George Kao argues that solopreneurs — especially multi-passionate ones — do not have to narrowly niche to build a successful business. Instead, he emphasizes building general credibility with an audience: if people trust you and your style, they’ll buy different products you offer (e.g., flower arranging, animal communication). He advises showcasing overarching values on a homepage, offering separate pages per offering, and promoting one offering at a time, promoting an "authentic business" that reflects the whole person.
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No, you don't have to niche down to have a successful business. I really can stop right there. But I'm going to tell you why I think this is the case. Because so many of you are getting the advice that you have to focus on one specific problem or one specific stage of people's journey or one specific pathway or whatever, one specific modality, right? Otherwise you won't have a successful business you have to focus in. And I have been coaching thousands of solopreneurs, particularly multi passionate solopreneurs for 13 years now. You know, and all that time I've talked to so many people, helped so many people with this issue. And I see people narrow down and then sometimes they succeed. That's true. But a lot of times they feel constricted and it's like it's not the whole of who they are. And so let me tell you why you don't have to niche down. Because it's about, it's not so much about niching. I mean that, sure, that can help, but I think it's more about credibility. If you have credibility with someone, they are likely to buy almost anything you sell, especially if they want that thing, obviously, right? So today, you know, I have credibility with some of you, right? And some of you I have a lot of credibility with. And if today I go, hey, I have been learning, you know, flower arrangement and I know you, I never talked about it before, but, but here's why I'm, I'm, I'm credible about flower arrangement, blah, blah, blah. I'll just talk about it in a video or on a sales page, a webpage that describes my experience with flower arrangement. I'm going to sell you my flower arrangement course. Some of you are going to buy it because I have credibility with you generally. And on that sales page or in that webinar or in that video or social media posts, I explain my experience with this stuff. And if you want it, you've been looking for flower arrangement courses or whatever, even though I never talked about it, you're going to buy it. And then the very next month, okay, the next month I will present to you my animal communication course, particularly with horses. I know I never talked about it, but you like me generally. You like my values, you like the way I think, you like the way I teach, perhaps, and on that webinar or in that sales page, I'm going to talk about, actually, I've had a horse for years. This is my experience with that horse. And I've been able to help my friends with Animal community, whatever. I'll talk about my true ground of credit, even though I never said a single word. And if you've been looking at that and you'd be like, oh, wow, I wasn't into your flower arrangement thing because I wasn't interested in that. But, yes, I'm interested in your animal communication with horses thing, I'm going to buy it from you. There is no such thing. I mean, people keep saying, oh, but I might confuse my audience if I offer five completely different niches. No, your audience is smarter than that. Give your audience some credit. Your audience, if they see something they're not interested in from you, they just keep scrolling, no worries. Now I'm going to go, hmm, I'm going to remember that. So next time they sell something different, I'm going to go, I'm confused. Now. It doesn't generally work like that, okay? It's about your credibility. And sure, the people who focus in on one thing, well, by default they just talk about one thing. So it does help them build credibility faster in that one thing. And they could sell that one thing. And then, oh, the audience, oh, I've been hearing you talk about that thing for months. But if you have general, trusting credibility with your audience, they will buy anything from you. If you've shown up as a caring individual who talks in a way that they like or teaches in a way they like or creates in a way that they enjoy, your style matches your audience's tastes, then you can sell anything, a wide range of things. If they want that one of the things you sell, they'll buy it from you. So please don't be afraid to be a Jack or Jill of all trades. You can. And your homepage webs, your website homepage can just talk about your values. What is the overarching theme? If there is a theme among your various offerings, or what is the underlying values that you bring to all of your work? You could just talk about that and have separate pages for your flower arrangement, your Reiki, your, you know, essential oil business, your, you know, animal communication, your technology consulting, all of it. But you just promote one thing at a time, right? You promote one thing per month. You focus on promoting one thing per month. And the people who are not interested in that thing per month, they're just going to keep scrolling. And then suddenly month three, you're selling something they want and then they buy it. So you can bring the whole of who you are into your business. This is why I call it an authentic business, because you can authentically express the different parts of yourself. As long as you're in service to your audience and you believe in what you sell because you believe it's true value to the people for whom it's right, then you can sell anything and everything and talk about anything and everything. Just remember, it's about credibility. So build general credibility. And hopefully over time you build credibility on the various niches you do by creating content. But don't worry about confusing people. Your audience is smarter than that. I hope this helps.
