📍 Oversaturated vs specific

I was recently at a family gathering and got chatting to my sister-in-law about a business opportunity.

She works as an accountant, and hates it.

However, she is a talented seamstress and designer and would LOVE to do more work around that.

She says there is just one snag: the market is oversaturated.

This is a common objection I hear from people who say they want to start a business. While it is almost never actually the problem - usually people say that to mask a lack of self-confidence in starting their own business - there is a simple fix to the oversaturation problem: specificity.

If you think your market is oversaturated it is only because you're not yet specific enough about who you're helping.

Examples:

• Photographer = oversaturated.

  
  

  • Photographer specialising in alternative/rock and metal weddings is wide open.

  • Food photographer for menus for independent small businesses in your town is likely available.

  • Pet-memorial/end of life photography is a relatively untapped niche.

    
    

• Seamstress = saturated

  
  

  • A seamstress who makes custom prom dresses for alternative teens is untapped (and the niche we decided is the best fit for my sister-in-law).

  • Specialising in historical costume reproduction is an easy market.

  • Remaking deceased family member’s items into memorial pieces is open.

  • Adapting clothing for people with disabilities is underserved.

    
    

• Coaching = saturated

  
  

  • Exit strategy and succession planning coaching for family businesses is untapped.

  • Coaching local builders to introduce recurring revenue streams is underserved.

  • Helping parents of neurodivergent children navigate schooling choices has plenty of space.

    
    

The more specific you are, the more you can charge. The easier it is to find and talk to your target audience and their specific problems. The easier it is to show relevant examples and proof of results. Everything gets easier, and more lucrative.

Additionally, markets are MUCH bigger than you think and you need far fewer customers than you think. One of my clients is doing more than $400,000 per year with just 3 customers right now (and we are adding 1 new customer per month and have a multi-month waitlist).

So how can you get started with this today?

1. Firstly, identify target audiences you have some existing knowledge of. Get specific, we can branch out later when we have momentum. Consider your hobbies, skills, working experience, qualification, location, past experiences. You have unique insight that nobody else has and that people will find valuable, you just need to take the time to identify it. I often help people with this exact thing, and we can usually find it together within a single hour-long session.

   
   

2. Second, define your income and time goals. Then reverse engineer how many customers and at what price you would like to target. We can create an offer to match our requirements and the target audience’s needs. This often takes about a week to do properly. When done right, you can start making a decent amount of money within a single month.

   
   

My favourite quick test to know whether your audience is specific enough: you should be able to find 10 people who match your target audience profile within 2 minutes using a LinkedIn or Facebook groups search.

Your market isn’t oversaturated, your target market and offer aren’t specific enough. Start to narrow it down today, you will find everything else gets easier.

A seamstress who specialises in custom prom dresses for alternative teens (AI generated)

💡 Quote I'm pondering

"Be a bush if you can't be a tree, if you can't be a highway just be a trail, if you can't be the sun be a star, for it isn't by size that you win or you fail, be the best of whatever you are" - Martin Luther King Jr.

This is a beautiful quote in general and ties in both of my points in this email: adapt to be unique, and strive to deliver quality.

Additionally, as I said to a client recently, don’t compare your day 1 with someone else’s day 100. Maybe you cannot “be a highway” right now, but a trail often grows into something more significant. You don’t have to be the biggest when you start, or even to be classed as successful - success is something different to different people. Be specific when you start, it is easier to capitalise on momentum and it is easier to first build momentum when you’re specific.

I shared this in my Work Smart Wednesday newsletter. Want the full set of related insights? You can read them here: https://worksmartwednesday.substack.com/p/work-smart-wednesday-august-28-2024

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