When you can't explain what you do

You've heard "niche down" a hundred times.

You've nodded along, then gone right back to saying yes to every project that comes your way. I get it — turning away revenue feels reckless.

But here's the thing: your inability to explain what you do isn't a communication problem. It's a positioning problem. And until you solve it, everything else — your marketing, your pricing, your ability to scale — stays broken.

Maybe you’ve been in business for a while now, maybe you’re just getting started. You do everything for everyone. You don’t say no to projects or potential customers. That would be missed revenue. You’re not one to let revenue pass you by. The reason that you have a hard time describing what you do is likely because you don’t do any one thing.

You do what needs to be done. People benefit from working with you. Saying no because they don’t afford your services or don’t neatly fit into your existing offers would be a disservice to them. You’re extremely well rounded. You have tons of experiences in different areas because of the diverse projects you’ve worked on and people you’ve helped.

At the same time, you’re frustrated. You don’t know how scale. Maybe you want to raise your prices, but that would drive away your existing customer base.

Your mind feels scattered, you can’t focus on any one thing because you’re forced to constantly focus on a thousand different things. You keep hearing that you need to niche down, but where do you even start? To niche down would necessarily alienate a portion of your customers. That’s not an option for you. So you feel stuck.

I’m familiar with this situation because it’s all too common among service based entrepreneurs and business owners. The problem I’m describing is a positioning problem.

Positioning concerns who your customers are and what you’re specific value is to them - positioning answers the question, “what is your unique position in your market?”

When brands don’t identify or understand their positioning, the entire business is at risk. That’s because without understanding your core positioning, how could you accurately understand who to market to?

And if you don’t understand who to market to, how can you understand how to market your business?

Do you see how this problem compounds?

If what I’ve described sounds a little bit like your own business, trust me you’re not alone - and trust me, it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, by reading this blog post you’re already doing better than most.

”So, how do I determine my positioning?” you ask. Good question.

Here’s the formula. A brand firmly rooted in it’s positioning understands:

If it attempts to target everyone, it will really target no one.
Knowing how to reach your customers starts with knowing who they are. Saying “everyone” is really saying “no one in particular”.

The problem it solves.
The specific, urgent problem your audience is facing or goal they have that makes them need a solution. This is what creates the buying moment.

The solution it provides
The tangible service or methodology you deliver to solve that problem. Should be concrete enough that potential customers understand how it solves their problem.

The category it competes in.
The bucket prospects put you in mentally (accounting, plumbing, nutritionist, etc.). Controls expectations and influences who you're compared against.

Why customers should choose them instead of competitors.
This is why they should buy. If your answer is “quality” or “I care more,” - that's what everyone says. Why would customer’s benefit more by buying from you rather than competitors? This could be a difference in your approach, methodology, results, etc. but it has to be tangible and real.

This isn’t abstract, this is concrete strategy work to get your business on track. When you understand each of these, that’s where the clarity comes.

Here’s an example - for the sake of this blog post, let’s pretend you’re a social media manager.

Bad example: “I help business owners with their social media” Good example: “I help solo entrepreneurs in the fitness industry scale their businesses to six figures through high-quality videos and social media”

"I help solo entrepreneurs in the fitness industry who want to scale their businesses to six figures through high-quality videos and social media marketing. Unlike other social media managers, I understand that clients are busy and don’t have time to scale on social media by themselves, so I record, edit, and manage all content on their behalf so they can focus on actually running their business.”

Since this sentence is so specific, we have immediate clarity about your business. On top of that, we easily see how you would market to this audience. It’s clear and concise. Solo entrepreneurs in the fitness industry - gym owners, personal trainers, etc.

You can be strategic about our messaging so that it clearly targets your audience. We know that these are solo entrepreneurs, so they are likely spread thin and don’t have time to make content on their own. We know they are in the fitness industry and are likely very motivated and aspirational. This is all information we can use.

But in this example if you just “help business owners with their social media”, what does that tell us about your audience? Almost nothing. There’s no way we could target this audience with anything specific.

Do you see how understanding your positioning impacts your overall business?

Getting clarity on your positioning gives you a clear path forward to more revenue, more consistent customers, and less headaches.

I work with clients all the time to give them this clarity during the Rooted in Strategy session. During this 90-minute brand strategy session, we analyze their target audience, competitors, their offerings, and their overall strategy. After our session, I send them an outline that contains all of our findings as well as actionable next steps they can take to reach their goals.