4 Things You Must Do Before Starting a Coaching Business

Business

October 14, 2021

Thinking of starting a coaching business?

Becoming an online coach is one of the best ways to achieve the laptop lifestyle. No boss, no set office hours, you can work from anywhere with wifi…and your job is literally to help people! No wonder starting a coaching business has become so popular.

But before you go building a fancy website and promoting your services on social media, you need to lay strong foundations. If you’re not crystal clear on these four things, you’ll have a hard time standing out in the crowded online market and getting your business off the ground.

Here are four key things to consider before starting your coaching business!

1. What services will you offer?

There are so many different types of coaches out there. You can start by thinking about your interests and strengths, as well as what you have experience with. What do your friends and family come to you for help with? What did you do in a past job?

While you don’t need years of experience to become a successful coach, unlike becoming a Virtual Assistant or Designer, you do need experience in the area you are coaching people on and you do need to be able to get them the results you are promising.

Here are a few different areas you might choose to help your clients with:

Health/Fitness
Mindset
Finance
NLP
Relationships
Spiritual Coaching
Business
Marketing / Sales
Operations/Team
Consulting

I recommend choosing a broad category and then niching down. Instead of being just a general business coach, for example, you could be a sales coach who specialties in funnel optimization.

A lot of new entrepreneurs are afraid to do this in the beginning, but niching down will only help you grow faster! Not only will you attract more ideal clients, but you’ll start to be seen as an expert in your niche – and being an expert means charging expert rates!

Check out the video below for more tips on choosing your niche.

2. Who you serve.

Otherwise known as your ideal client or target market. Who are your dream clients, the people you feel driven to help? Do you want to work with new moms, recent college grads, or business owners?

If you’re not sure yet, but you have an idea of the service you want to offer (ie. business coaching, relationship coaching, career coaching), then think about who needs those services.

In order for an ideal client to be “ideal,” not only do they have to be someone you WANT to work with but they have to be someone who NEEDS what you offer, who VALUES what you offer, and who is willing and able to pay for your services.

For example, my program Laptop Lifestyle Bootcamp is aimed at new entrepreneurs who are ready to quit their 9-to-5 and build a six-figure online business. They might be struggling with mindset and overwhelm, or they’ve already started a business but are having a hard time getting traction. Knowing these pain points allows me to create a program and a marketing plan aimed at solving these issues for them.

Once you know who you want to serve, dig into some market research! Find your ideal clients on social media, see what their pain points are, and start thinking about how you can connect with them and help them.

3. Package and price your offer.

Decide on a service model for your coaching business. Will you offer private one-on-one sessions or group coaching? Will your program be more of an online course structure, with some live coaching thrown in?

Have a look at what other coaches are doing in your niche. Take notes on what they’re doing well, and what you think you could do differently or even better. What can you offer that other coaches can’t? This is your unique selling proposition (USP), and it will help you stand out in a crowded market.

You will also want to think about what transformation you are going to help your clients achieve, and what type of structure and offer would best support that transformation.

For example, if you’re a fitness coach who focuses on helping women build their strength, do you need weekly Friday check-ins with stats from their workouts? How you structure your program is going to be very different from a business coach. Make sure your offers are intentional and specific to your transformation.

After you decide on your packages, it’s time to set a price. If you already have experience doing this kind of work (let’s say you’ve been working as a private therapist for years and are looking to turn those skills into an online business), that will allow you to charge higher rates than someone just starting out. Remember, nothing beats experience, so you can always raise your rate as you become more experienced over time.

If you’re new to coaching, you may want to invest in a certification course in order to position yourself as more of an expert and gain some hands-on experience before working with clients. Another option would be to get some beta clients at a discounted rate to gain social proof and work through your coaching process.

4. A marketing plan.

You’ve done the hard work of laying your foundations and creating packages. Now it’s time to get out there and tell the world!

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to marketing your coaching business online. You can build a website, sell on social media, start an email list, or reach out to your personal network. Most likely you’ll end up doing some combination of all of those things.

Keep it simple in the beginning and don’t try to be everywhere at once. If you know your ideal clients hang out on Instagram, then concentrate your efforts there.

One thing to keep in mind as you start marketing your coaching business is that people don’t really care about the process. Focus on the results you’ll help them get. How is this program going to change their life for the better? What transformation will you help them achieve?

Final thoughts on starting a coaching business.

Starting a coaching business is a great way to gain more freedom in your career. With more and more people deciding to become coaches, getting clear on the four things in this post will help you stand out from the competition.

If you’re ready to build the online business of your dreams, make sure you check out Laptop Lifestyle Bootcamp, my signature group coaching program – we tackle everything from mindset to tech systems and more, including building those six-figure foundations. Get more details and join the waitlist here!