The following ten steps will help you to establish a profitable, niche, and sustainable life coaching business. The descriptions are very brief but should still give you a good idea of those things to consider so that you can make a career out of life coaching. In our Life Coaching School, we’ll teach you everything in more detail.
Vision
I have talked before about the importance of having a vision that underlies WHAT you aim for and WHY you want to do it. Your vision is a blue-sky dream that articulates your passion for coaching in a concise statement, but an essential foundation of your mission, goals, and action plans. Your vision also reflects your values.
Income, lifestyle, and contribution goals
We always emphasize this in our Life Coaching School. Keeping your vision in mind, you must define day-to-day aspects that will help determine HOW you set up your coaching business. What is your income target? What lifestyle do you want or need to maintain? What and to whom do you want to contribute? These answers set the broad parameters of your business idea.
Niche and target market
I already mentioned that your service must be of good quality and different from your competitors. Defining your niche based on what you’re good at and interested in will help position you competitively. Your target market is the people you can offer value to in that niche, which includes the geographical area if you aim at face-to-face meetings.
Gap analysis
Now that you know what service you want to offer and to whom, look at what you need to be able to do this. Do you need additional skills? Knowledge? Certification? Start-up funding? Draft and implement a plan to close those gaps.
Create a unique and differentiated offer
Use your goals, niche, and target market to synthesize a MISSION statement. Also, include aspects of your vision and core values but make sure your mission is feasible, attainable, and specific.
Price your offer
What is a fair value for the service that you want to offer to your target market? Estimate the amount that you will add to their lives, including career and performance. Use industry and competitor benchmarks in your area and niche to find a good position. Remember, don’t low-ball to attract clients as you are under-selling your worth.
Marketing and promotion
Where and how can you best market, promote, and advertise your service? Use your network or personal and social media contacts to promote your business. Don’t hesitate to ask their input, engaging as many people as possible to generate awareness and momentum. Set up online accounts – a business website, Facebook page, and LinkedIn account. Design your website like a sales funnel and use testimonials and social validation – the are many templates and reasonably priced developers available.
Discovery sessions
Give great thought and care to the planning and design of your discovery sessions. Create professional T&Cs (terms and conditions agreement), supporting documents, and information brochures to promote your business image. The discovery session is incredibly essential to motivate prospective clients, start building a relationship and demonstrate a good fit that optimizes the conversion to paying clients.
Scale operations
Look beyond the start of your business. How many clients can you manage with your initial setup? What would you need to increase that potential? Plan ahead of time to accommodate growth.
Get a mentor
Last, but not least. As we say in our Coaching School, the most significant business can become even more spectacular if you can harness the power of a mentor. Look through your contacts. Find people in your business area that you admire and inspire you. Don’t hesitate to engage with them and ask to be your mentor.
