To Niche or Not to Niche, That it the Question
The goal of niching your business is to attract the exact right customers who will most appreciate the special talents that you have to share. Doesn’t that sound lovely?
Hello, Talking About Money Community, how are you? Well, I hope.
In this post I want to talk about the importance of – ne, the necessity of – developing a niche for your financial capability program. But first, let’s start with some definitions:
Niche – (noun) “a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service.”
Niche – (adjective) “denoting products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.”
Niche – (verb) “place (something) in a niche or recess” (like where that kitty is perched in the photo above, but I digress…)
If I could read your mind, I think that the first question that you pose to me is, “Wait a minute, Kimberly, I am a helper, and I have the whole world to help. Why would I want to constrain myself to one group, when I can try to help as many people as possible?” (Is this what you were thinking? I thought so, I’m pretty good at that mind-reading skill.)
I think that your concern is relatively common among helping professionals in general, and financial capability practitioners in particular. You know that the term financial capability represents that special blend of personal finance-oriented knowledge, skills, and access to resources that lends to a household’s financial stability and security. And you also know that:
Very few people were taught financial literacy in high school or by their parents, meaning that they were launched into the world of personal finance without even a learner’s permit, never mind a license, and were expected to drive their personal finances with ease and confidence, and then blamed when they had the personal-finance version of a fender-bender (or worse, they totaled their proverbial car)
Far fewer people in America have the access to the financial resources that they need to live a life of stability and security. Case in point:
25% have no emergency savings.
Only 32% have a 401(k)-retirement account.
Only 47% Black households own their own home.
Only 10% own their own business.
If you have been in this field for a minute, you know that the need is greater than what you can achieve in your shop of [fill in the number of] FTE’s. You want to help everyone, so why would you consider niching your program?
And with that, you have made my argument for me.
You cannot help everyone.
I am teaching a professional development course (and if you are in that course: Hi there! Welcome to the blog!) and we had a discussion on why you would want to niche your financial capability program. One participant made an astute point that he would not want to be so specialized in his service that he would turn away people that really and truly needed his help. I can accept that.
I asked another participant what the capacity was of her program, i.e., what was the number of people that she needed to serve each year to stay in compliance with the terms of the grants and contracts that her agency was managing. Her reply was 500. I then asked her what type of area that she worked in. I braced myself, expecting her to tell me that she worked in a tiny town with 500 residents (which would completely destroy my argument). Her answer: Chicago! Chicago, with a metropolitan population of 9.5 million people.
If you need to serve 500 people in a year and you work in a place like Chicago, you know that you cannot possibly serve everyone who needs your help. The math doesn’t pan out (and if there is one thing that financial capability professionals are good at, it’s math!). So then you need to decide, which 500 people should you serve?
You have certain talents that others do not have.
The second reason why I think that you should niche your financial capability service is that you have certain talents that others do not have. (And I’m sorry to say, vice versa. Other are better at some things than you are.)
Maybe you are really good at working with a certain population, like single mothers of preschool-age children, or rural entrepreneurs nearing retirement, or middle-aged citizens re-entering society from the criminal justice system. Maybe you speak a second language (or a third). Maybe you are a gifted educator, counselor, or coach. Maybe you prefer speaking to large audiences, or maybe you shine when you are in conversation with someone one-on-one.
This goes for your colleagues within your department as well; what makes their light shine? What are the skills they exhibit when you observe them in their optimal flow state?
When you (and your colleagues) are performing the skills that you have a natural talent for, you are more engaged in the work, and clients are more engaged with you. We understand that in the modern workplace we are not afforded the luxury to only do the things that we want to do when we want to do them. But…if you can increase the ratio of hours that you spend performing the skills that you are genuinely good at, your program will only get better.
You have competition (whether you know it or not).
Like it or not, you have competition in the marketplace. You might think that you are the only financial capability game in town, since you are the only community-based organization that offers financial capability services. And if you have no other nonprofit organization in your geographic area that is competing with you on grant applications and government contracts, then everyone must to come to you, right?
Wrong.
Your would-be clients do have other choices about where to get their personal financial knowledge, skills, and access to resources. They might read random stuff on the internet (tell me you don’t ask Google about topics that you are too embarrassed to ask your friends). They may indeed ask their friends. Or they may ask a friend of a cousin of a neighbor and end up with what turns out to be somewhat sketchy alternative financial products. I have seen this happen – have you?
Or they might do nothing. Doing nothing is a choice. And your would-be clients might in fact choose to do nothing.
So there you have it, three reasons why you should create a niche for your financial capability program:
You cannot help everyone.
You have certain talents that others do not have.
You have competition (whether you know it or not).
By recognizing these three factors, you can go on to design with intention a program that best serves your target audience, and one that lets your special talents shine. And this in turn will differentiate you from your competitors.
