When I got off the road as a free-lance musician in 1989, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t have many business skills but I knew I didn’t want to work for someone else.
I knew that if I was going to have any modicum of success, I was going to need help. After a lot of research, I decided that franchising was right for me.
In 1990, I bought shares in 2 TCBY frozen yogurt franchises and wore the many hats required to be a small business owner.
I busied myself waiting on customers, unloading trucks, hiring, firing, local store marketing, training, bookkeeping, and the varied tasks it takes to run a small business. It was a 24/7 – 65 hour week.
Would You Like Sprinkles on That?
In those days, I didn’t have to worry about branding, positioning or what niche I was in. I left that to my Franchisor. All I knew was that my demographic was “women, between the ages of 25 and 46.”
A couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted to do something more fulfilling, so I started my coaching practice and have become like many, a solo-preneur. Hence the birth of Clarity Mind Lifestyle Design brand.
I Needed a Niche
I quickly became aware that if I didn’t hone in on a target market or niche, or as Seth Godin calls it, a Tribe – I would be bound to an endless cycle of coaching clients and marketing to find clients.
I realized that If I could narrowly define a target market and specialize in a group of followers that I could develop a relationship with, my marketing efforts would become easier, more manageable and more importantly – sustainable.
I wanted to start attracting or pulling in clients who resonated with my blogs, newsletters, podcasts and services, because this would allow me more time for doing what I loved -coaching clients.
From a business standpoint, a niche is a target-able focused, portion of a market sector. A niche is a French word and means to make a nest.
My Tribe
Finding your niche or WHO you serve is one of the most important things you can do for your business.
If you can narrowly define the kind of person you’re talking to and the problems they’re having – it will be easier to create programs and products that they want.
The first thing I had to do was figure what big known problem my prospective customer was having.
I asked myself questions like:
- What are they really frustrated with or feeling stuck around?
- What are they unclear or angry about?
- What are they afraid of?
- What keeps them up at night?
- What are their pain points?
I also found out that their problems must be urgent problems, and they must need help now.
More questions:
- Are they easy to find?
- Where they willing to invest their money in my coaching programs?
- Could they see the value in what I offer.
- Do they have a poverty mindset?
What About Outcomes?
I asked myself what were the specific transformation points that my clients will experience after they go through my program?
What was it about my solution and system of delivering transformation would make it different or unique?
I wanted to structure my solution and present it in a format so that my customer would say: “Wow! That’s exactly what I need to solve my problem!”
After answering all these questions, a light went off!
KNOW THYSELF
I realized that my business was about speaking to myself! Ah yes, know thyself. This was the essence of my spiritual path for over 30 years.
All I had to do, was to look at the problems I solved in my life, and then teach people the solution.
I started to realize that business can be a great spiritual path in itself, because in order for you to be successful you have to own up to those dark nights of the soul when things weren’t going so well.
Also, in order for entrepreneurs to be successful, they needed to be self-motivated, self-disciplined, and self-reliant. Notice the word SELF?
I could see myself working with heart-based entrepreneurs who had done the inner work and had a message to share with the world.
Compelling Messaging
One of the goals in finding out your niche, is that you can begin creating compelling messaging.
Finding your niche is crucial for creating your domain name, meta keywords, titles, descriptions and compelling messaging that will pull your client to you and identify what solutions you bring to your client’s problems.
My Latest Messaging
I help creative spiritual entrepreneurs figure out why they show up on the planet and find the courage to follow their dreams by getting in touch with their inborn creativity to devise a heart-based, location-independent lifestyle around what they’re passionate about.
Be prepared to hear about my new niche – any day now. Niches are dynamic – not static.
I’ll re-do my site – change my compelling message – my keywords – my newsletters – my branding – my position in the marketplace and my tribe.
But this I know, I’ll be working on myself first – in that evolution – I’ll become something different – something new – something valuable and so will my business.
