Business Owners: Take A Risk And Niche!

by Maria Marsala

Published on this site: June 10th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

Like most folks, I made some mistakes up front in my business career; two key mistakes were NOT creating a business plan and NOT creating a niche or niches earlier.

Like many folks, I had a "fear" - my "fear" about niching was that folks outside my niche would not become clients. I enjoy doing life coaching (that's where my training from Coach U is), but it's not my niche. I also enjoy career coaching, which is where much of my mentoring background comes from also not my niche. Did I have to give up these two pieces of my practice?

Here's what I learned:
Niching does not mean that I can't accept clients outside my niche. Niching is done to make MY life easier. It's another one of those business tools that is created to help me save money and time. For marketing purposes, for the sake of clarity, for my own health and well being so that I'm not all over the place "chasing" marketing spending dollar after dollar after dollar. Heck, there is more than enough "stuff" for me to do as a business owner.

I remember the first time I went into a networking meeting and introduced myself simply as a "Business Consultant and Coach" who helped "women who own service business and service professionals." I left the "life" off in front of "Coach." I left the word "career" out of the sentence about who I helped.

I was so nervous! And what happened? Well, I survived the meeting, obviously. And, after the meeting, someone asked if I could coach their husband who was in transition between CAREERS! Boy, did that teach me a valuable lesson. And I did gain a short term female client in the service industry from that meeting, too.

Do I ever go out of my niche for meetings or to speak? Yes, although rarely. There are 5 or 6 life topics that I will speak on usually at recovery conferences or for stressed out business owners who are just tired of the same old speakers speaking about business

And even though I have a niche, that doesn't mean that I can't choose to take on clients outside that niche. In fact, 25% of my clients are men and about that percentage also sell products as their main business. I also have 2 career clients in a niche (major transitions) that I enjoy working with.

And even though I've chosen a niche, that doesn't mean that I can't change it, as I have, just this year. I noticed that 40% of my best - ideal clients - clients are men, while 60% are women. That's a big change over 2 years ago. So I decided to "drop" the women service business part of my niche. And that allows to change who I market to; I am no longer looking for the narrow list of organizations that have the word "women" in their name.

What else happens when you really monitor your business and the clients it's brining in? Well, I also noticed that 95% of my clients have or want an Internet presence. Not surprising they're "attracted" to me, since I've had a huge presence for more than 6 years. And since my clients are owners of service businesses, it's more difficult for someone to visit their site and "see" how my clients can help make their lives better. That lead me to make sure that when I introduce myself to my ideal clients or folks who know them, that I make sure to mention that I work with clients to create and promote information products.

Creating a niche has led folks to know me as the NY Coach (I currently live in Washington State, so my accent and attitude stick out just a teensy bit) who helps people get their service business organized by creating systems, business, and marketing plans. Or I'm known as the coach From Wall Street. Heck, I am remembered for something good and that's part of what counts!

What also counts is that my marketing dollars are being spent wisely. It's all much focused and it's easier to monitor my marketing efforts, too. An additional gift of niching? It caused me to write an ebook help my clients create their own Ideal Client Profile and then turn the ebook into classes.

So take a risk - and niche!

Maria Marsala CEOs and Presidents. Former Wall Street Trader. Helping owners of service businesses accelerate your profits and improve productivity - quicker! Resources, teleseminars, consulting and coaching that save owners of Service businesses time and maximize their success. Join "SIMPLE Business Solutions Ezine" to receive your 2 reports now. http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com