Why Focussing On A Niche Can Ruin Your Business

“I just don’t know what my niche is.” “I know I just have to focus more!” I don’t know who my ideal client is yet.”
These are some of the statements that I hear from so many coaches and healing professionals who want to start a business.
They have been taught that having a niche is essential for success, and that they have to be as specific as they can possibly be, in order to be successful.

Now, while this is true to some degree – if people don’t know what exactly you do, they can’t hire you – I have also found that this is is often the reason why future entrepreneurs never get of the ground.

I have seen so many people struggle with deciding on their niche for months, sometimes years.

I have watched them hit a wall, feel lots of shame and guilt, and come up with a better business idea, every time they tried to focus.

I have observed them  loose the joy, the excitement about building a coaching business, and saw their practice go sideways, if not downwards quickly.

 

Since you are reading this blog post, you can probably relate to this.

And as a business coach for coaches and healing professionals, I felt that we have to do better when we want to help people who can’t decide on a niche. We have to take them seriously, especially since so many people truly have this problem.

 

As I was observing my clients and colleagues, I could quickly see that there are certain similarities when people struggle with focus.

They are very capable, intuitive, easy to excite.

They have “bright shiny object syndrome” as if there’s no tomorrow.

They are not interested in achieving one goal, they want to achieve many goals.

They don’t see helping others primarily as a great way to make money.

Instead, they see it as a form of self expression.

They do it because they love it.

They have fun with it.

It is a great way to spend a day and feel amazing.

 

They are fascinated by all the different opportnities in their field, and they feel sad and bogged down when they are told that they can pick only one.

 

I call these people “The Artist – Profile”.

Creative, fun loving, easy to excite, very passionate with a huge inability to focus.

Artists don’t struggle with making money, unless they try to really do the right thing and work for it the way they were taught.

Artists feel entitled to getting paid.

Artists don’t want to make money to build wealth, they want to make money to spend it.

So now what?

Can people with a dominant Artist – profile not build a business?

Yes, they can. For sure!

But not by picking one niche and focussing (they suck at that, remember?).

Instead they need the freedom to have fun doing what they love.

They need to have a package in place that they can offer in a modified version to anybody who wants to work with them.

They have to have the structure to say yes to opportunities as they arise, and to be able to express themselves through the diversity of their personal and professional abilities.

Artists need to play.

Really!

If it’s no fun, they won’t do it.

So there are 3 ways to create income as an “artist profile”:

Partner with someone with a strong “Teacher profile”, who can structure the chaos and create the focus for you, or hire an office manager or other staff member to take this responsibility over. Or, and this might surprise some, find a way to teach what you do.

The teaching will not create massive amounts of income in the beginning, but it will allow you to create a product that speaks for itself.

Activate your inner teacher, which is the focussed, systemizer, and know exactly when you have to let your artist or your teacher make decisions in your business.

 

As an Artist, your business has to represent life style, fun, freedom and passion.

You can’t focus, but you can dominate the chaos.

An exciting life can await you, if you understand this strength.

And now, go help somebody, heal somebody and have fun in the process!

Go!

Your life is waiting 🙂

 

Please  leave your feedback below.

 

Love

 

Ingrid

3 Comments

  1. Doug Moore on October 31, 2013 at 4:41 pm

    Great thoughts, Ingrid.
    I can relate to the ‘artistic’ side. It seems like I get excited about new ideas I hear about- especially when someone is successful at it. Good thing I realize this about myself and temper it. I still have fun creating while exercising getting rid of distractions around me but each has it’s block of time.


  2. Jeanne on October 15, 2013 at 8:10 pm

    This is one of the most on-point things I have read in relation to my struggles around my Artist experience. On-point and actionable. Interestingly, I have intuitively partnered with a Teacher profile. And while it may appear that I am doing the lion’s share of the work, what she brings to the table allows my work to end up focused into a sharable format. Grateful that it’s not a defect I suffer from… more a matter of knowing what I’m working with. Thank you for articulating this, Ingrid. Really helpful.

    🙂
    Jeanne


    • Ingrid Dinter on October 24, 2013 at 12:25 am

      great to hear about your intuition, Jeanne! You are a gift to the world! Ingrid


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