I know the title of this post is a big one but bear with me, I’m going to make sure this doesn’t disappoint!
I’ve been running my own coaching business for almost 10 years now, and I’ve been supporting and mentoring other coaches for at least 6 years. In that time I’ve noticed what makes some coaches successful and others struggle. I wanted to share some of those things today, so that you’ve got some tips that you can take away to really think about your business and how you can implement some things that it’s going to help you achieve your version of success and have a wildly successful coaching business that is everything that you’ve ever dreamed of!
Watch this episode on YouTube and subscribe to my channel here
Listen to this episode on The Wholehearted Business Show Podcast
Listen on Apple Podcasts / Listen on Spotify
Know your version of success
So the first thing to consider is being really clear on your own version of success.
This is such a fundamentally important thing because when you don’t have that benchmark, you don’t have a clear idea of where it is that you’re going and what it is that you want. It can be really easy to get swayed by what other people are doing by what society defines as successful.
Often when we do achieve something that is successful as society sees it, but which is not aligned to our authentic version of success, it can leave us feeling empty.
When I’m talking about creating a wildly successful coaching business, I’m not talking about six figure businesses or seven figure businesses. I’m talking about coaches who are achieving what they want to achieve with their businesses and who are doing it really well and who are having fun while they’re doing it.
Obviously our version of success might shift and change as we grow and evolve and that’s totally fine, but I think having a sense of what we’re aiming for is just so fundamental and really helpful in terms of being something that pulls you forward and helps you do things outside of your comfort zone and take risks where it feels exciting to do so.
Bet on yourself
The next thing to consider is a specific mindset – something I call ‘betting on yourself’.
This is all about believing in your version of success and being able to achieve it. It’s partially embodiment, ‘acting as if’ and not playing small.
In the past I’ve definitely played small because I didn’t want to be disappointed or fail.
But if we start betting on ourselves and setting ourselves up for success so that we expect that success to happen, so much can shift.
For example, if you have an email list with 10 people on and you’re not bothering to email them, what makes you think you’re going to be emailing people regularly when you’ve got 10,000 people on your list?
Acting as if you’re at the place you want to be, even just little tweaks and adjustments to how you show up can be powerful. If in your version of success you have a thriving business with a large community, then how can you act as if that is going to happen?
Maybe it’s saying to yourself, I’m going to email my list of 10 or 20 people every single week, because that is what I’ll be doing when I have 10,000 people on my list.
It’s really about allowing yourself to expand into that version of success in a way that feels good.
Have a financial plan
Most coaches I work with have no financial plan. Now a ‘financial plan’ might sound a bit scary but it’s basically doing the math. I work with so many coaches who haven’t really sat down and done the math in a lot of detail. And when I say doing the math, it is really simple. It is just about looking at what your offers are, what it is that you sell and how much you sell them for, and then working out how many of your offers you need to sell to reach your income goal.
It might be a bit of going backward and forward between tweaking prices and numbers but it can be so helpful to have that all worked out.
The thing is just knowing your numbers and not being afraid to get in there and look at the financial side of things.
Some people do the math and then realise they need to significantly increase their prices to generate the income they want to make, some people are pleasantly surprised by just how few people they need to work with to hit their goals – either way having a financial plan and doing that math means you understand the reality of making your income goals happen and that’s powerful stuff!
Get your offers sorted
Creating your coaching packages and other offers (like a Priceless Power Hour or a Digital product) is really key in building your business. You can also read more here about the Three Offers you need in your Coaching Business.
It’s really important to consider your offers and think about what it is that you sell and why you’re selling it, what the price is etc.
Something else to consider in your business is how your offers show up for you? How do you want to actually show up and work and your business? How do you like working with people? What feels aligned?
A lot of people feel like they have to do their offers in a certain way, but there’s no right or wrong, there’s just whatever’s going to work for you.
Another element is knowing how to properly create your coaching package and communicating these offers well and actually selling them well. Some coaches don’t structure their offers that well, don’t communicate the benefits and don’t give people an incentive to act.
So reviewing your offers and making sure they are structured correctly, working for you and being sold effectively is key.
Getting seen and making connections
Another thing to consider around creating your wildly successful business is getting seen and making connections with people. Now, obviously marketing your business is a huge part of what it is that we need to do to get in front of people. And unfortunately, it’s not enough to just be posting random stuff on Instagram and call that marketing!
I try to think of things in terms of ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ marketing methods.
Posting on social, writing blog posts, podcasts etc, these methods can often take a little longer to kick in when it comes to converting people into clients because they tend to target your ‘cold’ leads (people who don’t know you)
Many coaches focus on these marketing methods because they feel most comfortable, but get frustrated when they don’t get clients and then lose heart.
When you’re including the ‘faster’ marketing methods, basically more direct marketing like DMing people, networking etc then you’re more likely to get clients quicker, the issue is some coaches find these methods bring up the ‘icky sales’ feelings.
However there are ways to market ‘faster’ and not do it in an unaligned way.
We do want to be doing both slow and fast marketing though if we want our business to be more sustainable over time.
There’s always expectations though and sometimes you get a client who just followed you last week, and if you find slow marketing methods more comfortable and fun it’s ok to do those, just don’t expect super fast results.
Knowing when to scale
Knowing when, and how to scale your business is key for a lot of us to be able to reach our versions of success – particularly if that’s more time, freedom and money!
If you’re not familiar with what scaling is, it’s basically the concept of going from working 1:1 to 1: many.
When most people start out as a coach, they are working one-to-one with people. So they will get paid for a one-to-one package and they will show up and work with that person.
However, you’ve got so many hours in the day, so many hours in a week so by its definition, unless we are raising our prices quite a lot there’s going to be a ceiling on how much we can earn when we are doing one-to-one coaching. Scaling is where we start adding in some one to many offers.
We go from not just working with one person directly, but to work with a group of people or with multiple people. This might look like a group programme, an online course, digital product etc.
Where coaches often go wrong is they try to scale too early. When you try to scale too early, you don’t have the volume of people in your business and your community to be able to make the money that you want to make from that. So might be spending loads of time creating and delivering something and not seeing the return on investment.
However there are some exceptions to the rules, creating a scaled offer can work early on as long as you aren’t spending all your time on it.
You do you
You are an individual and your business is going to be completely unique. It’s ok to fly in the face of the ‘standard business advice’ and do what feels right for you. I’ve shared a few times how I don’t really do business the ‘right way’ I do it my way and part of my work is to help people find their own way of doing their business that is still going to get them results.
Ultimately it’s about you having a business that feels satisfying to you. A lot of us start coaching businesses because we want to do something that we feel is important in the world. We want to live our purpose and to live life on our own terms. We want a business that feels satisfying and fun, and sometimes that means doing things our own way.
I honestly believe you can still make good money in an online coaching business and honour who you are at the same time. There’s no point in recreating the stresses or unhappiness you had in that 9-5 you wanted to escape from!
So there’s a few tips for you of things you can look at in your business where tweaks here can really help you create that wildly successful coaching business you dreamed of.
If you want to take this further I’d love to invite you to my new free training: Elevate Your Coaching Business.
This free online immersion week starts on Monday 14th March with a live training including a workbook and other tools to help you uplevel your coaching business. The rest of the week you’ll be able to access live coaching and mentoring sessions with me to help you implement what you learn in the training.
Sounds good?
↓ PIN IT FOR LATER ↓
0 Comments