Which way to niche: broad or narrow?

Marianne’s getting ready to pivot from a corporate job to a business. She’s got a degree in social work as well as business training. She’s been a recruiter for a large CPA firm and she’s also worked with an Employee Assistance Program as a stress counselor. She knows exactly how to help someone get a job with a CPA firm, as well as how to help accountants move from CPA firms to the corporate profit sector or self-employment.

So, she thinks, why not coach accountants on job and career change?

But then she wonders: “Is this niche too narrow? Maybe I should offer career change for professionals in general. And perhaps I should emphasize my stress management background on my website?”

Marianne probably thinks she can get an easy answer. And many people would answer without hesitation: “Go with the smaller niche and focus.”

But Marianne’s got to do some testing first.

How do accountants find a career coach? Do they use career coaches?

Marianne googles “career coach accounting” and finds that she’ll have some competition, which is a good sign. She can look into their websites and see what keywords they’re using. And she can borrow strategies from them.

When accountants search for a career coach, do they prefer to work with an…