DAT.3 Identifying your niche market for your fitness business

“The riches are in the niches” – It’s an annoying phrase as it doesn’t rhyme

You can’t say riches correctly and then say niches correctly.

It just doesn’t WORK

However finding your niche is massively important to developing your business, especially if  you are a fitness coach with a small team (maybe just one – you)

You can’t service everyone

But coaches are always trying to do that

I’ve asked coaches many times what market they service

• “I help people lose weight”
• “I help people get into shape without giving up the foods they like”

Or the classic

• “I work with busy professionals”

It’s all too generalist

Busy professionals?

• In what industry?
• Male or female?
• Over 35 or younger?
• Do they exercise in the gym or at home?
• Are they vegan or omnivore?

When you drill into these elements your coaching becomes more specialised and as such you can guarantee a better result.

In my BUILD Body program I work with people over 30 who enjoy training in the gym, have been training a few years and want to build more lean muscle. 

Because I have these criteria the program is built around that result.

So it’s very specific in what it delivers.

• Of course I’m ignoring people under 30 here.
• I’m also ignoring people who train from home.

Both those are massive markets.

But because I do ignore them I don’t have to account for those variables in my product offering.

• People over 30 have a very different viewpoint on life than those in their mid 20’s
• Gym goers also have a different range of habits from those who train at home.
• People who have just started out with the gym need more guidance and direction in certain areas than those who have a grasp of the basics of training.

Now imagine if I’d tried to include those people in BUILD.

• Could I have designed program that catered to them as well? SURE THING!
• In fact I have a whole home workout library that I built for lockdown.  
• I’ve worked with people under 30 and got great results
• I’ve worked with beginners in my 1:1 coaching

But here’s the thing

A program like that would be so watered down no one would want it.

Plus because BUILD offers twice weekly coaching calls (just like my BUILD Business program) the calls would be so generalist in nature with so many different questions it would be helpful to only the person asking the question.

When you have a group call you want everyone to get some sort of value from it, that just doesn’t work for a really diverse population.

If everyone’s on the same wavelength then everyone gets great value and learns new things, even if they have no questions to ask.

Having a niche isn’t just about having a catchy IG bio either

Honestly, if people do care enough to read your bio they are likely invested in your content anyway (as they would have clicked through)

If your content, which is designed for your niche, engages with them then on some level they are your niche so just because you say you work with dads doesn’t mean you can’t work with mums.  It’s just that your stuff is designed more for dads.

FACT: when I designed BUILD Body I thought that more men would be customers not women.  In fact it’s been a hit with women.  I didn’t specify that it was for men but all the language was more masculine in nature.  Or so I thought lol

I realise why you may want to appeal to everyone, because you don’t want to exclude people from your potential customer base and lose out on income.

However I hope the brief example I mentioned previously helped to sway you towards finding your niche.

• What’s the next steps then?
• What if you pick the wrong niche?

Well here’s the great thing, you don’t have to commit to that niche forever.

Over my time I’ve worked with many niches:

• Bodybuilding show prep
• Women for fat loss without exercise
• Entrepreneur men who are on the road most of the week

I delivered great results for all these people but eventually moved on to my current BUILD niche for my body transformation coaching.

In my BUILD Business coaching I work with a specific type of fitness business coaches and independent gym owners.

Because I know how to get these niches great results I don’t broaden out to say Yoga gyms or coaches. 

Before you decide on a niche you want to work with you can ‘date’ it for a bit, find out if it’s really the area you want to work in, if it can pay you the money you need and if you can get them great results.

The best niche will be that which you can tick all 3.