the four steps to choosing a niche

So, we’re four weeks into the Niching for Hippies program and I wanted to share something that’s become clear to me in working with over fifty entrepreneurs around their niches. There are four steps that most people tend to go through and there’s an order and sequence that seems to make the most sense (in general).

Step #1: The Seed

The most important step is for us to do some introspection on our lives and to ask ourselves where we are most qualified to help. This often starts with asking ourselves a very simple question. Our answer to that question will not give us a fully formed niche usually but it almost always gives us the seed of a fully formed niche. You might realize that the seed of your work is that you struggled with food and your weight your whole life but are finally in a good place with it. And when you think about helping people on those issues you feel really excited.

Step #2: The Big Circle

I think of the next step as being about choosing the right pot and the soil to plant your seed in. This is where we start to not just think in broad strokes but we also clarify the boundaries a bit. We think about the qualities we most want in an ideal client, the particular moment in their life they’re at where we’re best suited to enter, the values and worldview they would have etc.  We start to paint a picture of the type of person we’d want any of our clients to be. You can learn more about this here.

Step #3: Little Circles

Now we start to pick very specific groups and target markets to focus on. For example, your big circle might be ‘women struggling with their weight’ but a smaller circle might be ‘new mom’s struggling with their weight’ or ‘corporate women struggling with their weight’ or even ‘retired women who are wanting to lose weight’. This small circle is a very particular group of people dealing with a very particular problem. You can learn more about this here.

Step #4: Niche Projects

In step four, we invite people to pick one of the smaller circles and try something out. Something small. It might be hosting a potluck for those people, running a small workshop, presenting at a local TEDx event, hosting a Meet Up group etc. Something really little that they can use to see if that niche really is a fit for them. Something with minimal risk and commitment but that could earn them a bit of money, get them some exposure and experience in working with that niche. It’s easy to want to turn this molehill into a mountain, to want to take this tiny niche project and want to turn it into a whole new business empire right away. Resist that urge. You can read more about this here.

If you follow these four steps you will find yourself making more progress on finding genuine, profitable and inspiring niches than you may have ever.

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Want Help? If you’d like some more direct guidance and hand holding on figuring out your niche then go and check out my Niching for Hippies coaching program https://marketingforhippies.com/niching-for-hippies/

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