As with any entrepreneurial endeavor, starting (or growing) a coaching business is not easy. It takes hard work and perseverance. We recently sat down with a few experienced coaches who have successfully turned their passion for coaching into a business to learn some practical tips that any coach can apply to their practice.
The session was part of our ongoing monthly Coacharya Coaching Colloquium series. It’s a free service to the coaching community. If you’d like to attend our webinars in the future, please register for specific events or subscribe to our newsletter to get notified of upcoming sessions. If you attend live, you’ll be eligible for earning CCEUs for these webinars.
How to grow your coaching business
In the video of the session below we addressed topics like options for business structure, getting those first few clients, building your brand, client selection and pricing of your coaching services.
Thank you to our speakers Nicky Westhead, Michael Cullen and Ram Ramanathan and to Daryn Schwartz for moderating.
A few highlights:
- Get insurance – It’s not something you ever want to use, but it’s an important safety blanket your business will need, no matter what structure it will take or what type of coaching you do.
- Think about what audience you want to address – No matter what sales or marketing activities you’re undertaking, keep your audience in mind to ensure you’re doing what’s relevant to you.
- Become a PCC coach – Getting credentialed is increasingly important. Many clients expect it, especially corporates. Most of all, training at PCC level makes you a better coach. And practically speaking, if you’re a better coach, you’ll be able to demand higher fees.
- Think about pricing in “packages” – You may price your services differently depending on who they are for and how many sessions were purchased. Pricing per session will also differ depending on whether you’re working with individuals or groups.
- Consider pro-bono work, or nominal fees – If you’re targeting the right audience, it’s a great way to get your name out there and to collect some referrals, which you’ll need as you build your client base.
- Network, network, network – chambers of commerce, SHRM, coworking space events, etc. are all great places to meet potential clients or get referrals. If you only attend ICF events, you’ll only mingle with other coaches (ie, your competitors).
We hope you enjoy the video!
Note – We had a small technical hick-up at the start of the video so the first minute or so wasn’t recorded. What’s missing is the introduction from our moderator, Daryn Schwartz. We apologize for the abrupt start.
