Knowing who else, which others are in the market place is extremely beneficial to you, especially if you intend to make a going concern of your business.

Furthermore, being aware of the hidden details of the market place you propose to work in and who your competitors are is subsequently essential. When you are familiar with this piece of information it becomes an automatic measurement to your overall coaching practice success.

At this moment first steps first, let’s take the time to discover who your target market is. Read on to learn how you can define and understand the competition.

You would have already thought about your coaching niche, so you are in no doubt of the area your clients will want to have coaching on – that’s the topic of coaching!

Next, knowing your niche and topic is the heart of your practice, in other words knowing who will flock to your door because they are convinced you are an expert in your field i.e. executive coaching, group coach facilitator, relationship coaching, life coach trainer; there are so many speciality areas available to attract different types of paying client. Just a note here, I sincerely trust you have not made the mistake as many novice coach trainees and new business owners make of falsely thinking you can coach ‘everyone’ and spend unnecessary time and energy on worrying about missing out on sales opportunities, when in reality prospective clients actually turn away from you as they are confused about your exact coaching service and are apprehensive that you are not sufficiently qualified to coach them on their particular problem anyway!

The Market Place

Your chosen market place demographic area houses your target audience and more than likely your competitors too and according to your actions you’ll either fail miserably or achieve success levels that can be amazing.

By understanding your strengths and those of your business you’ll rise above the competition easily – it’s all a matter of positioning your coaching practice correctly.

There are 5 steps in planning and operating your business. Here’s what you can do to get ahead of the competition:

Step 1 Have A Vision: 

Right now take time out to get clear on your business vision and understand your overall goals. Once you can ‘see’ what you want and expect for your coaching practice you’ll move forward and be able to instigate the necessary legal procedures you need to take, such as entity structuring, handling strategic planning, your goals outlines and an analysis of your current client coaching portfolio.

Step 2 Opening Proposition: 

This is the time to go over your initial coaching proposition, what you intend to offer your clients. Think about our niche, your topic and your talents and skills.

Step 3 Market Intelligence: 

Regular review your market place and the competitors you find there. Keep abreast of what’s happening in respect of current trends and economic statistics. 

The bottom line, there is no one route to commercial coaching success, you have to invest in market research – your future depends upon it.

Step 4 Implementation: 

Implement what you’ve learned, this is the exciting step because now you get to see progress by putting into place with confidence all the right moves and can see that success is moving towards you!

Step 5 Ongoing Growth: 

In this step you’ll need to determine who else needs to be in your team to meet your annual targets and adjust for each new financial year. 

SOURCE: IIC GLOBAL COACH NEWSLETTER August 2011   sign up today.