laneimageconsultingA lingerie product line, a weight loss program & colour analysis….
I bet you can’t guess what these three services have in common!
The answer is me! At one point I was providing all these services, all at the same time!🤔
When I started my first business, Nutri-Style back in March 2006, I’m not ashamed to say that I hadn’t a clue what I was doing.
Nutri-Style started out offering nutrition and image consulting sessions but I kept adding services in an effort to attract clients. I had no idea what an ideal client was and no idea who I was marketing to.
My thinking was that if I kept adding services and working with everyone, then I would get a steady flow of clients. Ever have this thought yourself?
What actually happened was no one knew the heck what I was offering! I totally confused people and even myself.
One minute I was clothes shopping with someone and the next I was reviewing someones food diary. The final straw may have been when I added a lingerie line to my business offerings. I didn’t sell even 1 bra! I don’t actually know what I was thinking.
I was run ragged trying to be everything to everyone and getting a random client here and there. My days were filled with coming up with new ideas and trying to market these ideas to everyone. The clients I did get, were often difficult and not easily pleased.
The money I had saved to start my business was now well gone and I started to think about having to go back to my corporate job. I really, really didn’t want to have to do that!
Thankfully, I didn’t actually have to go back to my old job and slowly, I kinda fell into my niche and I became known for colour analysis.
Colour was my favourite thing to do and I had 100% clarity around that. This was by far my most successful service and the more I worked with colour the more expertise I gained. My message around colour was extremely clear to me and to my clients and they were attracted to come and do colour analysis with me. The beauty of this was that it was an entry to all my other services so clients started to flow in more regularly.
Oh how I wished that I had niched down earlier but I didn’t hear about ideal client work until I was several years into my business. This has been one of the reasons why I now provide a Free 5 Day Challenge to Image Consultants & Personal Stylists to help you identify your ideal client and turn your image business into a profitable enterprise.
The one bit of advise that I give to image consultants now is that you must niche down as early in your business as possible. While it may seem counter intuitive, it is the only way you will become an expert in a particular area and then get to charge the big bucks for your service . If you continue to offer everything to everyone, you will burn out and give up!
There is an alternative, my next 5 Day Ideal Client challenge is scheduled to run from 4th – 8th Nov and you can join here.