Stop Worrying About Competition

4 Minute Read Time

"There are thousands of L&D consultants out there already. Why would anyone hire me?"

If that thought has crossed your mind, you're not alone.

And you're also dead wrong.

The Competition Myth

Before they even gain traction with picking a consulting niche, one of the biggest mistakes I see L&D professionals make is obsessing over the competition.

You've spent years building expertise in corporate environments. You've created training programs that transformed departments and designed learning experiences that actually worked.

Yet when it comes to turning that expertise into a service-based consulting business, you suddenly feel like an imposter in a crowded room.

I get it. I've been there.

The Math That Changes Everything

Consider this eye-opening perspective about the Healthcare L&D market:

"There are approximately 6,000 hospitals in the US alone. Each needs effective staff onboarding, compliance training, and performance improvement. An L&D consultant working with just 12 hospitals could build a $20K/month business. That's capturing only 0.002% of this single market segment."

Read that again. 0.002%.

You're not trying to build the next Netflix or revolutionize an industry. You're simply offering your expertise to a tiny fraction of organizations that desperately need it.

The Truth About "Competition"

Let me share something that might shock you about that intimidating crowd of competitors:

• Only about 10% have more than 4-5 clients
• Only 2.5% can actually solve the problems the market is facing

The bar is shockingly low.

Most of your "competition" isn't competition at all.

They're window shopping as consultants while you're building a business. They're dabbling while you're developing systems. They're promising while you're delivering.

The market knows the difference.

Your Experience Is Your Weapon

After spending years feeling undervalued in corporate L&D roles, it's easy to downplay your expertise. Don't.

Those years of navigating bureaucracy, translating business needs into learning outcomes, and making magic happen on shoestring budgets? That's exactly what sets you apart from the 97.5% who can't actually solve real problems.

Your corporate battle scars are your competitive advantage.

The Revolving Door of Opportunity

Here's another reality most new consultants miss: the market is a revolving door.

Businesses constantly cycle through solutions that don't work, searching for someone who can deliver. Even when competitors sign clients, many can't retain them beyond a few months.

That means clients are always back on the market, looking for someone better.

Look at the bootstrapped SaaS startup market. With over 15,000 companies under $5M ARR, these organizations desperately need help with onboarding, feature adoption, and sales enablement. Even if dozens of L&D consultants are active in this space, most can't retain clients beyond a few months due to poor execution.

That means hundreds of potential clients are cycling back into the market every quarter, searching for someone who can actually deliver results.

The opportunity never dries up.

The Real Math of Success

Let's get practical about what building a successful L&D consulting business actually requires:

Take the MedSpa industry. There are approximately 8,841 medical spas (with 5+ employees) in the US struggling with operational issues, staff consistency, and client satisfaction. If you offered a specialized L&D solution at $7,500 per month to these businesses:

Just 2 clients = $15K monthly revenue

That's only capturing 0.0002% of this specific market.

Even if you dreamed bigger and wanted 7 clients ($52.5K monthly), you'd still only need to win 0.0008% of this single niche.

Does claiming 0.0008% of your market still sound impossible?

What Matters in Niche Selection

Stop making "competition" an excuse for inaction. It's usually just fear wearing a business suit.

The truth?

You don't need to be a genius—just better than average and committed to continuous improvement. Even just going through a consulting program puts you ahead of most would-be competitors who are stuck in permanent preparation mode.

Your job isn't to dominate a niche. It's to find a painful problem, solve it better than most, and serve a small slice of the market really well.

The Bottom Line

If you're an L&D professional standing at that career crossroads—feeling the tension between your expertise and your current role's limitations—remember this:

The market is big enough for you if you can solve an expensive, painful problem.

Stop counting competitors.

Start counting the problems you can solve that others can't.

Your next client isn't looking for another option. They're looking for a solution that actually works.

Are you ready to be that solution?