Why Niching Doesn't Work for Most Helping Professionals

Are you making yourself NUTS with all this niche stuff?

Niching is the mantra for the business world, and for good reason, but if it is so important and so widely discussed, why is it so difficult for many helping professionals to nail it? I figured out why. For many service-centered, heart-based business owners, niching doesn't work, but mostly it doesn't feel authentic and service based.

One of the biggest avoidable mistakes helping professionals make is obsessing over niche and not looking at WHO NEEDS YOU MOST! The marketers are right, you do need to find your "tribe" and narrow in on a group, but the niche obsession can ACTUALLY keep you from getting clients. I know. I, too, have been niche phobic. However, when I discovered WHO NEEDS ME MOST, my business grew to six figures. Let's not belabor what I bet you already know (that a narrow market will serve you well) and instead look at WHY discovering WHO NEEDS YOU MOST will make growing your business so much easier. If you are still in search of that evasive niche, this just might inspire you to look at things differently.

Here are three ways finding your tribe will make your life easier.

(1) Saves you time. When you know the people you can serve to the greatest good, it cuts out the "I wonder" factor and you can immediately test that community, reach them and show up where they are quickly. Saving time is the most productive way to be successful. There are only so many hours in a day, and if you are scrambling to figure out where your clients might be hanging out (or hiding) then your time is not being used wisely and your business is not running efficiently.

Coaching inspiration: A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life. (Charles Darwin)

(2) Saves you money. You can't get consistent results if you don't know your audience and know your gifts. If you are trying to serve everyone, you will have to cover every media outlet, periodical and venue there is, but if your audience is specific and focused, you know exactly where to place your marketing dollars and get the most bang for your buck--literally.

Coaching inspiration: Spend money on things that deeply matter...your family, your friends, the community, inspiring your clients. Don't waste money on indecisiveness. You have better ways to use your wealth.

(3) Saves you effort. There is an enormous amount of energy and effort in playing hide and seek. But mostly, there's a lot of guesswork. That's exactly what happens when you don't identify WHO NEEDS YOU MOST. You work from a place of guessing as to what your next best move will be.

Once you start saving money, time and effort in your business, growth takes place in quantum leaps.

(c) 2009 Suzanne Evans