Hi First name / there!
First off, welcome to all my new subscribers! 👋 So many of you found me through the Square Design Summit last month, and I'm thrilled you're here. Kate did such an amazing job organizing it, and the Facebook group she set up for participants was honestly the best part, I loved all the chats we had!
One conversation really stuck with me, though. It was about niching down to offer just Squarespace development. I've actually had this same chat come up recently in Standout Squarespace too, and I get why it feels scary. When I first started out, I thought I had to do ALL the things – branding, design, development, Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, SEO... you name it. I was learning as I went and honestly started to feel overwhelmed.
But here's what I realized: I didn't actually enjoy all of it. I love Squarespace. And specifically, I really love the development side. Sure, I could pull off branding or Shopify sites, but I have way more fun and feel infinitely more comfortable doing Squarespace development. Plus, I didn't want to become an agency or hire people to cover the stuff I didn't want to do. I wanted to keep it a one woman show.
So I niched down. And here's the best part, I've been busier than ever these past two years! When you become known for one specific thing, people actually seek you out for it. I get projects at every stage: full builds, maintenance on existing sites, adding new pages, setting up memberships... all Squarespace dev work. People recommend me when that need comes up. They follow me because they know exactly what I do.
The best part? Just because I advertise Squarespace development doesn't mean I can't say yes to other fun projects. I literally just wrapped a Shopify site with a designer I work with a lot – I took it because I wanted to! Leading with what you love gives you clarity in your marketing, but you still have the freedom to take on whatever lights you up.✨
When you become an expert in one thing, people want to work with you because they know you're the best at that specific thing. And honestly? I'm constantly recommending other pros for services I don't offer. I'd rather send someone to a person I trust than try to fumble through something that's not my zone of genius. And here's the thing – they almost always come back to me for what I do offer.
(Speaking of recommendations: if you offer a service and want to be on my referral list, hit reply and let me know what you do, it doesn’t have to be Squarespace! And if you're a Squarespace developer, I’d love to have other devs to recommend when I’m booked out.)
