She's That Founder: Business Strategy and Time Management for Impactful Female Leaders

055 | Expand Your Reach: 8 Strategies for Niche-Bound Businesses

• Dawn Andrews • Season 1 • Episode 55

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Ever wonder if your niche is too narrow to grow? 

In this episode, we unlock the secret to scaling by mastering your niche, finding the perfect balance between depth and breadth, and diversifying your revenue streams. 

But that’s not all—I will also share eight practical ways to expand your niche without losing focus, helping you make strategic decisions that keep your business thriving. 

Tune in for insights and strategies that will transform the way you think about your business!


In this episode, I discuss:

  • How narrowing your niche can scale your business effectively.
  • The pros and cons of broadening your niche to reach a wider audience.
  • Eight practical ways to expand your niche without losing focus.


This episode at a glance:

[01:52] People resist niching because they want to serve anybody and everybody all the time in order to be able to make that revenue.

[04:20] You can expand your niche and open up new markets and our opportunities by slightly widening your focus.

[07:24] Finding a different twist of what it is that you do to help a client, go more deeply into what it is that your service offering is.

[08:51] There are probably natural expansion opportunities within the clients that you already have.

[10:04] It all comes down to your business goals and the needs of your target audience.


Resources and Links mentioned in this episode


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More about the “My Good Woman” podcast

My Good Woman is a podcast for new and future female leaders, hosted by me, Dawn Andrews.

I’m a happily married hockey mom, proud female leader, and founder and CEO of Free Range Thinking, where we turn founders into confident CEOs with strategic consulting and leadership training.

Grab a seat at the table with me each week for candid conversations with culture-shifting, glass-ceiling-busting, trailblazing women who are leading enterprises that are making a change in the world. 

We discuss what makes them tick and how they get it all done. We share actionable strategies to help you and your team get organized - so you can focus on your company’s growth, profit, and impact. 

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Want to increase revenue and impact? Listen to “My Good Woman” for insights on business strategy and female leadership to scale your business. Each episode offers advice on effective communication, team building, and management. Learn to master routines and systems to boost productivity and prevent burnout. Our delegation tips and business consulting will advance your executive leadership skills and presence.

My Good Woman
Ep. 55 | Expand Your Reach: 8 Strategies for Niche-Bound Businesses

Dawn Andrews:

You might feel too niche bound, but going deeper into your niche could be the key to exponential growth. Alternatively, expanding your niche strategically can also unlock new opportunities.

 Welcome to the My Good Woman podcast where we help female founders break past plateaus and get to the next level of business growth by refining their strategy building systems and streamlining operations. 

I'm Dawn Andrews. The founder and CEO of free range thinking business strategy consulting. Join me each week for candid conversations, with culture shifting, glass ceiling busting trailblazing women who are leading impactful enterprises and grab their strategies to help your business reach extraordinary levels of growth. 


Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to another episode of my good woman business strategy and time management for impactful female leaders. I'm your host, Dawn Andrews. and this is another episode of think like a strategist where we answer listeners questions and dive deep into strategies that help female founders become competent CEOs.

And today's question is from Lucinda who writes, how do I grow my business when I feel too niche bound niche niche? I don't know. You guys decide, but I say niche. and this is such a great question. So let's get into it.

In this episode, you'll learn how narrowing your niche can actually help you scale your business more effectively. You'll learn the benefits and challenges of broadening your niche to reach a wider audience. And you'll learn actionable strategies for deciding whether to go deeper or wider with or wider with your business focus.


Nearly every business owner, when they get started is deeply concerned about where the money's coming from. And rightfully so, because if you're starting a business, you need to know where you're going to get the cash from.

You need to know where your clients are. And what happens is people resist. niching because they want to serve anybody and everybody all the time in order to be able to make that revenue. But that can make you bananas because then you end up serving lots of different people in lots of different ways and start using your time ineffectively.

On the flip side, I have a story about finding balance this one's about Megan, an ambitious woman who started her own social media marketing agency for vegan bakeries. At first, it seemed brilliant because she became the go to expert and her clients were thrilled.

I mean, how great to be a vegan bakery and know that somebody is an expert in the ins and outs of being able to market your type of product to the right audience. But then Reality hit. The vegan bakery market just wasn't growing fast enough and some bakeries started to do their own social media.

 her client base shrank and she started really feeling the pinch. She loved her niche and also felt like she needed to pivot if she still wanted to keep her business alive. So she expanded her services to include all artisanal food businesses. And the shift opened up new opportunities. 

And soon she was working with organic coffee roasters, gluten free snack companies, craft breweries, her business picked up and she regained her momentum. her story is a reminder that while niching down is powerful, your niche has to be big enough for growth. And you need to find that balance you can be specific and be an expert, but you need to be broad enough to grow. my good women, when you feel boxed in, just remember Megan. Sometimes the best way to move forward is to widen your horizons just a bit. 

 So now you have an example of why going deeper into your niche can lead to greater success. Let's talk a little bit more about why that can be a game changer.

When you focus on a specific niche, you become an expert in that area. And though there are a lot of folks that claim to be experts these days, there are very few that have deep expertise in a specialized area. And that expertise makes you more attractive to your ideal clients who are looking for specialized knowledge and solutions.

In fact, there's a report that Copyblogger did about how people trust experts more, and they're more likely to believe your opinion when you know more. And the only way to know more is to become somebody who has deep expertise in a particular area.

But today we're going to spend a little less time on the idea of why niching down is so important because Lucinda asked, what do you do when you feel like you're too niche bound? And so let's make the case for expanding your niche.

On the flip side of focus, You can expand your niche and open up new markets and our opportunities by slightly widening your focus. When you widen, you get a larger audience and diversify your revenue streams. And that doesn't sound so bad, right? This approach can be particularly useful in industries like medicine, where specialization can sometimes limit your client base.

here at my good woman and at free range thinking business strategy consulting, we work with a variety of businesses, predominantly in the creative fields where I'm constantly cat wrangling. I'm trying to rein in all the different ideas that my clients have for who they can serve.

If you're in a specialty area like medicine where you need a deep level of expertise, it can be really limiting to look at what you do when you expand. Let's give you another example like Uber. What began as a ride share company expanded into an adjacent niche with food delivery.

Uber as a business had to be experts on what it took to be a ride share service. They were competing with taxi companies in major markets in major cities in the United States. So they had to understand the ins and outs of what it took to run a ride share business in those areas.

But once they had that sorted out, they already had drivers on the road. They connected with other businesses that needed drivers and Uber Eats was born. over the last several years, they've added a couple billion dollars a year in revenue to their existing business just from the food delivery service.

A great example for expanding your niche. So how do you figure out how to expand your niche when you're in a really super specialized area? 

 today I'm going to give you eight ways to balance out and expand your niche

First thing you can do is look for adjacent products or service categories.

 So think about complimentary offerings that your existing clients need or may also want. it made me think of my chiropractor who is an active release therapy specialist. 

 He knows that his clients not only need the specificity of what he offers, but they probably would appreciate massage, which supports his therapies, acupuncture, which also supports his therapies.

So he has expanded into those areas at his office. that's one way to find some balance and to step outside your niche. 

You can also target different demographics within your niche. So if you serve mostly small businesses, you could move into midsize companies. Or if you serve mostly people in their forties, you can move into people that are in their sixties or move into people that are in their twenties.

If you cater to young professionals. You can start working with older professionals. You get the idea. 

The third way you can find some balance if you feel too niche bound is to focus on specific cases or applications. So within your broader market, 

 you may have clients that are using your service for a particular purpose and you could give them additional ways for using that particular service. So for instance, I work with clients and we use.

AI for lots of different things in their businesses. And maybe one of the first places that we use it is in simplifying the time it takes for content creation and to build their marketing strategy.

But AI can be used in so many different areas inside one business. perhaps there's a way that you can expand. What you're doing and finding a different twist of what it is that you do to help a client go more deeply into what it is that your service offering is 

A fourth way to find some balance and to open up your niche is to expand geographically to target the same type of client, but in new locations. 

Super easy way to expand what you offer, and especially if you can offer it virtually,, it doesn't require being in person.

Another way to expand your services is to go higher or lower in your price point in your core offering. 

Is there a luxury or a budget version of what you offer? this can allow you to find Different clients at different price points within your existing market. So for instance, the way I usually break it down with my clients is DIY, which would be creating a course for a budget client done with you, meaning it's a collaboration and that's probably how you're working right now. or done for you. Now, depending upon your service, you may not be able to do everything for your client.

It may be some sort of collaboration or something, a skill that they're learning to become better at, but that gives you an idea of the premium versus budget offerings. 

The sixth way that you can expand is to consider seasonal or occasional needs related to your core offering. 

For example, a wedding photographer could expand into family portraits or corporate headshots during slower seasons.

 Another way to easily expand what it is that you do to serve more customers is to just ask them, ask them about their needs and their pain points.

There are probably natural expansion opportunities within the clients that you already have. I take a little bit of time each year to ask questions back to my favorite clients. I'm also listening in every meeting that we have for what their next need might be.

this is, you know, a little hidden gem further down in this list, but it is one of those ways that might hold the greatest benefit for you. Your clients are probably already telling you what they're struggling with and where they could use your help next. 

and the last way that I'll share today to gain some balance and expand your niche is to look at what the emerging trends are in your industry.

Are there growing sub niches? And if you haven't had a chance to read industry trades or talk to other practitioners of what it is that you're doing. You might be missing out on an opportunity. There may be more that's already starting to grow, but as you've been focused on the clients that you have and or maybe even panicking because you don't have the business that you want, you may not have yet taken the time to research ways that your industry is already growing and expanding.

 So how do you choose the right strategy for your business?

We've talked about why staying really niche can be super valuable. We've talked about how to balance and expand your niche so that you can reach a wider audience. It all comes down to your business goals and the needs of your target audience. and if your business is up and running and it has been in a place where it's thriving, you already have a proven core offer.

work with that core offer, work with the people who already love you and figure out how you can serve them more deeply or find more of them to serve. if you're in a highly specialized field, consider forming partnerships that could expand your reach while maintaining your niche expertise.

you can continue doing what you do best and find other people that complement that. Alternatively, if your current niche feels really limiting, look at those adjacent areas where you can still offer value with what you do and grow your audience.

 I know that today's conversation about how to expand your niche when you feel like it's a little too tight.

Has been very valuable for other folks. so Lucinda thank you for your bravery and asking the question. I appreciate it. 

Growing your business. When you feel too niche bound involves a strategic decision to either go deeper into your niche and solidify your expertise to attract your ideal clients, or to broaden what you do to reach a wider audience and diversify your income.

And both approaches have their upsides, but the best choice is going to depend on your unique business goals. if you need more help figuring that out, book a call with us through the link in the show notes. I'd love to be able to help you find that balance that makes you feel great while being in and running your business, but also brings you all that cash.

 thanks for listening today to this episode of My Good Woman. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review and share this episode with other female founders who would benefit from these insights. And until next time, keep striving for that next level of growth.

 Keep focusing on the clients that matter most to you. And remember that you've got this. See you soon.