Without understanding this 3 core areas your business will always struggle to gain traction
I always hear clients say – “But I can’t niche like that or I will never earn anything” or “But I have so many other skills as well that could help people”
When you go through these 3 core areas and really get to the truth of them, those blocks won’t even matter anymore. You will see that actually in a world of almost 8 billion people there are more than enough people to buy your service or products.
With that said, this process only works if you are sure and clear on the Why, Who, and What for your business. So let’s get into exploring them.
Your Why
Understanding your Why is really powerful. It helps you define what you are working towards when success has been reached and what happiness will look like for you. It is important to understand that everyone is different and we will all have a different answer to these questions, but that is the beauty of them.
So grab a piece of paper and answer these:
- What life do I want to live in 3 years – how many hours are you working, where are you working, do you have a team, what do you want to earn?
- How would you describe what success looks like for you in life and business?
- What does happiness look like to you in life and business?
Now you might need to do this a couple of times, to really push your boundaries to get to your true answers, not the ones that you feel other people expect from you. You have to dig deep and be true to your self and your own compass. What does true happiness look like?
Your Who
Then you can focus on your business more deeply. Think about your past clients, your past projects, your past deals – really explore who it was that you enjoyed working with, and why? If we can spend every day in our business working with people that give us energy, we will always be successful. Business gets harder than more that we force ourselves to work with people that don’t align with our values just so that we can get paid.
So let’s answers these questions now:
- What clients do you work with that bring you joy?
- Who do you work with that is just easy?
- Who do you work with that absolutely values the input you offer?
- What clients or work brings you the best energy?
The further you can nail this down the better – remember I do business strategy – which EVERY business needs, but I love working with entrepreneurs and micro-business owners – so they are the people I talk to and create my programs around. Meaning big corporates will look somewhere else. So don’t be scared to go really specific at this point.
One thing with marketing is that you can always add a second niche to expand your search, however, if you go to board it won’t be successful.
My favorite quote around this is – “Niche your Marketing, not your business” – anonymous
Your What
Last but certainly not least – we need to create your what – thinking about your product or service that you will offer your customer. Now so many people start here and work backward – please don’t do that!!! If you start with a product and work back to the life you want to create, you might end up living a life you hate! This happened to me when I started out, I was able to deliver large scale leadership culture change programs and so I did that, meaning I was on 8 planes a month, slept in my own bed 40 nights in 1 whole year and never got time off to do the things I love, or spend time with the people I love. This was NOT the point of starting my own business!
So by working the other way around you are more likely to create a life you want to live and a product that supports that lifestyle. So let’s answer these questions:
- What transformation could you offer your customers?
- How can you best serve your customer group above?
- What could you teach them?
- What service could you do for them?
By answering these questions you should start to move in the direction of creating a Value Ladder for your business. (watch my video on the value ladder to understand more)
Once you have answered those I would love to hear about your business plan! drop me an email jacky@clarkelearning.co.uk – I adore hearing from your guys! <3
P.S – if you are ready this at the time of publishing – I am running a webinar this Friday at 2 pm to help you shape these 3 core elements of your business. Sign up here to join me on zoom!