Failure in the Fog
One thing I know for sure… if you’re trying to serve everyone, eventually everyone will become unhappy… including yourself.
Learning from history.
President Lincoln is said to have modified it for his 1856 speech using “fool” instead of “please”. The original is credited to John Lydgate.
“You can please some of the people all of the time or all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
The value of niching down was obvious even then - 165 years ago!
As a women and a nurturer at heart, trying to serve everyone actually has you acting as a big fog machine around your business - just blowing smoke and uncertainty about your purpose, your passion, your services, and who your ideal clients are.
Yet you wonder why prospects won’t follow you into the fog. Why should they? How can they develop trust in vagueness? They want specifics solutions for their very specific problems.
Ladies, you MUST get specific!
Specificity leads to Clarity
Clarity allows you to Create a System
That System provides the Path to Solutions
And solutions are what prospects and clients are looking for
Here’s an analogy:
You just bought a house with 6 bedrooms as an investment property. Every bit of it needs upgrading - renovations, new paint, decorating. Your goal is to get it up and running as a rental property in one year.
Do you do a little bit in every room each day? OR Do you start and finish one room at a time?
As women, we are champions at multi-tasking but it’s never the right approach in business, or ever really. Doing a little in every room may seem the right path and potentially satisfying as you see a “wider” view of progress. My initial thinking as a perfectionist Virgo may be, ”Heck, I could paint all the rooms at the same time and have only one set of clothes destroyed with paint.”
The right approach is to do one room at a time.
The narrow and focused path always gets you to your destination clearer and faster. “Clearer” and “Faster” are the operative words here!
Did you know that “sunny” is a synonym for “clear”? Love that!! So, you’ll get there with more sunshine in your heart too!
Consider these immediate benefits:
If you finish one room at a time you could start renting out those as you complete the others, bringing in revenue earlier than by doing it bit-by-bit.
You’ll garner valuable intel on what your renters want and need and make modifications to the other rooms as you finish them.
Your niche is that first room you work on.
What’s the style? Who do you want to stay there? What will you provide to them? What’s the experience you want them to receive?
Here’s an example of how you could apply it to your business:
The house (broad niche): Consulting & Coaching for Women Family-Owned Businesses
Room #1: Business Consulting - One-on-One
Room #2: Transition Consulting - One-on-One
Room #3: Leadership Coaching - One-on-One
Now get even more specific:
Room #4: Business Coaching - Online Course
Room #5: Transition Coaching - Online Course
Room #6: Leadership Coaching - Online Course
Notice how I start with a small core group with one-on-one consulting and then expand out to a larger audience with online courses. Get even more specific with other demographics: income, age, geography, types of businesses (products or services), etc. The more specific, the more people understand exactly what you do and who you work with.
Ladies, stop blowing fog around your business and get into clear blue skies.
Get specific and stay on a focused path… your clients and you will reap the benefits from it!
Niche down to profit up. It ALWAYS, ALWAYS works!
Need a little guidance on niching down?
Schedule a Free 20-minute Brainstorm Session with me and let’s see if I can get you started. Easy-peasey :)