What You’ll Learn About Niche Marketing Strategy in This Episode
In this strategic episode of Play Big Faster, host Scherrie Prince interviews Todd Howard, founder of Grow a Niche Business, who helps business owners find their unique marketing position. If you’re struggling to stand out in a crowded marketplace or worried about “leaving money on the table” by specializing, this conversation provides the practical framework you need to develop a niche strategy that actually grows your business.
Todd shares his proven 5-part framework for discovering your perfect niche, explains why most businesses get niching completely wrong, and demonstrates how developing a unique approach attracts more of your ideal clients—not fewer.
The True Definition of a Business Niche: Creating a Place of Safety
One of the first misconceptions Todd addresses is what a niche actually is. Many entrepreneurs view niching as a “lottery ticket”—finding the right market or trend that will make their business take off. But that’s not how effective niching works.
“Niche is an old French term… used in the 17 hundreds to define a business that has found a place of safety. The term niche literally means to nest. It’s the verb to nest,” Todd explains. Rather than thinking about niching as jumping on a hot trend, consider it “a place of safety for your business… where your strengths are leveraged, where people are more interested in what you do by the way in which you do it.”
This foundational shift in understanding niching helps move business owners from chasing markets to developing sustainable competitive advantages.
Why Solopreneurs Fail to Niche Down Effectively
Todd spent decades working at the corporate level with positioning and product strategy before turning his focus to small businesses and solopreneurs. He noticed that while large companies invest enormous effort in positioning (which is why we all know when to shop at Walmart versus Target), small business owners often fail to implement these same powerful strategies.
Small business owners typically “just jump into an industry. Whether it’s to be a financial advisor or a business coach, and they just think, ‘I’m gonna hustle, I’m gonna charm people. I’m just going to just drive my business to success.’ And they don’t realize they can take a page out of the playbook corporate uses all the time and they can position themselves,” Todd shares.
Addressing the #1 Fear: Will Niching Down Leave Money on the Table?
The most common objection Todd hears from business owners is the fear they’ll turn away potential clients by niching down.
Todd directly challenges this fear: “It is a false hope to believe that everybody is going to hire you… the potential clients that you’re dreaming about, they are looking for someone that can fit them really well. They’re looking for a specialist. And so if you come across as a generalist, they’re gonna say ‘I’m sure you’re a nice person. I’m sure you can do a pretty good job, but I wanna find somebody that can do a great job.'”
The reality? “Your real market gets bigger when you niche,” because you make it clear exactly who you serve and how you serve them differently than everyone else.
Case Studies: Successful Niche Marketing in Action
To illustrate effective niching, Todd shares two compelling examples:
The Simon Sinek Example
Simon Sinek is technically a leadership and development coach, but that’s not how we think of him. Instead of promoting his general category, Sinek focused entirely on his unique approach: inspiring leadership. By developing and articulating this unique perspective, he attracted the subset of leadership clients who specifically value inspiration in their approach.
The Certified Exit Planner Example
Todd helped a client named Alan, a certified exit planner who helps businesses prepare to sell. While there are many exit planners, Alan developed a unique approach focusing on building trust between owners and employees to reduce owner dependence—a critical factor in selling a business at a higher price. This specialized focus attracted business owners specifically struggling with trust and delegation issues.
The 5-Part Framework for Finding Your Perfect Niche
Todd reveals his comprehensive 5-step framework for developing a profitable niche:
- Identify your unique abilities – Focus on your unique insights and perspectives
- Build a unique customer experience using those abilities
- Analyze the competition to ensure differentiation
- Choose a market that’s best served by your unique approach
- Reposition your business to deliver your unique approach to that market
This methodical process helps entrepreneurs move from vague passion to a concrete business plan that leverages their strengths and connects with a specific audience.
The Biggest Niche Marketing Misconception
Todd identifies the biggest misconception about niching: thinking you can find a niche by choosing a hot market. Using the example of the pandemic pet ownership boom, he explains that by the time entrepreneurs recognize a trend, it’s often too late. “By the time you recognize that it’s a hot market, it’s already on its way out. The people who benefited were the people who were already in a pet-related business when Covid started.”
The Psychological Barrier to Finding Your Niche
A major obstacle Todd observes is that “people have a hard time believing that they have some creative idea inside of them. They keep wanting someone else to tell them this is what you should do. They wanna do market research, they wanna look outside themselves and figure out what they need to do. But the truth is, the strongest card they have in their hand to play is based on some unique insights they already have.”
The mindset shift required is understanding that “within you already is a unique perspective or unique insights that you can leverage to create something that makes you stand out and makes you valuable to a subset of the market.”
Key Takeaways: How to Play Big Faster Through Niching
When asked for his #1 piece of advice for entrepreneurs looking to “play big faster” while niching down, Todd emphasized: “Focus on discovering a unique approach that you can take in your industry that plays into your strengths and connects you with a subset of the industry that needs it done exactly the way you can do it. Don’t chase the competition. Don’t chase hot markets. Figure out the unique approach you can offer people and rely on that.”
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