If you’re a health or life coach who’s interested in running corporate workshops then you might be wondering how to make these work as part of your business. In this blog post I’ll be sharing my own experiences of running corporate workshops as a health coach, how to find opportunities to deliver workshops, structuring them and delivering them and what to charge for your corporate workshops too.

In my 14 years as a coach I’ve run numerous workshops in different corporate / office type settings including in the NHS, Universities and Private Companies. These workshops have always been a lot of fun to deliver and have often led to unexpected opportunities and connections.

I’ve always seen these type of workshops as a fun additional thing in my business, and I’ve delivered them for free and have charged for them too, although they’ve never been a core part of my business model – more on that in a moment.

For me, these workshops have led to some wonderful opportunities – things like magazine features and new clients – and I’m excited to share how you can include these kind of workshops into your coaching business too.

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How Corporate Workshops Fit into Your Business

Corporate workshops can serve several purposes in your coaching business and generally speaking will fall under one of three main categories.

Firstly they will form a core part of your business model, and by that I mean that a significant part of the income in your business will be generated from delivering paid workshops.

Secondly you may offer workshops as a marketing activity. Delivering workshops where you’ll meet people who could be your ideal clients can be a great form of marketing for your other coaching services. Delivering workshops can also function as a form of networking too.

Finally, it may be that you simply deliver these types of workshops as just a fun extra thing when the opportunity comes along.

Depending on which of the three categories your approach falls into, you’ll need to take a specific approach when it comes to finding workshop opportunities.

Finding Workshop Opportunities

If corporate workshops are to be a significant part of your business model and income generating, you’ll need to be proactive in seeking these opportunities. Try Identifying organisations that could benefit from your specific skills and expertise linked to your niche, and pitch your workshops directly to them. Looking at the aims of the organisation, what they might need and what they might be looking for can be really helpful too.

I have found that HR departments are a good place to start when seeking a contact in an organisation to build a relationship with.

If you’re just seeking out marketing or networking opportunities you can use a similar approach to above, but you might not be quite as proactive or spend quite as much time on it as you would do if you’re depending on that income source.

Don’t forget to also share that you offer workshops on your website and within other forms of marketing you do such as on social media. For certain organisations who themselves have a strong social media presence, you could even try DMing them via social media too – but just bear in mind that bigger companies may outsource their social media.

Finally, don’t forget the power of word of mouth. I’ve had opportunities come to me just as a result of chats at the school gates or talking about what I do with people I meet.

Structuring Your Corporate Workshops

Once you’ve secured an opportunity to run a workshop, the next step is preparing for it and knowing how to deliver it.

I tend to begin with some kind of brief. Maybe you’ve pitched something specific to the organisation and therefore you already know what you’re doing, otherwise you may need to create a workshop based on the organisation’s needs.

Look at the topic, the audience, the audience size, how much time you’ll have and where you’ll be delivering the workshop.

I like to start with what key takeaways I want the audience to end with, and then work backwards and look at what information, resources or activities I need to do with them to help them arrive at that end point.

The ways in which you deliver will depend on the topic and audience but I tend to enjoy workshops that are engaging and have people participate rather than what can basically be a presentation rather than a workshop that is ‘death by Powerpoint’. It’s also worth remembering that in these corporate environments, not everyone who is at a workshop will necessarily want to be there. I have certainly delivered workshops with participants who were pretty obstructive, so having some ways of dealing with people like this can be useful!

How Corporate Workshops Fit into Your Business Model

Understanding how corporate workshops align with your business model is crucial, especially when determining how much to charge.

Whether your goal is income generation, marketing, or just having fun, this will influence your pricing strategy.

A good starting point is to work out a day rate as a coach. This is one pricing strategy you can use to help, although don’t forget that this isn’t just about you charging for your time, you should charge for the value you are providing to that organisation.

If workshops are primarily a marketing tool, you may opt to charge less or even offer free sessions to attract new corporate clients.

Next Steps

Delivering workshops in corporate settings can be a profitable and fun way to grow your coaching business. In fact as I write this I’ve recently had my health coach hat back on and delivered a workshop for the Royal College of Nursing AGM in my local area on self care and resilience.

I hope this blog post has given you some ideas on how to incorporate these kind of workshops into your coaching business and more confidence in seeking out opportunities and delivering on them.

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