How to Choose the Perfect Niche for Your Online Business

Feeling stuck when it comes to choosing your niche? You’re not alone. One of the biggest hurdles for aspiring business owners is figuring out exactly where to focus.

I’ve talked with so many women who are ready to start their business journey but feel overwhelmed by the pressure to pick “the perfect niche.” It’s frustrating to feel the excitement to begin but lack the confidence or clarity to take the first step.

In this post, we’ll explore what might be holding you back from choosing your dream niche. Plus, I’ll share practical tips and ideas to help you find a focus that feels authentic, aligned, and uniquely you.

Let’s dive in and uncover the niche that’s waiting for you!

Issue #1: You’re Unsure Where to Start

When starting a new business, the overwhelm is real. I’m sure you’ve been inundated with information and advice from multiple (probably even conflicting) sources. Information overload can completely restrict you from thinking clearly and moving forward. It can trigger a fight or flight response, where you can procrastinate, avoid, or hide from the next steps you know you should take for your business.

The overwhelm from all of the information coming at you is often tied to feelings of inadequacy and imposter syndrome, which can paralyze you and make it seem impossible to know where to start. You see these success stories and wonder where you might fit in and whether you can reach your dreams.

Well, I’m here to tell you that YES you can do it, and YES all of your dreams are possible. 

But first, you must start. 

If your biggest issue with picking a niche is not knowing where to start, think of yourself just a few weeks, months, or years ago. What would your past self most need to get to where you are today? What information would she need to know to start her own business? What was she feeling, doing, missing? What do you see now that you wish she’d seen all that time ago? Then, think of a business product or service that that version of you would have killed to have access to at that time.

That’s your niche. 

Put one foot in front of the other, and don’t worry about whether it’s perfect or whether it will be your final niche. It’s your niche for now. Just get started, and trust that it will fall into place. (And if it doesn’t, you can always change it later! No biggie!)

If you want a leg up on some ideas for niching into a slow-living business, check out my free guide to 40+ ideas to get started. 

Issue #2: You Can’t See Past Your Current Job Title

Sometimes, our jobs become so intertwined with our identities that it’s hard to untangle them and find a way forward. If you’ve been working in a particular field for a while, you’ve likely come to identify as whatever it says on your business card.

The problem is that once we’re ready to let go of that career, we also have to be willing to shift our identities—which is super scary! If we aren’t a [insert job title here], then omg, who are we?!? 

Feeling this way is normal, especially in American culture, which puts so much emphasis on our jobs. (Have you ever met someone new who hasn’t asked, “So, what do you do?”) Our societal pressure on capitalism adds to that, making us feel like we are what we do.

When you start your own business, you need to be willing to take on a new identity. From the moment you decide to start your own business, you need to step up and say to yourself, “I am an entrepreneur.” Fully embody it. 

Beyond that, when you choose a niche, sometimes we can only think of what we’ve done before because it’s natural for us to rely on our past identities and what we already know. If you were a nurse, you maybe can’t think beyond how to help other nurses; if you were a teacher, you might think first about helping other teachers, etc. There’s nothing wrong with that; in fact, your unique expertise makes you special. It’s true that if you were a doctor, you could likely help other doctors become entrepreneurs, too. But you don’t have to be tied to that profession if you don’t want to be.

Don’t make the mistake that your niche has to relate to your past job. You are embarking upon a new career, and it doesn’t have to have anything to do with your past job if you don’t want it to.

Instead, I’ve found it’s helpful to catalog all of your soft skills and transferable skills you’ve learned not just in your job but also in your hobbies, anything you’ve learned from workshops and classes, traditional education, and anything you’ve been self-taught. From communication skills to leadership, mediation to creativity, there is bound to be something that forms your identity aside from your former job titles.

Journal about it and log everything you can think of that you’ve learned traditionally, taught yourself, and enjoyed in your hobbies. Then, see if patterns form. Your perfect niche is likely hiding in plain sight within the words you’ve jotted down.

Issue #3: You’re Burned Out from Your Area of Expertise

Many women I’ve worked with are so burned out from their current jobs that the idea of working even tangentially to that industry makes them want to puke. But the problem is they can’t think of another niche to focus on.

First, realize that the effects of burnout can be long-lasting and quite severe. One study showed that the primary effects of burnout include “emotional exhaustion,” pessimism, distrust, indifference, lack of feeling, imposter syndrome, low self-esteem, lowered productivity, and fewer “coping skills” (Salvagioni et al, 2017; source). That’s a lot to freakin’ deal with!

Give yourself the grace to realize that it may take some time to heal before you can even think about working as hard as you once did (and you may decide you never want to!). If you think you’re suffering from burnout, be gentle with yourself as you consider the way forward. You don’t have to do anything related to your former job if you don’t want to. You have the power to decide for yourself!

As a business owner, you will have the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want in whatever field you want, so try to calm your nervous system and remind yourself that you are safe, you have all you need to succeed, and you don’t have to go back to the situation that burned you out ever again.

Instead, think about the things that make you happy while pondering your niche. Ironically, narrowing this down may come even easier while you still suffer from burnout. You might realize that fewer things make you happy, particularly as they relate to work, so focus on the things that light you up when you think about them or even the things (no matter how small) you enjoy or miss from your previous jobs.

For example, when I left my last job, I was so burned out it nearly killed me, but despite that, I missed leading a team, teaching, and mentoring, so I knew that helping others would become a key part of my own business. But, I also knew that I was burned out from education and corporate jobs and wanted to focus on a different industry. That’s when I thought about what truly mattered to me (work freedom) and how I could help others learn the same, and my niche in slow-living businesses was born.

As an exercise, list everything you enjoy or miss from your previous jobs (even if that list is very short). Then, list all the things you never want to do again. For instance, after working as a receptionist when I was young, I vowed never to answer phones again, so I never did. Take comfort in the fact that whatever you write down, you will never have to do that again.

Then, think about how you’d most want to help others and who those people might be. Targeting your ideal audience is often one of the best ways to narrow your niche.

Issue #4: You’re Terrified of Picking the “Wrong” Thing

What so many of these issues have in common is fear, and the fear of picking the “wrong” niche is one of the most common. This is especially true for multi-passionate people who love more than one thing; how can we possibly pick just one? 

The stress of narrowing down our interests into one niche is overwhelming, so sometimes, we just get paralyzed into picking nothing at all. We are terrified that we will get pigeonholed into something that we’ll later decide we don’t like or will get completely bored with. And we’re so afraid of failure that it can stop us from moving forward. This is also sometimes linked to the issue of business identity, as discussed before. Some of us resist certain niches because we don’t want to be known as that person who does that one thing.

Yes, picking a niche often means choosing an area you’d like to showcase your expertise. But remember, it doesn’t form the whole picture. I am an intuitive business coach for women who want to start slow-living businesses, but that doesn’t form my whole identity. I’m also an Etsy shop owner, a day trader, a graphic designer, and a mom. (I just don’t combine all those things at once.) 

The beauty of becoming a business owner is that you can decide what you want to do and how you want to do it. If you want to do just one thing, go for it. If you have multiple interests, you can do that, too. You can run multiple businesses or pursue various hobbies. But when choosing a niche for your online business, it’s about picking one thing because it’s about the messaging you choose for each audience. Each business needs a singular audience and focus.

Don’t be afraid to pick just one thing and run with it. You can always add another thing later—either as part of this business or as a new one. You aren’t locked into this idea forever. Just write down some ideas and pick the one that feels the best to you now. You can and should be expected to change your mind later as your business grows and evolves.

Issue #5: You’re Not Thinking Small Enough

If you’ve ever been around a business coach, you’ve likely heard them preach, “Niche down!” This isn’t to annoy you (although it probably does); it’s to emphasize that you can’t always make everyone happy.

I heard you people pleasers gasp at that last part, so let me repeat it: when you’re a business owner, you have to think about your target audience and nobody else. Screw the haters. Just focus on your ideal customer, and the rest will fall into place.

Often when you choose a niche, you pick something too broad to be effective. Just saying you want to help working moms isn’t enough; you need to narrow it down to a smaller niche. How about working moms between the ages of 35 and 45? How about working moms of teenagers? What about working moms of toddlers? Or moms just returning to work after giving birth? How about working moms whose kids are grown or in college? And what do you mean by “working moms”? Corporate women? Teachers? Nurses? Writers? Retailers? Who are you speaking to? Your answers will speak to very different demographics depending on what you want to offer and who you want to serve. So don’t be afraid to get small. The smaller you go, the better your results because your target audience will know you’re talking directly to them.

Issue #6: You’re Overthinking It

This one is essentially a combination of all the others: stop overthinking it! The more you sit and worry about whether your niche is the right one, the more time slips away from you to capture the perfect moment to start your business.

Pick something and run with it. If it doesn't feel right at some point down the road, change it. Pivoting is one of the key success traits in business owners! I don’t want to discourage you, but I have yet to meet an entrepreneur who nails it on the first try. 

What successful business owners all have in common is their willingness to try something and then pivot if it doesn’t work. They keep trying, failing, and then trying again until something truly clicks! 

So pick something today and get started. Who knows if it will be the last thing you settle on for your business, but it can definitely be the first. And at this point, it’s the starting that matters.

Overcoming Your Fears to Find Your Niche

Regardless of the issue you most identify with of how to find the best niche, I’ve found that they all relate to fear and overwhelm: there are too many things, you’re scared of choosing the wrong thing, you’re afraid of failure, or you lack the confidence to see your true strengths.

This is why I created my Own Your Strengths Starter Kit. It’s a comprehensive course packed with activities to help you recognize your strengths, discover your passions, and start putting those together to build a profitable business with a well-defined niche. 

If you’re struggling to choose a niche for your online business, just remember: Done is better than perfect. So stop over-thinking, work on healing your past traumas, take a chance on yourself, and trust that you’re doing the best thing for you now. Choose a niche and get started today. Your future self is already celebrating you coming this far.