When you become a personal stylist and start your own personal styling business, one of the first steps you need to take is to identify your styling niche! Finding your specialty or market segment is crucial to every aspect of your business from creating your website to deciding which services to offer, and even how to market your business to attract new clients. Without a clearly defined niche as a personal stylist, you will find it hard to grow your business and achieve the level of success (and income) you seek.
Why is a niche so important for personal stylists?
Many personal stylists fall into the trap of believing that by being open to working with anyone and offering every type of styling services they will increase opportunities to work and find more clients, but this misconception has ended many personal styling careers! Finding new clients is reliant upon being able to target them specifically based on the challenges they face and how you can help them overcome these challenges with the styling services you offer. It's about being able to connect and speak their language with every interaction and marketing strategy, and it's just not possible to do this for everyone! If you want to grow a successful personal styling business then it's time to find your niche so you can work on connecting with the people that actually need and want your services.
How do you find your styling niche?
I'm not going to delve too deep into this for the purpose of this blog as I've previously written a post "How to find your styling niche" that gives you the steps to take, so be sure to check it out. But I will say that one of the most important parts of finding your niche as a personal stylist lies in what you love to do and who you love to do it for! If you don't enjoy doing color analysis then don't do it! If you prefer to style men than women, then that's who you should work with! But that's not all! Think about your life outside of personal styling - What is important to you? What do you enjoy? What are your life experiences? What skills do you have? - Take these things and use them to create your own unique niche that reflects who you are and what you love to do!
Creative niche ideas to get you inspired!
As you start to contemplate the right niche for you I thought I would share some creative niches to inspire you and to show you that you can create a personal styling business that is unique as you are!
Sustainability Stylist
If you are passionate about the environment and are committed to lessening the impact of fast fashion in your own life then why not incorporate it into your personal styling business and become a sustainability stylist? Helping clients navigate the often confusing world of sustainable brands and clothing options is a valuable service and solves a problem for many people who want to make less damaging choices when it comes to what they wear. And you don't just have to stop at sustainability either you can also make ethical fashion part of your personal styling business.
Travel Stylist
If you're the king or queen of packing and organizing for vacation, and there's nothing that gets you more excited than creating a capsule wardrobe then this could be the niche for you! Traveling can be a stressful time for many people, whether it be a business trip or a family vacation, and your skills as a personal stylist could help alleviate that stress through your services. You could offer many different levels of services, from packing checklists and creating lookbooks to personal shopping, creating capsule wardrobes, and even packing and organizing for the trip.
Dating Stylist
Most of us at some point in our lives have experienced the stress that comes with trying to find the right outfit for an all-important first date. The outfit needs to make you feel confident and amazing but also needs to send the right message to a potential partner. As a personal stylist, you have all the right tools to help with this problem and give people the confidence they need to navigate the dating world. With matchmakers and online dating becoming popular for people looking for love there's also a great opportunity for personal stylists to use their skills to create the right looks for profile photos.
Modest Dressing Stylist
Modest fashion and style have seen a rise in mainstream popularity in recent years but it is still very connected to people's religious and cultural beliefs. Whether it's simply a preferred style aesthetic that you have or it's part of your own religious beliefs it presents an opportunity for a unique niche. People who dress modestly want to look stylish and fashionable but can often struggle to find clothing options that combine both, so that's where a personal stylist can help! If you are planning to work with people from different religious backgrounds it is important to understand the different religious dress requirements which is why we include modest styling as part of our personal stylist training course.
Post Graduate Stylist
I personally think that universities and colleges should have personal stylists teach a class to all graduating students preparing them for dressing for interviews and the world of work. With hardly any dress requirements in college, it can often be a big culture shock for students when they graduate and have to join the "adult" world. But the good news is, they don't have to go it alone and there's expert advice and guidance available to them from personal stylists like you and me. Sounds like the perfect graduation present to me!
Postpartum Stylist
Anyone who has given birth knows how much the body changes not just during the pregnancy but also postpartum. While attention to better maternity clothing options has definitely improved, there is little to no attention paid to the needs of postpartum women. There is an increased demand from women who need help dressing for their changing bodies and also their changing lifestyles after having a baby, including breastfeeding style solutions. If this is something that you've experienced personally or something that you feel passionate about then there's definitely a need for specialist postpartum stylists.
Social Media Influencer Stylist
The rise in social media influencers and content creators has created a need for personal stylists who can help them find their style and create a unique personal brand. An increasing number of influencers are seeking out the help of personal stylists and this is creating a whole new market of potential clients and a brand new niche to consider. If you think that this could be the perfect niche for you then be sure to check out my blog post "Why social media influencers are hiring personal stylists" to find out more.
Life Change Stylist
We go through many different stages in our lives and with each stage comes change. These changes can be connected to how we spend our time, how we want to express ourselves, what we do for work, who we spend our time with... the list can be endless. With many of the changes in our lives, such as having children, getting divorced, and retiring...there is often a desire or need to change the way we dress and we might need help to do that. Think about a major life change that you would love to help people through, maybe it's dating after divorce, or changing career path, and build a niche around helping people navigate their new life and style path.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of niche options for personal stylists, it merely scratches the surface. But hopefully, it's opened your mind to the possibilities that are out there for personal stylists. Find your niche and create a unique personal styling business that you love!
To be successful you must be unique, you must be so different that if people want what you have, they must come to you to get it.
~Walt Disney
Happy Styling!
Louisa 💕
Take your career to the next level with our online personal stylist courses and resources. Click here to find out more!
Keywords: Personal stylist, Become a personal stylist, Personal style course, Personal styling course, personal styling training, personal styling program, Become a stylist, How to become a stylist