Why “Niche Down” Hasn’t Worked For You (And What To Do Instead)
If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve heard the advice: niche down.
Pick an industry. Write your copy. Build a package around your “ideal client.”
But if you’ve actually tried it, you probably know how it goes: nothing happens. Or worse — things start to feel smaller. Like you’re cutting yourself off from people you know you could help.
So why doesn’t “niche down” work the way it’s sold?
Why “Niche Down” Fails
Most niche-down advice asks you to invent an ideal client out of thin air:
“Sally, 35, drives a Tesla, drinks oat-milk lattes, and needs a new website.”
But when Sally never shows up, you’re left feeling discouraged. That’s because the advice forces you into imagination where you don’t have evidence. It’s like building a bridge over thin air.
The Real Goal Is Clarity That Expands
The goal isn’t to shrink yourself into a smaller corner of the market. The goal is to get clear — so you can expand.
And clarity doesn’t come from imagination. It comes from your receipts.
How to Find Your Real Focus
Look back at every client you’ve worked with and sort them into three buckets:
Highest ROI – Who got the most long-term value from your work?
Most Profitable – Which projects gave you the highest margin with the least strain?
Most Exciting – Who would you happily work with again and again?
Now look for the overlap. That “sweet spot” is your real focus. It’s not theory. It’s grounded in the clients who’ve already proven your value.
Reverse-Engineering the Serendipity
Here’s where most people stop — they identify a pattern, but don’t act on it.
The next step is to reverse-engineer the serendipity. Why did those clients show up when they did?
What were they wrestling with before they became your client?
How long had they been thinking about solving that problem?
What words did they use when they described it?
Who referred them, and how were you positioned in that referral?
The more you understand these answers, the clearer your marketing becomes.
Become a Master of the Pre-Client Problem
This is the key.
Your best clients didn’t just wake up one day and hire you. They were struggling with something before they became a client. That pre-client problem is the doorway.
If you can become a master at solving (or even just clarifying) that problem, you’ll create a natural flow of new clients. Why? Because helping them through it makes becoming your client the next logical step.
The Shift
Once you see the patterns, you stop feeling like every great client was a rare unicorn. You realize they’re not one-offs — they have doppelgängers. And there are dozens, hundreds, even thousands more just like them.
Your job isn’t to niche down into scarcity. It’s to niche in to clarity.
That’s how you build a pipeline of future demand instead of waiting around hoping luck repeats itself.
Next Step
This is exactly what we’re working on inside the 90-Day Double Your Squarespace Business Intensive. We help you:
Identify the patterns in your past clients.
Master the pre-client problem.
Align your offers with the demand that already exists.
The waitlist for the next cohort is open at sqspthemes.com/waitlist.
Because once you see the clarity in your own work, you’ll realize you never needed to niche down. You just needed to niche up.
