Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship, Part 2, Polish Your Niche

From passion to business ideas

So in Part 1 of this Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship series, you went inside to realize your passion. You made a list of things you love and why. That is your niche. (Image by Patrick J Lynch)

Starting a business is really simple. You now develop that niche to something people love to pay for. It doesn’t have to be something that EVERYONE wants to get. A long tail market is sufficient if the product or the service can be promoted on the internet.

So, in my case (again, I’m using my own real life experience as an example), I decided to become a life coach with my passion for personal development. I paid several thousand dollars for the professional training course. I set up a sales page on this Yes to Me blog about my programs. (The page is currently taken down.) Here is a post that I wrote in one of my marketing efforts.

Can you take failures and learn from them?

Starting a business is really simple. Note I didn’t say easy.

I failed completely as a life coach. In fact, it was worse than a failure. It was more like a sad stillbirth. It never really took off. Failures would mean something I did wrong in my practice or business development. In my case, I just got no paying clients.

Looking back, I can think of some reasons why I failed as life coach:

1. I did not market it well – I didn’t define my niche clearly and appropriately.
2. I did not make enough marketing efforts.
3. I gave up too quickly.
4. I am meant to do something else.

In all my honesty, I can’t say it’s because I don’t have the skills to be a successful coach. Again, if I had clients and they left me quickly or something, then I can assume this may be the case. But in my case, so few people really got to know me as a coach. So it’s more of a marketing problem than skill problem, I think.

Another potential problem is – well, by now I know quite a few life coaches, but not as many people who are hiring or have hired coaches. I myself didn’t have a coach before (I hired one this spring to summer when I realized this.) So, I wonder if my passion for personal development was polished enough to the point that people would love to pay for when I decided to do coaching?

More questions to contemplate to find your winning niche

Is your niche polished to the point that it is marketable? That is, is it something worth paying for?

If not, a few more questions you might want to ask yourself are:

• Are there services or products you gladly pay for and you wish to be the provider of? Can you become the provider? Don’t write off your interests too quickly as outrageous.
• Are there any qualities about yourself and your life that you perceive as your weakness? Are there service or products that can improve them, or can you think of some new services that can improve them? Can you provide them?

The reason you might want to check your “weakness” is that if you can see it as weakness, you are probably not too far from solutions. People who are truly clueless don’t even know their weaknesses.

While I was “searching for my soul” to define my new life path, I had the opportunity to have my Akashic Record read. I was so impressed that I decided to learn how to do it myself. This is when I was still thinking of becoming a life coach, and on the conscious level, I thought this was just one more thing I’m adding to my learning. One the deeper level, however, I must say I knew something . . .

I always knew words and ideas came from thin air when I wanted to write. And when I started to meditate daily last year (I had been meditating on and off for over twenty years or so, but I made a clear decision to do this daily after reading the Secret), I got the idea to move to Portland, Oregon, which I obliged. The relocation really opened up a lot of space within me and let me be myself. All these events were leading me to this psychic stuff . . .

So thanks to the wonderfully structured training my teacher gave me, I now offer Akashic Record Reading. It’s something I paid happily, so I know there are people who would pay for this service And it beautifully fits with my passion for personal development and my love of working with various people.

Polishing your niche is an ongoing effort

It’s not something you do once and for all to become an entrepreneur. You need to keep becoming a successful entrepreneur. I currently spend half my time learning more and developing my skills further. I can already offer accurate reading and make my clients happy, so possibly I can use the time to take in more clients to make more money, but I don’t think that is a wise approach.

Also, I think a lot how I want to develop my niche further. For example, do I want to keep this business to myself or do I want to partner up and carve out a bigger niche? I don’t have a written business plan – I prefer to keep things fluid at this time – but I do have ideas how to serve more clients.

Are you finding a niche you can market? Then read on to Part 3.

Related reading: Why I Couldn’t Become An Entrepreneur Earlier How I missed out the opportunities before. Learn from my mistakes and fears.

Gratitude For The Things I Don’t Like, Online Gratitude Journal #14

I don’t like saying no. I don’t like being looked down upon. And I don’t like . . .

Well, you got the idea, right? Recently I faced a couple of difficult situations in my business. In one case, someone contacted me offering to write about my Akashic Record Reading service in her newsletter that reaches 5000 plus individuals. Quite nice. But as we discussed the details of the deal, it turned out – well, I’m not comfortable disclosing the details at this time, but I came to the conclusion that it is best to politely decline the offer. (Photo by Mr. Greenjeans)

It was an interesting learning experience. I knew I was a people pleaser (which is wonderful when it manifests positively in my service) but I didn’t realize saying no made me this nervous. I see that I need to detach more and let my business grow slowly. So for that learning opportunity, I am grateful for the incidents.

I guess every “I don’t like . . .” comes from my own fear. So when I say thanks to the learning it offers, I grow just a little bigger.

Update on the Heroes of Healing group writing project

Please check out my friend Jenny Mannion’s wonderful project that list many great leaders of modern spiritual healing. The link actually takes you to her beautiful new front page, from which you can go to her blogs or to this project. I love the way the project grew and expanded in an organic way over so many blogs. From Yes to Me, Ari Koinuma and Mokihana Calizar found this project and participated. And, oh, my own contribution is here. Thank you!

Yes to Me is about entrepreneurship and personal development, so I don’t talk about healing so often here, but actually I’m deeply involved in spiritual healing. My Akashic Record Reading service is about healing the past wounds and various energetic interferences on our souls. Many clients report improved sleep and less anxiety after the reading and clearing, for example. And I’m exploring wider applications of this modality.

Yes to Me gets Google Page Rank 4

I have no idea what earned the upgraded ranking, but I guess we can use this as a cause for celebration So here are some herb tea and cookies for all my readers. Thank you for reading and commenting!

Here are the ten most viewed posts of the last three months with average viewing time. It looks to me that you like reading these posts a lot. (If you are jumping to read these posts, please stumble on them so that others can find them as well. Thank you)

1. Review: How Ordinary People Became Millionaires (2:12)
2. Can Gallup’s StrengthFinder Test Really Discover My Strengths? (2:26)
3. Review: The True Power Of Water By Masaru Emoto (1:44)
4. Are You Mentally And Emotionally Ready To Start Your Own Business? (1:33)
5. What’s The Best Thing That Can Happen? (2:44)
6. Dodging The Many Forms Of Psychological Manipulation (3:30)
7. Real Life Lessons On How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur (4:06)
8. Comparing America And Japan (4:25)
9. 5 Qualities I Find In Successful Entrepreneurs (4:41)
10. Law Of Attraction, Million Dollar Check, And Business Growth (3:50)

Hmm, reviews get high SEO, I guess. Also, one of the articles is a guest post by Flora Brown and another is a combo writing I did with Hunter Nuttall. It’s proof that cooperation is rewarding!

My Law of Attraction Dream Money Project, Week 13, $409,600

After creating a foundation two weeks ago, which was fun and rewarding, I feel the need to recharge myself. So I’m going to buy a house near the beach – by cash. It’s a little hideaway on midhill that commands the ocean view. I can go there anytime – just two hours drive. I will furnish it country style. A fireplace made of reclaimed old bricks. The kitchen table has thick solid oak top, and I will have fresh flowers from the garden arranged in an antique milk jar. And then, I will hire a property manager so I can rent it out by the week to people who want relaxing down time away from the busy urban life.

And when I am ready to leave, this house can be my funeral home. I want my cremation to be spread over the ocean. I’ve eaten many fish, so they can take some of my calcium

Next week, we resume the Inside Out Approach To Entrepreneurship. Have a great weekend!

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