Nail Your Niche

⏰ Today in 5 minutes or less:

• What niching down actually means.

• How to navigate between different niches.

• Advice for new indie consultants.

Terry Chevalier’s Journey About Finding His Niche

“Niche down” is a common advice for indie consultants. But how exactly should you do it? 

For Terry Chevalier, it’s a long journey of refining his strengths and honing a value proposition that’s relevant to his clients. 

After working at Bain and spending 10 years at AT&T, Terry eventually pursued a career as an indie consultant who’s expert in two interesting niches: navigating transformations in telecommunications and exit planning. 

In this interview, he shares with us the challenges and discoveries that led him here, along with practical advice for other consultants who are on the path to finding their own niche. 

Here’s the full interview: 

Talk to us about your career trajectory. How did you decide to be an independent consultant? 

Terry: I went to corporate, and it was great. I continued to grow and learn there. I also worked in the federal government at one point in my career.

But there just comes a time when you have that itch and feel like there’s potential out there. I just want to control my own destiny. 

So that was my journey.

It’s not something you decide overnight; it starts as an ember that burns until you decide to do it. 

I was doing strategy for another firm through COVID and when I came out of it, I thought that if I don’t do this now, I’m never going to do it. It was the time I took that jump and I never regretted it since. 

Did you have any success model you followed when you made that transition? 

Terry: I knew people who became independent entrepreneurs and things like that. Even my dad became an independent businessman after a 22-year career, so I always had it in the back of my head. But I always struggled with applying it – how do I use what I know, to sell? 

My father sold financial products and other things that were very defined in their market. I was in high school at the time, and I saw the struggle too.

When you go into a new business venture, there’s a period of investment and it slowly comes back up. Some executives might never have to live it, but it’s very different when you’re just looking at it on an Excel sheet. 

For independent consultants, it’s always like:  

• What is it that I do? 

• What’s the value I bring to other people? 

• What sets me apart? 

You might feel like others can do the same things, but over time you’ll realize that you’re really good at certain things that some people aren’t. It’s second nature to us and we don’t think that it’s hard. That’s where the value is. 

How long was that transition period for you? 

Terry: It’s been about 2 and a half years of figuring out my way through. And when I’ve spoken with other people, it seems like it takes 3 years on average to sustain cash flow and gain financial stability. It’s also when your brand recognition is sufficiently high that you’re getting calls, so you don’t have to search for everything. 

So, it seems to be somewhere in that range. And I’m sure other people are a lot faster than I was. 

You’re an excellent success model for someone who clearly highlights the problem that you solve. What are those problems that you solve? 

Terry: You’re kind to say that. But it’s a process and there’s a lot of learning. When I got into this, everybody was telling me “You need to niche down.” But what does that mean? 

The reality is that when you first start, you don’t even know who your ideal client is. The first few clients might be completely different from each other. But as you go through the process over time, you realize “Hey I’m really good at this part and I get more gravity from this area.” 

That’s when things start honing in.

The hard part is trusting the process because when we’re on our own, we constantly question the direction that we’re going. We don’t have another person to bounce off ideas like we do in the office. At some point, you get conviction when you just go and take that step, then you start to see progress. 

And I figured out the problem that I can solve; I have two niches. 

The first one is telecommunications, where I help visionary business leaders in the world broadband space transform their business. The entire model is changing – it’s moving from a cost-based model to an ROI-based model. 

But some people don’t know how to cope with that, so I work in that area and help those people make that transition. 

The other niche is exit planning. I work with business owners who want to move onto the next thing. It could be owners who want to pass their business to their family, sell it to a third party, or transition it to a new management. 

It’s about helping business owners make that transition and organize the timeline on their terms. And having gone through the corporate and transactional world, we know it’s not easy. Nobody out there really helps them in that process. 

So, what’s the red thread between these two? 

Terry: What these niches have in common is that clients are looking to make a transformative change, and they need a guide to help with that. 

In the telecommunications world, it’s about transitioning between the kinds of models. 

For the business owners planning their exit, it’s about figuring out the kind of transition to make with questions like: 

• Where are you today? 

• What do we need to do to get you ready for the transition, personally and in terms of business? 

• Have you considered what your life is like when you’re not coming into business every day? 

Do you take any of your learnings from when your dad into the conversations you have with people? 

Terry: Absolutely. One of the things I really appreciated is that my dad used certain terms that I ended up applying today in our business. He talked about prospecting strategy, offer, assessment, and other things. When you take those things and start putting them together, they make sense in our business now. 

Prospecting is basically how you find potential leads and clients and how you communicate your value proposition. 

The offer should answer questions like: 

• What’s the problem you solve? 

• What do you have in your offer? 

• How will you solve the problem? 

Assessment is the discovery phase of any project. It’s about asking questions like: 

• What is it? 

• Where are we today?

• Where are you trying to get to? 

• What are the roadblocks we want to overcome? 

• What’s the problem state? 

• What do we need to articulate so we can move forward? 

It’s about translating these things over time to make them happen. 

You have 2 different niches, and the special sauce of Terry applies to both problems. But how do you manage them? Do you use separate channels or not? 

Terry: The way I market them evolved over time. When I first started, I tried to do them all under the same brand, Sunstone Associates. But I realized that it could create some confusion. 

What I’ve done is that I reserved Sunstone Associates for the telecommunications side. And then, I work with a partnering group called Mastery Partners, where I do the exit planning work. All the branding, messaging, and approaches for exit planning are there, dedicated to just that. 

The other thing that I love when working with Mastery Partners is that most of them are former business owners who already sat in the chair and have different perspectives. I think that’s valuable for my clients. 

The beauty of doing that is you avoid the confusion in the marketplace. And it has worked well. 

By having those partnership groups, along with the skills and resources they bring, it’s basically a multiplier that allows me to still spend a lot of time on the telecommunications side. 

You invested time in getting a certification in planning. Is it something you’d also recommend to others thinking about an independent route? 

Terry: Yes and no. I don’t think there’s value in the context that business owners don’t know what my SEPA designation means. But in terms of connecting to a community of other people similar to me and learning a process that others have tried and worked on, I think it was very valuable. 

Going back to exit planning, what brought me to it is a job I had on the telecommunications side. I had a client call me and say we need to perform a financial budget because they’re trying to sell the business. 

The buyers didn’t understand that part of the business, so I asked my client to tell me about that part. The conversation continued and we found out that they don’t need a financial budget because that’s what’s holding up the transaction.  

So, I went to the meeting with them. The original owners tried to sell it multiple times, but it was never working. From there, it became obvious for someone like us to go in and tell them about the issues that need to be addressed. 

That led me to realize that there must be somebody who can help the business owners with that kind of exit planning. They don’t need someone who walks in saying “I want to sell your business.” Instead, these owners need someone who just says “What do you want to do? Let me help you get there.” 

It led me to all the research and the different organizations around exit planning. I work at the Exit Planning Institute. I like the approach because it made a lot of sense coming from a consulting background. 

It assesses where you are and uses opinions of value, then correlates those with different factors in the business. They tell you “These pieces are more important than others so let’s fix those first.” You also get to create a plan, execute it, and put it on a quarterly. 

This is every business project I worked on in management consulting, just on a smaller scale. 

That’s what really led me into exit planning. After getting the learning and designation, my next questions were: 

• How do I sell? 

• How do I get a market? 

• How do I find exactly where my niche is?  

And all that needs experimentation. 

Let’s go back to the telecommunications corner. What are you doing with it? 

Terry: This has been a labor of love, and it has evolved over time. I sat down and wrote a Vivid Vision for my business – I decided that one of the elements was going to be a newsletter. 

I wanted to come up with topics that are relevant. I have a different take because I was on the inside and I understand the motivations, which not everybody does. I also understand the tech just enough. 

At first, I just wrote emails, but they didn’t go anywhere. The beauty of LinkedIn is that you set up a newsletter and people sign up for it. It goes to their email every time you publish. 

And so, I went forward with the idea of doing something every week. Every Friday, I have that moment where I think “What am I going to write about this week?” I quickly go through the news articles; sometimes, I see a piece and think people need to know more about it. 

It’s not just about the big news either because those are well-covered already. Sometimes, I write about things that are interesting or might influence people who don’t understand it enough. 

I’ll normally go through and say “First, here’s how it came about, and here’s why it’s important. If you care about this topic, here are some ways you should think about it.” 

And I used that to build more brand presence and engage my several hundred followers, some of whom are in my target client set now. It opens conversations, makes me an expert, and allows me to sell back into the market. 

It's been a lot of fun and I’m sure it’s very similar to the things you do. 

And I really write them myself. I have a social media manager and she’s fantastic. But what we’ve discovered is that some topics are difficult. You could use ChatGPT, but you’re not going to get the way I look at it. So, I told her I’ll do it; but she needs to make it prettier and get my English fixed. She takes care of all that stuff.  

The other thing I do is that I look through my subscribers each week and find new ones. I send them a little message to say “Thanks, great connecting with you. If there’s anything I can do to help you, either me or my network, I hope you’ll reach out. If you have any feedback, I’d love any thoughts.”  

And some people respond to that.  

Are you looking to grow your business or do you feel like you’re in a good state for what you want to do in your life right now? 

Terry: I’m always trying to grow. I’m only 3 and a half years in. And although I had a great last year, I didn’t make as much as I did when I was in corporate. I’m still on that curve, but every year has been better. I think a lot of that success is about getting that offer well, and then down to repeatable selling. But it’s been a fun ride so far. 

If you go back 3 to 4 years from now, what advice would you give yourself? 

Terry: Two things – first is do it, don’t question it. And second, get a coach early. 

I found an amazing coach, but I found her along the way. If I met her a year earlier, I probably could have accelerated six months or a year’s worth of progress in terms of ramping up. There’s just something magical about somebody who’s been there and done that before. 

And you learn a lot from that. They tell you things like, here’s how to price, what value proposition means, what to say during a pitch. Because those are things that we don’t naturally know, unless you’re just talented at marketing. 

The other thing you need to think about when niching down is picking a direction. It doesn’t always have to be narrow. You can pick an industry, a specific function, or just try two or three different things. Don’t feel like you have to be pigeonholed on one thing. 

What Can We Learn from Terry Chevalier: 

1. Transitions can last up to 3 years. Terry’s journey started with a desire to explore more potential. Like other consultants he connected with, it took about 3 years to gain financial stability and brand recognition with his own practice.  

2. Identify and highlight your unique value. Clearly identifying the problem you solve and the value you bring to clients is the most important thing. It helps you distinguish yourself in the crowded consulting market.  

3. Finding your niche is a process. Niching down is a common advice that many consultants find difficult to follow. Your first few clients might be different from each other, but as patterns emerge, you can identify areas where you excel.   

4. Invest in mentorship early. Terry believes that finding a mentor early in your career can accelerate your progress. Coaches provide insights into things that might not be essential to the problems you solve, but important for surfacing work as an indie consultant.  

5. Be consistent in engaging your audience. Terry publishes a weekly newsletter and a personal outreach to new subscribers to actively build his brand and expand his connections.  

Landing an Airplane From a Moving Car

Hey consultants, does your job feel like this? 

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