What is a Niche Market, there are several definitions that you will come across the one that I feel is relevant to the fitness industry as a whole is; the area of a target market where a company is particularly strong and this specialization results in a higher quality product or service. It is the latter part of this definition that I feel companies should truly focus on delivering in order to say they have a niche.

Anyone can say they are a specialist in golf training and even do a decent job at training people but have these trainers developed a  niche? What does it take to become a specialist or expert at something, approximately 10,000 hours, according to Malcolm Gladwell in his recent book Outliers.

The first thing is to find your passion and then embrace it, love it and learn everything there is about it. A great example of a person who I think has done this is Brian Grasso, if you have ever heard him speaking about the IYCA you will know what it is to have found your passion. Another passionate group, the founders of APPT they have embraced their chosen field and aspire to achieve excellence.

Four tips to develop your niche:

1. Play the sport and work with the people; this is a simple way to understand the nature of your potential market niche. A trainer cannot train kids or golfers or kids that golf if they do not have an understanding of how kids learn or how to play golf. You will need more than a degree in Kinesiology or understanding of body mechanics to master a niche. Work with kids as a volunteer at your local day care or school or even summer camp. Let them know why you are doing this and that you just want to help them as you gain knowledge of how kids interact with each other and how they move and learn. For the golf part just go out and play, you do not have to be good at it to be a great trainer you just need to get the basics and then..
2. Hire experts; this is probably the easiest and best way to get to know your niche, hire the people that are coaches or professionals in your chosen market. To follow the golf theme you will need to work with some golf pros even better exchange services and make them affiliates. For the kids try talking to teachers and parents they both love to share the pros and cons of children and youth. 
3. Attend every course, seminar and lecture; this is the time and research part of the equation. There are many experts and lectures on any sport so they are never in short supply. For the golf right now the hot ticket is Titleist Performance Training (TPI), they run a certification that any person wanting to make golf a niche should look into. For working with youth look no further than the IYCA and Brian Grasso he has become the expert that you will need to talk with to move into this niche. 
4. Identify the pain is really what a niche is about, take a group of people that do a specific thing and locate what drives them and where they are struggling and you can start to solve the problem. So in golf a great thing to focus on is how to harness rotational power and the muscles groups involved and then build exercises around them. For youth or kids they are a bit young to focus on such a thing as power but you can incorporate movements and activities both golf and non golf related that will do this without being so specific or instructional that you over load the youth.

Developing a niche takes time and patience, you have a lot to learn and need to immerse yourself with people that have been there and are working in the field that your are entering.

The best part is that once you have achieved the goal the rewards are endless, so are the opportunities so make sure you do it and do it right.

I look forward to your comments on this topic!