table of funtents

1. 👋🏼 it’s me, hi

2. 🕸️ niche down or cast wide?

3. 💩 no bs reminders

👋🏼 it’s me, hi

HAPPY WEDNESDAY, MISFITS 🌞

We are officially in the glorious month of May - and, if you’re in the UK, at the exact precipice of either our 15th winter or, finally, some consistent sun.

How are y’all doing? I’m continuing to ease back in from a month off, drive momentum with client work and enter my creative era - filled with writing, writing and more writing (expect super useful content coming your way on here and LinkedIn!).

🔊 SUBSCRIBER UPDATE: In order to prioritise quality over quantity, I’m changing my weekly newsletter cadence to fortnightly for the next few months. Why?

• I committed to writing high-value, weekly episodes for 6 months from September to March - and did so whilst only skipping Christmas!

• Being outside helps me bring better content to you. As the weather’s nicer and the days longer, I’m investing in the clarity and creativity nature provides.

• I still want to be the one to write these - they keep me stimulated, connected and accountable with y’all, so it’s not something I want to delegate (ever, tbh).

• More aggregated and targeted guides to the questions y’all care most about are currently underway, and I want to get both really right (!!!)

It’s a good thing, and I promise there’ll be even more value-add the other side. Stay tuned - I’ll share sneak peaks as we go along!

Updates done-zo, let’s hop into the meat of today’s episode and the age old question for any biz owner: to niche down or cast wide?

🕸️ niche down or cast wide?

When I started keshty, I read every article you could DREAM of on this topic.

I spoke to mentors, friends and those who’d been there, done that longer than I had.

And, as you’d expect - I received LOTS of conflicting advice.

In today’s episode, I’m going to do the same for you (I’m afraid):

I’ll offer the conflicting (albeit wise and well-intended) advice I received in a neatly packaged gift - so you can quickly sift through the pros and cons and decide what’s best for you depending on where you’re at.

1. definitions a la pie 🥧

Let’s start by agreeing definitions so we’re all on the same page:

• Niche down: solve one specific problem for one specific type of client

• Cast wide: offer varied, multiple solutions to (potentially) many different types of clients

Now, let’s contextualise this into an easy example involving my fav dessert, pie.

niche down

You have absolutely mastered the subtle art and exact science that is pumpkin pie. You are THE go-to for pumpkin pie in your area.

cast wide

You’re really good at making pie - more than most people, you’d wager.

Your mom loves your key lime pie, your sister can’t get enough of your cherry pie - AND there’s even an option for your vegan bestie in the form of vegan pecan pie. In fact, any suggestions for new pie flavours? You’ll take ‘em.

2. the argument for niching

Whether you call it nitch or neesh (correct), the truth remains: die-hard niching fans will tell you to start small and grow wider. And it’s damn good advice from people who know a lot more than I do.

One of the most impactful articles I’ve read around niching comes from Justin Welsh in his newsletter, The Saturday Solopreneur.

In it, Justin argues that your broad messaging makes it impossible for potential clients - the ones you really want to work with - to see themselves in your offer. This means you’re wasting time on unqualified leads which, as a result, costs you money.

Now despite being incredibly disciplined and ruthlessly focused, I’m also a textbook generalist - similar to many of you.

We’ve been thrown into the trenches wherever there’s a fire - in or out of our domain expertise. We’re the go-to problem solvers others can rely on for the right fix. We’re clever and can honestly do MANY things.

So how do you reconcile all this advice with the fact that you are capable of doing a lot really well? Here’s a pro / con list for going niche from the start:

3. the argument for casting wide

Casting wide may be the easier thing to do, but (IMO) it’s not nearly as foolish as we make it out to be.

With a caveat: it’s possible to be fluid and flexible, as long as those phases are underpinned by strategy and intention.

At the start of anything, I’m a big fan of collecting data - lots of it. Fail fast, gather feedback, test and iterate. When you’re putting an offer together, I actually think NOT casting wide is shooting yourself in the foot.

How will you know what clients actually want? Just because you built something doesn’t mean anyone needs it.

How can you test whether your service adequately solves a painpoint without stress-testing it in lots of places? If you only have one type of client, you’re effectively running an experiment with only one tiny sample set.

But don’t just throw shit at the wall - think about when, where, why, how and how long you’re willing to throw the shit, then learn from it. Here’s a pro / con list for casting wide from the start:

💩 no bs reminders

⏰ there’s a time and place

Personally, I did a mix of both niching and casting the net wide. I started niche on the type of founder I wanted to work with (minority gender or ethnicity) and industry (EdTech/Tech for Good), but cast the net wide on stage and setup (e.g. established and boostrapped vs. pre-seed and fundraising).

The nature of my work has stayed the same (org design, recruitment, retention), but I’ve dabbled in expanding into some of the ops-y process improvement and decided I can do this if (and only if) I delegate to someone better than me. But I wouldn’t know that unless I tested it first.

It’s only in year 2 I feel much more confident saying no to projects and only saying yes to those that excite me. But I know my offers are still not niche enough, and tbh, that’s the intent behind this “creative era” for me!

👽 embrace the gray

Broad vs. niche is a divisive, black and white topic for biz owners.

Y’all know I’m a deep believer that if you build something for everyone, you’re building something for no one. But when you start out, it doesn’t have to be so black and white. Consider embracing the gray.

It’s okay to cast wide, collect feedback from your prospects, then narrow down. It’s also okay to start specific, build a repeatable and scalable offer, codify that into a product, then see where it can fit more widely.

In previous episodes, I’ve documented my exact niching journey through various lenses - from how I collected the data that shaped my current offer, to landing my first ideal client to learning what to say yes vs. no to.

PS: emphasis on the word journey - because I’m still on it.

So what do YOU think, misfit?

Are you Team Niche, Team Wide Net or somewhere in between? As always, I’m only a message away for thoughts + questions 🫶🏼

Before you go, let me know what you thought of this issue with the pulse check below! Good intent feedback is always welcome ⬇️

xo, Neds