Dawnell Kelly—
As a newer entrepreneur, everyone tells you to “niche down” to one offer. Only after you’re an expert—you’ve served X amount of people and generated X amount of revenue, can you branch out laterally.
Oh, but wait! You need multiple streams of income with both active and passive offers. This will keep you safe if one of your offers doesn’t do well.
So which is it?
Which will it be?
Are you spending all your time and energy developing that one perfect offer or focusing on multiple services?
Neither. Both. It depends on your stage of business. You know your revenue goals. If you’re surpassing your profit projections hand over fist and your business is a smooth operating machine, then you’re good to go. You can stop reading now.
For the rest of us, let’s grab an umbrella.
Generally speaking, think about your natural talent. Is it just 1 specific thing like cleaning a car window or a series of related things like washing the whole car?
Most likely, it’s a series of related things that add up to one magnificent talent. This sparkling talent is your umbrella.
For example, let’s say you develop training courses. Is that all you do? No! That breaks down into video editing, peer-reviewed research, scripting, audio production and more.
This further breaks down into product development and operations. Without a smooth process and method to develop the course, nothing gets done. So you can add operational management and project organization to your list of talents.
Does this mean you should switch gears and start an online business manager business? No. We need to stay in our lane here, but it’s important to note that you have more skills than you realize as we continue on this journey together.
As Stephanie Burns with ForbesWomen states clearly, “There are still things in life you can hold on to that no one can ever take away from you, like your experience, your expertise and your skills… Use those skills to begin building multiple income streams to keep yourself afloat.”
Next step
So, quick recap: the umbrella is your talent personified-in the form of your signature offer. The offer in this example is creating a course. This offer requires all your skills to be used together.
However, what if you’re at a networking event speaking to someone who hates basic video editing? You’ve got good news for them-you’re more than happy to help!
Or when you’re meeting with a health coach who could use more recent data to support their program, of course you’re able to do the research for them.
You’re chatting with a new entrepreneur who is struggling to set their operational foundation for a project. Of course you can mentor them on the basics! You have more than enough experience.
Now, I know some of you are thinking, “Yeah, okay, but now I’m getting side tracked from my niche. How will I grow my business?” You grow your business by taking these one-off job opportunities to support yourself.
This will allow you to do things like pay your bills and eat regularly while still honing the craft under your umbrella. Eventually you won’t have time to offer these mini-services, but until then, you can do both instead of working a “regular” job that is completely unrelated to your talents.
Now you say, “Fine, but how would I even put all of that on my website?” You don’t.
Your website showcases your magnificent umbrella-creating courses. The video editing, research, audio production, etc. fit under this umbrella to be offered separately in secret-when the opportunity arrives.
You don’t put any marketing effort into selling these services individually, but you don’t turn down an organic opportunity either.
Bonus!
Bonus! Social media posts and networking conversations fit under this umbrella too. You don’t just make posts about creating a course. You make posts breaking down each skill you use to showcase your expertise.
When someone visits your platform, they can see that you’re an expert in your field. People will see how you work and your strengths-they see everything under the umbrella of your offer as a result.
What I’m saying is this-say yes to helping others within your scope of practice. Take some time to brainstorm all your abilities and map out your pricing now. You are so much more than a niche. Your business has a niche offer. You, as an entrepreneur, offer much more.
You are unique. Your experiences, perception and the whole of who you are cannot be contained in one offer. You are the shelter in the rain of your industry by inviting others under your umbrella.
I'm Dawnell Kelly, the CEO of Auxly - an operations and project management agency for service providers. Check out www.auxlyhelp.com and connect with me on LinkedIn.
