It’s No Longer About the Pivot… It’s All About Niching Your Market For Success By Karla McDiarmid

The new buzz word in every business in every industry right now is ‘NICHE’. How you can best ‘niche’ your business for true success right now? With costs rising of electricity, petrol, groceries, and wages to name a few it’s extremely important we all have increased our service and product prices so that we continue to have financially viable businesses.

The next important business move is to focus on your business goals and what you and your customers really want more than ever before!

Set time aside to plan with your team or with a business partner or a business mentor ( or even talk with your top customers) so you can plan for success in these turbulent unknown times.

Would you have ever believed if someone said to you 3 years ago;

There will be clinics, spas, and hair salons not open on Saturdays! Businesses will be deleting services that were once very popular by choice! We will be training future employees in short courses vs diploma courses! OR What about the hair salons that no longer offering haircuts…

It was unheard of… but now it’s the new norm… every business is specialising and ‘niching’ Expect the unexpected and those who transition and are open to change and new ideas, are the businesses who will flourish and prosper the most over the coming years.

We are seeing an alarming rate of businesses closing with social media forums inundated with equipment and product sales right now… we have therapists leaving the industry in droves for careers paying higher rates with less hours and Monday - to Friday roles ‘work from home positions’

With all of this happening along with sick leave from customers and employees, its creating some very challenging and unknown territory for business owners but the most exciting part is NOW YOU TRULY HAVE THE POWER to create the business you have always wanted and get a pay rise because the staff shortages mean people are paying more to get appointments as many just cannot get appointments! Take a really good look at your service menu – delete your least booked 5 – 10 services at least. Are there treatments that make you minimal profit? Have you had a recent price increase? Do your team love only performing certain treatments? Do your clients always book the same packages? Its time to look at your bookings, delete what’s not moving, increase your prices and do what you love most and what your clients love and NICHE all the way to success and market this all over your website and social media branding.

Doing what we love is more important than ever before. Time is precious to our staff and to ourselves – everyone is looking now for a better work life balance – how can you create that in your workplace? You will attract what you put out so if its brows you want to be known for you will attract a team that all love brows!

We are seeing the shift in smaller more specialised treatment menus, focusing on what the team loves most and this also makes it much easier for hiring and training new employees, with training programs and induction time greatly reduced as there can be 20+ less treatments to train and assess so now you can focus on the treatments that give you more joy and satisfaction. You might be a business that loves all aspects of the industry, but look for the gaps in the market in your local area – increase your prices before Spring hits (if you haven’t already) create demand and be known for being the best in the industry in your area for the treatments you love most.

Niching is here to stay. Never has it been more important to grow your business financially, professionally and make your job more enjoyable doing what you love most to be the specialist’s in your field, in your region and shout it from the roof tops by inviting in your local media for treatments to help spread the word about how you are the specialised gurus in your field.

We all deserve a pay rise right now and being a specialist and niching your market, ensures a higher income for the entire team, creating higher demand for your services so you can charge your worth and love your career even more with waitlists wanting your services!

The time is now to Niche

Karla McDiarmid is the Macquarie Medi Spa Director and an ABIC Council Member and Business Mentor www.secretstosuccessbykarla.com