that solves all my exercise driven questions. So what go-to-hub are you?

Step 3: What Problems Can You Solve?

Now that you know your talents and passion, think about what you can solve. What problems does your audience have? What keeps them up at night? Write out a list of things you think you can solve with your talents and passion.

Which broad topics can you cover well and help with? Is it teaching others about marketing? How to start an email list? Grow a vegetable garden? Learn watercolor? Try to be very specific.

Step 4: Browse The Competish

Competition isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s kind of a weird validation that you’ve found a profitable niche. There’s hope! Do your homework and research! Do a thorough analysis of competing sites, blogs, companies, mom and pop shops, that kinda do what you’d love to do.

Figure out where your opportunity lies to stand out in the crowd. What can set you apart? What’s your secret sauce that will catapult you to the top? Is there a way to differentiate yourself and create a unique offer or position yourself in a different more intriguing way?

Step 5: Say Hello to Your New Imaginary BFF

Ok so, once you’ve found your ~passion~, gotten to think about all the problems you can solve, found the essence of your biz (aka, what you’re the go-to-hub for), and analyzed yo’ competitors… It’s time to create your new imaginary BFF.

What I mean is, you need to create an audience profile. Basically imagine your ideal client and give them a face, a background, likes and dislikes and really get to know them intimately… after all, this person is your new BFF and secret weapon!

The idea is to give them a Name and a story. This way you can always ask yourself… Will this new product help (______)? Will (_____) like this Instagram post? Etc etc… This way you always know if what you are doing is something that will serve and help your audience! Here are some things to include in your audience profile:

• Name (or nickname!)
• Age
• Occupation
• Hobbies
• Current job
• Income
• What motivates them?
• What does their Insta feed look like?
• What keeps them up at night?
• What’s their dream!?

Boom. There ya have it! Ever since I did this exercise I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Now if I have doubts, I just ask my ultimate imaginary BFF, Camilla, if she would dig it. If she does, I move forward full steam ahead! If she’s hesitant, I go back and see what I can do to improve to make it more appealing for her. She’s a bit high maintenance but I love her, she’s my secret weapon!

Have you found your niche yet? Do you think creating an imaginary biz BFF will help you? Let me know in the comments below!