A 6 Step Guide to Developing a Coaching Business Model
Start and grow your coaching business with this comprehensive guide. With these 6 steps, you'll pave the way for a thriving coaching business, enjoying flexibility and financial control.
Whether part-time, full-time, or only at the weekends, starting your own coaching business makes you a certified business owner. This comes with a huge number of perks, from working hours you choose to take charge of your income. But, there are also a fair few challenges.
To give your business a headstart and ensure you lay solid foundations for it to grow on, it’s important you create a coaching business model.
Follow this step-by-step guide to put yours together and clarify exactly how your coaching business is going to work long-term.
There’s a lot of demand for coaching businesses out there, but there are also a lot of people already coaching. If you want to earn clients, you’re going to need to stand out.
Start your business model plan by outlining your vision. Consider:
What you would like to achieve for clients
How your coaching business will change people’s lives
Any key elements of coaching you’d like to focus on
Your vision will guide a lot of your decisions and help refine your marketing strategy, so be as specific as you can.
This is also a good time to outline your niche. Consider the specifics of your coaching, be it relationships, career, wellness, or something else entirely. You may have other factors to list beneath your niche, including any values you hold or a unique selling point (USP) of your coaching business.
Part of your business model will be considering which tools are essential to starting your business.
This can include software such as a digital calendar that clients can use to book appointments like Calendly or adopting AI apps like Reclaim to find the best time for your 1-2-1 meetings and general task management.
It’s also likely to include physical products, like a laptop with a good webcam and microphone if you’ll be doing sessions over Zoom.
Don’t forget to think about how you’ll take payments, too! In a cashless world, it’s important to offer flexible solutions for your clients to pay you for your services and to have somewhere to manage your accounts. Tech solution providers such as SumUp payments offer a range of tools that will help you manage your coaching business finances all in one place.
To attract a wide audience, it’s best to offer a variety of services. This doesn’t have to mean you provide more than one niche, but that you offer tiers of coaching or slightly different services within the same niche.
For example, you might have one tier that coaches clients on how to write a CV, another that also aids them in finding the right job, and a third tier that prepares clients for job interviews, too.
Providing a breakdown of your services is smart even if you don’t offer different packages. Clients want to know how you’ll be helping them and what they can expect from your sessions.
Try to focus on the benefits of your coaching rather than just listing what you do. For example, instead of writing ‘CV preparation’ you could write ‘identifying your strengths and highlighting experiences to build a CV that’ll engage employers’. It tells clients not just what you’ll be working on but the future benefits of signing up for your coaching.
Market research is a must for any business. When creating your coaching model, it’s very helpful to know who your ideal client is, what they’re looking for from you, and what other coaches in your industry are doing.
Create a target customer profile of who you imagine your ideal client to be. If possible, try to find people that fit this profile to survey on their:
Income (or how much they’d spend on a coaching session)
Values
Areas they’d like coaching for
Which social media platforms they use
Where they find their services
Competitor coaches will be a great source of valuable information, too. Check out their websites and social media pages, taking note of:
How/where they’re marketing their business
Their prices
Availability and services
The top searches in Google will be doing something right with their website, too. Look at the keywords they’re using, how they’ve set up their site, and any other visible SEO techniques that could be earning them a search engine top spot.
Finally, see if you can spot any gaps in the market that you know would bring in clients. For example, there might not be a holistic wellness life coach in your area or one that’s available for online sessions. If you can fill a gap, you’re setting yourself up for success.
In our digital world, it’s smart to have both a website and an app your clients can find you on. These platforms should give your audience a clear view of who you are, what services you offer, and how you can help them.
Make sure that it’s easy to get in touch and book a session, too. Around 70% of customers are more likely to go with a business that provides online booking than one that doesn’t, making it a crucial part of your marketing strategy.
A sleek, intuitive app builds a contemporary and professional brand image. It also makes it easier for clients to interact with you once they’ve started their sessions, directing them towards the content on your app that they’ll find useful and booking future appointments with ease.
To harness these benefits and more, try Nudge. Making it easy to build apps, create content, track your finances, and increase your reach, it’s all you need to get your business online.
Once you’ve set up your app and website, it’s time to start marketing your business. For coaching entrepreneurs, there are a number of strategies we recommend exploring, including:
Social media
SEO
Pay-per-click
Leaflets and business cards
Third-party coaching directories
If you’re not sure about where to get started with marketing or you don’t have the time, it’s always worth bringing in a professional to help you out. With expertise on your side, you’ll quickly be outshining the competition.
Final Words
Creating a coaching business comes with a whole host of advantages, from deciding how much you charge to being able to work where you want.
Hopefully, these tips will help you begin your journey into the world of coaching. Just remember to always do your research and understand your goals, and you’ll create a business that’s built to thrive.