The Solopreneur's Case for Doing Fewer Things, Better
Narrowing your focus starts with saying no upfront.
My early days of running my freelance writing business looked something like this: write a product announcement. Then ghostwrite some LinkedIn posts for a founder. Then turn around and create some landing pages that were expected to convert.
In this case, variety was not the spice of life. “I can write anything” is actually a harder sell than “I write X things for Y industry with Z results.”
If you’re doing a little bit of everything, each new project means a different pitch and different pricing, built from scratch each time. You might stay busy, but you forego a lot of expertise and efficiency that comes with narrowing your focus.
Real growth in your solo business comes from doing less, better: one core offer for one ideal client, with systems you can actually keep up with.
What does “do fewer things, better” actually look like in practice?
Doing fewer things, better means turning down work you're capable of doing, so the work you keep is work you're really good at.
In my early days, when I took on something like a landing page, I could write it, but it took me a lot longer than other types of content. I’d spend my time researching successful landing pages, trying to mimic their best qualities. It took me twice as long as writing what I was good at: blog posts, specifically in fintech.
Once I realized that, the math was simple. I could charge more for expert work that took me less time. Fewer lanes also mean less context-switching. It was a lot easier, for me, to stay in the groove of long-form content.
Saying no is usually the first move, happening upfront when you discuss a project with a potential client. But if you really want to do things better, that might also mean dropping current clients if you find that they’re outside of your wheelhouse.
I spent 18 months writing a particular type of content because I needed the work. Once I got to the point where I’d decided to narrow my focus, I dropped the client. It felt risky, like “Why on earth would I turn away consistent work??” but it was worth it.
Developing a niche for your solo business
The starting point is narrowing two things at once: what you offer and who you offer it to. Together, they help you hone in on exactly what makes you stand out from other solopreneurs in your space.
Narrow both what you offer and who you serve
Your core offer should name the specific result you deliver, in the words a client would use. In my industry, "content marketing" is a category. "Long-form content for B2B SaaS companies, usually fintech" is an offer. “Coaching” is an industry. “1:1 coaching for female founders looking to scale their service-based businesses” is an offer.
Narrowing by industry is only half of it. The industry tells people who you serve, and naming what you deliver tells them why they should choose you over someone else. Combining the two is how you find your niche instead of describing a general skill set.
Two things improve almost immediately.
- Referrals get easier, since people know exactly who to send you.
- You deliver better work, because you're not re-learning a new industry with every project.
Give it enough time, and it's also how you become known for one kind of work. Someone needs the thing you offer? They come to you.
One offer for various stages of a client’s business
An ideal client profile (ICP) describes one specific person or company at a specific stage of their business. As that person's business grows, what they need from you changes:
- A fellow solo business owner who needs a few early wins
- An early-stage company that doesn’t have an internal team yet
- A growing business that needs systems in place
- A scaling business that needs more support than it can hire for
- A large company that wants to outsource the whole project
Your offer can flex by stage, if you want to keep serving that type of client. You might have a lighter version for someone or a company just starting out, with a heavier version for more established businesses.
However, it’s also ok to say, “I only work with clients at a certain stage of their business.” For example, I work best with companies that have internal content teams and just need help with scaling production. It’s not that I’d say “no” to a smaller company, but I’d have to vet the opportunity more to make sure it’s the right fit. Sometimes, smaller companies need a different type of support than I typically provide.
Systems that keep it simple
Once you’ve narrowed down to a specific niche, your systems to market yourself and support clients get a lot easier to maintain.
Establishing a promotion cadence
A promotion cadence is as simple as “how often you talk about yourself online” to your ICP about your offer.
I post on LinkedIn a lot, but most are not about my offer. I think constant self-promotion on LinkedIn can be off-putting. Instead, I share the behind-the-scenes of how I work, then schedule a few posts per month that are more targeted about who I am and what I do, inviting people to reach out.
Narrowing my focus did shrink my potential client pool, and I knew it would. I trusted that the industry was big enough that the right clients would find me, but that only worked because I showed up on LinkedIn consistently enough to be found.
That's a tradeoff. Once you narrow, promoting yourself stops being optional, because it would be very hard for enough clients to find out otherwise.
Anna Burgess Yang
Write your “stop-doing” list
Your “stop-doing” list is a list of the types of clients or projects you've decided to stop taking on. Writing it down is what makes it real.
Then make sure you clean up your assets, like your website and your client proposals. Not only should they reflect your current niche and core offer, but they should be super targeted to your ICP.
Evaluate your processes
Now look at how you deliver to clients. When I offered more services, I had separate processes for each type of deliverable. They had to follow a different “path” for setting up a project and the tasks I needed to complete. With a niche offer, this became more streamlined.
I use Zapier for onboarding new clients. Zapier handles everything from creating folders on my Google Drive to setting up the client in Quickbooks. The automation was complex with multiple offers, because it had to follow different paths depending on the type of work. This was much simpler once I narrowed my focus, as was my ongoing project management.
The pile-up of complex processes for multiple offers can easily overwhelm a solo business. Streamlined, niche offers make everything easier for you to maintain.
What to give up if you’re stretched too thin
If you’re stretched too thin, that means you’ve already said “yes” to too many things. Now you have to untangle yourself from existing commitments that aren’t in your niche.
Two questions sort it out quickly:
- What work brings you joy?
- What work brings you money?
Work that brings joy without much money can stay, as long as you're not so stretched that the better-paying work suffers. You can also keep the work that pays well but isn't much fun, because the money part matters. Anything that brings neither is the obvious thing to drop first, so you can make space for your niche work.
Common mistakes when you narrow your focus
- Narrowing by industry only. Knowing an industry tells people your area of expertise, but a niche also comes from defining what you deliver.
- Dropping work before the promotion is in place. Don't give up existing clients before you make time to market yourself. A smaller focus needs more visibility, so build the posting habit first.
- Keeping work you're capable of but slow at. You earn more if you stick to work that you understand well and can deliver efficiently. If some work requires extra research or hands-on time, it might not be the best fit.
- Never writing down a "stop-doing" list. If you define it, on paper, you're more likely to actually follow through and not take on work that no longer fits your niche.
FAQs
How do I choose a niche offer if I've always been a generalist?
Look at the work you've already done and find where the results were strongest and the delivery felt easiest — that's usually your core offer. Narrow by industry and by what you deliver.
What if my ideal client type doesn't have enough people to sustain a full business?
Odds are it does, you just aren't aware of it. Your ideal client profile might cover one type of person at several stages of growth, from someone just starting out to a company large enough to outsource a whole project. Building offers for a few of those stages usually gives you enough volume without diluting your overall focus.
How is an ideal client profile different from a target market?
A target market describes a broad group, like small businesses or freelancers. An ideal client profile describes one specific person or type of company within that group, including their stage of growth and what they're ready to pay for.
How often should I revisit my niche?
Quarterly is usually enough, or maybe even semi-annually or annually, depending on how often you sense changes in the industry and your own needs. In the beginning, after you've defined a niche, you may revisit it more frequently than later when you're more well-established.
