Everyone has a different passion they pursue in their lifetime. Most of the time, what we study is not what we end up doing. It’s like we find our calling in the most unexpected ways. A coaching business is the same. There are people filled with passion, kindness, and coaching experience, but not everyone knows how to start a coaching business. Some find their calling in writing; others can go into teaching. But if we talk about starting a coaching business, it’s not that hard as most people assume. You see, anything can be challenging unless you are already doing it.
Although you will be stressed, you may sometimes even feel like “you’re drinking from a fire hose,” But you will learn new things as you go. So it doesn’t matter if you coach for free or charge for it, keep coaching, and it will help you learn and grow more. Failure is not a failure unless you learn something from it. You can even learn from other coaches instead of thinking of them as competition.
So, how to start a coaching business, you ask? Of course, it has the same steps as a regular business, but before that, let us quickly see some advantages and disadvantages or concerns about the coaching business.
Advantages of Starting Coaching Business
- There is a high demand for coaches, especially online coaches, that deliver their sessions based on the specific niche. Most niche nowadays is about personal grooming and motivational speaking.
- Most online coaching businesses have low costs because all you need to start is a computer and essential software. Then, as your clients grow, you can upgrade to better tools, software, and technology to further assist you in your growth.
- There are fewer barriers to starting a coaching business. If you want to start online, you can start by building a coaching website, but I recommend starting by creating social media profiles on social sites. Recently it has been seen that connecting to clients on social media is more effective than getting people on your site.
- Most online coaches start with one-to-one coaching before increasing their clients. This way, a specific task is challenged, which will attract a client with similar challenges. So, in short, the first coaching client is what’s holding you back from starting an online coaching business.
- Since Corvid-19, demand for online coaching has risen. Because of this, there are many benefits to choosing your clients. With this freedom, you can choose to reject clients that can create problems for your business. In short, you get the ability to say no to the clients if they choose to be a problem.
- Being the boss of your own business is something everyone likes. With your own coaching business, you can work as you like without hating your work.
Drawbacks or Disadvantages of Starting a Coaching Business
- Like other businesses, the coaching business has unpredictable revenue. One week you may be slammed with clients. Next week, nothing. Unless you have proper patience, your internal alarm goes off, thinking, “did I make the right choice?” Keep going and keep pushing through is one way to stay positive about your work.
- Personal businesses can get a little isolated. Meaning, you may find yourself sitting alone in your room which can affect your work as you need to be creative and focused. A simple fix is to go out to a coffee place or a park and find inspiration. It will cheer you up and help create content for your next successful coaching session.
- Operating your business can get tiring, especially with handling lots of clients. It can make you feel stressed at times, making it harder to keep up with business operations and clients.
- A mental block is something you can feel when you are stressed by coaching. It’s similar to writer’s block, where you won’t get creative and feel like you don’t know what to do.
- When thinking about how to launch an online coaching business, marketing and selling is something that becomes a problem after some time. I have seen some coaches that don’t sell their courses, but you don’t have to be like them. It would help if you reached people even where no internet is available. For that, building and releasing a course is essential.
There are few things you can do that will assist you in juggling all your work in the coaching business. Start by creating systems, processes, and templates, and staying organized can help with the everyday struggles of the business. Then, you can take a walk for mental blocks, observe the world for inspiration, and use those experiences in your next session.
How to Launch an Online Coaching Business
Now without wasting time any further, let’s get into how to create an online coaching business.
Step 1 – Defining Coaching Business
Like any other business, defining a coaching business is the first step. Here you start by coming up with a name for your business and choosing a niche. It is the start of something new, to create new social media is recommended. Then, using your skills, find a niche you are comfortable with. Clients from that niche will have some challenges to research online quickly, so you already got somewhere to start.
Creating social media profiles can further improve your chances to connect with great clients across the globe. Since social media sites are becoming more prominent in coaching businesses, most of the time, you won’t even need to create a website. However, you can do so later when you have a paying client list. If you are still thinking of building an online coaching business, start by coming up with a good name for your coaching business.
Step 2 – Handling Legal Matters and Finances
For any business, there are tons of legal matters to attend to. Some of them even rise as you work. Incorporating your business is the next step for your business. After that, determining liabilities, setting up financial accounts, and estimating expenses are something you will have to work on. Typically, rules regarding liabilities and handling accounts are universal, but you can modify them to some extent based on your business requirements.
Determining business expenses beforehand will help estimate the required income that needs to be generated at the minimum. You can do it with a bit of brainstorming or taking some guidance from other coaches in your area. I can tell you, though, that these expenses are usually yearly or monthly charges that keep reoccurring. These include advertising, website renewal charges, promotional charges, charges for organizing events, energy bills, and other charges to keep your work going. I haven’t even mentioned personal charges for everyday use.
I have missed this earlier, but some businesses require licensing and coaching certifications. So make sure to have all proper documentation ready and secured in case you need it later. Plus, it will look great if you have framed it on your wall.
Step 3 – Building Team and Coaching Plan
After all the formalities, this one is a big step. Building a team, you can rely on. At the start, the team is usually small with just the essential people you like and trust. Over time as the number of clients increase, you will need more human resources to handle stuff. Of course, you can hire people for assistance later but having people you can trust, especially in the beginning, is very important for your success because they will back you up even if everything’s down.
With a good team in place, it’s a good idea to plan and develop your coaching plan. Take the help of your team, hear their ideas, describe your ideas and form a plan that you will be using in your coaching business. It includes pricing, advertisement, and organizing events that you will be doing for your business.
Step 4 – Determining Technology and Resources
In this modern age of technology, you can find tons of software and resources build just for you. There could be a point where you get stuck thinking about launching an online coaching business; these resources will help. One such resource which doesn’t get mentioned much is Alex’s simple “3-sentence business plan”.
What is this plan, you ask? Made by a well-known author of over 100 business courses and 20 books under his name, Alex Genadinik has simplified starting a business with this plan. It just consists of writing down detailed answers to the following three questions:
“What is my product or service?”
“What steps do I need to take to grow my business?”
“How will I finance my business during the startup phase?”
As your business develops and increases, the details of these answers also increase, making answers more precise as the business goes on.
Moreover, there are so many resources that you can do work in your coaching business. Resources like animations, gifs, videos, and podcasts are all resources to manage and work on. In addition, when starting a coaching business, some coaches use these resources to promote their sessions, resulting in a growing list of coaching clients.
Step 5 – Planning Forward
Till now, you probably have figured out how to build an online coaching business. But, by going through previous steps and taking care of everything, that is the last thing you should do? Plan ahead. We have seen the recent years and Corvid-19 lockdown; we have to expect the worst and learn to rise again. Not like the terminator, though, but as people who stand firm together. The same goes for business. A good leader is not the one that makes their workers work hard but works with them.
The planning stage for any business is very crucial since it includes planning for the unforeseeable future. Organizing holidays or close-to summits that focus on your niche is an excellent way to start. Such summits and conferences are planned months before they happen, so there can be an opening you can benefit from. Speaking at events like these is a sure way to find new clients too. Plus, with the free promotion, you will also be able to get featured, boosting your sales.
some of the examples include:
Examples of such events are earth day, mother’s day, technology summit, world’s Labor Day. These events are organized in many states and countries and can contain a speaker. However, these events have a long list of competition of who gets the spot for speaking, so booking a seat earlier is the key. You can also join in at job day or recruitment day in colleges and universities, or organize a session there with the help of Ushers or their management.
Perks of how to start a coaching business
Perks of starting a coaching business are usually featured as a business where you can earn 6 figure income, and all you have to do is go on stage and speak. As easy as it sounds, public speaking is one of the most challenging jobs out there. By being careful of what you speak, your speech can turn against you most of the time if your audience cannot understand your pitch well. It can negatively affect your client’s list.
Here, having a well-thought-out outline of the session and practicing it regularly. It will keep any misunderstandings at bay. You can pitch the team in with a practice session before delivering your session before an audience. However, if there is stage freight disturbing your sessions, there are so many ways you can try to get rid of it. But the most effective one is still talking and practicing your speech in front of a mirror. This way, you can ensure the success of your coaching sessions every time and improve little by little after every session. Plus, you will get more confident in speaking if you practice this way every day. Finally, never forget to answer questions after every session as it develops a deeper connection between you and your clients.