Ep.7/ Find Your Niche And Connect With Your Ideal Clients
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Whenever I start working with clients, one of the first questions is finding their niche. Many people are stuck around this for a long time, and this question keeps them paralyzed - they believe that they cannot market their business because of this uncertainty.
Even when your business has been running for a few years - I hear you say that you're not confident about your niche and that you're seeking this validation.
Today, my goal is to help you let go of some of the pressure so that this doesn't hold you back anymore. And I'm also going to share a little bit about my perspective on this.
A niche is dynamic. No matter where you are in your business, you'll find something for your business in today's episode.
What’s a niche?
A niche is a sweet spot between what you’re good at, your passions, and what people need.
So how to find your niche?
Take action, because action neutralizes fear.
A niche is not set in stone - it’s dynamic - so it will evolve- you will pivot. Let’s just give ourselves permission to do that and say that it is a given.
Amy Porterfield is a huge celebrity in the online marketing world, she’s known to help digital course creators create webinars and digital courses. But she actually started with Facebook ads, teaching all kinds of businesses from brick and mortar businesses to Etsy shop owners. And then over the years, her niche changed - she broadened from FB ads to webinars, ad list building, and today, she’s teaching online course creation.
This didn’t happen overnight but over years.
If you’re afraid to make a mistake with your niche- what is the worst thing that could happen? In the online world, the set up costs are minimal so your business model is flexible.. So what would you lose to pivot? Few hundred dollars, and time...and then what?
If you have a brick and mortar business - the risks are much higher! It’s harder to pivot. Let’s say you’re launching a wellness center, and one of your biggest spaces is designed to be a foot reflexology lounge as you want to position yourself as such. This was a real story with a client. I suggested she build her space for maximum flexibility, so that the space and furniture can be converted for multiple purposes.
So basically, if you change your niche - you can survive! Your business will survive.
Start your business, start working with your clients
Because starting somewhere will get you somewhere, whereas not starting, will get you nowhere.
My experience with niching
After running my brick and mortar day spa and wellness center for a decade, I decided to design websites for wellness businesses. As I had my first projects, I felt that I was not utilizing all my potential and I had a calling to teach it rather than do it for my clients.
So I started teaching it. I was very focused on marketing, SEO, and techy things.
And then I learned what my clients needed the most - and it was strategy and the ability to see the bigger picture.
So as I up leveled my skills, I expanded my offering to business coaching with a holistic approach. This didn’t happen overnight either.
I used to only work with wellness business owners because it was my comfort zone, but today, I can say that my ideal clients are service-based, impact-driven entrepreneurs such as the modern educators, coaches, creatives, health and wellness professionals, and consultants.
If my first client was a coach for example and not a wellness business owner, I would have felt intimidated. I'm glad that I did this gradually.
I know that some people may stay for decades in the same niche - because they are very passionate about this and it’s their zone of genius. And if you stay in your niche ong enough, the chances of you becoming recognized as an authority in this field will be much higher, and you will grow faster.
But for me, I consider myself as multi passionate. I know that I need to be exposed to situations where I feel challenged and pushed out of my comfort zone, to thrive. I strongly believe that we can learn from other industries, and change is healthy- otherwise I’ll end up seeing things with only the same set of eyes.
Although I’m focusing right now on entrepreneurs who are at the very beginning of their journey- I’m helping them build solid foundations for a long-lasting sustainable business, I’m bound to expand and create new programs for my clients at different stages of their business and life. Because I'm actively upleveling my skills, investing in my education, learning from my past experience with clients.
So basically why am I sharing this? To say that if you start, you’ll get closer to your niche. you learn more about who you like to work with, what excites you, what type of clients you don’t want to work with - what kind of tasks repel you- You’ll feel those aha-moments as you connect with your clients.
If niching intimidates you, create a “buyer persona”
A buyer’s person is a representation of your target customer - like a picture you paint of your actual client. And you can have several buyer personas for your niche.
So suppose that you were to serve stressed white collar female workers by offering online mindfulness and self care education. Your niche can have several personas:
Example of a buyer persona:
Migrainy Sophie
Sophie is a very social, hardworking, charismatic lady in her mid-thirties. She’s a mid-level manager in a large consumer products company. She drives a lot to meet with her clients and negotiate placements for her products in retail stores. Most of her meals are outside with colleagues, team, clients. In order to stay competitive she works every day overtime. She started to experience chronic migraines and insomnia about a year ago -and started to work on sustainable solutions to create a healthier lifestyle.
Mom Mary
Mary is married, have one 8-months young baby. She works at a kitchen equipment corporation. She drops her baby off at the company’s day care center every morning and then works until 6. She has a comfortable life, with good income, has a full time helper at home. Mary is in her 40’s and she’s interested in connecting with herself in a more intimate way. She’s curious about mindfulness. After giving birth, she has let self care in the back seat, but now she’s ready to give it a bigger priority in her life.
Both Mary and Sophie will need mindfulness- but the way to connect with them will be different. The program content may even be different. If you want to be bespoke.
So this is the kind of exercise we do when we are crafting a buyer’s persona.
Whenever you are creating your content or your programs, or designing your services you can do this with this buyer’s persona in mind - it will be more effective than taking a shot in the dark and hoping this will stick.
I encourage you to get on a call with your ideal buyer and ask questions about their lifestyle, pain points, and explore what kind of solutions they would need. Don’t assume that you know all the answers - that is one of the biggest mistakes I see businesses do. Thinking that other people will think like you, and making your decisions based on your perspective only.
I regularly survey my audience through short calls, surveys, and polls. IG stories are great for this!
Conclusion
Here you have it, my 3 points today were:
A niche is not set in stone- it will evolve with you. Don’t be afraid to pivot.
Start working with clients, you will get you closer to finding your niche than staying in decision paralysis - don’t overthink!
One of the actions you could take now, is to create a buyer’s person, and get on a call with them, to learn more about them. To know them intimately!
If I can summarize this in one message-don’t be thinking alone... take action, and open a dialogue. This will get you moving and give you confidence and momentum.
You may be interested in…
3 Reasons Why You Need To Pick a Niche For Your Personal Brand (blog)
Call to action
If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into this subject - I’m releasing an 80-page ebook where I will coach you through all the steps of nailing your niche, through clarifying questions, fill -in the-blanks, and case studies like the ones I shared today.
You’ll also access a 5-step validation formula to make sure that you found your sweet spot and evaluate your idea’s market viability.
This is perfect if you want to find your niche or perhaps you’re researching your business purpose and need support to think through it.
