Thanks for sharing

This is where I’m going to fix the BIGGEST problem most people face when they decide to start a business.

The problem that makes them hesitate, keeps them stuck, and keeps them from ever really starting.

That problem is not being able to settle on a business niche, or topic.

This usually results from having many interests. You can call it being multipassionate, a scanner, whatever, but the general idea is that you have SO many interests that you simply can’t focus on one.

And they feel overwhelming.

Look, I get it. I have lots of interests across many topics. 

But I happily pick one to do as a business, and so can you. I promise.

Because that idea you have? That you’ll come up with a unique business plan that will allow you to mix your love of taxidermy, dressmaking, writing romance novels, and tropical fish tanks?

It’s delusional, and it’s the quickest way to either a) never start your business, or b) start a crappy, confusing business that is barely profitable and always struggles.

The best way to nail your topic? Do my Business Idea Blitz. It’s a free mini-course that will help you choose your specific topic without all the angst, and start an online business that’s clear, targeted, and grows quickly because of it.  

Need more convincing? Here are some reasons that choosing a specific business topic is the right things to do, and something you should do ASAP.

Your business does NOT define you as a person

People tell me that they don’t want to leave out anything that they do.

They want to be their full, authentic selves and not skip over any part of their wonderfully complex being.

A business is something you have to earn money.

It’s just one part of your multifaceted life.

This modern (and capitalist) view of your career as being an integral part of your identity and essential to your personal happiness is just plain weird.

Of course, I highly encourage building a business that you enjoy.

But expecting it to fulfil your every wish and dream and make you feel absolutely amazing all the time?

Not going to happen.

And if you find an existing business that appears to tick all of those boxes that you want to model yours on, dig deeper.

Is their business 10 years old, while yours is brand new? Do they have 20 staff and a team of writers, while you have just you? Do they have a huge engaged audience, while you’ve got 20 of your mum friends following you on Insta?

Yeah, I thought so. People who promote having multipassionate businesses tend to be well established, and have the base to do whatever they like. 

But I bet even they started with one small thing, because you can’t do everything as a solopreneur from day 1. 

Maybe you can build a team and following over the next decade that will allow you to cover everything, too. 

But until then:

You are not your business. Your business is not you.

So pick one topic you like well enough to talk about regularly, put the rest in the not-business pile, and get started.

You don’t have to monetise EVERYTHING

This is often the revelation that people need.

You’re allowed to have hobbies! You’re allowed to spend lots of time doing them! And you’re allowed to never make a single cent of profit from them!

I actually think hobbies for the sake of enjoyment are essential for a happy, fulfilled life.

I spent years designing and sewing cloth nappies. It made sewing feel like a job I had to do. If I came up with the spontaneous idea to make my daughter a skirt I’d see the pile of nappies sitting next to the machine, waiting to be topstitched, and think ‘ugh, I have to do them first’. 

Monetising hobbies can take a lot of the fun out of them.

So choose ONE topic for work. Put your other interests into the ‘purely fun’ category.

Make enough money from focusing on that one thing to dedicate 20 hours a week and a generous budget to your hobbies. Do them enthusiastically, with no thought of whether it will make a good YouTube video or match your target keywords.

Just enjoy them, no strings attached. It’s much more fun.

Boredom ➡️ shiny object syndrome

Multipassionate people like us often enjoy the thrill of new projects. Throwing around ideas, brainstorming, the exhilarating start – they’re the really fun parts!

Doing the grunt work required to make it a solid, sustainable success? Less fun.

So when the idea you’re following starts to get hard (and it will) your other interests will look more exciting and tempting than working through the boring bits.

And you’ll start to think about ditching your current project so you can start something fresh and new.

In 2018 my online homeschooling business was becoming fairly successful. But I felt bored covering *just* homeschooling, so I decided to start a book site for children.

I love books! We read aloud all the time! This will be perfect for me!

And I could kid myself by saying that it’s related to homeschooling, so really, it would complement and enhance my homeschooling business.

(Here’s the truth – anything that takes work time and brains space away from your main business harms it).

I bought a domain and created a site. I had a logo and a collection of shareable memes, and a folder full of ideas for printables and reading challenges. ALL THE THINGS.

I then wrote exactly one post and ditched the idea.

I realised that although I love books and reading aloud and recommending books for people, I do NOT like writing book lists or creating lots of shallower content – something I would need to do for this particular business to be profitable.

I could have realised that by writing a post BEFORE I did all the fun brainstorming and branding stuff, and saved myself a lot of hours of precious work time.

I learned my lesson, and I returned my focus to my homeschooling business. 

Shortly after I gave it my total focus my homeschooling business took off, and I started making a full-time income from part-time hours.

NOT a coincidence.

And that gave us plenty of time and money to do the things we liked – like buy books, spend hours reading aloud, have long conversations about books…without needing to write about it.

So pick one idea, focus on it, and it will succeed far faster – allowing you to spend your spare time and new disposable income on your other fun things.

You can include your other interests in a fun way

Just because you’re specifically focussing your business on one niche doesn’t mean you’ve gagged yourself about others.

Mention your hobbies and interests. Weave them into your emails, your social media, even your blog posts.

Be a real, whole, three-dimensional person.

Most people who know me online know that I run. I mention it because it’s a routine part of my life, and it’s one of my favourite things to complain about. 

I don’t give running advice or write articles about how to run your first marathon, but I can mention as One Of Many Other Things I Do.

It helps to turn me from a cardboard cutout business blogger into a real person, and helps people see if we have things in common.

I don’t have to hide my other interests. But nor do I need to agonise over how I can work running content (or thru-hiking posts, or debunking science myths, or how to do NaNoWriMo) into my actual business.

I can just do them, and talk about them in a normal way. Without monetising them.

Are you starting to see a theme here?!

🚨WARNING 🚨 – DON’T start a lifestyle blog

A lifestyle blog is where you write about….your life.

You don’t have to pick a topic, you can write about ANYTHING YOU WANT!

So many people discover this idea, and think, ‘I don’t even need to choose between fencing and floristry and fashion and filmmaking! I’ll include ALL my interests, and make a lifestyle blog!’

(That person better call it My F’ing Hobbies, or they’re missing a golden opportunity).

But I won’t sugarcoat it…

Starting a lifestyle blog covering multiple topics, with no clear audience or intention or way to monetise, is a stupid business idea.

People defend their lifestyle blogs by saying ‘It’s mine, I can write what I want!’ or ‘I’m being my full authentic self!’

But that’s not how you create a successful business.

It means that the person who lands on your site for a recipe isn’t interested in your travel tips, is confused by the freebie about knitting and the course about money management, and leaves without signing up for anything, forgetting the site instantly.

So if you really want to write about anything and everything, start one site JUST for your income project.

Make it really targeted and focused. 

Then start another site (or a Substack) that you can fill with whatever grabs your interest on the day.

Again, you don’t have to monetise everything.

And to be especially brutal about the lifestyle blog idea – your life is probably not interesting enough to get by ‘just’ on your day-to-day.

I’m sure I could link 3846 wannabe influencers who think that rambling about their daily lives is endlessly fascinating when it’s actually boring as batshit, but you get my point.

Accept your day-to-day boringness, and instead become so useful and knowledgeable that everyone wants to work with you.

I mean, which would you rather?

1. People are envious of your life and feel that theirs is inadequate and so buy the stuff you recommend, even though a new skincare routine won’t address their problems at all.

2. People rave about how you’ve changed their life because you’ve taught them something invaluable or helped them make positive life changes.

Be person #2. The world needs more of them.

And in selfish terms, #2 feels amazing – every time I receive an effusive thank-you from someone whose life has improved because I’ve helped them, I feel fantastic.

How to choose your profitable business niche

So how to choose your single, focused, profitable business niche?

Do my Business Idea Blitz. Seriously, it’s far better than most paid courses, which tend to equate ‘choosing a niche’ with deciding between fashion or fitness (spoiler alert: they’re both way too broad). 

Here’s what the course boils down to (but I make it easy. And fun).

1. Write down ALL your interests
2. Cross out any you don’t like enough to talk about/teach/do
3. Work out how you could monetise the remaining ones (use this list of ideas)
4. Choose the one that looks like the best moneymaker. 

Then you JUST START on that single topic.

You stop getting in your own way by trying to Frankenstein everything you love together into one confusing megabusiness.

You stop procrastinating and holding yourself back because you’re waiting for your one perfectly special idea to smack you in the face (it won’t).

Instead, you’ll get clear, get started, and start building your incredibly targeted (and therefore quickly profitable) online business.

Sign up for the free course here, and let me know which business niche you choose – I’ll be cheering you on.

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Thanks for sharing