Coaching Biz Tips

Best Advice for Coaches Starting Out

Someone asked me recently what advice I'd offer to coaches who are just starting out.

Here's something I wish I'd appreciated MUCH sooner: The importance of a viable business model. By business model, I mean 1) the problem your business solves and 2) how it solves the issue profitably.

Many of us get stuck on #1 and never even get to #2, but both are critical. If you hear yourself saying "My coaching is for anyone with pretty much any issue or problem" or if you only offer coaching based on an hourly rate, you haven't given your business model enough consideration. Getting clients will be much more labor-intensive and time-consuming, and even if you manage to fill your calendar with client sessions, there's only so many hours in the week. Your profits will be limited by two factors: the maximum # of available client appointments and the hourly price your clients are willing to pay.

There are so many people who are being innovative and profitable with non-traditional coaching businesses these days -- don't assume that the old generic coaching by-the-hour business model is the only option.

The sooner you figure out your business model, the sooner you'll be profitable, and in the long run you'll be helping more people, too.

Because if your business model is broken, you won't be around long enough to help many.

What advice would you offer a new coach?

What's on Your TA DA List This Week?

We started something new this week in my Empowerment Group: a weekly TA DA item. Here's the deal:

• Pick a "stale" task on your To Do list -- something that's been stuck on the list for too long. It needs to be something that would make you feel ten pounds lighter if you could just get it off your list.
• You're serious (no kidding, SERIOUS) about getting it off your list THIS WEEK, whatever it takes (even if it's just letting go of it.)
• One of the group members came up with the idea that it might be more enjoyable if we consciously decided to have FUN while doing it, so we all agreed that we're going to be playful and enjoy doing our TA DA items. And if it stops being enjoyable, we're going to put it down, walk away and do something else for a while until we can bring joy and playfulness back to the task again.
• We're posting our TA DA items on our Empowerment Group forum so that everybody can see what's going on and celebrate together.

My TA DA item for this week is to add four more articles to my keep-in-touch email system. The articles are written, I just need to format them and load them into my autoresponder; and it's been on my To Do list for over two months! YEE HAW!

So what I'm wondering today is:

What's on YOUR TA DA list this week?

Feel free to post your TA DA below and I'll celebrate with you when it's done. =^)

What Will You Do Differently in 2009?

It's that time again… Time to look back and take stock of all that I've accomplished and let go of in the last year, and to look ahead to plan for the next 12 months. And what a place to stand, here on the brink of 2009! It's like trying to tread water in a rip tide or something.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I want to approach 2009 differently. In the past, I've tended to focus on setting goals and making things happen; but these days, things are shifting and changing so fast that it's hard to imagine what's going to happen next month, let alone a year from now.

What Are You Rehearsing?

We all spend time and energy preparing ourselves for whatever's next. That's what goal setting and planning are about, right?

But as I was coaching a client the other day, it suddenly became clear to both the client and me that she was spending A LOT of time preparing for stuff she didn't want. In her mind, she was rehearsing for the worst, over and over again. She admitted that it was as if she was willing the worst to happen; and not surprisingly, that's what she often ended up with.

Up until now, she's been in the habit of rehearsing the worst; but now that she can see it, she's determined to create a new habit of rehearsing the best possible outcome. It's already had an amazing effect; her energy is higher and she's enjoying her work much more now.

Here's what I'm wondering today:

What about you? What are you rehearsing?

Post your comments and questions below to join in the discussion!

Do You Turn Down Work?

We all have our "20-20 hindsight" stories when it comes to customers we wish we'd never met.

Sometimes it's the customer who sucked you dry and then demanded a full refund;  or the one who insisted on calling you on Sunday evenings in spite of your clearly posted office hours; or the friend that your cousin referred, who turned out to be afflicted with "the payment's in the mail" syndrome.

And sometimes, it's simply a case of bad timing or a clash of personalities. The point is, there are times when you have to say to yourself, "I should have seen THAT one coming…"

Here's what I'm wondering today:

Do you turn down work? And if so, what do you look for; what are the "warning" signs?

Post your comments and questions below to join in the discussion!

What's Keeping You From Doing What You Need to Do?

At the start of each coaching session, I always check in with my client on the status of their action items from the last session – "Did you follow through on your action plan?" If my client checked off all their items, we celebrate and move on to the next phase of their plan. And if they didn't, we take a look at what they did instead of the intended actions. Often, how a client deals with the unexpected (or the unconscious) reveals fertile ground for coaching.

I once had a client who had this great big, wonderful, juicy vision for his business. He'd thought through the steps he needed to take to reach his goals. Each week, he ended the coaching session feeling excited about moving forward.

But over time, I noticed that he often didn't follow through. So I called him on it.

I listened as he recounted the various things that had happened that week – other things had popped up, gotten in the way, used up all his time and energy. He admitted that he felt frustrated and guilty about not doing what he'd said he wanted to do… again.

And then something prompted me to ask him, "What's really keeping you from doing what you know you need to do?"

He started to explain again about what happened that week. I said, "What if it's NOT about the circumstances? What if what's going on "outside" is NOT what's really keeping you from doing what you need to do?"

He thought for a moment, and said, "Well, I just didn't have enough time to get to those things."

I've learned that when a client says they don't have enough time, what they really mean is there's a breakdown in the way they've prioritized their time. So I said, "Let's imagine that you had plenty of time – what else might have kept you from doing what you know you need to do?"

We spent some time getting up underneath what was REALLY keeping him from doing what he needed to do, and without revealing any client secrets, I can tell you that it turned out to be something to do with his mindset – an unexamined, limiting belief. And when he really looked at it, he was finally able to shift how he was being about doing what he knew he needed to do.

And then it seemed like he was carving up his action list like a hot knife through butter. "Things" didn't get any easier – HE became easier WITH them. And he got a lot more done as a result.

Here's what I'm wondering today:

What's really keeping you from doing what you know you need to do? Have you been blaming the circumstances, or claiming that there's not enough time? Is it possible that your own mindset is keeping you from being more successful?

Post your comments and questions below to join in the discussion!

How Much Market Research is Enough?

I'm constantly amazed at how easy it is to find information on the Internet. You can search for ANYTHING – any string of words, and you needn't even bother about proper spelling – and in a nano-second, you'll have links to more references and sources than you could ever possibly read in your whole life.

This easy access to information makes market research so much easier than it used to be. In fact, billion dollar businesses have been built on internet access to information (Google, Yahoo, etc.)

But too much of anything can be dangerous. My clients often complain about how much time it takes to do market research, not because the research itself is time-consuming, but because they get sucked into the search and one link leads to another, and before you know it, a whole hour (or a Saturday!) has passed.

It's easy to end up feeling overwhelmed by all the information and unable to synthesize it in a meaningful way.

Here's what I'm wondering today:

How much market research is "enough"? How do you organize your research? And how do you stay focused so that your research is meaningful to your business?

Post your comments and questions about market research below to join in the discussion!

Are You Tracking Your Results?

I've noticed a curious thing: Coaches (or perhaps self-employed service providers in general) seem oddly oblivious about what their business is actually doing with regards to results.

I'm not talking about client results here (that's a whole 'nother subject) – I'm talking about BUSINESS results. Ask a coach, "How's business?" and they'll usually say something like, "Well, I just got a new client the other day…" or "I was pretty busy for a stretch there, but now I've got several contracts that are ending at the same time…"

The problem is, they don't really know what their business is actually doing, because 1) they haven't established a benchmark; 2) they haven't set goals; and/or 3) they don't measure or monitor results on a regular basis (or, in some cases, at all.)

My clients often tell me they're not tracking results because they aren't sure what they should be tracking. So here are a couple of examples of key performance indicators to monitor on a monthly or (better yet) weekly basis:

    * Number of prospects you're reaching (new subscribers)
    * Percent of sales you're closing (conversion rate)
    * Average amount of sale
    * Total inflow (revenue)
    * Total outflow (expenses)
    * Profits (difference between revenue and expenses)

Here's what I'm wondering today:

Is your business growing, slowing or plateauing?  Are you tracking actual data – or are you "just guessing?" And if you're not tracking results… what's stopping you?

Post your comments and questions about tracking results below to join in the discussion!