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Other Added - Creating Your Niche & Brand - Part 2
I have decided that you are weird. But, don't worry... it's a good thing! ;-)Please, let me explain... I promise there's a great marketing lesson in here somewhere... ;-)Throughout my life, I've been called "weird" on more than several occasions! At first, I thought something was wrong with me. I soon began to notice that I was "different" from others in many ways.And, being a kid in grade school, you can imagine how "horrible" that feels... to not "fit in" when everyone else around you is trying their hardest to fit in or be part of a "click" - any click.Fortunately for me, I soon realized that being different or "weird" wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Because I stood out! While others were trying their best to get noticed and be popular, I was usually sticking out like a sore thumb without any effort at all!Did this draw som
- The niche is defined enough to be a niche! Many coaches think they’re operating in a niche but are really operating in a larger market segment. For example, there are many career coaches (market segment) but few career specialists who focus on rekindling the careers of former executives who have been stay at home parents now wishing to re-enter the workforce (defined niche).
- You are passionate and committed to working in the area of the niche.
- The niche has demonstrated by some means that they’re willing to invest to have their problems solved. IE The problems confronting your prospects in the niche must be large enough that they’re willing to invest to have them solved.
You can work in more than one niche; however each niche has separate characteristics so you’ll need to treat each one as a separate part of your overall coaching business.
This article is an abstract from the Ultimate Coach Business Development Program, a comprehensive 24-month eCourse designed to walk coaches through the process of building flourishing businesses. If you'd like to learn how you can access the entire program email us at info@lcia.com.au
© Life Coaching Institute (Aust). If you wish to republish or reproduce this article, please include this information in the end of the article. For more information about the Institute – p
Did you know that Americans give more than 7 billion greeting cards each year? According to the Greeting Card Association, we spend over $7.5 billion dollars annually on cards.One thing to consider is that greeting cards are not just for birthdays, Christmas, and other holidays. They are also very effective tools for increasing business and sales.Some of us only associate giving cards with special days but savvy business men and women have been using them for decades to stay in touch with customers and build name recognition. There is no faster way to connect with a client than to send them an unexpected, real greeting card in the mail.Recently, one of the big trends on the internet has been the increased use of the e-card or electronic card. E-cards are quite popular and they allow people to send an instant message to friends and family. However, most people still prefer a
Aligning your product mix
To highlight the importance of knowing your prospective client, you can imagine the success you’d have if your target market was adolescent youths from broken families and you promoted your $1,500 monthly coaching service in the Financial Review! Whilst this example is obviously ridiculous and extreme, clients are a fickle bunch and it’s crucial that your services are tightly aligned with your prospects profile and needs.
Most coaches starting out come from the mindset “I’m going to coach XYZ group.” But they give little thought to the specific challenges, needs, desires and nuisances of their target group (niche). And without this information they’re almost doomed to failure.
They first develop how they’re going to coach, then try to impose that service onto their target client. This approach does not work!
You must be client driven rather than product driven. You should first identify the specific client group you want to work with and then develop services and products that satisfy and fulfil their unique and specific needs.
What’s the best way to determine the needs of your target client? Ask them! Interview them; survey them; take them to lunch and pick their brains; hold tele-sessions; talk to industry professionals already dealing with them; go to industry events; read their journals.
Asking the hard questions up front is so important to the long term success of your coaching business and your market niche (more on developing that niche soon).
Remember that it’s not enough for you to perceive that someone NEEDS what you have to offer… They have to WANT what you have to offer and be motivated to buy it. Focus your attention on client groups who are already looking for the solution that you are going to provide – and are willing to invest in that solution.
The best way to develop products and services that are in high demand by your target clients is to:
- First determine the top 3 most serious and annoying challenges that your proposed target group want to solve.
- Determine how regularly they face these problems and the financial and emotional cost to them having these problems recur.
- Develop solutions to solve these top 3 challenges/problems.
- Package your solutions as service and product based offerings.
- Price point your services based on the financial costs your clients incur by not having the problem solved.
- Establish yourself as a specialist who can help them solve the challenges/problems they have.
If you take this approach, not only will your services be aligned to your client, your clients will actively seek you out to have their costly recurring problems resolved!
Filling a gap
There is a lot of talk in business, and specifically coaching, about creating a niche. A niche is essentially a group of people with a common problem (or desire) that they’re willing to pay to get solved and are already talking to each other about it.
Often beginner coaches balk at establishing a niche as they:
- Fear they’ll limit the size of their market;
- They are scared that they may lose out on opportunities;
- Don’t have enough knowledge in a specific area to create a niche;
- Don’t have enough business experience to brand a niche business.
However, operating in a niche affords you many benefits including:
- It’s easier to find your clients as they congregate in a specific location or have a common problem/interest;
Because clients in a niche have specific problems, you can develop specific solution based products;
- Clients in a niche are generally willing to spend much more to have their unique problems resolved;
- Your marketing can be specifically designed for high impact (language, location, etc);
- Niche markets tend to communicate amongst themselves and hence your referral business will be much higher;
- You can use more effective marketing strategies such as Education Based marketing to attract clients;
- Once established, the niche will know how to find you and hence your marketing costs will be dramatically reduced;
- You can ‘own’ a niche and quickly become renowned as an ‘expert’ or ‘specialist.’
- You can rely less on time based 1 to 1 coaching and move to 1 to many coaching models;
- Over time your marketing and promotional costs will decrease because you are not ‘wasting money’ trying to attract the attention of clients outside your true niche;
- You get more passionate, more excited and more energetic because you are working with clients that are truly aligned with who you are and what you have to offer.
When choosing a niche you should consider the following:
- Do you have the requisite knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with your prospects? For instance, if you establish a niche coaching high end businesses on growing their profitability and have no experience in this area, you will not be successful.
- The niche has unique, specific challenges and/or desires, interests and needs.
- You are passionate about helping the niche solve their problems.
- You have in-depth knowledge of the most pressing challenges and needs associated with the niche. Only by having this information can you develop products that will be of interest and use to the niche.
- The niche is large enough (and financial enough) for you to prosper.
- The niche is defined enough to be a niche! Many coaches think they’re operating in a niche but are really operating in a larger market segment. For example, there are many career coaches (market segment) but few career specialists who focus on rekindling the careers of former executives who have been stay at home parents now wishing to re-enter the workforce (defined niche).
- You are passionate and committed to working in the area of the niche.
- The niche has demonstrated by some means that they’re willing to invest to have their problems solved. IE The problems confronting your prospects in the niche must be large enough that they’re willing to invest to have them solved.
You can work in more than one niche; however each niche has separate characteristics so you’ll need to treat each one as a separate part of your overall coaching business.
This article is an abstract from the Ultimate Coach Business Development Program, a comprehensive 24-month eCourse designed to walk coaches through the process of building flourishing businesses. If you'd like to learn how you can access the entire program email us at info@lcia.com.au
© Life Coaching Institute (Aust). If you wish to republish or reproduce this article, please include this information in the end of the article. For more information about the Institute – pl
China last year became the first country ever to import more than $1 billion of American scrap, according to the newspaper American Metal Market. The demand is so high that most scrap suppliers that sell to China are looking everywhere to grab up any materials available. Copper scrap exports to China, including Hong Kong, have quintupled since 1998, and China now accounts for 70 percent of the total. China's purchases of American copper scrap last year were equal to about 40 percent of American consumption. –New York TimesOn of the biggest hurdles to selling scrap to China is the AQSIQ registration requirements. China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) Office requires all importers of scrap material to be registered.The process is extremely time consuming, difficult, and costly. There is also the overall high rate of failure. All mate
Asking the hard questions up front is so important to the long term success of your coaching business and your market niche (more on developing that niche soon).
Remember that it’s not enough for you to perceive that someone NEEDS what you have to offer… They have to WANT what you have to offer and be motivated to buy it. Focus your attention on client groups who are already looking for the solution that you are going to provide – and are willing to invest in that solution.
The best way to develop products and services that are in high demand by your target clients is to:
- First determine the top 3 most serious and annoying challenges that your proposed target group want to solve.
- Determine how regularly they face these problems and the financial and emotional cost to them having these problems recur.
- Develop solutions to solve these top 3 challenges/problems.
- Package your solutions as service and product based offerings.
- Price point your services based on the financial costs your clients incur by not having the problem solved.
- Establish yourself as a specialist who can help them solve the challenges/problems they have.
If you take this approach, not only will your services be aligned to your client, your clients will actively seek you out to have their costly recurring problems resolved!
Filling a gap
There is a lot of talk in business, and specifically coaching, about creating a niche. A niche is essentially a group of people with a common problem (or desire) that they’re willing to pay to get solved and are already talking to each other about it.
Often beginner coaches balk at establishing a niche as they:
- Fear they’ll limit the size of their market;
- They are scared that they may lose out on opportunities;
- Don’t have enough knowledge in a specific area to create a niche;
- Don’t have enough business experience to brand a niche business.
However, operating in a niche affords you many benefits including:
- It’s easier to find your clients as they congregate in a specific location or have a common problem/interest;
Because clients in a niche have specific problems, you can develop specific solution based products;
- Clients in a niche are generally willing to spend much more to have their unique problems resolved;
- Your marketing can be specifically designed for high impact (language, location, etc);
- Niche markets tend to communicate amongst themselves and hence your referral business will be much higher;
- You can use more effective marketing strategies such as Education Based marketing to attract clients;
- Once established, the niche will know how to find you and hence your marketing costs will be dramatically reduced;
- You can ‘own’ a niche and quickly become renowned as an ‘expert’ or ‘specialist.’
- You can rely less on time based 1 to 1 coaching and move to 1 to many coaching models;
- Over time your marketing and promotional costs will decrease because you are not ‘wasting money’ trying to attract the attention of clients outside your true niche;
- You get more passionate, more excited and more energetic because you are working with clients that are truly aligned with who you are and what you have to offer.
When choosing a niche you should consider the following:
- Do you have the requisite knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with your prospects? For instance, if you establish a niche coaching high end businesses on growing their profitability and have no experience in this area, you will not be successful.
- The niche has unique, specific challenges and/or desires, interests and needs.
- You are passionate about helping the niche solve their problems.
- You have in-depth knowledge of the most pressing challenges and needs associated with the niche. Only by having this information can you develop products that will be of interest and use to the niche.
- The niche is large enough (and financial enough) for you to prosper.
- The niche is defined enough to be a niche! Many coaches think they’re operating in a niche but are really operating in a larger market segment. For example, there are many career coaches (market segment) but few career specialists who focus on rekindling the careers of former executives who have been stay at home parents now wishing to re-enter the workforce (defined niche).
- You are passionate and committed to working in the area of the niche.
- The niche has demonstrated by some means that they’re willing to invest to have their problems solved. IE The problems confronting your prospects in the niche must be large enough that they’re willing to invest to have them solved.
You can work in more than one niche; however each niche has separate characteristics so you’ll need to treat each one as a separate part of your overall coaching business.
This article is an abstract from the Ultimate Coach Business Development Program, a comprehensive 24-month eCourse designed to walk coaches through the process of building flourishing businesses. If you'd like to learn how you can access the entire program email us at info@lcia.com.au
© Life Coaching Institute (Aust). If you wish to republish or reproduce this article, please include this information in the end of the article. For more information about the Institute – p
From Japan comes the tradition of oshibori. Oshibori is the Japanese word for the
rolled up hot towel you receive after eating at an authentic Japanese restaurant or at
the conclusion of an international flight. If you have never experienced a hot towel
after a long flight, it is as close as you can get to a refreshing shower in the comfort
of your seat with all your clothes on. What does it have to do with growing your
business? It's remarkable.As noted, you might expect a hot towel in a Japanese restaurant or on a flight but
how about in the dentist chair just after the hygienist has stretched your mouth into
unnatural shapes to chisel that last piece of plaque from your teeth? Nice and warm,
with the light sent of lemon--that would be remarkable wouldn't it? How might that
change what you tell your friends about your trip to the dentist? Simple thing. Only
costs a f
Filling a gap
There is a lot of talk in business, and specifically coaching, about creating a niche. A niche is essentially a group of people with a common problem (or desire) that they’re willing to pay to get solved and are already talking to each other about it.
Often beginner coaches balk at establishing a niche as they:
- Fear they’ll limit the size of their market;
- They are scared that they may lose out on opportunities;
- Don’t have enough knowledge in a specific area to create a niche;
- Don’t have enough business experience to brand a niche business.
However, operating in a niche affords you many benefits including:
- It’s easier to find your clients as they congregate in a specific location or have a common problem/interest;
Because clients in a niche have specific problems, you can develop specific solution based products;
- Clients in a niche are generally willing to spend much more to have their unique problems resolved;
- Your marketing can be specifically designed for high impact (language, location, etc);
- Niche markets tend to communicate amongst themselves and hence your referral business will be much higher;
- You can use more effective marketing strategies such as Education Based marketing to attract clients;
- Once established, the niche will know how to find you and hence your marketing costs will be dramatically reduced;
- You can ‘own’ a niche and quickly become renowned as an ‘expert’ or ‘specialist.’
- You can rely less on time based 1 to 1 coaching and move to 1 to many coaching models;
- Over time your marketing and promotional costs will decrease because you are not ‘wasting money’ trying to attract the attention of clients outside your true niche;
- You get more passionate, more excited and more energetic because you are working with clients that are truly aligned with who you are and what you have to offer.
When choosing a niche you should consider the following:
- Do you have the requisite knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with your prospects? For instance, if you establish a niche coaching high end businesses on growing their profitability and have no experience in this area, you will not be successful.
- The niche has unique, specific challenges and/or desires, interests and needs.
- You are passionate about helping the niche solve their problems.
- You have in-depth knowledge of the most pressing challenges and needs associated with the niche. Only by having this information can you develop products that will be of interest and use to the niche.
- The niche is large enough (and financial enough) for you to prosper.
- The niche is defined enough to be a niche! Many coaches think they’re operating in a niche but are really operating in a larger market segment. For example, there are many career coaches (market segment) but few career specialists who focus on rekindling the careers of former executives who have been stay at home parents now wishing to re-enter the workforce (defined niche).
- You are passionate and committed to working in the area of the niche.
- The niche has demonstrated by some means that they’re willing to invest to have their problems solved. IE The problems confronting your prospects in the niche must be large enough that they’re willing to invest to have them solved.
You can work in more than one niche; however each niche has separate characteristics so you’ll need to treat each one as a separate part of your overall coaching business.
This article is an abstract from the Ultimate Coach Business Development Program, a comprehensive 24-month eCourse designed to walk coaches through the process of building flourishing businesses. If you'd like to learn how you can access the entire program email us at info@lcia.com.au
© Life Coaching Institute (Aust). If you wish to republish or reproduce this article, please include this information in the end of the article. For more information about the Institute – p
One of the easiest and quickest way to start making money online is by becoming an affiliate but before you start investing your time and money here are some important questions that you need to find the answers for to save you alot of frustrations afterwards.1. How do they notify you if a sale is made?2. Does the affiliate program offer you a free way to join
without buying the product or service?3. Is the product or service related to your target audience?4. Contact other affiliates already in the program to see if
they have had any problems.5. Do they offer backend products so you can get repeat sales
from the same person?6. How often will you receive a commission check?7. Do you get credited for a sale if people come back in month and then make a purchase?8. Do they provide you with proven sales material? (links, banners, classified
- Once established, the niche will know how to find you and hence your marketing costs will be dramatically reduced;
- You can ‘own’ a niche and quickly become renowned as an ‘expert’ or ‘specialist.’
- You can rely less on time based 1 to 1 coaching and move to 1 to many coaching models;
- Over time your marketing and promotional costs will decrease because you are not ‘wasting money’ trying to attract the attention of clients outside your true niche;
- You get more passionate, more excited and more energetic because you are working with clients that are truly aligned with who you are and what you have to offer.
When choosing a niche you should consider the following:
- Do you have the requisite knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with your prospects? For instance, if you establish a niche coaching high end businesses on growing their profitability and have no experience in this area, you will not be successful.
- The niche has unique, specific challenges and/or desires, interests and needs.
- You are passionate about helping the niche solve their problems.
- You have in-depth knowledge of the most pressing challenges and needs associated with the niche. Only by having this information can you develop products that will be of interest and use to the niche.
- The niche is large enough (and financial enough) for you to prosper.
- The niche is defined enough to be a niche! Many coaches think they’re operating in a niche but are really operating in a larger market segment. For example, there are many career coaches (market segment) but few career specialists who focus on rekindling the careers of former executives who have been stay at home parents now wishing to re-enter the workforce (defined niche).
- You are passionate and committed to working in the area of the niche.
- The niche has demonstrated by some means that they’re willing to invest to have their problems solved. IE The problems confronting your prospects in the niche must be large enough that they’re willing to invest to have them solved.
You can work in more than one niche; however each niche has separate characteristics so you’ll need to treat each one as a separate part of your overall coaching business.
This article is an abstract from the Ultimate Coach Business Development Program, a comprehensive 24-month eCourse designed to walk coaches through the process of building flourishing businesses. If you'd like to learn how you can access the entire program email us at info@lcia.com.au
© Life Coaching Institute (Aust). If you wish to republish or reproduce this article, please include this information in the end of the article. For more information about the Institute – p
As millions of people across the country prepare to make enrollment decisions for their health care and retirement coverage, many are finding they have more benefit choices than ever before. While enrollment season can sometimes be a confusing and overwhelming time, there are common-sense guidelines that can assist employees in their decision making process.With time it is been observed by industry houses the importance of competitive salary and benefits package. The objective now is how to attract and keep high profile employees. The industry is becoming so competitive that to think of costs will in turn effects the rising pressure from employees for increased benefits.Offering payroll deduction to the workforce is turning out to be an excellent supplement to the existing benefits program. Recent surveys indicate that over the past 10 years, employee interest in buying insurance t
- The niche is defined enough to be a niche! Many coaches think they’re operating in a niche but are really operating in a larger market segment. For example, there are many career coaches (market segment) but few career specialists who focus on rekindling the careers of former executives who have been stay at home parents now wishing to re-enter the workforce (defined niche).
- You are passionate and committed to working in the area of the niche.
- The niche has demonstrated by some means that they’re willing to invest to have their problems solved. IE The problems confronting your prospects in the niche must be large enough that they’re willing to invest to have them solved.
You can work in more than one niche; however each niche has separate characteristics so you’ll need to treat each one as a separate part of your overall coaching business.
This article is an abstract from the Ultimate Coach Business Development Program, a comprehensive 24-month eCourse designed to walk coaches through the process of building flourishing businesses. If you'd like to learn how you can access the entire program email us at info@lcia.com.au
© Life Coaching Institute (Aust). If you wish to republish or reproduce this article, please include this information in the end of the article. For more information about the Institute – please visit www.lcia.com.au/lz.
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