As myths and old wives tales go, one of the most popular ones told by many small business advisors and the media has to be:

"95% of all small businesses fail within five years"

This is usually closely followed by "but 95% of franchises succeed” or "87% of businesses that use our guidance succeed" or some other sales pitch.

While that makes a good sound bite (especially if you are a selling a franchise), how come you never see any actual references or citations of these so-called statistics?

Most coaches, consultants, and public speakers fall into the "small business" category, and many people are afraid to take the leap into starting their own small business in one of these areas because of the "horror stories" that are propagated by the under-informed. 

I’ve had countless conversations over the years with friends and acquaintances who wanted to go out on their own, but were afraid of the "high failure rate" of starting your own business and instead opted for the "safety" of being someone else’s employee.

As I was putting together an article on time management, the topic came up and I decided to do a little research on my own instead of just blindly spouting the same uncited statistics I’d heard for over 10 years.

I found out – to my surprise — that the Small Business Association puts small business five-year survival rates at anywhere from 45% (in this report) to 75% (in this report).  Either way, that’s a LOT higher than the commonly quoted 5% survival rate!

In fact, this SBA report even shows evidence that franchises are LESS profitable and have LOWER survival rates than independently run businesses.

There are many potential reasons for this, but that is not the focus of this article.  I’ve given you the links above to start your own research if you are so inclined.

My point is that if you have something worthwhile to say, something that can truly benefit others, then don’t let unfounded myths and fairy tales keep you from developing your full potential and sharing your light with the world.

Whether it’s full or part-time, by yourself or with partners, learn how to share your expertise (or the expertise of others) by creating information marketing products that can help others.  Along the way, you’ll be able to generate a passive income stream that deposits into your bank account while you sleep.

(…And next time you hear someone spout off an uncited statistic, take it with a grain of salt.  57% of them are dead wrong.  )

When it comes to getting the most "bang for your buck", niche marketing is critically important for coaches, consultants, and public speakers on a tight budget.  However, there’s more to niche marketing than just tailoring your advertising to a specific segment of the population.  If you really want to "turbo-charge" your results, there are four specific areas you should be focusing on.

But first, let’s see how spaghetti sauce can teach us a lesson in the power of niche marketing.

I recently watched Malcolm Gladwell’s TED presentation on "What We Can Learn From Spaghetti Sauce", where he tells the story of Howard Moskowitz’s massive impact on the food industry by showing them how to cater to the diverse palates of their customers.  For example, before Moskowitz, there used to be only ONE flavor of Prego® spaghetti sauce, and now (as of today) there are TWENTY-TWO.

Why?  Because while conducting consumer taste tests many years ago, Moskowitz discovered that some people liked the original flavor, but some people preferred a spicier version, and still others liked more garlic, while there were many who preferred a chunky variety, and so on. 

Rather than pick out the ONE most popular flavor and market ONLY that one flavor (which was the original point of conducting the taste tests), Moskowitz convinced the decision-makers at Prego that they needed to diversify their choices and offer MULTIPLE flavors, because that’s what their customers wanted.

Prego was previously behind Ragu® in sales of spaghetti sauce, but once they unveiled their new line-up of multiple flavors to the world, Prego stormed to the number one position.  The food industry hasn’t been the same since.  Multiple flavors of the same product abound on every aisle of your local grocery store.  (Gladwell tells the story much better than I do here.)

Are You Catering To Your Market’s Diverse Taste Buds?

That story reminds me of how many coaches, consultants, and public speakers have only one or two "flavors" to offer their target markets. 

Chances are, you have already identified a target market that likes your "sauce", but how many different ways are you giving them to benefit from your "secret recipe"?  How do you separate the "sauce lovers" who prefer "chunky" to "spicy"?  How do you capture the ones who are on the outer edges of your net, but aren’t quite convinced you can help them yet?

In other words, how diverse is your product and/or service line?  Rather than assuming that "one size fits all", you might want to ask yourself the following questions:

• How many different ways am I appealing to the multiple sub-niches of my target market?
• How many different presentations do I have?
• How many services do I offer?
• How many different books (or e-books) have I written? 
• How many home study courses do I have?
• Do I have multiple price points?
• Do I have separate products and/or services for beginners through advanced?
• How many levels of membership are there on my website?
• Do I have separate products for different ethnic groups?
• Do I offer my message and products in more than one language?

If you do NOT currently have any information products, and you plan on doubling your income in a way that is both scalable and generates passive income (instead of by just doubling the number of hours you work each week), then let me suggest you first focus on creating some information products quickly and cheaply. 

Assuming you’ve already done that, then adding more flavors to your lineup comes down to one or more of the following Turbo Niche Marketing™ Methods:

1. Niche Your Message
2. Niche Your Media
3. Niche Your Pricing
4. Niche Your Advertising

Think of them as the four legs to your marketing table.  You can use any one of these methods on its own, but you should eventually be doing a combination of them if you REALLY want to double your income quickly.  I’ll cover each of these methods separately below (with numerous examples). Read the rest of this entry »

Occasionally, I’ll run across a consultant, coach, or public speaker who claims they are not in business to “get rich”.  They don’t need to make any more money.  They don’t want to become one of those “used car salespeople” shilling products from the stage or to their clients (nothing against 99% of the used car salespeople out there – there’s just that 1% giving you a bad rep ).

I respect that.  Everyone has their own comfort level when it comes to income.  Unfortunately, society trains us to work paycheck to paycheck rather than strive for financial freedom.

As funny as it might sound to some people, there are those who would rather struggle and HAVE to go to work rather than enjoy abundance and go to work because they WANT to (I define “struggle” as needing next month’s income to pay the bills, versus being able to stop working for a year or more to refresh your soul and not worry about money in the meantime).

However, I believe the idea that "I don’t need to make any more money" is flawed on several levels.

Stop Cheating Your Target Market And Start Helping Them

I’ve spoken with speakers, coaches, and consultants who refuse to create a product to sell, and are content with just their fees.  Some of them even speak and consult for free (because they have a full-time job for income) and STILL don’t have a product to sell.  If you are one of those people, what you don’t realize is that you are cheating your clients and audiences out of something to bring home and review at their leisure.

Whether you are a consultant, coach, or public speaker, if someone is interested enough in your advice or topic to willingly sit still and listen to you for 60 minutes (or longer), then chances are pretty good that they need more than just their memories to rely on days, weeks, or months after your presentation.

Most people learn best through a combination of hearing, seeing, doing, and especially repetition.  If you don’t have something for your target market to take home,  Read the rest of this entry »