by
Daniel Groves, guest writer
In this post, I’ll cover several essential practices, tools and strategies to focus on as you set up and grow your online business coaching operation.
The world has changed a lot in the last 12 months and if you have started up a coaching business during that time, or are planning to start one now, you may be wary about how you will be able to establish yourself and grow and thrive in the current climate.
There are several things you may wish to think about, but there are a few easy wins to position yourself effectively in your chosen marketplace.
1. Always keep learning about your coaching business
Firstly, you need to think about your target market.
Do you know who it is?
Do you know how to reach them?
Do you know what they actually want?
Conducting online surveys can be a useful catch-all way of discovering if there is a need for your service within the niche you’re targeting and the demographics of the people who are likely to use it.
This market research is invaluable in ensuring you are targeting the right clients, and not wasting time aiming your business at those who are unlikely to be interested in what you are selling.
There are a lot of free online surveys available, which are quick and easy to use, and can be shared to already-curated databases through platforms such as Mailchimp, on social media sites and on your own website.
Encourage your existing clients, friends and family to share the link to the survey too, for maximum exposure. Check out this list of some of the most popular online survey tools:
Online Form Builder from Hubspot
GetFeedback
Qualaroo
Learn your most important business metrics
Key Performance Indicators are vital to being successful in business coaching. You need to be aware of the price you are charging, in real terms, to get each client and then what net profit is attributed to that client. What is their conversion rate? Are they responding to your efforts to upsell?
Here is a list of several key business metrics (your sales funnel) you’ll likely want to track and review diligently as you work to grow your presence online.
Unique website visitors
Leads captured
New initial consults/conversations
Proposals submitted
New clients closed
Make reviewing these numbers and the conversion rates at each level a monthly discipline and you’ll always know what to focus on next as you build your online business coaching empire.
Learn what’s unique about your offering
From a recent Forbes article…
“The coaching and consulting industry is booming across a range of different business sectors. Unfortunately, this rise in popularity comes with market saturation, making it difficult for a new or aspiring coach to break through the crowd.”
As a business coach, it’s important to ask yourself, ‘what is my Unique Value Proposition’? What do you bring to the market that makes you stand out from the rest? You need to shout about why you are special and should be chosen above all others.
You may find that you need to adapt to your market and changing circumstances, creating new value propositions to keep up with the trends.
How will you know you need to evolve?
The single best way to learn it may be time to tweak your value proposition is by identifying common trends in the direct conversations you’re having with your own leads, prospects and customers.
Nothing can replace this direct learning, but a couple of other tools and strategies can also help broaden your understanding of the market so you’re always seeing the forest through the trees.
One Free Tool: Google Search Console
Setting up Google Search Console to track your site search performance is essential to make sure you’re taking full advantage of any keyword search opportunities you already have available to you.
See what you’re just starting to rank for, and if it’s relevant, double-down with content until you’re ranking on page 1 in google for that keyword phrase.
One Paid Tool: Ahrefs
Paid SEO research tools like Ahrefs, and especially their keyword research and competitor analysis tools can help identify some of the most powerful B2B SEO trends that you haven’t tapped into yet.
Between conversations with your own customers, your current website’s keyword search opportunities, and keeping your finger on the pulse of new opportunities with keywords research tools and basic competitor insights, you’ll have a suite of tools and confirmation to ready you to grow your online business coaching reach consistently.
2. Manage the two burns (burn rate and burnout)
Your Burn Rate is the rate at which you spend money in excess of what you bring earn in revenue.
One major pitfall that new online business coaches can experience is expanding your spend on marketing, partnerships, tools, etc. before you know your client base is growing fast enough to support the expansion.
This gets back to knowing the key conversion metrics in your business at each layer of the funnel. Ideally your marketing funnel gets so predictable over time that you can know that $1,000 spent on ‘Campaign X’ will net you 20 leads, 10 great prospects, and 5 new clients, for example.
That’s all to say, keep doing research and running smaller tests if possible before committing too much more time and money to new expansion. You don’t want to burn all your cash before you’ve even really begun to ramp up!
And the second ‘burn’ to avoid aside from over-extending yourself financially, is to over-extend yourself mentally, emotionally and physically - in other words, you want to avoid Burnout.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Business building is an incredibly iterative process and you have to give yourself grace from time-to-time to say energized (or even sane).
One tip the Nudge Coach team likes to pass along is to consider taking some time to intentionally ‘coach yourself’ each week when it comes to your health, wellbeing and time management.
Not only will you benefit from this mentally, physically and emotionally, you’ll also likely experience some creative benefits because you’ll be spending more time in the mindset of a client - and nothings better for ongoing ideation than that.
3. Make every connection an opportunity
It is often sensible to start your coaching business in a co-working space, if appropriate, as this means you aren’t paying out for big office spaces before you know if you are going to be a success.
Sharing office space can also mean sharing ideas and experiences with people who are in a similar situation and at the same stage of their business journey. Learning from other people, and their triumphs, and mistakes, is invaluable when starting out.
But no matter where you’re working, make a discipline of at least one of the following…
regularly offering to buy someone lunch, coffee or a cocktail to get to know them, their story and their business.
Finding an experienced mentor for regular conversations to help you break through challenges and keep yourself accountable when consistency gets tough
Find an online ‘support group’ of business coaches like you by joining a Mastermind or some similar cohort-based online learning experience.
Having a mentor, or mastermind group makes the hard things a little easier and lessens the burden on yourself to always get things right. And nobody gets everything right the first time!
And this year has been a little different.
“As we come out of the pandemic working from home is going to continue to be the norm,” says Rob Da Costa, of The Agency Accelerator podcast. “The pandemic has brought about a change in the work culture, with people having to adapt to remote working. It is important to have the right tools as a business coach as well as the right setup.”
Tools for connecting and coaching clients remotely
Video communications (like Zoom, Microsoft Teams etc), Instant Messaging and online discussion forums can all be utilized to keep clients engaged and on track, create a social experience, and more.
But, for a more complete and engaging experience for your clients, there are also industry-leading coaching apps such as Nudge Coach that help deliver your coaching content and keep clients on track in one customizable app.
The last thing you want to happen, particularly when you are just starting out in coaching, is to lose everything you are working on by using clucky spreadsheets, so it’s worth investing in an app such as Nudge Coach - get your free trial here.
Cloud-based software should also be considered to archive everything safely and securely in case of any unforeseen accidents or technical issues, and to streamline your day-to-day workflows - all saving you time.
Final thoughts
Starting up in coaching can be scary, but it can also be very rewarding – both personally and financially.
Don’t let fear hold you back, and use these helpful tips to help you succeed and grow your startup. The world is your oyster!
