Discover Your Niche

Hi fellow Coaches! It’s Sierra Ray, Business Coach with BusinessCoach.com. I decided to write a blog that I felt to be useful to anyone who has asked themselves, “Where do I go to build a Client Base?”. Hopefully, that should be all of us!
 
There is a great opportunity in today’s market-place as new and experienced Business Coaches, to find clients that need our services. So great, in fact, that in Dec 2005 The Economist stated, “The Executive and Business coaching industry is growing by about 40% a year."   
 
What a great opportunity…which can lead to overwhelm when building your client base!
 
As a Business Coach who has embarked upon the process of determining the Five W’s (Who, What, When, Where, Why?) of building my client base, I realized that the ‘do it all for everyone with a business license’ approach would be counter-productive to generating a client base with precise intention.    Just deciding to choose Business, Executive or Life & Personal Coaching wasn’t enough of a direction…I needed more focus. Who was I going to talk to about my business? What would be the right questions to ask and how would I know if I had a captive audience? This is exactly what lead me to BusinessCoach.com where I am a Business Coach today.
 
At one integral point in this process I realized that I was ignoring an important asset I already possessed. It was what I ALREADY KNEW! I had just transitioned from an industry where I had years of reputable success prior to becoming a Business Coach. I have ‘insider information’ that would prove useful in answering those elusive Five W’s I was struggling with before. And…before I knew it, POOF! I had a Niche. I suddenly knew the ‘Who’s’ I needed to talk to, and I had insider information on the ‘When’s, Where’s and Why’s’ my coaching services would be beneficial. Not to mention the captive audience I didn’t need to go searching for - they were there all along. I now had my intentional focus for success.
 
Here are some questions to help you determine what may be a niche for you:
  1. What are you passionate about?
  2. What previous work/career experience could you use your expertise in?
  3. What types of people do you like working with?
  4. Do you prefer Corporate Environments, Start-Ups, Small to Mid size Company’s?
 
I’d like to generate a conversation around what others have found to be useful in determining a Coaching niche. What is your niche? How did you discover it? Did you find it useful in generating a more authentic approach to building your business? 

Comments

Claudia Sampson | Email | July 2, 2008 | 7:05PM
I am passionate about helping people find pathways to success whether it's going back to achool to get an MBA or pursuing their lifelong dream of starting a business. I have worked for over 20 years in a number of industries including banking, insurance brokerage, professional services, academia, and non-profit consulting. With a penchant for identifying what motivates and demotivates people as well as pointing out career derailers and blind spots to my clients, I have been able to build a stong business based on referrals from former colleagues, friends, and satisfied clients. My niche is MBA coaching and business consulting for those not looking to go to business school but yet want to have more satisfying and rewarding careers. I enjoy working with all types of people as long as they are authentic and willing to listen with an open mind. I don't limit myself to any one particular environment because I have worked in diverse environments such as Corporate, start-ups, small to mid-size companies. You name it, I've been there and done it. There are few people with my eclectic range of experience and career changes. I feel blessed to be able to share my lessons learned with my clients who respect and honor my opinions.
Linda Schneider | Email | October 10, 2008 | 12:04PM
When I started coaching Realtors, the real estate coaching field was crowded already. So I decided to start with a very narrow focus. I have a long history of designing leadership, management, and sales skills training, with many years of emphasis in real estate training and on the psychology of self-leadership. I knew that thousands of Realtors entered the business every year with no hope of making it. And I knew why. With that, I chose to focus on real estate business habits, in particular how to be a salesperson when you don't like salespeople, and how to manage yourself when you're self-indulgent--the two biggest reasons for failure. My advice to new coaches, then, is narrow the niche to a pin-point. You can widen it later. That's how it's worked for me.
Susan Denham | Email | URL | August 2, 2009 | 8:08AM
I'm not a coach, but I'm going to chime in here, anyway. I started a transcription business by simply offering to help out a friend who needed some typing done for one of her products. That friend is a business coach.

Then, I decided to do more transcriptions. The work I was getting was NOT enjoyable, unless it was a referral from my business coach friend. That's how I discovered that I prefer to work with coaches, and my laser targeted niche.

Now, I've changed my marketing, I am "The Coaches Transcriptionist, The Transcriptionator"

The clients I'm getting now are more fun to work with, the work is GREAT, and my clients are producing products that I am passionate about offering to the public.

It would be so easy to say "I'll type up anything you can throw at me." But the truth is, there are some people that I don't want to work with, and culling and growing my ideal customers has made my business a pleasure, more like fun than work.
Lea | Email | URL | October 28, 2009 | 11:33AM
Hi Sierra, thanks for sharing the five questions for determining the niches we are in lined to. Every person could use them in identifying some goals and things we want to have results. It's like a guide questions.

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