Solo Revolution

Many solo professionals struggle to choose a profitable niche. As you may have read before, at Solo Revolution we suggest that you spend at least 70% of your time going after a focused target market. There are many benefits in choosing a focused target market: it is easier to reach your target market; you can develop focused solutions and charge more; word of mouth spreads more quickly; you can do circles around generalists; etc.

However, the question is: What will be your niche? What will make you famous as a coach or consultant?

It's funny....for many of you, the answer is starting you right in the face, and you don't see it.

For instance, a colleague contacted me just this week about her target market as a consultant. Before deciding to start her own practice or business, she enjoyed an incredibly successful career as a distributor to retail stores. She knows how to get any item into major retail chains.

However, when she called me, she was all excited about a different industry, because she recently moved to a Midwestern town and become exposed to some great steakhouse restaurants. "I love steakhouses!" she exclaimed. I want to blog about steak, and maybe even start up a demo best practice steak house."

I asked, "What do you know about running a steak house?"

She answered, "Well, I absolutely love steak. My family back in the Northeast love hearing about what I've learned about steaks so far. They tell me I should start a blog, and even open up a steak restaurant here."

So there you go....Here is a person who is a world-class expert in retail distribution, and she wants to start a steakhouse.

Her story is an extreme example of what coaches, consultants, and solo professionals seem to do all the time....They go for something glamorouos but outside their expertise and experience, when their true target market is starting them right in the face.

Similarly, I worked with a member of my Center for Executive Coaching who was trying to figure out his target market. He had all sorts of ideas about leadership training, communications training...but just couldn't hone in on anything. Then he let it slip that this weekend he was training a group of US-based executives about European business protocol. It turns out that he is an expert at international business protocol. I asked him why he wouldn't make this the focus of his coaching business.

A light went on for him. "You are absolutely right!" he said. "It was right there in front of me and I didn't see it." Now he has a successful practice working with multi-nationals to coach their executives who are taking on overseas assignments.

Think about where you have been. Where do you have expertise and achievements? Where do you already have great contacts? That is likely your best bet for a profitable target market.