14 | 5 Steps to Find a Profitable Niche

Speaker: 00:00:00

Hello and welcome to Women in the Coaching Arena podcast.

Speaker: 00:00:04

I'm so glad you are here.

Speaker: 00:00:06

I'm Jo Lott, a business mentor and ICF accredited coach, and I'm on a

Speaker: 00:00:10

mission to help brilliant coaches build brilliant coaching businesses.

Speaker: 00:00:16

In this podcast, I'll be sharing honest, not hype, practical and

Speaker: 00:00:19

emotional tools to support you to make the difference that you are here for.

Speaker: 00:00:28

Hello and welcome to episode 14 of Women in the Coaching Arena.

Speaker: 00:00:32

I'm so glad you're here.

Speaker: 00:00:34

I'm your host Joanna Lott, and today we are diving into a hot topic.

Speaker: 00:00:39

The topic that I'm probably trying to avoid much of the time as it's the

Speaker: 00:00:45

one that makes most people go around in circles again and again and again.

Speaker: 00:00:50

So let's dive into profitable niches for coaches.

Speaker: 00:00:55

So in this episode, we are going to explore what is a niche, why

Speaker: 00:01:00

it matters, and how to find a profitable one that aligns with

Speaker: 00:01:04

you, your skills, your passion.

Speaker: 00:01:06

Before we dive into profitable niches, let's first talk about what is a niche

Speaker: 00:01:13

and why is it important for your business?

Speaker: 00:01:16

And it's probably one of the most Googled questions of all coaches.

Speaker: 00:01:20

Do I need to niche?

Speaker: 00:01:22

I've Googled it many times myself when I was in training and everyone kept

Speaker: 00:01:26

saying, oh, afterwards, you'll need to niche, and I really didn't want to.

Speaker: 00:01:29

I'll share what I believe will really help you to grow your business,

Speaker: 00:01:34

because that is the whole point of the work I do and this podcast.

Speaker: 00:01:38

So a niche is a specific target market or well-defined segment of people.

Speaker: 00:01:46

Or segment of problem or outcome that these people want.

Speaker: 00:01:51

By narrowing down your focus to a specific group of people who have a

Speaker: 00:01:58

specific problem, who want a specific outcome, you can position yourself as

Speaker: 00:02:03

an expert and be able to attract clients who are actively seeking solutions.

Speaker: 00:02:10

So it's worth saying that sadly, nobody is seeking coaching.

Speaker: 00:02:16

Most of us are seeking solutions to our greatest challenges and that is why

Speaker: 00:02:23

finding a profitable niche is so crucial.

Speaker: 00:02:27

It helps you to stand out in a crowded coaching market, and the market has

Speaker: 00:02:31

increased by 407% in the last two years.

Speaker: 00:02:37

That's the study I've done personally on LinkedIn.

Speaker: 00:02:40

So in December, 2020, when I did a search on the word coach on LinkedIn,

Speaker: 00:02:46

it came up with 1.6 million results.

Speaker: 00:02:50

So 1.6 million coaches were listed as a coach on LinkedIn in 2020.

Speaker: 00:02:57

And by two years later, we are now up to over 8 million coaches listed on LinkedIn.

Speaker: 00:03:06

So it's a 407% growth in two years.

Speaker: 00:03:10

And I think another important thing to note here is that we

Speaker: 00:03:14

are operating in a global market.

Speaker: 00:03:16

So if you want to gain help on emotional eating, or if you want

Speaker: 00:03:22

to gain help growing your business or getting that next promotion,

Speaker: 00:03:27

you can get exactly what you want.

Speaker: 00:03:29

So you can put in the search bar exactly what you want and find somebody.

Speaker: 00:03:34

So it's not like it was before Covid, where generally you would just work

Speaker: 00:03:38

with people that were local to you and you would meet them in person.

Speaker: 00:03:41

So that's another reason why it's exciting for you to be able to put a stake in the

Speaker: 00:03:47

ground and become an expert in your thing.

Speaker: 00:03:51

It will enable you to increase your visibility and have really good focus.

Speaker: 00:03:57

Because what I've found in working with 40 or so coaches in the last 12

Speaker: 00:04:02

months alone is that as soon as they nail their niche, then they can do

Speaker: 00:04:07

their marketing and they are really actively growing their business.

Speaker: 00:04:11

Whereas if they are in this moment of like, I'm not really sure

Speaker: 00:04:15

what I'm talking about today.

Speaker: 00:04:16

I'm not really sure who I'm speaking to, what I'm gonna say.

Speaker: 00:04:19

Then often you say nothing and then you are not visible, therefore,

Speaker: 00:04:23

you're not gaining clients.

Speaker: 00:04:25

So nicheing half the time is actually a huge benefit for you as a coach to

Speaker: 00:04:30

really narrow your focus and go all in and grow your business really quickly.

Speaker: 00:04:35

Niching will also allow you to build a signature coaching offer so you can

Speaker: 00:04:40

listen to episode 10 of this podcast if you haven't already on how to

Speaker: 00:04:45

create a signature coaching program.

Speaker: 00:04:47

And you can only really create that program if you have a really.

Speaker: 00:04:50

Good defined niche.

Speaker: 00:04:52

And the benefit to creating a program is that you can charge higher prices for

Speaker: 00:04:57

your coaching and you can actually sell coaching because if you have been trying

Speaker: 00:05:03

to sell sessions of coaching, you may be finding that challenging, which is why I

Speaker: 00:05:08

suggest really honing in on who you serve and how, and that will really help you

Speaker: 00:05:14

to actually make money in your business.

Speaker: 00:05:17

So let's get started on our five steps to discover your profitable

Speaker: 00:05:21

niche for your own coaching business.

Speaker: 00:05:23

And if you already have a niche, or if you think you already have a niche,

Speaker: 00:05:27

because most people that have calls of me are like, yeah, that's fine.

Speaker: 00:05:31

I've got my niche and as soon as I hear it, I think, ah,

Speaker: 00:05:33

that's not really a niche.

Speaker: 00:05:35

So no matter how long you've been in business there is always growth we can

Speaker: 00:05:39

do in defining who we help and how, and it is one of the greatest indicators

Speaker: 00:05:46

of your future business success.

Speaker: 00:05:48

So this will be super helpful for you whether you are brand new

Speaker: 00:05:53

and nicheing now, or whether you have been in business for years.

Speaker: 00:05:56

Step one, start by reflecting on your passions, skills, and interests.

Speaker: 00:06:01

So what topics could you talk about all day?

Speaker: 00:06:05

When you need to start marketing your business, you will need to

Speaker: 00:06:07

talk about this topic quite a lot.

Speaker: 00:06:09

So you want to make sure it's something that you absolutely love talking about,

Speaker: 00:06:13

which is why I've niche down to business because it's something I am super

Speaker: 00:06:17

passionate about helping people with.

Speaker: 00:06:20

Another thing I do in my program is take people through a full life reflection.

Speaker: 00:06:25

I think it really helps to go through your full life and that will really help

Speaker: 00:06:30

you to see who you are called to help.

Speaker: 00:06:33

So have a think about your background, education, previous work experience, and

Speaker: 00:06:39

also things like what really riles you.

Speaker: 00:06:43

So for me, for example, it was the fact that there were very few kind,

Speaker: 00:06:48

honest, genuine people helping coaches to actually build their business.

Speaker: 00:06:53

And the amount of coaches that give up in the first year, I think is 84% of

Speaker: 00:06:58

coaches give up in the first year of their business it continues to drop off

Speaker: 00:07:03

around years two and three because there is such a limited level of awareness

Speaker: 00:07:09

of what it takes to build a business.

Speaker: 00:07:12

And I want to fill that void between this exciting moment of training

Speaker: 00:07:17

to become a coach and then the less exciting moment of now what, how do

Speaker: 00:07:23

I actually make this work for me?

Speaker: 00:07:25

So it was kind of that fury or that anger at this ridiculous stuff that

Speaker: 00:07:31

we hear day in, day out about how easy it is to build a six figure business.

Speaker: 00:07:37

And I want to take a stand against that and show you how to do it in an

Speaker: 00:07:42

honest, normal way that is not gonna blame you when it all goes wrong.

Speaker: 00:07:48

So now you have thought about your areas of excitement, passion, expertise.

Speaker: 00:07:56

You can lay that foundation for a profitable niche that

Speaker: 00:07:59

aligns with your expertise.

Speaker: 00:08:01

And sometimes when you start.

Speaker: 00:08:05

You might want to go completely off piste and think, I want nothing to do

Speaker: 00:08:09

with the industry I used to work in.

Speaker: 00:08:12

And it depends on your priorities.

Speaker: 00:08:13

So for example, if you need to make money from coaching quickly, then I would to

Speaker: 00:08:19

be honest, go all in on the area that you can immediately start monetising.

Speaker: 00:08:27

Whereas if you know you have the time, the space, the capacity to completely reinvent

Speaker: 00:08:33

yourself and go all in on a niche that you really want to work with, then do that.

Speaker: 00:08:38

It depends on your personal needs and desires at that moment.

Speaker: 00:08:44

So step one was reflect on your passions and skills.

Speaker: 00:08:48

Let's move on to step two, which is research market demand.

Speaker: 00:08:52

And this is something that is often missed and people I speak to on discovery calls

Speaker: 00:08:58

can be staying behind the scenes for weeks and weeks and months and months, even

Speaker: 00:09:04

creating their niche and their offer.

Speaker: 00:09:07

And what I like to do with those who work with me is within the first three weeks

Speaker: 00:09:12

we are getting out there and sharing your niche and your offer to see if there is

Speaker: 00:09:17

actually demand for it, because sadly what happens is a lot of us want to

Speaker: 00:09:22

save our previous self, but our previous self maybe didn't seek out support, and

Speaker: 00:09:28

therefore, maybe all of these people who are currently experiencing that

Speaker: 00:09:32

problem are also not seeking out support.

Speaker: 00:09:35

So it's super sad that most people, for example, get to

Speaker: 00:09:40

burnout without seeking support.

Speaker: 00:09:43

But if that's a fact.

Speaker: 00:09:45

If those people are not actively seeking support, you might struggle to create a

Speaker: 00:09:49

profitable niche out of something that people are so busy in and so all consumed

Speaker: 00:09:56

by that they are not going to take that time out to really stop this happening.

Speaker: 00:10:01

You can explore online Facebook groups, social media groups, industry publications

Speaker: 00:10:08

to gauge the level of interest and engagement in your chosen niche.

Speaker: 00:10:13

If you, for example, put a request out for market research and get no

Speaker: 00:10:17

enquiries back, even though you might be offering these calls for free, then

Speaker: 00:10:22

that might be an indication that sadly, there's either something wrong with

Speaker: 00:10:25

the way you've written the message and people haven't kind of understood

Speaker: 00:10:29

it, or the urgency, or there isn't demand for that particular service.

Speaker: 00:10:35

And again, this is something that can keep coaches stuck for a really long time

Speaker: 00:10:40

because, for example, if you are wanting to help people with really good habits.

Speaker: 00:10:45

We know that really good habits are gonna change their life, but unless

Speaker: 00:10:49

it is specific enough, most people are not generally trying to change their

Speaker: 00:10:54

habits or they buy a book for that.

Speaker: 00:10:56

Do they seek out coaching support or do they only seek out coaching

Speaker: 00:11:00

support if it's a very specific habit and you have a very specific offer

Speaker: 00:11:06

promise that they super, super need.

Speaker: 00:11:09

So step three is identify specific challenges or pain points.

Speaker: 00:11:14

Now you have explored the market a little bit with your niche.

Speaker: 00:11:18

We now need to further drill down your chosen niche by identifying

Speaker: 00:11:24

specific pain points that your potential clients might be facing.

Speaker: 00:11:28

Coaching is about providing solutions so by understanding those struggles of

Speaker: 00:11:34

your target audience, you can position yourself as the go-to coach to help

Speaker: 00:11:39

them to overcome these challenges.

Speaker: 00:11:41

Versus what most coaches do is generalise, we start saying...

Speaker: 00:11:45

make you feel incredible.

Speaker: 00:11:48

But if that's not the words that are coming out of your target audience's

Speaker: 00:11:52

mouth, then they're not gonna think, oh, that's what I need, because it's not

Speaker: 00:11:56

what they're saying to their friends.

Speaker: 00:11:57

It's not what they're thinking in their head.

Speaker: 00:11:59

So this is why the step of market research is super important and for my clients,

Speaker: 00:12:06

I provide full text of exactly how to gain market research, exactly what to say

Speaker: 00:12:11

when you get on the call, exactly what you're looking for, because this is a

Speaker: 00:12:15

really crucial part that most people miss.

Speaker: 00:12:18

Moving on to step four.

Speaker: 00:12:20

So we are going to consider how profitable and viable your niche is.

Speaker: 00:12:25

So whilst your passion is essential you may also want to earn a living

Speaker: 00:12:31

with coaching so therefore, we need to evaluate the potential market size.

Speaker: 00:12:37

What competition there is.

Speaker: 00:12:39

The ability of your target audience to invest in coaching services.

Speaker: 00:12:43

Have these people invested before?

Speaker: 00:12:45

Is it the sort of thing that they are prepared to invest in?

Speaker: 00:12:49

A profitable niche will have a balance of demand, willingness

Speaker: 00:12:53

to invest and room for growth.

Speaker: 00:12:56

So whether we like it or not, if we are trying to serve a group

Speaker: 00:13:02

of people that really don't want to help themselves or aren't in a

Speaker: 00:13:07

position to financially invest, then you are highly unlikely to create a

Speaker: 00:13:13

profitable niche out of that group.

Speaker: 00:13:15

So back to your goals.

Speaker: 00:13:17

What's the priority right now?

Speaker: 00:13:19

What do you need to happen and what are you prepared to go all in on?

Speaker: 00:13:25

That is also super important.

Speaker: 00:13:28

You need to be prepared to go all in on whatever decision you make.

Speaker: 00:13:32

Step five, let's test and refine your niche.

Speaker: 00:13:35

So once you've identified a potential niche that meets the criteria of being

Speaker: 00:13:41

profitable and aligns with something that you actually are prepared to go

Speaker: 00:13:45

all in on, it's time to test it out.

Speaker: 00:13:48

So start offering your coaching services to a few clients within that niche.

Speaker: 00:13:54

It will help you so much to gain.

Speaker: 00:13:57

Insights, refine your offering and ensure that you actually enjoy

Speaker: 00:14:01

working with clients in that niche.

Speaker: 00:14:04

A word of encouragement that your niche is not set in stone.

Speaker: 00:14:10

I would say pretty much 99%, your niche is definitely going to

Speaker: 00:14:16

change, so don't keep this kind of perfectionism of choosing something.

Speaker: 00:14:24

So yes, we want to do as much work as we can, and my program is all about

Speaker: 00:14:30

gaining that clarity of your niche, who you are here to serve, what you are

Speaker: 00:14:35

here to offer really, really quickly.

Speaker: 00:14:37

We do that within the first three weeks of the program, and then we

Speaker: 00:14:40

get clients now because when you're on your own, it's super easy to stay

Speaker: 00:14:45

behind the scenes perfecting this thing that nobody perhaps wants.

Speaker: 00:14:51

And that's a really sad thing.

Speaker: 00:14:52

But I've seen it happen many, many times.

Speaker: 00:14:55

So I would always be encouraging people to take action, come back,

Speaker: 00:15:01

share what they learnt with me.

Speaker: 00:15:02

It's all in the nuances and it really does require quite a lot of feedback

Speaker: 00:15:08

because when you're on your own, you are so entrenched in, this is really

Speaker: 00:15:13

important and I need people to...

Speaker: 00:15:17

say prevent burnout.

Speaker: 00:15:19

But if people are not prepared to do something about it, then there's

Speaker: 00:15:24

very little you can do other than keep trying a new marketing message.

Speaker: 00:15:29

So it is a continuous process of learning and adapting to the needs of your clients.

Speaker: 00:15:36

Let's summarize today's episode by finding a niche that aligns with you, meets

Speaker: 00:15:42

market demand and offers profitability.

Speaker: 00:15:45

You can create a thriving coaching business that serves

Speaker: 00:15:48

both you and your clients.

Speaker: 00:15:51

So our steps that we covered today were:

Speaker: 00:15:53

Step one, reflect on your passions and skills.

Speaker: 00:15:57

Step two, research market demand.

Speaker: 00:16:00

Step three, identify the specific pain points these people have.

Speaker: 00:16:05

Step four, consider profitability and viability.

Speaker: 00:16:09

And step five, test and refine your niche.

Speaker: 00:16:12

Follow these steps and then download my free guide on 12 ways to get

Speaker: 00:16:17

clients now, which you can find on my website, joanna lott coaching.com.

Speaker: 00:16:23

So that's Joanna with an A and lott with two tees, joanna lott coaching.com

Speaker: 00:16:30

and I will also link to it in the show notes and hope you get a client quickly.

Speaker: 00:16:35

If you want more help and continuous feedback and support on the journey

Speaker: 00:16:41

of building your business to really fast track your growth and save you

Speaker: 00:16:46

countless years of lots and lots of mistakes that I've seen along the way.

Speaker: 00:16:52

Then do get in touch.

Speaker: 00:16:54

Drop me a message on Joanna joanna lott coaching.com and enquire about

Speaker: 00:17:00

my program, the Business of Coaching.

Speaker: 00:17:02

It will take you on a systematic journey of building a business that

Speaker: 00:17:08

actually gains clients quickly.

Speaker: 00:17:10

I will be encouraging you to get out there and get clients right from

Speaker: 00:17:14

day one and again in week three.

Speaker: 00:17:19

Once you have your niche and your offer, we'll be moving straight out there to get

Speaker: 00:17:24

clients now, so don't think it's a behind the scenes business building course.

Speaker: 00:17:30

It's a get clients now business building course, because you don't have

Speaker: 00:17:34

a business unless you have clients.

Speaker: 00:17:37

So I hope you found this episode useful.

Speaker: 00:17:40

Be sure to subscribe and leave me in review.

Speaker: 00:17:44

I would absolutely love that, and it makes a huge difference

Speaker: 00:17:47

to others finding this podcast.

Speaker: 00:17:50

And remember your journey as a coach is unique.

Speaker: 00:17:53

Finding that profitable niche is just the beginning.

Speaker: 00:17:56

Keep exploring, learning, growing, and realising that building a business is all

Speaker: 00:18:03

in the nuances and all in the refinement.

Speaker: 00:18:06

So make a positive impact on the world, one coaching session at a time.

Speaker: 00:18:11

And like I say at the end of every episode, trust yourself.

Speaker: 00:18:15

Believe in yourself, and be the wise gardener who keeps on watering the seed.

Speaker: 00:18:22

Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone): Thank you so much for listening to this

Speaker: 00:18:24

episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

Speaker: 00:18:27

Please come and say hi to me on LinkedIn or Instagram and let me

Speaker: 00:18:31

know how you are getting on in your coaching business and how you are

Speaker: 00:18:34

gonna go for your dreams this year.

Speaker: 00:18:37

My name on LinkedIn is Joanna Lott and on Instagram is at Joanna Lott Coaching, and

Speaker: 00:18:44

I'll also put links in the show notes.

Speaker: 00:18:47

Let me know if you found this episode useful.

Speaker: 00:18:50

Share it with a friend and leave me a review, and I will

Speaker: 00:18:53

personally thank you for that.

Speaker: 00:18:56

Thank you so much for listening.