For far too many years in my business, I struggled with narrowing my specialty and choosing a niche. I believed that fine tuning my niche would keep away much needed business and clients.

I have found the opposite to be true. Now my niche has become more like a beacon that attracts just the right clients without as much effort on my part.

What is a niche? My definition of a niche is a target market plus a specialty. You can start with one or the other, but in order to have a true niche, you must have both.

Narrowing your niche just means that you are positioning yourself more closely to the people or companies who could most benefit from your services. When you hone in on your ideal target audience, business comes to you more easily, you enjoy doing what you do every day, and you make more money. Your marketing becomes much more effortless, and people start to call you instead of you chasing after them.

The latest trend is to have a ‘micro-niche’, which means choosing a much smaller niche where you know you can be a leader and really stand out as the top expert.

Choosing your niche market has many benefits:

• It will allow you to focus on your strengths – what you are brilliant at.
• It will free you to do your best, most creative, heart-felt work.
• It positions you to attract significantly more business.
• It makes you more easily referable.
• It gives you a natural competitive advantage.

A good niche market is one in which:

• You have contacts and /or experience.
• You can use your greatest talents and gifts.
• You can easily connect with prospects and clients.
• There are many ways your can be highly visible to your market through speaking, writing or networking.
• There is potential for prospective partnerships and collaborations with others serving the same market.

Here are some examples of niche markets:

• Stressed out women executives who want to bring more balance into their lives to have more time for what’s most important to them. (Target audience: women executives; specialty: work-life balance).
• New moms who want to lose the weight they put on during pregnancy. (Target audience: new moms; specialty: weight loss or healthy eating).
• Leadership development for health care managers and executives. (Target audience: health care managers and executives; specialty: leadership).

As you get closer to defining your ideal clients and specialized expertise, you will feel more confident. You’ll start to know with more certainty which clients are just right for you and exactly how you can help them. You’ll know with certainty which opportunities to say yes to and which to say no to.

When you don’t have a specialty and you try to be all things to all people, it is very stressful and time consuming and you don’t come across as your best, most authentic self.

A niche provides rich opportunities for self expression.When you ‘find your groove’ you can express yourself very creatively and authentically while attracting significantly more business.

The cost of not having a niche strategy is not being recognized for your expertise which means that you will have to work far too hard for less business and you won’t make as much money as you could with a clear niche market.

The easiest way to grow a business is to find an existing need and fill it. Don’t try to create demand that doesn’t already exist or you’ll go broke.

Developing a niche is a process of exploring several possibilities and then gradually refining them. Start with your strengths and experience. Then, determine who you really like to work with most and in what environment. Notice who shows up for you, who you get referred to, and what types of issues you are most passionate and knowledgeable about.

Find the need in the marketplace that exactly meets your strengths, and you’ll find the easiest way to business success through narrowing your niche.

Copyright © Jan Marie Dore ~ www.femalepreneurs.com ~ All rights reserved.Jan Marie Dore, ‘The Professional Women’s Success Coach’, Master Certified Coach, Speaker, and Author, publishes valuable ideas to grow a professional service business and increase profitability in her newsletter ‘Success Secrets for Professional Women’.

Jan Marie teaches self-employed female professionals to attract more clients and financial success, and as a result, live extraordinary lives. For free resources and programs on marketing a professional practice please visit Femalepreneurs.com and read the Blog Success Secrets for Professional Women.