Seven Steps to Setting Up Your Practice for Success!
Jan 07, 2020
One of the biggest challenges to anyone creating a new business or practice is creating a sustainable income: an income to support living requirements in the leaner periods of a start-up.
New coaches often begin offering free sessions to establish their name and competence in their quest to become known, trusted and sought after. This is key to sustainable success, which eventually allows a coach to charge more for their services in the long-term.
This approach can sometimes be slow to establish a steady income, depending on circumstances directly or indirectly related to the coach. For example, those circumstances can include how skilful the coach is, how open the client is to sharing their experience (no matter how well the coach supported them), how proactive the coach is to share their success, what the appetite for coaching is in the area the coach is targeting, and so much more.
New coaches may start to get concerned about their success and ability when they are at the beginning of their journey to start their practice – or perhaps even longer. In reality, it may take a long while before seeing regular income, even if the coach is working with paid clients and/or promoting what they offer.
So it may be useful to have another income stream before solely relying upon coaching as a main source of income at the beginning of setting up a practice. Again, this length of time will depend on the efforts of the coach. It can take up to three to five years before most new businesses begin to show profit according to research provided by smallbusiness.com.
Below are some steps to consider when setting up a new practice to support your success.
1. Start your coaching practice part-time or turn your full-time role into a part-time role (if possible)
If you want to run your own coaching business and are currently in another job, it may be wise to stay in your role while working to establish your new endeavour on a part-time basis. Starting a business while simultaneously feeling stressed and pressured to make money from it straight away may result in unnecessary pressure, which can detract opportunities versus being a magnet for success.
Dee Hutchinson, an Empower World Alumni, coach, entrepreneur and creator of an online business which helps people generate a second income for themselves, suggests “the longer you maintain an income of some sort while you’re building your business, (the more) you’ll make better decisions, and it will be a more enjoyable process”.
Having a clear understanding of the business world and how long it will take to make a return can support in building the foundations of a successful coaching business and career. Leaving your traditional employment when you have gained a consistent income from the new business is a practical way to ensure your financial success with less risk. And of course, there are always coaches who are successful entrepreneurs who have business acumen and who are willing to focus solely on building their business.
2. Find your focus
Marketing experts will advise anyone in business to find their niche. So to support your efforts and ultimately your success, it can be very helpful to determine who you want to work with – who is your ideal client - so you can focus your messaging and promotion efforts effectively. And if you should decide to create programmes, as Dee wisely suggests, “Ultimately, you want to be creating something that you love doing. I mean why bother teaching something or creating a programme that you don't enjoy!”
3. Intention and goal setting
Intention and goal setting, as well as deciding which customers you want to work with will support your coaching business efforts and focus.
Set yourself goals of where you want your business to be in the short term, say one, three and six months, and then expand that to the first year, then three to five years plus. By setting goals and your intention of what you want to create, you are programming the part of your mind (known as the Reticular Activating System), to look out for the opportunities and ideas to make your dreams and goals come to life.
Also, by knowing your own financial situation and goals, it provides you with the awareness as to when you can transition from your former career to your new coaching business.
New coaches often begin offering free sessions to establish their name and competence in their quest to become known, trusted and sought after. This is key to sustainable success, which eventually allows a coach to charge more for their services in the long-term.
This approach can sometimes be slow to establish a steady income, depending on circumstances directly or indirectly related to the coach. For example, those circumstances can include how skilful the coach is, how open the client is to sharing their experience (no matter how well the coach supported them), how proactive the coach is to share their success, what the appetite for coaching is in the area the coach is targeting, and so much more.
New coaches may start to get concerned about their success and ability when they are at the beginning of their journey to start their practice – or perhaps even longer. In reality, it may take a long while before seeing regular income, even if the coach is working with paid clients and/or promoting what they offer.
So it may be useful to have another income stream before solely relying upon coaching as a main source of income at the beginning of setting up a practice. Again, this length of time will depend on the efforts of the coach. It can take up to three to five years before most new businesses begin to show profit according to research provided by smallbusiness.com.
Below are some steps to consider when setting up a new practice to support your success.
1. Start your coaching practice part-time or turn your full-time role into a part-time role (if possible)
If you want to run your own coaching business and are currently in another job, it may be wise to stay in your role while working to establish your new endeavour on a part-time basis. Starting a business while simultaneously feeling stressed and pressured to make money from it straight away may result in unnecessary pressure, which can detract opportunities versus being a magnet for success.
Dee Hutchinson, an Empower World Alumni, coach, entrepreneur and creator of an online business which helps people generate a second income for themselves, suggests “the longer you maintain an income of some sort while you’re building your business, (the more) you’ll make better decisions, and it will be a more enjoyable process”.
Having a clear understanding of the business world and how long it will take to make a return can support in building the foundations of a successful coaching business and career. Leaving your traditional employment when you have gained a consistent income from the new business is a practical way to ensure your financial success with less risk. And of course, there are always coaches who are successful entrepreneurs who have business acumen and who are willing to focus solely on building their business.
2. Find your focus
Marketing experts will advise anyone in business to find their niche. So to support your efforts and ultimately your success, it can be very helpful to determine who you want to work with – who is your ideal client - so you can focus your messaging and promotion efforts effectively. And if you should decide to create programmes, as Dee wisely suggests, “Ultimately, you want to be creating something that you love doing. I mean why bother teaching something or creating a programme that you don't enjoy!”
3. Intention and goal setting
Intention and goal setting, as well as deciding which customers you want to work with will support your coaching business efforts and focus.
Set yourself goals of where you want your business to be in the short term, say one, three and six months, and then expand that to the first year, then three to five years plus. By setting goals and your intention of what you want to create, you are programming the part of your mind (known as the Reticular Activating System), to look out for the opportunities and ideas to make your dreams and goals come to life.
Also, by knowing your own financial situation and goals, it provides you with the awareness as to when you can transition from your former career to your new coaching business.
4. Create brand awareness
It’s important to create awareness of your brand and what it stands for to establish trust and credibility through your promotion: paid and non-paid.
Using social media to expand your name and business is a great way of creating brand awareness, particularly paid promotions. The key to success is understanding your target audience intimately, including their likes, dislikes and what’s truly important to them so you can speak their language in your marketing and promotion efforts.
Organising free seminars or events for people to attend to get a taster session of what you offer can also assist in creating awareness. These often don’t involve a high investment as many community hubs offer free use of rooms/spaces.
Creating a website can also support your efforts and doesn’t have to cost a huge amount to set-up. A key to attracting traffic to your online presence is keeping it relevant and updating it regularly as internet search engines keep track of actively utilised websites. This simply means when people search online using key words which you have used on your website will perhaps lead to finding you online.
5. Use digital platforms to promote who you are and be found
Use technology where you can, which allows people to find you and provides people with more choice as to how they work with you. Providing coaching services online allows potential clients with access to more variety in the ways they can connect with you which provides better opportunities to choose you as their coach.
Marketing yourself specifically as to who you work with and/or as unique from other coaches will assist you to grow your coaching practice and widen your reach to potential targeted clients.
Using digital apps such as Skype, FaceTime, Zoom or Houseparty are free to use, which enables you to connect with people from wherever you or they are at convenient times.
And having a presence on Linked, Facebook, Instagram and other relevant social/digital media provides expanded opportunities to be found.
6. Get feedback to support your focus
Asking for feedback from your clients as to what they believe you can offer will also allow you to recognise your areas of skill and strength and provides insights as to where to potentially expand on these areas. Catering to your potential clients wants and needs will hopefully allow you to stand out from the crowd and create a successful business.
7. Persevere
Overall, an essential part of setting up a successful coaching practice is understanding perseverance and patience is key. Success does not come without its trials and tribulations along the way. It may be a long journey before you are an established business in your own right, but if you are focused, determined and consistent, you will set yourself up for potential success and fulfilment.
And finally…
It’s also about being aware that running an independent coaching business is not for everyone. More and more coaches come to the realisation they can make an important, sustainable contribution to the world by staying in their industry and/or current roles and using their coaching skills to positively impact organisational or industry cultures and directions.
A consistent, prosperous income will come from learning and growing your business or practice over time, while continuously setting your intentions and working towards your ultimate goal. Do not enter the process with the mind-set of quick success: successful coaches are determined, make effort and become business aware in terms of realistic (and stretching) goals and dedication to establish their mark in the industry.
Be empowered
Dee Hutchinson and Jeanine share insights about how new coaches can get started as a coach and create a sustainable coaching business both on and offline: what to focus on, what to be aware of, and how to set yourself up to build your practice and business in Empower World Coaching and Leadership Podcast, Episode 131 here
Episode-131 can be found here:
Direct Link: http://bit.ly/2nLaBEA
#stitcher: http://bit.ly/
#itunes: http://bit.ly/EW-
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