Niche, Target Market and Health Coach Success: Clearing The Confusion To Get Focused, Confident and Productive
What Is A Niche?
Niche:
a. A situation or activity specially suited to a person’s interests, abilities, or nature
b. A special area of demand for a product or service
Why Do I Need A Niche?
Successful health coaches develop two foundation characteristics:
1. The ability to focus
2. The ability to persist
“Say no to the 1,000 things to say yes to the 1 thing that is important.”
– Steve Jobs
A niche provides you with focus. That is all. There is no more magic or mystery to it than that. Then you take persistent and consistent action. It is not easy, but nothing worth doing is. Think about it… raising children, writing a book, building a house, etc.
But health coaches have a hard time with niches.
Too many niches, not enough time.
Your health coaching practice is like a lighthouse. You stand tall and shine your light and your clients can navigate by your presence.
However, if you keep moving around… raw food expert for teens… cooking class teacher for baby boomers… goal-setting coach for 30-something women… people are going to crash! The lighthouse keeps moving!
I know you are excited. I know you want to serve a lot of people. You can. Just not all at once.
So how do you choose a niche?
A Tale of Two Health Coaches
Amy just graduated. She resists the status qua and wants to blaze her own trail. She just turned 30 this year, and is finally ready to play big.
Jennifer graduated a year ago, but has been putting off the development of her business until she could go to half time in her corporate job. With her 49th birthday coming up, she sees this as her second career.
Amy has a crazy idea for a raw food private chef business, but doesn’t know anyone that has ever done anything like it.
Jennifer wants to follow a predictable business plan for success; it could be the plan the school laid out for her, but doesn’t know where to start or if this is best.
What are they to do? Do they need the same support? Should they use the same approach?
Too many cooks in the kitchen of your mind.
Both women have been watching videos, reading books and getting advice about building a business and narrowing their niche. But this has left them confused, stuck, frustrated.
It is like making soup mixing curry and Italian seasoning. Awful. Contradictory information isn’t sitting well. So how do they figure this out so thy can get focused?
The first step to take is to resolve the major conflict in developing your niche. Is it internally or externally driven?
Resolving Your Conflict About Niches
Start with the two definitions. This is where the confusion starts.
Definition #1. A situation or activity specially suited to a person’s interests, abilities, or nature – a business built around you.
This option comes from inspired teachers that tap into the deep spiritual nature of life and rightly assert that you can access this Divine Spark and allow it to flow through your business.
This is all about creating a niche around you. You become a groundbreaker. And some people are inherently geared to operate this way.
I call this an internally oriented process for developing a focus in your business.
Definition #2: . A special area of demand for a product or service – build your business around market demand.
This option is full of great advice about market research, competitive analysis and engaged dialogue with your potential clients.
Often times high achiever, type A, goal-oriented people with natural leadership ability adopt this approach for the predictability and certainty of results.
Other health coaches appreciate that you can be laid back, follow the formula and get results.
I call this the externally oriented process for developing focus in your business.
Which Way Is Better?
Instead of thinking either/or, it is much more favorable to think of both/and. Look at these two perspectives as existing on a spectrum. You will use both approaches.
On the left side is the groundbreaking, creative, internally located motivation and on the right side you have the research driven, formulaic approach.
So the question is not, which one should I do? The better question is; Where am I on the spectrum?
In our example at the outset of this article, Amy represents a primarily internally driven groundbreaker. Jennifer is an example of mostly externally driven leader.
However, Amy went on to develop a business plan, do market research and adapt her concept to meet the demands of the clients she attracted. She is now in her third year of business with a restaurant.
And Jennifer sill took the time to look at her unique gifts, so she could match them with a market that she found to be highly profitable; working with holistic beauty and anti-aging for baby boomer women.
So let’s recap.
Most health coaches need to focus. The biggest challenges for health coaches are:
1. A Focus To Their Business
2. To Learn Persistence
Identifying your internal and external drivers for a niche is the best way to get focused. Once you are focused, you take consistent and persistent action. Then you get results. It is simple. Not always easy. But you can do it.
