Why I “niched down.”

When I first started my coaching and training business, the idea of “niching” – serving an ultra specific group of target clients – felt like a straitjacket.

I didn’t want to niche down. So I purposely cast a wide net.

I wanted to get a feel for whom I liked working with best and challenge myself to see just how big I could go with the strategy.

I served women entrepreneurs, women in non-profits, and corporate leaders. I worked with women who were just starting their businesses, as well as those who had been in business for many years.

My skillset and experience were such that I was able to serve all these client groups – in the beginning, anyway.

I ran several different programs, I had a full coaching schedule, and multiple times per year, I hosted big events where I brought incredible women leaders from the corporate and entrepreneurial world together to study, share best practices, get coached and grow.

It was fun and lucrative. My team and I made a big difference in the lives of a lot of women, workplaces and families.

My “cast a wide net” strategy worked…

And then it too became a straitjacket.

That’s because as I grew, problems that were small issues when my business was doing a quarter of a million became much larger issues as we scaled toward the seven figure mark.

Things that were very doable when I had 10 clients per year (i.e. being super understanding when a client cancelled an appointment with less than 48 hours’ notice) were impossible when I served 200 clients per year.

Casting a wide net became habit that I needed to break if I wanted to do my MOST important work in the world and scale my business well into the multiple millions.

I had too much going on, and if I was serious about taking my business to the next level, I needed to simplify.

I had to niche down.

And this is how it works, my fierce friend.

Strategies that get you off the ground in business become bad habits that prevent you from achieving scale and freedom.

Building your business to the low six figure mark is about creativity, experimentation and legwork.

But scaling to the million dollar mark and beyond is about focus, discipline and leadership.

It’s about having the courage to make the tough cuts and stay relentlessly focused on the few things that REALLY matter…and executing them as perfectly as you can.

It’s about editing your business, refining your model, and polishing your marketing strategy as you move from one revenue milestone to the next.

This isn’t a conclusion based solely on my experience…it’s based on sound business acumen. The world’s most profitable and successful companies favour simplicity.

Think Apple, which produces a tiny fraction of the products that its competitors do.

Or a dear friend who made the gutsy decision to cut a one million dollar revenue stream in a two million dollar business…and proceeded to grow her revenues by over 1011% in a year.

You and I BOTH know in our hearts that simplicity is usually the answer. So…

On a cold, sunny afternoon last year, I sequestered myself in my studio – a gorgeous little building in my backyard. I had coffee, water, a calculator and a pile of financial reports. I spent two hours reviewing my numbers.

I wasn’t looking at my Profit and Loss statement. I was looking at my clients, who bought what, who bought the most, who bought again and again, who got the best results from working with me and who my team and I experienced the most joy serving.

The math painted a clear picture of my choices. The math told me that about 20% of my clientele drove roughly 80% of my company’s growth and that I needed to focus my FULL attention on those AMAZING women entrepreneurs.

I needed to “niche down.”

So I spent the rest of that afternoon thinking about these women the math had identified, and examining my entire business through the lens of THEIR perception and experience.

And what I saw was…incongruence in my message.

I was mostly speaking to these women entrepreneurs, but not 100%.

Being mostly committed can get you a long way, but it won’t take you to the top of the mountain.  

Because my message spoke to these ideal clients about 70% of the time, I wasn’t bringing nearly the power I needed to blast through objections, position my company as THE best company to serve them, and reassure them that I was the trusted advisor they needed.

So I made a powerful shift in my business and opted to refocus my work exclusively on women entrepreneurs.

I cut elements of my messaging, deleted entire programs, and released a large segment of my audience.

This was a difficult and worthwhile decision.

Within a few weeks, my schedule freed up. Our team meetings became more focused. I was able to delegate more because my business was simpler. My HR plan clarified and I know exactly who my next 3 hires need to be.

My business gathered energy, momentum and focus. So did I.

The experience of niching down has revealed a couple of important lessons about the link between business strategy and messaging.

Eureka #1:

When you message isn’t working, you’re working WAY harder than you need to.

Your message is how you come to be known and understood in the market. If it’s unclear, if you’re unclear you can’t possibly stand out, and your marketing efforts are wasted.

Eureka #2

Your message is a canary for what’s not working in your business.

When your message lacks power, sometimes the problem isn’t with your message per se…it’s with your strategy.

You must use your message as a tool for identifying what you need to clarify, simplify and hone in your business so that you can get down to the work of growing it explosively.

Eureka #3:

Your message is a canary for what’s not working with YOU.

Words have POWER. You know this. I know this. So when we aren’t communicating powerfully, it’s not only that we don’t know what to say.

It’s that something is holding us back from saying what we know we need to say.

Simply put – when you aren’t clear on your message and brand position, your business isn’t working as efficiently and profitably as it can be.

I can help you with that.

There’s still time to join me – either live in Toronto, or from the comfort of your home office via our exclusive livestream – at my workshop, Your Million Dollar Message.

You can get the details here.

Stay fierce,

Eleanor