When I went to sell Williams Entertainment Group, I thought being in more niches would make me more attractive. We had trampoline parks, escape rooms, axe-throwing bars, haunted houses, and even some real estate. Every time we added a new offering to my business we became more profitable so I thought I was doing everything “right.” Surely buyers would want an “ecosystem,” right?

Wrong.

I discovered the hard way that buyers wanted the part of my business they understood—and were turned off by the parts they didn’t.

Trampoline park buyers didn’t want escape rooms.

Axe-throwing buyers didn’t want trampoline parks.

By being in too many niches, I had made the business less sellable, not more.

That’s when I started thinking seriously about niche crafting—and why it’s one of the most overlooked skills in building transferable enterprise value.

One customer has one problem for which you provide one solution. That’s the starting point. And another secret most people won’t tell you:

Niches are easier to find when you start subtracting things, not adding.

Carve away until what’s left is focused, profitable, and hard for competitors to attack.

When you think about your niche, ask two questions:

1. Am I the leader or follower?

Competing head-to-head with billion-dollar incumbents (think Roe in telehealth) is just burning money. Instead, go where they won’t—the small slice of the market that looks unattractive to them but valuable to you. Netflix vs. Blockbuster is the classic example.

2. Is my niche growing or stagnant?

If it’s growing 15%+ per year, it has the potential to grow into something real.
The game is to find a high-growth niche where you can be the leader.

Once you’ve identified it, resist the temptation to “add more services at the same price.” That’s the fastest way to destroy profitability. Instead, focus on creating a profitable variation that subtracts what the main market values but your customers don’t. Tesla did this by stripping out the gas engine. CrossFit did this by stripping down exercise into intensity and community.

And when in doubt, run the 80/20 test:

Where does 80% of your profit come from? Double down there. Exit the rest.

To your next big move,
Raleigh “Do You” Williams
Founder of ExitOS