Unleash Uncontested Growth: Why Coaching is a Blue Ocean Business Opportunity

“Blue ocean business is about creating awareness, educating the market and offering your unique values.”

Atip Muangsuwan
CEO Coach and Coach Supervisor

Imagine stepping out of a crowded, bloody “red ocean” where businesses viciously compete over shrinking profits… and into a vast, calm “blue ocean” ripe with untapped potential. This powerful metaphor forms the heart of Blue Ocean Strategy, a groundbreaking framework introduced by world-renowned professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in their bestselling book, Blue Ocean Strategy (expanded edition 2015). Based on decades of research, Kim and Mauborgne argue that lasting success comes not from battling rivals, but from creating new market spaces – blue oceans – where competition is irrelevant.

What Makes an Ocean “Blue”?
According to the official Blue Ocean Strategy website (blueoceanstrategy.com), the approach hinges on:

1. Creating Uncontested Market Space: Instead of fighting over existing customers, you create demand where it didn’t exist before.
2. Making the Competition Irrelevant: By offering a unique leap in value.
3. Breaking the Value-Cost Trade-Off: Simultaneously pursuing differentiation and low cost.
4. Aligning the Whole System: Ensuring every activity supports your unique value proposition.

Coaching Business: A Prime Blue Ocean Candidate
The coaching industry holds immense potential as a blue ocean. Why? Because it fundamentally creates new value for individuals and organizations seeking growth, clarity, and transformation. However, much of this ocean remains uncharted – not due to lack of need, but due to lack of awareness.

The Critical Blue Ocean Lever for Coaches: Raising Awareness & Communicating Value
Here’s the pivotal Blue Ocean principle coaches must activate: Creating New Demand by Reaching Non-Customers. Kim and Mauborgne emphasize that blue oceans are unlocked by focusing on the vast pools of people who aren’t yet customers – not because they don’t need your offering, but because they don’t understand it or see its relevance.

• The Coaching Awareness Gap: Millions of potential clients struggle with challenges coaching perfectly addresses (career transitions, leadership hurdles, achieving goals, personal fulfillment, well-being, time management, relationship, finances, etc.). Yet, many don’t actively seek a coach because:
  • They misunderstand what coaching is (confusing it with therapy, consulting, or mentoring).
  • They undervalue its benefits (“Is it worth the investment?”).
  • They simply don’t know how it could transform their specific situation and their lives.
• Your Blue Ocean Imperative: Your primary strategic challenge isn’t competing with other coaches (a red ocean trap). It’s educating the market and demonstrating undeniable value. This means:
  • Clearly Articulating Your Niche & Impact: Don’t just say “I’m a coach.” Define who you help, what specific problem you solve, and the tangible results you enable (e.g., “I help mid-career professionals land promotions they love within 6 months”).
  • Showcasing Transformation: Use compelling case studies, testimonials, and stories that vividly illustrate the journey from pain point to success through coaching.
  • Educating Proactively: Create content (blogs, videos, workshops, talks) that addresses common challenges your ideal clients face and positions coaching as the powerful solution. Explain how coaching works.
  • Targeting Non-Consumers: Reach people actively struggling with relevant issues but who haven’t considered coaching as the answer. Speak their language, address their skepticism.

Sailing Your Blue Ocean

By embracing this core tenet of Blue Ocean Strategy – systematically increasing awareness and crystallizing the unique value of coaching – you do more than build a business. You create the market. You move beyond competing on price or credentials within a crowded space and instead, attract clients who see coaching as the essential, transformative investment it truly is.

Stop swimming with the sharks in the red ocean of generic coaching services. Chart your course into the blue ocean by becoming a powerful advocate for the value you deliver. Educate your market, demonstrate undeniable transformation, and watch your uncontested space – and your impact – grow.

Which type of business are you currently in, Red Ocean or Blue Ocean?

About Atip Muangsuwan: Atip Muangsuwan is the Founder & CEO of The Best Coach International Co., Ltd. He is a CEO & UHNWI Coach, Certified Mentor & Supervisor for global executive coaches, Holistic Life Transformation Expert, Business & Life Strategist, and Corporate Facilitator/Trainer. With a proven track record of helping clients achieve their career goals and job promotions, Atip is dedicated to supporting individuals in their personal and professional growth.