The Most Profitable Coaching Niches
Let me set the record straight: you NEED to have a niche if you’re a life coach and you actually want to make money. There are very few things I say you “need” to do in order to run a successful online business, and niching is one of them.
One of the things I tell my students in Uncage Your Business is that vagueness is not going to get you clients. Being specific about who your services are for and what you can do to help them drives people in — and that is what a niche will do for you.
Having that clarity will help you book clients, and finding your life coaching niche is the way to that clarity.
But which niches are the most profitable?
Do you have to coach other coaches to make money?
Or worse — does every life coach have to become a business coach in order to pay the bills?
Let’s find out.
Let’s clarify real quick: What is a niche?
I realize that there may be a lot of misconceptions about niching, so before we get started, let’s go over what it is and what it means.
A niche is NOT a demographic. It’s also not a list of your client’s hobbies and pastimes and book collections.
It doesn’t matter that you know your audience’s age, favorite TV shows, and how many kids they have- if you don’t know the specific problem they have that you can help them solve, then it’s NOT a niche. It’s just a group of people.
Do you see where we are going here? The ICA (Ideal Client Avatar) exercises are great for copywriting and branding, but they aren’t really helpful to you when trying to identify your niche.
Because typically these worksheets just focus on things like age, favorite books and hobbies, what kind of shoes they wear, yadda yadda yadda.
And I see my students often say things like, “I work with women ages 25-35 who have kids and who love dogs”
But until you link that to a specific problem that that group of people has, you don’t have a niche. You just have a random group of people (who might sound cool to hang out with, but who aren’t likely going to pay for your services)
Your niche is a problem that you solve in a specific topic area for a specific group of people.
Knowing who you serve is important, but finding your niche is about identifying the combination of who you help and what specific problem you help them solve.
The Most Profitable Life Coaching Niche
Okay, so now that you’re clear on what a niche is (and isn’t), and you’re ready to choose one (right??) — how do you know which niche is actually going to be profitable?
Suit up. You’re about to both hate and love this answer.
The most profitable life coaching niche is at the intersection of the mission and impact you are set out to create in the world AND the tangible bits in this area where people are actually struggling and looking for help with.
In other words – the niche that will make you money is the one that solves a strong pain point for the people you are most excited to work with.
Hold up Becca — Are you saying that any niche can be profitable?
Yes, yes I am. IF it solves a very clear pain point for people that they KNOW they have AND are looking for help with.
If I were to tell you that there is ONE niche that is the most profitable, or that you should choose X niche in order to make big bucks, I’d be going against my values and everything I believe in.
I don’t believe we should just pick an arbitrary niche to make money.
If you are becoming a coach, then there’s probably a deeper “why” behind your business.
Sure there are probably reasons that on the surface appear more “seflish” (working from home, spending more time at home with your dog, etc ), but I know there are also deeper reasons why you started your business.
I know that there is something that is pulling at you, something you feel called to help with.
Picking an arbitrary niche that doesn’t align with this deeper “why” will become lackluster REAL quick.
If you just pick something random, there will come a point when you’re not going to be invested or interested in the work that you’re doing, or the people you’re working with.
So instead of picking an arbitrary niche, let’s focus on those deeper reasons why you started your business and uncover your niche from there, and then figure out how to make it profitable.
Success is a CHOICE in your business — you pick something you resonate with and then you find the pain point that is strongest enough in that area. It may look slightly different than you expected. You will need to be open to shifting what you thought your business would be, in order to make sure it’s sellable. But EVERY niche can be extremely profitable as long as you’re solving a problem people want solved!
How I Help My Students Pick Their Life Coaching Niche
There’s no such thing as “picking” a niche. It feels and sounds arbitrary.
Like I said before, what I’ve found after working with 1000s of people is that there’s a bigger reason why you’re choosing to have a life coaching business.
Sometimes it’s as simple as asking yourself the “easy” questions that will lead you to your answer.
First, let’s remove that demographic and the group of people from the equation for a second and instead look at the topic area that your business focuses on.
So if you’re a life coach, why do you want to become a coach? What drove you to coaching in the first place? What is YOUR coaching journey?
These questions, although they appear easy, actually get to the bigger, deeper picture reasons why you started your business in the first place.
Maybe it’s that you saw people struggling with something and you felt called to go and create a solution to that problem.
Maybe it’s that you’ve seen specific people in your life facing a problem that you know you can help with.
Or perhaps it was you. Maybe you’re that specific person that was facing a problem or a challenge in life, coaching helped you work through it, and you want to help other people do the same.
Ask yourself these simple questions about WHY you got into this business in the first place and what problem you set out to change in the world — and THAT is likely the answer to your niching dilemma!
This is what I do with my students in Uncage Your Business. We start with this “big picture” message and then slowly get more narrow until we arrive at the niche that is best for you (and then teach you how to talk about it so clearly that people start sending you referrals right away)
You’ll find that versus “picking” a niche arbitrarily based on what some random blog post tells you will be most profitable, what you’re actually doing is you’re finding your niche based on who you are, your story, your expertise, and your passion – and then you make sure that it will be profitable by doing market research to ensure that the pain point that your niche helps with is a pain point that people have, and want to solve, and learning how to market to them in clear, effective ways.
Voila — a profitable niche!
Life Coaching Niches: A Common Misconception
Niching is scary, right? There’s a common misconception that niching your business will create less opportunities or will pigeonhole you in the future and limit your business..
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
And most of our students don’t believe me until they experience it, but the opposite of this is true.
Because niching isn’t about picking a specific demographic or group of people, it’s about picking a specific problem to help with.
When you choose a problem, you’re able to help a broader range of people (for example, I bet some of you reading this are in your 40s and married with kids and love lazy weekends with Netflix and your pup curled up next to you, and others are in your 20s and want to be location independent and love to hike and camp and sleep on mountaintops — wouldn’t it be a shame if I only had to choose ONE of you to work with??).
And more specifically, you’re being clear about what exactly you help people do or what problem you will help them solve – and the more clear you are, the MORE clients come to you!
For example: I bet some of you reading this are in your 40s and married with kids and love lazy weekends with Netflix and your pup curled up next to you, and others are in your 20s and want to be location independent and love to hike and camp and sleep on mountaintops. The commonality is that you ALL want to create a business that lets you live YOUR version of your uncaged life. And wouldn’t it be a shame if I only had to choose ONE of you to work with because you are different kinds of people?? I can tell you, it would be.
On the other hand, if you’re vague about what you do, and you try to help EVERYONE, you’re not going to book clients. Instead, you’ll end up sending out generic messages and marketing, and NO ONE (not even the people you want to help) will know what you do (and thus no one will hire you).
As much as I hate clichés, the riches are, in fact, in the niches (which really only rhymes if you say “niche” like “nitch”, which I actually don’t)
Here’s How You Can Have a Profitable Life Coaching Business
I’ve worked with 1000+ students in Uncage Your Business.
I’ve seen coaches make a shit ton of money in a wide range of niches: in relationship coaching, health coaching, focusing on personal development, or even healing work combined with coaching in career, in business, or in life in general.
And I know that all of these niches can be equally profitable.
You can make just as much money coaching business owners, as you can coaching women who struggle with not speaking up and setting boundaries — promise!
It’s the strength of the problem and the clarity in which you communicate it that makes a profitable niche!
And despite what all the click-baity posts about “the most profitable niches” want you to believe, it ALSO takes persistence and consistency- continuing to put one foot in front of the other and marketing your business using your clear messaging.
It takes rolling with the punches, and staying open to the changes that you might need to make as your experience grows and your business (inevitably) changes.
Success doesn’t happen overnight and even the most profitable niche takes work..
In summary, if you want to make a crap ton of money as a life coach:
- Get clear on your WHY
- Pair it with a specific and clear PROBLEM that real people have
- Learn how to talk to them about that problem and articulate how you can help
- Keep putting one foot in front of the other until you are profitable
Building a successful business is a choice, and it takes more than just “picking” an arbitrary niche and crossing your fingers.
Need some extra help finding your best niche? No worries, I’ve got your back!
Check out my FREE niching guide.
In this guide, you won’t get the usual Ideal Client Avatar exercises, promise (I hate those too). You’ll get down to the core of your niche, fast. No fluff. No needing to decide what kind of shoes your client wears
Let’s nail the niche that will make YOUR business profitable and feel FUN to run.
Because despite what it may seem or feel like right now, you absolutely can have the uncaged biz of your dreams. Promise.
xx becca
PS. If you’re ready to find YOUR profitable niche and start getting those clients, then come check out my Uncage Your Business Program. It was designed specifically for you, new-ish business owners (coaches, consultants, healers, & service providers), to not only help you get clear on your niche, but also build a solid, strong foundation for your business that will help you get clients!
