To Niche or Not to Niche

is the question, and Marketing is the Answer for Life Coaching, Business Coaching and any kind of Coaching

By Coach Rachelle Disbennett Lee, PhD

Back in the day (mid 90’s), when Life Coaching was brand new on the scene, the concept of picking a niche wasn’t talked about. In fact, the founder of Coach University, Thomas Leonard, would often say, “You are just a Coach.” The idea was that as a coach you could coach anyone, anywhere, on any subject. Thomas preached that you didn’t have to be an expert in your client’s field, or really know anything about it at all. As a coach, you were there to simply help your client find the answers. I still agree with this philosophy. I believe that you don’t have to be an expert in the area you are coaching and that all coaching gets personal regardless if you are coaching a CEO or an entrepreneur. However, no matter how good a coach you are, if no one knows about you who cares? Picking a niche has nothing to do with whom you coach. It has everything to do with to whom you market. You may be able to coach anyone anywhere, but marketing to them becomes a whole different ballgame.

According to marketing experts, “The marketing is more important than the mastery.” Your number one job as a coach is not to coach, it is to market your coaching practice. Without making marketing the priority you might as well forget about having the opportunity to coach. You have to get the clients through the door and marketing is the way to do that. You have to market to get clients. It is impossible to market to the world. You have to narrow it down, and that is where a niche comes in handy. It helps you to segment the population so that you can focus your time, energy and money on a specific group of people. That makes your marketing more focused and effective.

Don’t go getting squeamish on me saying, “But won’t I miss out on a lot of other people I could coach that just don’t fit into that market niche.” Not necessarily. When someone comes to me for coaching that isn’t part of my target market I don’t say, “Oh! I can’t coach you. You’re not part of my target market.” Come on in. I paid nothing to get you (I don’t say that to the client just to myself). Your clients in your target market will refer you to clients outside of your market, and if you decide to coach that person that is fine. What creating a niche does for you is focus your efforts to make them more effective. It actually extends your reach.

A full 80% of what you do as a coach is market, especially as a new coach. There are lots of ways to market, so you won’t have any trouble finding ways that fit your personality, time, and budget. In The Ultimate Guide to Coaching for Fun and Money, we provide a step-by-step marketing plan template to help you create your own strategy for marketing effectively. What stops so many coaches in their tracks is realizing that marketing is such a big part of what they will be doing. I once had a newer coach say to me, “If I knew I was going to have to do so much marketing, I would never have become a coach.” I am not sure who this new coach thought was going to do the marketing since most coaches don’t have a budget to hire someone and actually, in the beginning, you need to design your own marketing strategies, so that you know they fit with what you are trying to create in your business.

In The Ultimate Guide to Coaching for Fun and Money, my co-author, Kathleen Bren, and I go into the process of finding a niche. One of the best places to start is with something you like or an area you know a lot about. There really is no right or wrong way to select a niche; you just need to do it. Once you have your niche you can begin to target market to that niche and focus your efforts on building your coaching practice in that area.

Rachelle Disbennett Lee, PhD is the co-author of The Ultimate Guide to Coaching for Fun and Money. Coach Lee has been running a successful international coaching practice since 1996. She is the author of the popular e-zine, “365 Days of Coaching” and has written several personal development books. To obtain your copy of The Ultimate Guide to Coaching for Fun and Money go to www.readysetcoach.com.