Do you service a design niche? According to Lynda Falkenstein, author of Nichecraft: Using Your Specialness to Focus Your Business, Corner Your Market and Make Customers Seek You Out. “Many people talk about ‘finding’ a niche as if it were something under a rock or at the end of the rainbow, ready-made. That's nonsense,” she says “Good niches don't just fall into your lap; they must be carefully crafted.”  Back in episode 54 of the Resourceful Designer podcast, I talked about what a design niche is and the benefits of working in one. If you haven't listened to that episode yet I suggest you do before continuing. But just to elaborate a bit more on the subject, a design niche and a field are not the same things. If you specialize in designing for the medical industry you are targetting a field. However, If you specialize in designing websites for dentists, you are targetting a niche within the medical field. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on a field instead of a design niche. I just want you to know the difference. And remember, you can do both. Even if you specialize in designing websites for dentists, there is nothing stopping you from taking on a chiropractor as a client. It's ok to have more than one niche or to branch out and take clients outside your niche. It’s your business after all. All of this is discussed in greater detail on this episode of the podcast. Please listen to get the full story. Now you may be wondering, "If I can work with anyone even though I'm targeting a niche, what’s the point of even having a niche?" I discussed this in episode 54 but here are the main points of why you may want to have a niche. It’s easier to identify potential clients. You become a sought out expert in the niche You get better referrals within the niche There will be less competition in the niche You can have more focused marketing material Increased chance of repeat business So how do you choose a design niche to target? Determining your niche. What type of client do you want to design for? Be very specific. Identify things like geographic areas, the types of businesses or customers you want to target. If you are not sure whom you want to work with, it will be a lot harder to make contact with them. The smaller and more focused the design niche is the better your chance of succeeding within it. Targeting Startup companies may be too broad a niche. But aiming at startup companies that create green, eco-friendly products out of bamboo is a better goal. Keep in mind that it’s always best to find a niche that you are familiar with and possibly have a passion for. Look at your interests and hobbies. Maybe there’s something there you could target. Marketing to your niche. Marketing to a specific design niche is easier than marketing to a non-niche. All of your marketing material, be it your website, brochures, Facebook ads, business cards, can be designed specifically to appeal to that niche, which will make them easier to spot by people within that niche. Look to see what type of visuals and wording is already being used in your target design niche and structure your marketing material to follow suit. Present relevant work in your portfolio. The best way to win over a client is to showcase work that appeals to them. If your target niche is yoga studios, you don’t want your portfolio to showcase the website and poster you designed for a monster truck show. If you're going after a niche within the design space such as Logo Design, then you better have some good logo designs to show off. And perhaps remove any unrelated projects such as car wraps and websites from your portfolio. Anything that distracts from your skills at logo design should be minimized. Remember, you can have more than one design niche, so save that other work for a different portfolio on your website, or better yet, on a completely different website. You’ll have a much better chance of being hired if you showcase projects that are similar to the niche market y