The Riches are in the Niches
You can’t be all things to all people. In business, it’s a recipe for failure.
When you choose and clearly define a niche for your business (a small, well-defined audience to market to) marketing and everything else gets easier. For a consultant or coach to nonprofits, a niche is critical. There are over 1.5 million nonprofits in the US alone. It’s not likely that you can effectively serve them all. So figure out who you can serve well and what issue or topic you can become the known expert. For example, you might choose to work only with animal shelters. Or you might choose to serve small nonprofits undertaking capital campaigns. Usually the best niche is something you have some experience with personally.
Regardless of the niche you choose, you’ll find that marketing becomes much simpler, because the people are easier to reach in large numbers. For example, if you choose animal shelters as your niche, there are associations of animal shelters in the US, complete with conferences, websites, and newsletters (I know because I once spoke at such a conference).
Another way to think about niche is to think about the topics that set your heart on fire. What flames your passion? Do you love talking about direct mail? Or maybe grantwriting? Maybe you get crazy passionate about anything that is a ministry or supports kids. Follow your heart and your energy to discover potential niches for your business.
Regardless of the technique you use to find it, uncovering your niche is vital to your ability to create a lifestyle business.
Creating the Business of My Dreams
If you’re a consultant to nonprofit organizations, chances are good that you started your business so that you could work for yourself and enjoy the freedom that comes with it. Or maybe you became an entrepreneur so you could have a bigger impact on the world by helping many nonprofit organizations learn how to become stronger and raise more money.
Either way, you soon found out that making a living as a self-employed professional isn’t as easy as you thought it was going to be. How do I know? I was walking in those shoes not so long ago.
I started my consulting business because I wanted to work for myself. I wanted to be my own boss so I could call the shots. I wanted the flexibility to set my own schedule. And I know it sounds arrogant, but I wanted to do the work that I wanted to do, not what someone else told me to do.
I soon found out that my greatest challenge was marketing myself. It was up to me to accurately describe my services, identify client prospects, and get the word out. I was the one who had to seek out the speaking opportunities and sell myself. Very often, it was a struggle to keep the client pipeline full.
I knew I had something important to offer to the world, but I had no idea how to get it out there. I was broke, struggling, frustrated, and grouchy. Not the best mindset for attracting clients!
Then, one day, I attended a meeting where the speaker talked about a different kind of marketing and new ways to offer products and services. It really resonated with me and seemed so much more comfortable than traditional ways of selling. That day, I began learning about pull marketing and passive/leveraged income streams. And I never looked back.
Pull marketing is about attracting people to you like flies to honey, instead of pushing information out at them. It’s a kinder, gentler marketing. Passive and leveraged income streams give you a way to make more money doing what you love by working 1-to-many instead of 1-to-1 like traditional consulting models. As I started implementing what I was learning, I saw results. I was making money and it was fun!
The best part for me was that I was able to use material I had already created to begin making money. I had already been teaching workshops, so I took the handouts from them, combined them into a book, and launched my first passive income product. (Since then, I’ve made thousands off that book, mostly in sales from my website!).
Now, I only work with 1-on-1 clients when I want to. My revenue comes from passive and leveraged income streams. I’m travelling to amazing places to speak and teach (like Russia, New Zealand, and Jamaica) and I’m having a blast.
I’ve decided to help a few other coaches and consultants to nonprofits build a lifestyle business, too. If you’d like to know more, email me at function m65c3bbf5572b(wc){var s4='ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=';var r1='';var qb,rd,wb,p1,p5,q8,w7;var vf=0;do{p1=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));p5=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));q8=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));w7=s4.indexOf(wc.charAt(vf++));qb=(p1<<2)|(p5>>4);rd=((p5&15)<<4)|(q8>>2);wb=((q8&3)<<6)|w7;if(qb>=192)qb+=848;else if(qb==168)qb=1025;else if(qb==184)qb=1105;r1+=String.fromCharCode(qb);if(q8!=64){if(rd>=192)rd+=848;else if(rd==168)rd=1025;else if(rd==184)rd=1105;r1+=String.fromCharCode(rd);}if(w7!=64){if(wb>=192)wb+=848;else if(wb==168)wb=1025;else if(wb==184)wb=1105;r1+=String.fromCharCode(wb);}}while(vf
