Why I chose website design for coaches
I’ve been running my freelance web design company for a couple of years now. Whilst I’ve been developing my company, one of the things that I realized was that I had to decide on exactly who I wanted to work with.
Every book or marketing post I read, every course I did, and pretty much every expert I followed was repeating it – I had to “niche down”. The idea of niching down scared the crap out of me as it just seemed like I was limiting myself to just one tiny group of people and saying no to everyone else. However, all the research I did and, most importantly, my experience made me realize two things:
- By marketing to everybody, you are marketing to nobody
- Only working with the same kind of client makes me better at my job
So, after years of ignoring the advice to find a niche, I eventually gave in and began the journey to discover ideal target client.
Before I began, I knew that I didn’t just want to find a niche or industry that had loads of money and needed websites. Although that might have been the easiest and most lucrative route, it’s just not what I want to get out of my website design business. I have another job, so money isn’t even the reason I do this.
Along my road of discovery, I attended a webinar in which they used the following formula to help find a niche:
Finding my Ideal website design client
STEP 1: List the things I’m good at.
For me it looked something like this:
- Building beautiful websites
- Designing logical and well-structured websites that attract and convert clients.
- Making complicated processes easy for people by breaking them down into easy-to-understand/achieve steps.
- Guiding busy or non-techy people through something as complicated as web design.
- Finding creative solutions to problems.
- Working really hard! I never give up until I achieved what I said I would (Guess that can be a strength and a weakness?)
STEP 2: List the things that you are passionate about.
The things I listed were:
- Personal development (due to my background in summer camps)
- Education
- Empower others to be better people
- Leadership
- Food
- Woodworking
- Board games
STEP 3: Find the sweetspot
The next step was to find a niche where something I’m good at overlaps with something I’m passionate about. However, that thing also has to be something that that people are interested in, and also that people are willing to pay for.
So with that, I quickly decided to scratch off food, woodworking, and board games. Whilst they could have been possibilities, I don’t think they really found the sweet spot of the areas overlapping I mentioned before.
However, the area that did make it all come together was coaching. For me building websites for coaches is that perfect overlap between something I think I’m great at, something I love doing, and the reality that there are a lot of coaches who need help with their websites and know it’s worth paying for.
I make it possible for coaches to help more people
Not only did choosing to narrow my focus to working with coaches help my marketing as it helped me to narrow my message to get heard by a very particular group, but it also helped me combine my passions and business.
Whether you’re a business coach, life coach, relationship coach, financial coach or whatever you still help people overcome an obstacle in their life. You help them become unstuck. I’ve been there, done that, and had coaching to help me overcome it.
The fact that I can help the coaches of the world do that more is AWESOME! So, if I ever feel uncomfortable about sales or putting myself out there or whatever, I just need to remind myself what I do – I make it possible for coaches to help more people.
I love building websites for coaches
Not only does my coaching website design business allow me to feel great about putting more good into the world, but you know what? It’s actually really enjoyable. On the most part, the kind of people who leave their jobs to become a coach are pretty cool people.
It’s awesome to be able to work with coaches who are really passionate about helping people. I get such a buzz when I can resonate with a client’s passions, and then help them make those passions a reality.
Making the shift from designing any old website to only designing website for coaches and other do-good entrepreneurs like therapists, educators, etc. has been one of the best decisions I’ve made!
