Establishing a Coaching Niche

As part of my ICA Coaching Certification training, I recently completed a series of fourteen interviews with established coaches in the United States, Costa Rica, and the United Kingdom, ranging from 5 to 15+ years in professional coaching experience. The interview questions covered several topics of significant interest to coaching students who are nearing the end of their studies, specifically:

1.    How did you navigate establishing your niche, and how has your niche evolved over time?

2.    What advice would you give to new coaches who are just starting out?

3.    How did you set your initial fees, and how has your pricing evolved as you gained experience?

4.    What resources would you recommend to the new coach – what are your go-to references now?

This article will cover the answers to the first question above, and next three articles will provide the rest. See this link for Part II, and this link for Part III, and this link for Part IV.

The established coaches interviewed for this paper provide at least three general ways to approach the niching process, while also at times calling out landmarks, hazards, and a caution about believing that there is a destination.

First, a few of the interviewed coaches talked about defining niche along the lines of what is taught in the ICA curriculum – the more defined and narrow your niche the better, as one attempts to enter or create a market for coaching services. In other words, for a few established coaches, narrowly defining their niche did lead directly to a viable business model and a thriving practice.

Second, and by contrast, most coaches interviewed found that even when they attempted to narrowly define their niche, what actually happened was more a process of discovery than of following their pre-defined niche restrictions. How this manifested was expressed in terms of “your niche finds you,” “my niche evolved organically,” “think about niching as a sort of ongoing experiment,” or “it is fine to narrow an offer in order to enter a market, but what you find is that your niche begins to broaden immediately after that.”

Third, it is common that a coach may initially want to coach in a field that they know well, that perhaps is centered on their previous professional background or field. For several of the interviewed coaches this approach has worked well, and some even provide consulting services in those professional areas as a blended model in addition to coaching. By contrast, what other coaches reported is that they identified too closely with the clients they worked with in their previous field to be truly effective as coaches for those individuals. Instead what they found is that they were much more successful coaching people in fields that are well outside their area of professional experience. For instance, a coach with a previous career in marketing found more success and was more comfortable coaching engineers, CTOs, programmers, etc. than coaching people in the marketing field.

Fourth, several interviewees described having “niches” plural and/or had adjacent services they offer, or activities they engaged in to balance out their coaching offering, which included consulting, writing, teaching (usually as a coaching instructor), resume assistance, assessments, webinars, or offering psycho-therapeutic services or counseling.

Finally, three interviewees insisted that niching is never complete, and as one put it “your niche evolves underneath you over time.” Niching, like coaching, may simply be a process of ongoing discovery, and if you do hit some rocks with the keel of your boat – well, that is part of the journey. A journey without a specific destination or final harbor.

Advice and reflections around niche: a compilation of thoughts from across the interview cohort.

“Most coaches niche way too soon. This is like choosing a winning Superbowl team if you have never watched a football game. You don’t know the teams and you have nothing on which to base your decision. But if you watch for an entire season, then you do have experience on which to base selection of your winning team. Same with coaching. Coach for a season, then decide. A year, or whatever a season means to you. Get enough experience to make an informed decision.”

“Coaches niche too soon because it is easier to spend time choosing a niche, and building a website, and writing blogs than it is to start an actual coaching business. You avoid that part out of fear and uncertainty. Get out there and start coaching, first and foremost.”

“First, I went up into my head to try to THINK through this. But what ultimately helped was working with a coach, who suggested I consider my journey, and what I most enjoy helping clients with. [So now I am] working with a broad range of people on the same type of things I have worked through myself: resilience, purpose, confidence, authentic leadership. The other threads (nature, adventure, outdoors) are really the method by which I do that work, the tools.”

“I’ve been focusing on Team coaching, shadowing team meetings, seeing how [clients] actually behave in action. This is a trend in the executive context, to shift the system. Still there is an intimacy in one-on-one coaching, which is satisfying and people’s deep hunger for meaning is significant – people are willing to sign up for an extended engagement to answer that question. [With that said,] market factors mean it may still be better to work with groups.”

“Niche as a type of business is different from demographics. When I launched my business, my insistence on a narrow niche definition led me to bankruptcy. When you define your niche, you base it on your current level of Awareness, so how do you know the niche you set for yourself is correct? You should be discovering it as you go.”

“Niche is helpful for the client to identify with and to find you. Niche is also important to create a specific product that you bring [to a specific] market. We need to inventory and identify our skills, background and map those to our potential niche. Be honest with yourself about what you have to offer. Also, what complementary services to offer (assessments, etc.). Last, be sure to join or create a community. Nothing happens if you are not part of a community.”

“My grandfather always said, “A Path Leads to a Path.” This is single most common sentiment my clients reflect back to me over time – it turns out to be true in their lives. Be cautious, don’t define your niche forever. Step into it now, what you are confident in, start with knowing it will evolve. It will feel better when you understand what works.”

“Do not get stuck in a scarcity mentality, which is especially easy in the early years of coaching. Mindset is so important. Don’t come at this as though you must land any client who will take you. Trying to take anyone who will be your client is just not attractive. Remember you are coming from a place of abundance, you have so much to offer. Also know when someone is just not going to make a good client – it is ok to let them go! Once you do all this, things open up more.”

“Focus on the triangle of: can they pay me, am I good at coaching them, do I like to coach them? Find clients at the intersection of that triangle and there is your niche.”

“About niche, there is also the layer of who is drawn to you and who you are drawn to, who are clients who get you excited vs. saying “Meh,” when you see them on your schedule? This should tell you who your people are.”

“Do I have a niche? Certainly not as we have trained and advised our coaching students. It is less than obvious. It is a WHAT I DO as opposed to a WHO WITH.”

“Make the distinction between marketing, and practice perspective. Marketing is a very specific avatar you create. You validate and segment your message by audience. Don’t confuse them. At the same time, you can market narrowly, but practice broadly. People will show up seeking something specific (e.g. seeking career coaching) and will lead to other referrals and areas of practice. And then you’ll see the next iteration of your life.”

“By the time you get to the second session it is all life coaching. Less than 50% of these executives [I work with] have business related issues: instead they are struggling with political situations, personal issues, “who am I and what do I want?” Usually it means a job change. Instead of identifying our target niche, we should identify our ideal client.”

As you can see there was an incredibly rich and diverse spectrum of advice on niching offered by the coaches interviewed. The above excerpts are barely a fraction of the niching content from these conversations but were selected to reflect the most relevant and consistent elements on the topic that occurred across the interview cohort.

Section two will be posted in the next article.

With thanks to the coaches interviewed!

Interviews, by Name, Organization and Date:

1.    Arias, Minor. Lideres Determinados, Vivir por Dise?o. November 5, 2019

2.    Atwood, Laura. Laura R. Atwood & Assoc. August 6, 2019

3.    Collison, Tara. Meddlers, October 10, 2019

4.    Corcoran, Heather. Corcoran Leadership, August 30, 2019

5.    Curtin, Katie. Life Design for Creative Souls, August 28, 2019

6.    Horey, Catriona. With Catriona. September 2, 2019

7.    Kennedy, Tracy. Kennedy Coaching and Consulting, September 19, 2019

8.    Mackay-Lewis, Hamish. Nature Calling, January 20, 2019

9.    Maddox, Paula. Paula’s Perspectives, July 26, 2019

10. McCree, Toku. Unexecutive, December 3, 2019

11. Polk, Melanie. Bright House Marketing and Coaching, September 5, 2019

12. Swale, Robbie. Robbie Swale Coaching, October 30, 2019

13. Toller, Michael. Michael Toller Coaching, November 25, 2019

14. Villalobos, Jose Antonio. Javs Mundo Leadership Coaching, October 11, 2019