Hello! Cristina – your question about business consulting vs. general public got me thinking about how Stephane and I first started our Coaching/Training business back in 2009/2010. We were 100% focused on corporate and business since this was both of our backgrounds and where our connections and network were. We were very clear that this was our niche and our main focus. We did well and worked with many Executives doing breakthroughs on business related topics and they would refer us to other executives to experience what they had been through. And then one day it happened! We did an excellent breakthrough with Executive “Joe” to double his income. He raved about his results and came back to ask… can you work with my wife, she has an addiction. Steph and I looked at each other and said – sure, why not? We had a successful breakthrough with his wife and she came back to us and asked if we could work with their kids who had learning disabilities. Again we looked at each other and said, – sure, why not? Then after doing kids coaching with learning state, spelling strategy, etc. the kids were doing better in school. The parents both came back to us and asked… can you work with us on our relationship? We said – sure, why not! It was at this point that a critical thing happened in our business and it took off! After we helped their struggling relationship to be performing and aligned, all of a sudden the flood gates of referrals opened wide up and we had so much new business that was NOT our niche.
For a long time relationship coaching became our main focus. Had we not been flexible in taking these other opportunities that were not our niche, our business may not have taken off the ground as quickly as it did. Niche’s are great… and be open to the possibilities of what else you can do… and ALWAYS ask for referrals.
In regards to training, we had a business training we called “Powerful Sales Communication” where we taught the useful NLP concepts for use in business and sales. We also had the SAME training that we called “Powerful Communication” where we taught all the useful NLP concepts for use in better communication. We removed the mention of ‘sales’ yet it was basically the same training that we gave targeted to the general public. -Shay