We are pleased to share an article entitled “ Coach as Entrepreneur” written by Laura Berman Fortgang.
Eighty-two percent of coaches close up shop and quit within two years of going out on their own.* That is an astounding statistic — one that can either scare you away from pursuing this discipline that likely means so much to you, or embolden you to beat the odds.
In a crowded market with the new twist of AI at our doorsteps, it is still possible to succeed on your own. The key is to embody entrepreneurship. The early days as the multi-tasking, wear-all-hats business owner will evolve eventually to having team members, but it all starts with scrappy determination and a willingness to take a risk.
At the outset, there are a couple of core truths to keep in mind. One is that filling your schedule with one-on-one clients is not easy, and most successful coaches have more than the one revenue stream. That, of course, depends on what fees you can command and which market you’re playing in.
Corporate contracts usually yield fees that make doing one-on-one coaching only quite comfortable. However, your own want for creativity and the likely demand that your one-on-one results be spread to a client’s team makes it likely that you’ll also offer team coaching or training as well. Diversifying is good.
The second thing to keep in mind is that you’ll have to be willing to be visible and ‘put yourself out there.’ Tackling tasks in isolation makes having this kind of business hard, especially if you’ve come from a setting where you work with other people.
Getting out from behind your desk, whether virtually or in person, is going to be important to growing your coaching business. Speaking opportunities, teaching and writing are all ways to build your impact and attract clients. This is a huge consideration before going out on your own. You can’t hide and be successful.
To embody the entrepreneur you need to be in order to have the coaching business you want to have, there are four important factors that need to be consistent at all times.
Your business needs you to:
› Position it,
› Market it,
› Sell it,
› Manage it (and yourself).
POSITION IT
The question most often asked about this is: to niche or not to niche? There is no doubt that having a specific outcome you can create over and over will build your reputation as someone who gets results, and narrowing your focus can be very lucrative.
But here is the caveat: Unless you have a built-in niche because you are coaching on a specific experience you’ve had, or you have a particular market sector you know you want to serve, declaring a niche before you have a body of work is not wise. You’ll just end up changing it, and likely wasting a lot of time and money in the process.
Being a generalist is a worthy first phase. Sharpen your skill set and know that your niche will find you. You’ll soon see that there is a particular scenario you love coaching around, or you have an ideal client that you want to have more of. Those are the aspects that bring your niche into focus.
Another important factor to remember in positioning your business is that no one cares that you’re a coach. Coaching is how you bring about a result. The result — the transformation — is what matters, and just like the title of a book that calls you from the shelf, there has to be a great promise of what will happen. In other words, what clients will get from working with you that will make them want to hire you over another coach.
MARKET IT
Once you can speak clearly about what you offer, you then have to get the word out. This is the part that most would-be entrepreneurs dread.
Will you have to dance on TikTok? Do you have to become a LinkedIn expert? No, you do not have to do any of these things, but you do have to participate in the social media landscape and work your network for opportunities to speak, teach, write and coach. Getting an experience of you virtually or in person will go far in attracting clients to your business.
The possibilities for marketing are endless. It’s a chance to tap your own creativity and step out into the marketplace in a unique way. There is many a guru out there ready to tell you the ONE way that will make your business explode; take it all in stride and do what you can on the budget you have.
But please understand — and this really shouldn’t come as a surprise — that you’ll need to spend money to make money.
SELL IT
Maybe more than marketing, coaches dread selling. However, when it comes to making money, you’ll have to get comfortable with selling. As heart- and people-centered leaders, coaches generally have a problem with feeling like they are being pushy or acting like a used car salesman. None of those qualities are necessary to become proficient at closing sales.
What does become necessary is learning how to do a discovery call well, understanding the neuroscience of what happens in the brain when someone feels ‘sold to,’ and what makes someone decide to buy.
Even if you come from a sales background, the usual fare doesn’t often work to your favor when it comes to selling someone on being their coach. It’s a much more personal relationship, andpeople need to be really clear about what they are buying. There is no widget and there is no ‘done for you’ service where you receive a finished product at the end.
When done well, yes, coaching produces a result. That is what you are selling — the result/transformation that was mentioned in the positioning section. People want that transformation, and you are doing them a disservice if you let them walk away without buying.
Did you catch that? Selling is a service. Serving people is supporting them to choose the path that will get them what they want … and coaching with you is that answer! Your job is to gain the skill set and become comfortable with serving in that way.
MANAGE IT (AND YOURSELF)
Being an entrepreneur means having multiple priorities to execute at all times. Until you grow big enough to have help in your business, you’ll be doing most, if not all, tasks yourself, so learning how to make time your friend and regulate your own emotions become critical skills.
When I work with coaches to grow their business, we come up with the predictable activities that the business requires (quarterly taxes, marketing, social media posting, open hours for discovery calls, etc.) and put them on a repeatable schedule. We get in a loop of what has to happen and when, and we time block accordingly.
For example, if you’re going to post to social media three times a week, ideas and execution on those posting days will be a slow and tedious chore. However, taking one morning a month to prepare your postings for the month and then scheduling them so they post automatically, takes away the daily pre-occupation and distraction that posting in real time can cause.
So cyclical, predictable activities get scheduled, leaving you to balance the real-time demands on your time … and don’t forget the clients! This is all about gaining and servicing clients.
There is a saying in entrepreneurial circles: “New level, new devil.” Every stage of business growth you reach will come with its own growing pains and challenges, but that is not a reason to avoid the entrepreneur’s path as a coach.
Coaching is one of the few professions where you are guaranteed to grow alongside your clients. Embrace it fully in these four domains, and you will see yourself among the percentage that make it.
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