Today in this email, I’ll be talking about a frequent thing people keep asking me: how to choose a niche.
Basically, before getting into how to choose a niche, let’s sum up what a niche is. A niche is nothing but creating your own category when you’re starting your business online—in coaching or any other sector.
For example, let’s say you’re into health and wellness, and you’re a trainer who teaches people how to get fit, how to lose weight, and more. If you just run ads on Facebook saying “learn how to lose weight,” others are saying the same thing. How would you differentiate yourself from them?
To differentiate yourself, you have to narrow things down as much as possible. For example:
- “I am a fitness trainer for senior citizens.”
- “I am a fitness trainer for college students.”
- “I am a fitness trainer for women with PCOD.”
- “I am a fitness trainer for people with thyroid issues.”
So now you may ask, what will this do? Basically, when you’re running ads with this kind of refined messaging, your competition will be very less. Earlier, you were competing with 1 million people by saying “I am a fitness trainer.” Now, you’re competing with only a few people, like fitness trainers who help manage diabetes.
Because of this, you’re also going to be seen as an expert. When people see your ad, they’ll think, “He is just helping this kind of people; he must be good at that.”
You can also think about doctors, for example. One is a general physician who helps with everything, and then there are heart surgeons, neurosurgeons, and so on. Most of the time, the latter ones earn more because they are specialists. Since they are specialists, people are ready to pay them more because they manage critical things for them.
So, you have to position yourself in such a way that you manage a critical thing for your clients. You have to become part of their life. You need to position yourself as the only solution they have.
Let’s take my example: digital marketing. I had competition with the entire world—maybe 1 million people. Then I narrowed down to helping people with performance marketing, that is, helping with paid advertisements. Still, my competition was with lakhs of people.
Then, I narrowed it down again to helping people generate leads using Facebook ads only. Now there are just 10,000 of them helping with Facebook ads. Narrow it down again: I’ll be helping people who are in the coaching industry generate leads using Facebook ads. Now the competition is less than a thousand people.
Next, I’m helping coaches with Facebook ads, but my style of helping is in Hindi. Competition is now just 10 or 20 people. I can narrow it down even further: I help coaches generate leads for their coaching business using Facebook ads, and I conduct my workshops in Hindi, but I help only those who are going through my webinar path.
So, after narrowing down by so many categories—Facebook ads + coaches + Hindi + webinars—literally, my competition is zero.
But what about the target market? Didn’t I reduce the total addressable market? Yes, absolutely. But just think—in India, to start with, making big money is everyone’s goal, but how much should be the starting point? 1 lakh, 2 lakhs, 5 lakhs, 10 lakhs? Let’s take 10 lakhs, okay?
Now, let’s say we’re able to sell our coaching product of ₹5,000 to 100 people a month. How much revenue would you make? ₹5,000 x 100 = ₹5 lakhs a month.
Out of those 100 people, let’s say 20 of them are excited by your work, immensely benefited, and decide to continue with you for the next journey. Let’s say you’re selling something of a ₹20,000 membership. Now, ₹20,000 x 20 = ₹4 lakhs. So you’re making an additional ₹4 lakhs.
Now, out of these 20, even if just 10% of them (2 people) decide to upgrade to your next level, which is ₹1 lakh, you’re making an additional ₹2 lakhs.
Just think how much you’ve made till now:
- ₹5 lakhs + ₹4 lakhs + ₹2 lakhs = ₹11 lakhs.
Now, let’s say out of this ₹11 lakhs, you spend some 30% on ads for marketing. Still, you’re left with ₹7 to 8 lakhs profit. That’s a pretty decent amount in India to live a life of total freedom.
Now, the question is, can you find 100 such people every month in any category you choose? Yes, of course! After narrowing down the niche, getting 100 people every month is definitely achievable. Because now you’re not competing with the entire world; you’re competing with just a few, and your work will be easier, your ads will run nicely.
Furthermore, you can always expand later. I’m not saying just 100 people is the limit. It’s a good start, definitely. You can keep on expanding. Let’s say I’m talking about coaches coming up every day wanting to build their career. So basically, 100 is just the starting point, and eventually, you can always expand. You can broaden your niche, teach consultants, etc.
Well, now let’s talk about how to choose a niche. I want to keep things simple. Let’s say there are three things in your mind.
Let me take an example. In fact, yesterday, I was talking to one of the students. She was in aviation for the last 10 years and quit her job recently because of a newborn baby—took maternity leave to enjoy time with her baby.
She told me she had three options for her niche:
- Becoming a yoga trainer.
- Helping people with communication skills.
- Giving aviation training for ground workers and cabin crew.
My suggestion was very clear: simply become an aviation trainer. Why? Because thousands of people are doing yoga training here and there. No doubt, many are also doing communication training. How would you become different in this? Even Pankaj can become a yoga trainer someday!
But becoming an aviation trainer—that’s not easy for everyone, right? Unless you have the authority, the real-life experience. You’ve been doing that work for the past 10 years. You have experience, you’ve earned money, you’ve seen the field.
So, competition would be very, very less for you here. Plus, you have the reputation in the market. You are the right person people can learn from because you’ve done it practically for 10 years. And there would be lesser competition as well.
I’m also assuming that since you were working in this field for 10 years, it wasn’t just due to some so-called majboori (compulsion). It was because you like it, right? What are you good at and how can you be different from the market—that’s it.
Also, I would recommend a book called IKIGAI if you want to find out more on this topic. That’s the idea I would recommend. You’ll see similarities between what I’m speaking about and what’s in there. Because you have to find your passion, see what the world is paying you for, see what the demand is, and not overthink.
I’d love to know which niche you’re considering.