So you have decided to start an online fitness business!
Congratulations, you have already taken one big step towards creating freedom in your life.
When you join the land of the online fitness entrepreneur you can escape brutal landscape that is the Globo-gym floor and instead walk your own path, bring in more income, and decide to what degree you will have a work/life balance (and not have that decided for you).
It’s Time To Pick A Niche
I’ve done videos, articles, and even full seminars on this topic to thousands of people and yet fitness entrepreneurs keep making the same mistake – they pick way too general of categories when trying to start a business.
Listen, you NEED to find a niche in this health and fitness business that you become a specialist in.
Let that sink in and become a part of every decision you make moving forward from here because this is something that I can honestly tell you will make or break you.
“What! How can that break me? I’m a good coach!”
Nobody is questioning that, I bet you are a good coach.
The problem here is that the internet has so much free content these days and so many already existing experts that it’s almost impossible to gain any traction if you pretend that you’re a jack-of-all-trades.
Let me tell you something, it is much easier to find customers and build a following in a super specialized niche that you completely dominate.
Where you become the absolute go-to in that area that everyone refers to and links to.
For example, in the absolutely crowded area of sports performance, Kevin and I have absolutely crushed it by niching down to hockey players.
In another example, just by calling myself a “nutrition specialist” in my gym I was able to separate myself from the other personal trainers in my gym and gain way more business than they did even though we were all under the same roof.
They all had the same title, I didn’t.
It’s One Step Away
I absolutely hate calling anything in business a “hack” because business is hard work, but, if there is one hack in this game it’s changing your name in order to attract a target audience.
Imagine you were the: “Permanent Weight Loss Specialist for Women Over 40”
Can you see how much easier it would be to build a following under that banner than just being a “Personal Trainer”?
And how people will be more than happy to pay premium prices for that type of specialized coaching?
People love specialists and have them consult their problems and needs.
And not only are they happy to – but they expect to pay premium prices for your services.
So, you need to find a specialized topic, niche, or product in the health and fitness field that is currently underserviced.
Something that people would love to have but isn’t really available right now. Then, become the top expert in that area.
How Do I Become The Expert?
Well, if you already know your niche than you probably also know a bunch of sub-niches within that niche.
I don’t want you to go a mile wide and an inch deep here, instead, think about going an inch wide and a mile deep.
No niche is too small, when you dominate a category you will have a ton of customers. I promise you that.
Since you are probably already knowledgeable/passionate about a particular area in this industry, you probably also then have a good idea on what’s already under-serviced.
It might even be something that you wish was available now or early in your career. Something that’s missing.
Be the one that fills this void whether you have the skills right now or not.
It’s not hard to find all the information you could ever want; Google and YouTube are two universities I’d recommend for you.
They’re free, and they have more content on them then you could ever get through in many lifetimes.
Getting Smarter
With those above two highly respected universities, get ideas on niche topics and become an expert by subscribing to popular blogs, then subscribe to successful blogs (these are different in many cases).
Read the blogs, and then also read the comments section.
This also goes for books, book reviews, forums, Facebook groups, Quora, and YouTube comment sections – basically anywhere people are hanging out surrounding your given topic.
Not only will you gain knowledge doing this, it’s also free market research when you look at the comment sections and forum threads.
Completely unfiltered market research straight to your monitor screen.
You can also poll your Facebook or Instagram friends about this, or you can also ask people questions directly in already existing Facebook groups and forums:
What’s the #1 problem with *niche topic*
What do you wish was available for *niche topic*
What has been your biggest frustration with *niche topic*
These will be eye-opening answers, things you never thought of.
For example, when Kevin and I started Hockey Training we thought that NHL-style workouts were going to be the best-selling programs, yet our youth programs have been our #1 product and main driver of the business.
You will never know until you ask, and then once you get the answer, get to work.
Don’t ever assume you already know what people want because you don’t. instead, always ask and just keep asking.
How To Pick Your Profitable Fitness Niche: Step #1
So now you understand why it’s so important to have a niche, now let’s explore a little bit on how you figure out which niche is right for you based on your own interests and what demands currently exist in the market.
Step #1 is to make a big list of the different possible ideas for your business. Go crazy with this one, it doesn’t have to be super precise. Here are some questions to get your brainstorming mind on fire:
- What niche are you currently a customer of?
- What is your biggest passion in life?
- Why did you get into the health and fitness industry?
- What are your hobbies and why?
- When you think about your dream business, what is it?
- Do you have unique skills that could be utilized in unique ways that the health industry doesn’t offer much of?
Write down answers to all of these questions and let your mind wander. Don’t worry, we’ll narrow it down in a second.
But for now, it’s important that you get crazy with this one so we don’t miss anything.
Don’t say what you think is right, say whatever comes to mind.
Step #2
From the above brainstorming, pick your top 6 niches.
Focus on the ideas that you would enjoy most in business and not just think you would profit most from business.
Remember, you will only ever be able to display the most charismatic qualities about yourself when you’re doing something you love, and people follow people, they don’t follow ideas.
You need to be excited about this if you want anyone else to get excited about it, and you need to be excited about this if you’re ever going to make it work long-term.
Step #3
Once you have dialed it down to 6 things that you’re pretty excited about, it’s time to look at them more closely and identify where there might be more profit available than other ideas.
Most of this research can be done online and with some basic common knowledge surrounding the niche that you have picked (which you should already be competent in).
Once you have found your niche out of these six that you feel you are both passionate about and also feel has profit potential…we have a winner.
More Tips on Picking Your Niche
If the above three steps didn’t give you a clear idea, try running through these to get a better idea:
- Do a Google key word search on your
niche. Make it a broad word search, then analyze the different niches. Believe it
or not, competition is a bit of a good thing here – it lets you know there is
money to be made. This search will help you brainstorm further, see what your
competition is doing, and determine whether or not there is actually a market
for your idea.
- Do a keyword specific search. Think broad
and then move to small. For example, “Hockey” – then “hockey training” – then “hockey
training program” – would all be examples of moving from broad to niche. Your broad
term will get a lot of results (well, it should) but if you still have thousands
of searches for the smaller terms then your niche is ripe for business
generation.
- Repeat step number two but do it on
Amazon now and see what you get.
- Use affiliate market databases like ClickBank to see if a product already exists in your niche and then determine how you can do it better.
Final Thoughts
Picking a niche online is tough, nobody said this was going to be easy.
But, it’s also one of those things that is truly “make or break” for you. It needs to be done, and it needs to be done right. I hope this article opened your eyes to that and provided you some value on how to find your profitable niche so you can start dominating now instead of “someday”.
And if you’re ready for the ultimate platform to teach you how to build a business online, check out the Create Freedom Academy and get started today.
Dan Garner
