In the Beyond One to One Sessions beta group, we have talked a lot about finding a niche. In the group we are talking about a niche for selling information products online. But for both multiple streams of income businesses and for in-person practices, I hear a lot of fear around selecting a niche or specialty to market.
So here are three things to remember when searching for your niche:
- You are not married to this niche.
It is easy to think that picking a niche is a huge decision on par with picking a mate. Truth? You can change your niche whenever you find it isn’t serving you. Many therapists, coaches and healers will change their niche several times. Make sure you give yourself some time with it if you love it, but if you find it isn’t working for you, don’t be afraid to move on.
- Fail quickly and let go.
Some of the fear around picking a niche is that it might not work out – and thus be considered a ‘failure’. Any good business person will tell you that failing is a part of the process. Remember Col. Sanders? I’ve heard that he was turned down over 1,000 times before someone offered to have his chicken in their restaurant. Failure is a part of good business.
While I admire Col. Sanders for sticking with his passion – and what turned out to be a mutli-million dollar business – you simply don’t have to these days if you don’t want to. And in the online world with multiple streams of therapy income, it is easy to quickly test a market before spending many hours creating products. You can fail quickly and inexpensively while moving on to the next best thing for you.
- You have to thoroughly enjoy your niche.
This is pretty much non-negotiable. You can’t market to a niche you don’t enjoy. That might seem like a no-brainer but I have seen private practitioners pick niches that seemed lucrative only to be unsuccessful. Pick what excites you. Choose people that you really enjoy. Find the message that you are called to share.
People are waiting to hear from you!
If you have thought of creating multiple streams products and are unsure about picking a niche, you might want to check out our self study course “Pink Spoon Marketing for Therapists” – a 130+ page manual with 3 audio CDs. This is the roadmap that helps you with your niche and then shows you what is possible to create in terms of information products. And it all starts with your most important product – your “gift” (no-charge) pink spoon. To read more, visit: www.pinkspoonmarketingfortherapists.com.
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Executive Coaching/Anger Management for “disruptive physicians’ and management in general are two very lucrative niches available to psychotherapists.
I currently dominate in this area.
George Anderson
I have firmly established my dominance of Executive Coaching/Anger Management for “disruptive physicians” as an extremely lucrative niche. There is no billing, no reports, no managed health care and cost controls.