ep. 018 • The Importance of Niching Down As a Hennapreneur

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Chelsea Stevenson: Welcome to the Hennapreneur podcast, the exclusive podcast of its kind, dedicated to giving you an honest look at the reality of making a living as a henna professional. I'm your host, Chelsea Stevenson, professional henna artist and business strategist. I teach budding henna artists and seasoned henna pros alike how to build vibrant, profitable businesses doing what they love. I went from being the girl who could barely piece together a fluid design to being owner of the most celebrated henna boutique in my city and with years of experience growing my own business and helping others to do the same, I'm here to spill all the tea on what it takes to be a bonafide hennapreneur. Our show starts in just under 60 seconds, but first, here's a quick shout out to my sponsors. This episode is brought to you by my new free, on-demand training “The 5 Mistakes New Henna Artists Make (And How YOU Can Avoid Them)!”

Are you an aspiring henna artist or a henna enthusiast who has really big dreams about working with henna? Maybe you're struggling with sourcing quality henna paste or preparing it yourself is really more challenging than you expected. Perhaps you're curious about what it takes to work as a henna artist professionally or you think you might be ready to start taking clients, but you're just not sure where to start. If so, this training is for you. Inside of this training, I'm teaching all of the foundational information you must know about henna before you ever take your first client. I also lay out the basics of what henna is and how it works so that you can get started confidently working with henna moving forward. I teach you some really insightful tips about how you can protect yourself and your budding business from the very beginning with a number of best practices, and I'll outline the five most common mistakes that I see new and aspiring henna artists make so that you can get started without all of the hassle and the headache of falling into those traps. To register for the training and to watch it instantly on demand, you can visit hennapreneur.com/biggestmistakes. All right, let's get to the show.

Hey, hey hennapreneurs! Today on the Hennapreneur podcast we are talking all about how you can build your brand more strategically, more effectively and better communicate what you do with your audience so that you can book more clients. Can I get an amen? Okay, so we're just going to jump right in. Okay. I want to let you know kind of the backstory. You guys know how I roll. Let's dive a little bit into the backstory of what inspired today's episode. I was having a conversation with a particular hennapreneur who reached out and she had a little bit of some concern. She said, "Chelsea, listen. I've heard you talk about the importance of identifying a niche or identifying, like, one specialty service that you offer, and I hear what you're saying, but I need to let you know that I don't agree. And I was like, okay, so if you disagree, that's cool. I mean, you get to do whatever you want in your business, but tell me why you disagree. And she went on to say that she felt as though by selecting a particular service or selecting a particular specialty or a specific niche in her business, that she was limiting herself. And her fear was that by saying, "This is what I do." And kind of putting a stake in the ground, she would then turn off or turn away people who weren't looking for that specific thing. And this opened up a broader conversation. We had a really great conversation around this theory and around the concept and the idea of having a niche as hennapreneur.

Um, and so I wanted to come and talk to you guys today about the same thing. Okay. So, if you're not familiar with what a niche is, right? A niche is like a corner of the market, if you will. Okay. So when we think about like, um, how you might set yourself apart from everyone else, finding your niche is where you start. Okay. So you guys have heard me talk about, um, you know, knowing who your ideal client is and things like this in the past and finding your niche is a part of that process as well, okay? So normally I like to recommend that we start at the top. Like, before we identify our ideal client, before we even talk about who our target market is, I like to first start with identifying our niche. And our niche is, if you're not familiar with the concept, your niche is the specific area or, um, the specific type of service or focus that you will have in your business and that you will address as your, you know, acting as a service provider. Okay. So literally a niche is like a special segment of the market that you focus on specifically and that you target. And, typically, this is something that's not being addressed by more general or by more mainstream henna artists, right? So when we think about a niche, this really is, lik,e focused and very targeted. Okay. So for us as hennapreneurs, this can look like a lot of different things. This might be someone who is specializing in prenatal work specifically, or this could be someone who's focused mostly, solely, on engagements or someone who's focused largely on working corporate events or in library spaces and educational functions. This is, this is called a niche, right? It's like your little corner of the market, that little area that you focus on primarily and you dominate.

So why, why should you even care about having a niche, right? This was like, we know what it is, but like what does it mean to you? One, when you establish a niche, the first thing that you're doing is you're immediately, you're reducing your competition on the larger scale, right? Because many other hennapreneurs, many other, you know, your local competitors, many of our henna artists, are choosing to be generalists. And there's nothing wrong. Let me be clear. There's nothing wrong with being a generalist. Just like, you know, when you need to go see a doctor, you can go see a general practitioner and typically, right, and when you're going for your checkups, you're just going to go see your general practitioner. And that's someone who is well qualified in the general, that's what they do. But if you're having an issue with one specific thing, like let's say that you um, you know, God forbid you have some sort of issue with your heart, then you're going to go seek out that cardiologist and that cardiologist's job is to know the ins and outs of the heart, right? They are a specialist and so it's not to say that the cardiologist is more valuable than the general practitioner. Not saying that at all. What we are saying is, they serve different roles. They serve different purposes and you immediately seek out one over the other based on what your needs are, right? The same applies to us in business as henna professionals we can choose to focus our attention on the general, meaning, I'm a general henna artist, I service this type of appointment, this type, this type, that type, we do all the things. Or you can choose to niche down and specialize in one particular thing or two particular things. I recommend choosing one, right? Be known for one thing specifically.

So as you do this, immediately what you do is you reduce the competition that's in your arena, right? The cardiologist doesn't have to worry about being toe-to-toe in competition, if you will, with the general practitioner because the person who's looking to hire or to select a cardiologist, they have a different need and the same for you. If you choose to specialize, if you choose to niche down to being that person who only services birthday parties, that's what you're known for, then what you're going to find is when someone is looking to hire a henna artist for those birthday parties, they will come to you first even though there are many henna artists around you who may offer similar quality services, but that's not their specialty. That's not what they're known to do, right? That's not— and for this person, their need? I want the artist for the birthday party who knows how to manage the line and to keep the kids happy and to service all the guests and dah, dah, dah, dah. That person has a specific need and you would be the best option for them, the most no brainer option for them because that's how you've niched down. So that's the first benefit, right? If you want to see reduced competition as you're marketing yourself in general, choosing a niche is a great place to start.

The second thing is, it's going to allow you to gain additional expertise. So just even as yourself, as you continue to grow and as you continue to excel, because you're always going to evolve as a business owner, right? The more you are known to be a specialist in that particular area, in that particular arena, the more you're going to be recommended by other people, the more you're going to receive referrals, the more you're going to see that portion of your business grow. And as that portion of your business grows, you're going to gain experience and gain expertise. So literally, as you say, "Okay, this is the direction that I'm going. This is what I want to be known for." and you start to make steps in that direction, you'll also find that you will have the unique advantage of becoming so well acquainted with the ins and outs of that niche, that you will stand out as being the most qualified to provide the service just because you have so much experience in that space. And so this says in another way that you are able to kind of set yourself apart and that you're able to see yourself move forward in your growth on a larger scale while also attracting new people, new clients, new customers who want to hire you for that service. So you've got reduced competition immediately. And then you also got the added benefit of learning your skill set better than the rest, right? Because you're just there, you're always in that space. And the final piece of course is it allows you the opportunity to really focus your attention, right? So when you are choosing, making the intentional decision to target a specific area of the market to target a very specific client, um, and this is why I recommend starting with a niche before moving into identifying a target market and then finally your ideal client, right? This is kind of like the, this is the top of the funnel, if you will.

If you were to imagine your business becoming more strategic in its growth and in its messaging and its marketing strategy, we would start here at the top. This would be the top. We're first identifying our niche. Why? Because once you know who you're trying to target, then you can really start to finesse and fine tune all of the offerings that you're going to provide through your business. And you can cater to the unique needs of that, um, of those people that are in that space. And so that's where you start to move into, "Okay, who is my target market exactly and what are they looking for?" You're never going to know the answer to that question if you don't first note the service that you're going to offer, right? So first you're going to identify who your niche is, or what your niche is rather, so that you have the benefits of the reduced competition, the added expertise. And then of course, the huge marketing benefit of the ability to focus your efforts on one particular type of person or corner of the market who you are going to serve. And this is, this is huge, okay?

Is 2020 the year that you launch your own 5-star henna business? If so, I want to take just a second to talk to you about the Accelerator by Hennapreneur. The Accelerator is a 100-day online program for high-aspiring henna artists who want to build a profitable business doing what they love — creating with henna. Whether you hope to start your henna side hustle on the right foot, make henna your full time career or even take your existing henna business to the next level, the Accelerator can help you in so many ways. Inside of the program, you'll have the hands on guidance of a 5-star, seasoned henna professional, AKA yours truly, helping you and supporting you every step of the way as you do things like clarifying the direction you're going in your business, identifying and maximizing your competitive edge in the market, developing your brand's unique aesthetic and culture, communicating with your target market effectively and with authenticity, designing a website that converts browsers into bookings, pricing and positioning your services for maximum profitability, establishing really sustainable business practices, and introducing things like automation to protect your time and your professional boundaries. See, the Accelerator provides you with both the targeted guidance and the invaluable support that you need to successfully launch a henna business that's both profitable and sustainable the first time around. You can learn more about the program, check out some additional details, see if you're a right fit, and get on the program wait list by visiting hennapreneur.com/accelerator.

Many times, like with this artist that I had this conversation with, the fear is, okay, I hear that, but what happens if I choose to specialize? Let's say I specialize in, you know, offering birthday parties, services for parties and events, right? And, um, does that mean then that someone who's looking for an artist to service their, um, their wedding or an artist to service their corporate function or an artist to serve as their everyday appointment, will they still be willing to come to me? Am I cutting out, you know, the rest of my market because I choose to focus my attention on this specific niche? And the answer is no. We have to stop operating from a place of fear and our business and when we approach our marketing efforts with the fear that there isn't enough, there's not enough abundance, there's not enough people, there aren't enough hands to go around, then we, we start to make decisions that don't make sense. When you are building a business, you have to have a marketing strategy, right? Your marketing strategy depends very heavily on making sure that you're connecting with the right people in the right way, at the right time consistently, and in doing that, you build trust with that audience. Then, in exchange, that audience will eventually come to a place where they're willing to open up their pocketbooks and do business with you, okay?

That's how that works. So when you create content, when you create a marketing strategy and you don't have a clear understanding, a clear idea, a clear expectation, if you will, of who you serve and how you serve them, then your messaging becomes much more watered down. It becomes a lot more jumbled and it becomes a lot less easy for your audience to understand. So if you take on the generalist stance and you never make the decision to really specialize or to hone in on the one thing you want to be known for, then you also kind of, you cut yourself short in that you don't give yourself the opportunity to stand out in the market. There's something much, much more memorable about being the henna artist for bat mitzvahs than there is for being a henna artist who you can book for anything. This experience is totally different. Why? Because the artists that you can just hire for anything, right? Who are you speaking to in your marketing? What messages are you putting out there? Whose value system are you looking to align with? When you create content promoting your business, who are you looking to attract? You have to just from a resource standpoint, right? You have to change your wheelhouse every single post to have content that's specific to the private appointment, and to the party, and to the specialty appointment, and to the private event, and to the corporate function, and to the festivals that you'll be at. And how much work are you really getting done with each of those verticals if you have to spread yourself thin across all of those spaces.

On the flip side, let's say that you do focus your attention on being the artist for bat mitzvahs. Then every time you show up on social media, every time you make a new blog post to your website, anytime that you create a video on your Facebook page or anytime that you are working at a networking event or things like these, you always will have consistent messaging. You always will be showing up saying the same things, talking about the same things, being known as being a specialist for this particular area of the market. And what happens is, instead of you having to work across six different verticals and hoping that you're able to attract people in each of them, you get to take one vertical and dump all of your effort right there. And the people who identify with that need are going to see you way beyond, way before they see anyone else in the market.

Now, I totally understand that this is scary and I think that many times as hennapreneurs, we're like, "Well, this is a specialty service anyway, like, there's only so many people who want henna to begin with. I don't want to, you know, cut myself short." And I need you to understand that just because you position yourself as the henna artist for about mitzvahs does not mean that someone won't choose to hire you for their daughter's quinceañera or for their daughter's sweet sixteen or even for their own, you know, dirty 30 birthday party or for whatever. There are still people who will see what you're doing and they'll love what you're doing so much. And even though their need may be slightly different from what you're offering and what you indicate is your specialty, but they will still be so attracted to the authenticity that they see, they'll still be so attracted to the quality that they see, they'll still be so attracted to what it is that you're offering and how you're showing up and how you're showing that you're providing an excellent service for those clients that you are receiving, that they're going to go, "You know what? Hey, I know that this is what you do, but I'm wondering do you do this too?" And at that point you can say "Yes, absolutely! Absolutely." Don't be afraid to niche down. Don't be afraid to put that stake in the ground and say, "This is what I do."

So there are a couple of things that you need to ask yourself as you are kind of identifying what that niche is for you, okay? The first is you need to ask yourself, one, what exactly— what need are you meeting, okay? And be specific, what need are you meeting? When people are hiring you, when people are are saying, "Okay, I want to book my next henna session with you." Why? What need do they have? Okay? There's always a need. There's always a problem. Even with us that have our, again, our luxury service, there's always a problem that they're looking to fix or there's a pleasure point that they're looking to activate, right? So it's either coming down to one of those two things, there's a pain point that they want to fix or there's a pleasure point that they want to stimulate.

What is it that you're doing to address either of those? Okay, so once you've got the— and I want you to like, I invite you to really spend some time on this question and maybe even take a minute just to pause me here. Just pause me and write it down. Like, think on it and write it down. What specific problem are you addressing or what pain point are you solving or what pleasure point are you activating? Okay. Then once you know that, once you have that kind of lined out for you, then I want you to consider, an only then do I want you to consider, who it is that you're actually serving, right? Think on, okay, these are the, these are the problems that I'm addressing. This is the pain that I'm fixing. This is the pleasure that I'm activating and I'm doing it for this type of person. Who is that person? Right? Who does that typically look like? Do you, uh, you know, are you working with brides? Are you working with moms? Are you working with the HR consultant? Are you working with, you know, the festival organizer? Who is it that you are working with? Are you working with the librarians or with the school system? Or are you working with moms to be? Who is it that's reaching out to you? Know who that person is and then consider how it is, exactly, that you're making their life better. How is it exactly, and be very specific, that you're bringing benefit to them through your henna services.

So if you know, and we're going back to our example of being the henna artist for bar mitzvahs, let's say, you know, you're dealing with most, most commonly the um, mom. You know moms are hiring me for their daughter's bat mitzvah. Okay, perfect. Then how are you serving them? What problem are you solving? Perhaps the problem is, I want something that my, um, that's going to be amazing for my daughter's guests at her party. Perhaps the problem is, she's looking for something really unique. She wants something to stand out from what everyone else is doing for their kids bat mitzvah. Or maybe the problem is, you know, my daughter really loves henna, but the last time we got it done on the boardwalk, she had a reaction. So she's asking for henna for her, for her bat mitzvah, but I want to make sure that I'm getting the right person. Mmm, okay. See we're getting somewhere. So it may be that it's a pain point, but maybe it's also pleasure. Maybe it's I want to hire someone and I don't know who that, who that is or what that's going to look like, but I want to bring in some sort of additional entertainment to offer to the guests at my daughter's bat mitzvah because I want this event to be so memorable and I want people to be talking about it for the rest of the week. Well, as the henna artist who is thoughtful of the pain and the pleasure points that your market has, you would then in turn say in your marketing message— this is before you ever have a conversation. This is just literally you showing up on social media or on your website and saying to the world, "Hey, are you looking for something that's going to allow your guests to talk about your party for the next week to come? For the next two weeks to come? Henna is the perfect walking favor. When you hire me to service your party, then your guests are going to have beautiful designs that are going to keep them talking about that amazing bash they attended on Saturday." Whatever, right?

You start to make messaging that's specific to the needs of your client, to the needs of your target market. That's only identifiable once you have a clear niche. So can you see how one feeds into the next? Can you see how knowing who that— knowing exactly how you're going to address that problem or how are you going to activate that pleasure point and then who you serve next, and only next, and then how you're going to serve them, that allows you to get super specific, super honed in, and it allows you to stand out from everyone else in the market. And then after you've kind of done that homework, right? After you've really come to identify what those things mean for you and for your business, then you can also go, you can take it a little step further because there's still going to be, right? There's still going to be someone else in that space. You still are going to go toe to toe with someone. Your clients, despite what you might think, and despite how great and amazing you are, your clients or prospective clients always have an option to go with someone else.

So why they choose to hire you comes down to one thing. It's the you factor. So, why should they choose you, specifically? Why should they work with you, specifically? Why should they hire you, specifically? As you define your niche, and the more specific you get about who you serve and how you do that, the better you're going to be at setting yourself apart from the market as a whole. But once you lean into that you factor, that's where you totally leave everyone else behind in the dust because no one can deliver the service that you deliver in the way that you deliver it. No one can make people feel the way that you make people feel in the way that you make them do that. You are— and please understand this is not to stroke your ego. Like, let me be really clear. I feel like I need to say that. I feel like I need to just pause and say: listen, this is not me stroking your ego and being like, "You're just the greatest, baby. Yes, here I clap for you." No, that's not what this is. What this is, is me saying: listen, there are only so many ways that you can draw a Paisley. And guess what? With time and with enough practice, just about anyone can recreate what you're creating. So if you really think that it comes down to, "Oh, my art is good enough, so people will hire me just on that account." you're very, very mistaken. But what does set you apart from everyone else on the face of the earth and consistently will set you apart from everyone else on the face of the earth until the day you die is who you are as a person. Who you are. It's you. So as you focus your attention on serving this particular area of the market, not only are you looking at the value that you're bringing your clients, not only are you looking at, you know those again, those pain and pleasure points, how you're going to fix something, or bring more fun or introduce more joy or whatever that is for you. And not only are you being cognizant of who you're doing that for, you also, also you need to be very aware of why they would choose you, why they would say, "Yes, so-and-so is my, that's my person. That's my artist. That's the person I want to hire." And that only comes about through authenticity. That only comes about through you being super clear on who you are and what makes you special. And the only way that you're going to be able to do that is if you lean into that you factor, okay?

So if you haven't already chosen to niche down, maybe you were scared in the past, maybe you were like, maybe you didn't even know it was a thing. Maybe you're like, Chelsea, henna is a niche right? No, it's not a niche. Maybe you didn't— maybe you just never thought about your business in this way, okay? But I want to challenge you as we're entering this new year. I want to challenge you to take yourself from being a generalist, okay? You don't have to be a general practitioner. If you choose to be, as long as it's a strategic decision, fine. Okay, fine. And if you choose to do that, know that I'm letting, I'm letting you know right now, it is going to require more work for you in the long run, okay? As long as you're aware of that and you're making an informed decision to take that route, fine. But if you know that you want to see your business grow in 2020. If you know that you want to see your business be more profitable in 2020. If you know that you want to see your business really flourish in a new way, then I'm going to challenge you to identify who your niche is, what your niche is, and I want you to start looking at your business through that lens first. And once you've got that, then you can start to build strategy around that marketing strategy and otherwise around that so that you're building a business that reflects that focus and that very defined intention on who you wish to serve and how you wish to serve them.

With that, I want to invite you to come join me inside of the Hennapreneur community where we'll be having some additional conversation about what it is to have a niche as a hennapreneur and if you're struggling with identifying what your niche is, come join us in that conversation. I am sure that you will receive plenty of great feedback from the other hennapreneurs in the community who are also doing the work to really niche down, really focus themselves in their business so that they can get the results that they need on that one vertical. And once you get that vertical, then listen, you can, you can expand, but get that vertical up and going so that you can see more profit and more success in the long run.

All right, until next time.

Hey babe! I wanted to give you a quick thank you for tuning into the show today. That was super cool of you to hang with me all the way until the end. Of course, I've got all the links that you might need from this episode inside of the show notes that you can find at hennapreneur.com/podcast.

If you enjoyed the show and want to stay in the loop with Hennapreneur, be sure to subscribe to the podcast too. You'll get all of the new episodes as soon as they come out. I'd be so grateful if you'd take the time to rate or leave a review on Apple Podcasts while you're there. That tells iTunes that, "Hey! Hennapreneur is about something good!" and it helps us to reach more artists who would love the show. All right, that's all for today. I'll be back soon with another episode but for now, let's get back to work, hennapreneurs!