We’re a Job Shop So We Do Everything, Right?

If you’re like most job shop owners, you’re offering a broad range of manufacturing services to a wide variety of customers–and you’re probably not hitting it big.

But I’m here to tell you a secret: somewhere inside your current body of capabilities is a hidden geyser of gold waiting to erupt. What I mean by that is, you likely have one specific service for one specific industry that solves one distinct problem with one distinct solution. This is what marketers call a niche. And it can be your gold mine.

When you “niche down” the right way, you can position yourself as an expert in a particular area, which means you are no longer a commodity, which means you no longer have to low-ball quotes in order to win the job.

That said, niching is difficult to do right. It takes careful thought and consideration, but if done correctly, it can really uplevel your business on all fronts. It can even make your business more profitable, which in turn creates more space for you to build up the business of your dreams. Isn’t that the point after all?

Sure, but wouldn’t I be limiting myself and missing out on other opportunities? Won’t I get bored of doing the same thing? What if I choose the wrong niche? How does narrowing focus create more profit? If this niching thing really works, how do I make the transition without losing cash flow or customers?

These are all valid concerns, so allow me to address them.

Focus Makes You Limitless, Not Limited

For most business owners, especially job shops, choosing a niche and committing to focusing your efforts in one place is really scary because it usually means saying “no” to some of the business that’s readily available to you now.

Most people, myself included, hate the thought of limiting their business because they don’t want to box themselves in. They’re afraid to turn customers away and lose out on easy income. They worry they’ll get bored of the same work or the same type of customer. They’re scared that committing to the one-trick pony is the equivalent of becoming a one-hit-wonder, and even more scared that someone else will come along and do it better.

If you’re nodding your head in agreement, you’re thinking about it the wrong way. You are NOT your business! Of course, you became an entrepreneur so you could do things your way, to find your own kind of fulfillment, which I fully support! But you don’t get all of your fulfillment from your business, do you? Of course not!

As a shop owner, you likely started out in skilled trades, making things with your hands from your imagination, which means you’re probably something of a creative person. I’m sure you have MANY different passions and skills. One protest I hear all the time from job shop owners is that they don’t want to miss out on opportunities to work within all these different passions and skillsets.

I totally get it, but it’s just not true in the case of niching down your shop. Again, you are NOT your shop. So focusing your business efforts does not mean you’re limiting your life. In fact, the opposite is true. When you have a profitable, successful business, you open up doors you could never have imagined for yourself.

Narrowing Focus Makes You More Profitable

Prior to understanding and applying the power of niching in my own business, I was a workaholic, always worried about finding my next client and paying the bills. Among the many small businesses I supported with marketing services were a retreat rental in the Appalachian Mountains, an acoustic product development duo shaking up the home appliances and aviation industries, a cookie company, a permaculture learning center in Texas, a health coach, a writer, an HVAC service and installation company, a cattle ranch, and a crop insurance agency. A fascinating variety, don’t you think? I agree, except for the fact that I was working nonstop for my customers. I had a ton of diversity in my business, but very little in my personal life.

After forsaking this haphazard group of small businesses and focusing exclusively on job shops, where I had the most experience and felt the most passionate, I finally felt like I had a clear plan of action. I created a super tight process that could deliver exactly what job shops needed in a shorter period of time. I quickly gained momentum in that space, meeting new people in the industry who began to refer my ideal customers to me and offer me writing and speaking opportunities (like the Advanced Manufacturing Expo and Manufacturing Masters); something I had always wanted to do but never had the time or focus for. Now that my client work is more profitable, I’m able to spend more time with friends and family, take better care of my body and mind, get started on some long overdue home improvement projects, and do more of the fun things I like to do.

None of these things would have been possible when I was wearing all the hats and doing all the things. Plus, the work never got boring. It actually got more interesting!

Working specifically with job shops is making me an expert on the subject–and much quicker than if I had continued branding and marketing for any random small business. I’m going deeper in my research and able to see similar patterns and problems among these shops, which allows me to hone in on solutions that work for all of them. And the process of creating a distinct brand for each of these shops has been an incredibly rewarding challenge!

Take Care To Choose The Right Focus

In my case, I had the most experience and the most passion for marketing one particular type of business, and I typically made the most profit in that space too. But owning a niche doesn’t have to be about focusing on one service or one industry, it can be about your approach to the work or about your unique process that allows you to execute better than your competitors. It can even just be about your personality. In an old-fashioned industry like manufacturing, it’s pretty easy to stand out just by having a personality.

This all starts by asking the right questions: What do we do better than other shops? Which of our customers love working with us the most? Which do we love the most? Why do we love working together? Which of our services are most profitable? Where could we add value and reduce man-hours? How could we package and execute our services in a way that makes them more profitable and more valuable? We created a DIY version of this exercise so you can give it a shot.

This is deep, difficult work that requires a very high level of thought and honesty with yourself, but you can do it–I have faith in you!

The goal with niching is to make every aspect of your business show your ideal customer that you are THE expert they need. If you’ve done this properly, your target customer should look at your website or email or video or article and think, “Wow! This shop actually gets it! Finally, a shop that understands my problems and can help me solve them!” 

Once you get to this point, you will find that everything in your business becomes a million times easier. You will know exactly what you need to write on your website or say to your customer, both in person and on social media, and you will know exactly where to focus your networking and sales efforts. Having a crystal clear message, goals, and target customer will make all of these things easier.

The Magic Is In The Execution

Hopefully, by now, you’re understanding what niching truly is and why it’s important. Now, let’s break down HOW to go about it.

We’ll start with what not to do. Don’t just pick one service that you do well and abandon everything else. This actually WILL limit you. Niching takes time, and there must be a transition phase so you can keep up your cash flow.

So in the interim, think about how you can make your current work more efficient to free up some time to spend on developing your niche. Can you create a self-serve option for current customers or outsource some of your low-margin work and make the same margin? Can you designate one day a week to hammer out all the miscellaneous work that always disrupts your day? Can you use block scheduling to make better use of your time?

For me, the first step was to change my messaging to attract the ambitious job shop customers I wanted to work with. I used a bold, rebellious brand voice and talked about all the things job shops hated about marketing (which were abundant). Next, I swore off retainers–the exact opposite of what every business coach told me to do–eliminating a lot of the day-to-day interruptions from all-important retainer clients. I then cut out our social media management and blog writing services and turned our brand and web development process into 1- to 3-day intensive branding sessions. This provides customers with a new look, message, and marketing materials in a tiny fraction of the time it would normally take, and saves me a ton of time and headspace.

But none of this happened overnight–I had a slow, intentional transition phase. I was honest with my customers who didn’t fit my new niche about what I was doing while ensuring them that I would continue meeting their needs. I kept the retainer contracts I had intact, but I streamlined the work by blocking off chunks of time in my calendar to execute their work that so when I was done, I could focus all my energy on my own brand.

Niching is hard, and if you don’t do it right, it can definitely be limiting. But with the right approach and strategy, you’ll open up unimaginable opportunities–both for your business and for yourself.

Ready to lose the BS in your job shop but not sure where to start? Book a 15-minute call with Emily to find out.