Which of Your Areas of Expertise Are Most Marketable?
The dictionary says that “a marketable skill refers to a skill that can be sold in the marketplace for money.” For example, if you have gone to school or learned through self-study how to be a skilled baker, and you know how to make an adorable wedding cake, you can sell the recipe for the cake, the steps to make the cake, the lessons to learn cake making, and you can even sell the cake.
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When you look at your expertise, it’s a good idea to figure out which areas are most marketable before you get started. The best way to do that is first to identify what your expertise is and how you can make money from it.
Write Down Your Expertise
The first thing you need to do is write down what you are good at doing, better than someone else. Better than a large enough audience that can buy from you. For example, if you are an expert at setting up databases, does anyone need you to do that? Does anyone need to know how to do that themselves? Your expertise can be in anything. Organizing, parenting, breastfeeding, baking, life coaching, and so on.
Whatever you are an expert in, write that down so that you can now brainstorm ways to monetize your expertise.
Can You Create Paid Products from This Expertise?
From your expertise, can you write down a list of paid products? You can create both services and digital information products. For example, if you’re an expert in coaching coaches to get more business, what can you sell them? Digital products, memberships, live events, workshops, small group coaching, one-on-one coaching, and so forth.
List everything you think you can create that might sell to your ideal audience based on your expertise.
What Competition Do You Have?
One way to determine the things that are marketable is to find your competition. The competitors who have been around longer than you already have some insight into what sells and what doesn’t sell to your audience because they’re already doing it. You can learn from them and cut the time from idea to income short.
When you study your competitors, it’s a good idea to actually buy their products and services so that you really do know what they are involved in so you can figure out how they’re making their money.
What Does Your Target Audience Need?
The most important thing you can do is to ask your audience. What do they need? If you have an audience already, this is a critical step to take. You can do it in the form of polls, surveys, and even by generating buzz when showing off new product concepts to your audience. Also, if you have no audience yet, read discussions and message boards that are generated by your competitors’ audiences. They are, after all, your audience, too.
As you move forward, determining which part of your expertise is most marketable, also think about your lifestyle and how much time and effort you want to spend. For example, one-on-one consulting and coaching are going to take much more of your time than a membership or group coaching effort, and you can reach more people this way too.
