Overcome the 4 Biggest Niche Fears
If you’re a Coach or Entrepreneur, you’ve probably been told a thousand times you need to niche down. But that can be really hard to do when you’re just starting out and don’t really know what you want to do yet or who you most want to serve, which is totally understandable when you’re new.
But as a Business Coach who works with newbie Coaches, I’ve found over and over again there’s underlying fears and limiting beliefs that are often the true culprit.
Let’s dive into the 4 biggest niche fears and how you can reframe them so you can finally choose your profitable niche.
Oh, and if you have chosen a niche for now, take my new FREE quiz, “The Niche Clarity Quiz” to make sure!
The 4 biggest niche fears:
Being multi-passionate
Choosing the wrong niche
Fear of excluding potential clients they could help
Fear your business will suffer if you turn someone away
Let’s dive into each of these understandable fears and debunk these common myths.
Being Multi-Passionate
If you’re like me and you’re multi-passionate, congratulations! That’s awesome you have a lot of interests and experience in life.
However, that doesn’t mean you need to serve every type of client who’s struggled with something you’ve struggled with in the past.
When we spread ourselves too thin, trying to serve all these different niches, no one niche really gets the proper time, focus, and energy it deserves, which means those clients don’t either.
I’ve experienced this first hand: When I first started my coaching business, I had 5 different niches F-I-V-E! I was constantly working to create content, offers, products, guides and resources, social posts, blogs, you name it for all these different niches.
It was exhausting!
Not to mention not profitable.
Because I was talking about all kinds of different topics, I was inconsistent with providing value to my audience (because who wants to be posting 25 times/week to cover all those niches??), and I was confusing my audience. And lemme tell you, a confused mind will never buy.
It wasn’t until 2+ years in my coaching business that I hired my first business coach and finally got clarity on my 1 niche (health and wellness coaches) and focused on that 1 niche.
Suddenly I had a much easier business and that’s when I started seeing my bank account growing. As I reflect back, I estimate I left $100,000+ on the table by not niching down sooner. That’s what’s at stake for you.
Now, 1 thing I will say is that if you are multi-passionate and you do want to have more than 1 niche, you can; just don’t create those niches, offers, etc., at the same time.
Do it strategically by starting with one niche (your “lowest hanging fruit”), create a clear offer, gain clients, automate what you can, and then you can always add on another niche or offer.
2. Choosing the wrong niche
The primary fear underneath this is that you’re going to waste time and then have to start all over.
And I get it.
But if you really examine this fear, how much time do you think you're really going to waste going in the wrong direction? You think it's going to be 5 years before you realize you chose the wrong niche, or do you think you'll realize in 6 months or less?
Most likely you’ll realize fairly quickly and then you can pivot. And in case another fear here is that people will be confused or will judge you for changing your niche, trust me they won’t!
You can simply share with your audience that through working with clients, you’ve discovered that you love serving X {new niche} and so you’re going to connect with and serve that group. It’s as simple as that.
The other thing to keep in mind is that when you pivot, you’re not starting completely over. Usually it’s just a 15 degree pivot. But if you are completely overhauling your niche, you can still take the processes, systems, and business knowledge you gained from serving the other niche into your new niche.
Another question to ask yourself is “How much time have you wasted not choosing a niche for now?” “How long have you been stuck, waffling back and forth between niches?”
People have told me for years that not choosing a niche is the biggest waste of time because action creates clarity. What do you think will happen if you choose no niche, what results become available? What money is there in NOT choosing a niche? How can you help anyone if you’re trying to help everyone? Give yourself permission to just start with what you feel and know right now, knowing you can pivot.
Remember action always creates clarity. It's inaction that creates confusion and overwhelm. Clarity never comes from behind the computer; it comes from talking to and working with clients to uncover your direction.
3. Fear of excluding potential clients they could help
Sure, when you’re a coach, you can help just about anyone. But should you be helping just about anyone?
Put a different way, if you had eczema, and you went to the drug store to buy a cream to treat it, would you buy the 1 that’s for dry skin or the one next to it that says it’s for Eczema?
If you had a loved one with cancer, would you want them to be treated by their general physician or the oncologist?
We could actually be doing someone a disservice trying to help them with our less extensive knowledge and resources than referring them to someone who specializes with the particular challenge they have and has much greater in depth knowledge and understanding.
4. Fear their business will suffer if they turn someone away
The irony here is that it’s trying to be everything to everyone that is actually what's limiting your customers. It's broad, confusing, and general. And when you’re general like that with a broad niche and offer and generic, vague, or jargony language, people say, “Oh, that's nice. But it's not for me.”
People buy from the specialist and they'll buy faster and with less resistance. So getting specific actually leads to MORE clients not less.
Fearing that your business will suffer if you turn someone away is also a limiting belief.
Think about it: how many billions of humans are there on the planet? Then how many likely thousands, if not more, are there in your niche? And how many clients can you realistically work with at a time? When you boil it down, it’s likely a pretty small number of ideal clients you actually need to enroll to have a successful business.
Even further math here, if I have a coaching package that sells for $997 and I want to earn $100,000 this year, then I need to sell 100 of the programs/year; which is 8/month.
If that feels too hard, then if you upped your prices to $1997, suddenly you only need 50 people/year, or 4 people/month.
Out of the thousands and thousands of people in your niche, it’s definitely doable to get 4 new clients/month.
So I hope you can begin to see how it’s your niche fears that are actually limiting your success!
If you have no idea where to start with getting those clients, let’s grab a chat together and talk about your niche and business needs and goals, and how I can help.
Lastly, if you’re considering turning someone away, it’s likely for very good reason. They’re either not in your wheelhouse, they have different values than you, or just wouldn’t be a good fit client to work with, and trust me from experience, that is not worth the money!
There you have it! 4 niche fears and how to begin reframing those fears.
So to recap, you can absolutely decide if you want to niche down or not. If you want an easier, more simplified business without overwhelm, you’ll niche down. You’ll become a specialist because that’s when you can actually help people AND make money. Ultimately, Your niche is in your heart, not your head.
Wanna gain clarity on your niche? Take my FREE quiz “The Niche Clarity Quiz!”
