Define Your Writing Niche and Style to Build Your Business

I struggled to answer, “What do you write?” as I re-built my business and sought clients. Learning how to give a firm answer helped me understand my goals and business structure.

My work area gets a little messy. But, I’m a “writer” after all.

My Lack of Clarity

In 2013, I joined a small business networking group that was informal and I was after a particular objective. I wanted to offer my writing services as a blogger and long-form article writer, but I made the mistake of introducing myself as a writer.

The response was, “What do you write?”

My answer was muddled because I talked about the different types of writing I did — big mistake — and business professionals couldn’t grasp why they would want me to write their blog posts. And they weren’t convinced that blog posts or writing books would help them find new customers from their target audience.

Here’s why I couldn’t explain the writing that I offered.

My Writing Background was Mixed

My first job was in radio news and for 22 years, I wrote and hosted a human interest radio spot show that focused on holidays around the world. I worked in the nonprofit world and it was a NPR approach but not hard news.