Running a specialized business has many advantages, but one of the challenges comes when the owner feels ready to expand its offerings. When a company serves a limited niche, all the options for growing—whether through added services, creative marketing, dedicated networking or some other method—come with their own challenges and complications.
Even if it’s difficult, if an entrepreneur feels like they’ve hit a wall with their business, it’s time for them to exercise their creative muscles and explore more ways to leverage their expertise. Below, 11 members of Forbes Coaches Council share how they’d counsel business owners who need help expanding an organization that has been built around their own specialized skills.
Members of Forbes Coaches Council share the advice they’d offer a client looking to expand their highly specialized business.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Explore Marketplace Options
Exploring marketplace options is a great starting point. There are at least two principles to evaluate. The first is multiplication: Can the client expand by transferring their specialized skills to others? The second is application: Can the client identify other market applications for their specialized skills? – Brent McHugh, Christar International
2. Discuss Ways To Productize Their Intellectual Property
It all comes down to finding ways to productize intellectual property. The client can build a portfolio career around their IP that also brings multiple income streams by leveraging the same message and providing the same offer. For example, a consulting package can become a self-paced, step-by-step online training course; a keynote; and a done-for-you service. This way, a specialist can offer their results to a range of different clients. – Petra Zink, impaCCCt
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3. Reframe Their View Of Their Skills
Help the client reframe how they view their specialized skills. The fallacy many believe is that a specialized skill is nontransferable to other customer segments or industries or cannot be augmented. This narrow strategic focus costs businesses dearly. Help them expand their perspective and have them do the research work—they’ll be pleasantly surprised by how easy it becomes to expand their business. – Arthi Rabikrisson, Prerna Advisory
4. Encourage Expanding Their Personal Network
People buy from people they trust, so I recommend expanding their personal network and sharing content on LinkedIn related to their specialized skills. That will get people thinking of them for those skills or services, and they will reach out when the need is there. – Michael Quinn, HireMilitary
5. Share The Five-Step Approach
There are five ways a client can expand a business centralized around their own skills. One is through virtual outreach, such as e-learning solutions. Two is through books, articles, blogs, podcasts and publications. Three is to partner with people who want to work in a consortium model, where they offer help when others need it in return for help when they do. Four is to look to do more group or organizational work rather than one-on-one work. Finally, five is simply to sleep less. – Kimberly Janson, Janson Associates, LLC
6. Identify Ways To Systemize Skills
I’d have them start to identify the things that can be systemized. If they do one-to-one coaching, are there certain questions that they ask again and again that they could bundle into an online offer? Could they start a training institute to teach their skills to others and then employ the best of their students to expand their business? And can they make their own hours more exclusive? – Rajeev Shroff, Cupela Consulting
7. Talk About Market Domination
I would tell the client, “Be so good at what you do that they can’t take their eyes off you! Become great at one thing first, and dominate that market.” The more they narrow their specialty, the more valuable they will become. The company WeatherTech is a great example of this. First, they became the recognized best source for car mats, and then they expanded to adjacent products. Smart! – Kimberly Svoboda, Aspiration Catalyst®
8. Consider Repackaging
Customers and clients will pay more money for the same product, packaged differently. For instance, I can sell a book at a certain value or sell an audio version—it’s the same content for more money. It’s the same product, packaged in a more appealing way. This is an extremely valuable lesson in perceived value. Designing a specialized skill set creatively can help you expand your services to attract more people. – Karen Dubi, Flexible Mindset Strategies
9. Talk About Adding Support Staff
I will always recommend that people stay within their unique abilities. So when it comes to expanding a specialized business, it is important to hire a support team who can do the activities that fall outside of the owner’s unique skill set. Rather than trying to force a square peg into a round hole, I’d tell the client to work where they’re skilled and hire others to do the rest. If not, they could burn out and expansion will be negated. – Jon Dwoskin, The Jon Dwoskin Experience
10. Suggest Turning Skills Into Repeatable Processes
I’d suggest the client turn their skills into repeatable processes, systems and products. This creates scale, as others can do much of the work when they invest in the systems. Productizing allows a business to sell outcomes at scale, usually for a higher price point. This allows any company to scale, regardless of how specialized the knowledge set is. – Krista Neher, Boot Camp Digital
11. Build Contiguous Partnerships
I’d counsel the client to build contiguous partnerships—that is, to partner with those whose skills are uniquely different from, but that complement, theirs. Such partnerships expand and deepen the ways a business can serve its clients. No matter the specialized skill, you have to build a team to leverage the full power of growth. – Jodie Charlop, Exceleration Partners
