I wanted to expand a little bit on this idea.
My own search for the right niche/market was a tough one. For a long time, I felt like I would actually limit my business by defining a small group of people to target. I was so wrong! Once I realized who my specific market should be, I focused all of my attention on how to reach those people. Suddenly, I wasn't wasting my time by casting a large net over the pilates-saturated Los Angeles area!
Defining your market in a metropolitan area is even more crucial than if you live in a small town. There is so much competition for pilates in many areas like Los Angeles -- studios are cropping up everywhere and are offering unlimited pilates memberships and a wide variety of classes in their schedules.
How can a new mom like myself who has limited hours to teach compete with that? The answer is that you really can't.
That's why focusing on a group of people and giving them personal, positive attention and value is the way to go.
Ok - so, you picked a market but you still don't have any pilates clients...what now...
The short answer is that you can't just pick your market and be successful...what if your market doesn't even exist where you live? You need to find out what type of people do live and work in your area? You need to do a lot of research and really understand these people. See where people are shopping, eating, working out...and then...you need to do some searching on line.
Start with local city searches like yelp.com, citysearch.com, and then google/yahoo local business listings. Get yourself listed in these directories if nowhere else. Imagine how many people are looking up:
Do you need help figuring out your pilates market? Do you want help defining what and how many people are searching for pilates in your specific area? I can help you using the same amazing tool that I use on a daily basis to help me determine if people are even doing a search for what I offer - and specific to my local area.
Send me an email and I'd be glad to help you build your pilates business.
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