Seven Simple Steps to Finding a Profitable and Rewarding Niche in Yoga Teaching
A few of the primary keys to building a great business include having a clear purpose and a targeted niche to serve. Before you actually start your yoga teaching business, your next step is figuring out exactly who your market is. No business, especially a small one, can be all things to all people. The more narrowly you can define your target market, the better. The process of creating a niche is a key to success for even some of the largest companies. Target and Tiffany’s are both retailers, but they have very different niches. Target caters to budget-minded shoppers, while Tiffany’s appeals to people interested in upscale jewelry. Rather than creating a niche, many yoga teachers and studio owners make the mistake of falling into the “everything to everyone” trap, claiming they can do many things and be good at all of them. This can lead to a tough lesson. There is a saying that “smaller is bigger in business” and smaller is not all over the map, it’s highly focused.
So, how do you determine your niche? Try this seven step process:
- Make a wish list. With whom do you want to do business? Who do you want in your yoga classes? Identify the geographical range and the types of clients you want to target. If you don’t know who you want to serve, you can’t efficiently make contact with them. You must recognize that you can’t do business with everyone. If you try to do so, you will only exhaust yourself and confuse your potential clients. Examples of niches include teaching yoga to kids ages 5-12, teaching yoga to busy professional adults at their workplaces, etc. Focus on who you want to teach and be specific.
- Identify exactly what you plan to sell to your clients. Services you may want to sell could include yoga classes, yoga retreats, private yoga lessons, etc. Pick one or two things you want to sell to be your focus.
- Describe your client’s world view. Identify your clients’ needs and their main concerns. The best way to do this is to talk with prospective clients and find out what they want.
- Synthesize. Bring together the information you have developed regarding who your clients are, what they want and what you plan to sell. Create a couple of niches from this information.
- Evaluate. From the niches you have created, check if any of your niches have the following five qualities: 1) It matches with your lifestyle, long-term goals and what you want to do; 2) It provides something that people want; 3) It can be carefully planned; 4) It’s somewhat unique or different from what has already been done; 5) It can evolve and grow over time. You may find that a niche you had in mind won’t fit with your lifestyle because it would require too much travel or maybe the niche is something that is already oversaturated and has already been done way too much.
- Test. Once you find your niche test-market it. Give people a chance to try out your service. This can be done by offering a free workshop or class or by offering a sample copy of your newsletter and asking for feedback. The test shouldn’t cost you much money.
- Go for it. It’s time to implement your idea. This can be the most difficult stage. But fear not – if you did your homework, entering the market will be a calculated risk, not just a gamble.
Once you have found your niche and become established in the market, you must continue to re-niche to keep growing. This doesn’t mean to drastically change your focus, but simply to further adapt to the environment around you. One way to do this is to ask yourself the following questions as you develop your niche and ask them every six months or so after that to make sure your niche is still on target.