As promised, finding your bellydance niche part 2! I wanted to delve a bit deeper into finding your bellydance niche in this installment of my blog. Please know that I have kept these steps a bit more general so no matter what style you choose, you will be able to take these steps and apply them. Heck, I think this would apply to any art form! So let’s get started, shall we?
Step 1. List all of your skills and passions. Now the skill part is what you’re good at or have been trained in. If you are certified in anything or have studied something more than anything else, that goes in this list. Now for passions, that would be the things that bring you joy or make you smile. For example, maybe you are skilled at drum solos but classical Egyptian makes you swoon. They would both go here but they would be listed individually.
Step 2. Delve into the above. Take each of the things you listed and turn it into one or two words- that’s the start of your niche. This can be a place, an area, a type of audience, you name it. Then take the one to two words of your passion and combine it with the latter part. For example: Egyptian drum solos, if we take the example from above.
Step 3. Once you have a list from steps 1 and 2, then research them a bit. Use them as a keyword search to see what comes up. Check your area, the tri-state, and then go more broadly. Are there a lot of hits, a few? This will help you figure out how unique your idea may be and if your possible niche will just saturate the market. Why do this? Because what’s the point of defining it if it doesn’t help your business?
Step 4. Take the search from above and delve again. Take the lists and the info from above and divide them up. Use the following as guidelines: Separate those that you think you would be most passionate about, where might you already have connections that you can use, which ones won’t involve a large up-front cost for new props or costumes, and the time it would take you to get it up and running.
Step 5. Look at everything that you have listed in Step 4. What category has the most amount of things? What has the least? What area does your favorite idea fit into? THAT is your niche.
You can choose to have more than one niche- say if you would like to focus on one thing for teaching and another for performing. That’s fine as long as you don’t stretch yourself too thin. A niche only works if you devote yourself to it. Trying to do them all in one dilutes your message and instead of making you look like a master of a trade you are a master of none.
I hope you have found this post useful. If you follow all the steps to find your bellydance niche and have any questions, please feel free to comment below!