How To Start A Successful Coaching Business
- Apr 14, 2022
- 4 min read
Written by: Sara Sabin, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The answer to a successful online coaching business lies in doing less not more. Get focused on 3 key areas to accelerate your progress.
Many entrepreneurs that I have come across including myself at times have the tendency to fall for “shiny object syndrome”. Distraction can literally kill a business. Less is more.
When I started my coaching business, I was highly focused. One offer, one lead generation method. When I thought about growing, I thought that the answer lay in doing more. The more I looked, the more gurus and coaches that I followed, and the more activities I did in my business, the less it grew. I find that the same thing happens with my clients.
Whether you’re a health coach, a life coach, or a business coach; the key to success is the focus.
When you start your business, you’re running around doing all the things, finding some comfort in the fact that you are busy. But without knowing the few activities that you need to be focusing on to move the needle in your business.
Here are 3 areas that it’s crucial you focus on.
Focus your mind
How can you build something without knowing the overall direction of travel?
I often say you can build an online business the easy or the hard way. Get your mind focused on success, shift your beliefs to support that, and do the (right) work. And what you’ll find is it all seems to get easier.
Getting clear on the big picture direction of where you’re trying to get to and why you’re trying to get there focuses the mind. Decisions become easier because they either get you closer to your vision or further away from your vision.
Once you know the big picture direction, it gets a lot easier to break it down into the short, and medium-term goals and apply a strategic focus.
For example, if your short-term goal is to generate consistent income in your business in the next 3 months, keeping the mind focused on the consistent steps that you need to take prevents you from going off-piste. The impact of your few activities will be magnified.
Focus Your Marketing
There is no one marketing approach that works for everyone all the time. Many factors are at play. What stage of business are you? What kind of clients are you looking to work with? What is the outcome that you want from your marketing?
In my experience, many coaches are looking for the “one” thing that they think will help. Maybe, you then, find someone to help coach you or teach you about that one thing. Only to find it doesn’t really work for you, and to feel disappointed.
At the beginning of your business, where you are trying to build up cash flow, your marketing should be focused on most revenue-generating activities (no, posting on social media or worrying about your website SEO all the time is probably not going to generate revenue quickly.)
You need to be proactive about reaching out to your “ideal client”. That doesn’t mean spending hours in group conversations or being everywhere all the time. It means answering the question: what are the 2 to 3 key activities that will allow me to have regular, impactful conversations with my ideal client?
Focus Your Intuition
The “the brain in the gut” is not a throwaway comment. It is grounded in neuroscience.
It’s quite easy to get swept up in “comparison-itis”. Everyone is doing launches, everyone is Instagram reels, and everyone is doing Facebook lives. Therefore, I must do that too. The reality is that when you are following these people, you probably aren’t comparing like with like. There are people with huge social media followings, posting all the time that aren’t making money. All you’re seeing is the “shiny” perception.
To focus on your own intuition, cut out the noise.
Do activities that feel aligned with you AND are aligned with where you are and what you’re trying to do.
Now, that doesn’t mean it will feel comfortable all the time. That’s why so many people spend months tweaking their websites and doing more and more courses. It’s easier and feels safe. You’re not putting yourself out there.
What is aligned with you may also feel uncomfortable. Tackling the things that scare us helps us to grow and helps us to get into alignment with what we ultimately say we want. We’re looking at what will serve your highest vision and purpose.
Follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more on leadership, entrepreneurship, and business building. You can check out my regular articles for Entrepreneur Magazine here. I also invite you to download my ebook “6 Myths about Building a Six Figure Coaching Business and What You Should Do Instead!
If you would like support reaching $10-20K months in your coaching business, check out my Business Accelerator Program.
Sara Sabin, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Sara Sabin is a qualified tax accountant from a Top 10 firm, former start-up company founder and a transformational leadership coach and consultant. She is a regular contributor to the Entrepreneur Magazine Leadership Network and The Fast Company. She understands the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship through personal experience and is an advocate of continuous personal development. She calls herself the Queen of Transformation, but it wasn’t until she discovered her passion that she really cracked it!
She built a multi six figure coaching practice that she loves, working with successful leaders and entrepreneurs of high-growth 7 figure businesses, helping them to accelerate progress through developing their leadership capacity and EQ, and enhancing team performance.
She also supports other coaches and consultants to build a business working with high performers. Through an individualised roadmap to success, she helps them to build a profitable, sustainable coaching practice that they love, simply and rapidly, using cost effective strategies.
