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Where to Start with Your Coaching Business Makeover

January 4, 2011 | Share your comment

Here in Colorado the new year came in on a snow-scented breeze, with an air of purpose. It feels like 2011 is off to a running start.

Is your business feeling the new winds blowing? Mine sure is. I‘ve upgraded my Ideal Coaching Market workshop and moved my membership site over to a WordPress platform. I’m about to launch a couple of new marketing approaches, and some new programs are also in the works.

Where to start your coaching business makeover

All this inspired me last time to write about reasons to make over your coaching business, and that post brought some pithy comments. One coach asked – now that I know a business makeover is necessary, where do I start?

A great question that deserves an in-depth answer, so I thought I’d address it here.

The essence of the business makeover is to systematically go through everything in your business to uncover what’s working and what’s not working, and then replace what’s not working with something better. To make the process manageable, keep your focus on four fundamentals: market, message, offers and conversion process.

Start With Your Niche

Start by looking at your coaching niche. Is it viable? That means, have you targeted a narrow niche market that is accessible to you and ready to invest in their own personal and professional development?

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Topics: Coaching Business Tips

A New Year Means a New Coaching Business

December 22, 2010 | Read 7 comments and join the discussion

It seems like every year I do a business makeover. Somewhere around September or October I go into innovation warp drive, and by January of the next year I have a completely refreshed business.

Right now, everything I offer coaches is getting reworked and upgraded. (Watch for specials coming soon!)

I like it. It keeps me on my toes and rings in the new year in another delightful way.

But why do I do it? And is it really such a good idea to keep changing up what I’m doing? I think so. It’s about staying aligned with what is most alive in my business. And there are more concrete reasons too.

8 Compelling Reasons to Make Over Your Coaching Business

These eight factors have spurred me and my clients to close up a program, start new ones, upgrade, and update to a new business model. Are any of these at work for you right now?

You’ve realized what you love to do more than what you were doing.
You’ve grown new skills and deeper knowledge.
You’ve learned more from the folks you serve about what they really want.
You want to scale up to serve more people, so you can leverage your time.
You’re utilizing new technologies and systems.
You want to model the best practices of your mentors.
You’re amping up your income and profits.
You’ve refined to a more profitable niche.

The most important thing is to let your business grow and evolve as you do. If you’re like me, you sometimes make changes of a lifetime in mere months. No moss gathers on you, because you’re always seeking ways to better yourself, better your life and help others do the same. That should be reflected in your business, because your business is a reflection of you.

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Topics: Coaching Business Tips

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What’s Learning You? Lessons from Your Coaching Biz

November 23, 2010 | Read 7 comments and join the discussion

The title of this post is not a typo – what’s learning you? Before you spur yourself into your future again, take a minute to bring with you the gifts of 2010. Truly integrate what you’ve learned and 2011 will be juicier, bigger and more fun for you!

Almost everyone I know has been in a big boiling cauldron of change in 2010. You too? I feel like I’m finally out of that hot water and into the grace of enjoying what I learned in that uncomfortable time.

What I learned in 2010.
So, I want to hear about what’s ‘learning’ you. In other words, are you changed by what’s happened this year?

What has had you on your growing edge?

How have you transformed?

What were the big aha’s?

5 Things that Learned Me in 2010

I’ll start by sharing my big aha’s this year, then you jump in, okay?

Less is More

At her recent Recurring Revenue Revolution event in Las Vegas, Milana Leshinsky said something that stopped me in my tracks.

“Just because something is accurate doesn’t mean it’s useful.”

Wow! Isn’t that the truth?

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Topics: Coaching Business Tips

Consults: The #1 Easiest Way to Enroll Coaching Clients

October 19, 2010 | Read 5 comments and join the discussion

Are you offering consults to prospective coaching clients? If not, I hope by the end of this post you will take my 90 day challenge and find out how the habit of giving consults can bring you clients right now. In fact, I double dog dare you to find anything better to enroll new clients into your high value programs!

It’s easy to pour your time into Internet marketing, thinking that social networking and blogging alone will get you all the clients you need. But those methods are best for building a leads list and bringing you future clients. If you want more coaching clients right now — real time connection is still the easiest, most direct and most effective way to engage new clients. And it’s fun!

Enrolling is a simple coaching skill that will do more than any other approach to get you high paying private clients. And you can easily adapt the enrollment process to preview teleclasses and public speaking, to enroll people into your group programs too.

Should I Give a Sample Session or Consult?

Enrolling Clients with Sample Sessions or Consultations

Most coaching schools recommend delivering a full blown coaching session as a sample to enroll clients. There’s nothing better for stretching your coaching skills as you’re first getting started. And, if you are vigilant about keeping your time boundaries, avoiding over-delivery, and acing the close; prospects will become your clients through sample sessions.

But, after a while, you might find that sample sessions are too time consuming. Coaches also tell me that in sample sessions they tend to focus more on their technique than engaging the client. From sample coaching, prospects often slip away from the full session feeling “done” rather than primed for long-term support.

A different approach is to set up a short, themed consult as a simple discovery process to enroll clients. You still get to use your coaching skills – asking powerful questions and listening – to quickly uncover where your prospect wants to go, where they are now, and the gap in between.

Then it’s easy to show them how you can help them bridge that GAP.

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Topics: Client Attraction for Coaches

Suspending Your Disbelief Opens Doors to What You Want

September 21, 2010 | Read 5 comments and join the discussion

Every time you try something for the first time – launch a coaching business, start a blog, speak publicly — you enter into the great unknown. For adventure seekers, the unknown is a double dog dare. For innovators, it’s where the spark of brilliance always strikes. For the rest of us, it can be absolutely terrifying territory… but it doesn’t have to be.

suspend disbelief
Everyone has fear. Some “feel the fear and do it anyway”. They consciously suspend their disbelief that they can do it, long enough for the combination of their trust, persistence and subtle energies to coalesce dreams into reality. Our favorite stories are about regular people persevering to reach their destiny despite all odds. Without super powers, people do this every day.

To get to where you want to go, first suspend any disbelief that you can arrive there.

Break Through by Letting Go of Attachment

When I was eight I thought I’d never be good at downhill skiing, because experience told me I’d never be good at any sport. Totally psyched out, I struggled pitifully. Then one day, when I wasn’t scrutinizing my general lack of coordination, I hit the zone!

And then of course, I knew I could ski. There was no longer any question of that. Before long I could make it down a black diamond and practically float down the rest of the slopes. Having crossed the unknown and come out the other side, it was easier to become a pretty decent skater and halfback in soccer. I broke through the belief that I couldn’t do sports.

Believe in Stories of Success

We all need role models to grow to our full potential. It’s helpful to know that others have achieved your dreams. And to believe with all your heart that if they can do it, you can do it too.

Something really poignant happened last week…

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Topics: Abundance Tools for Coaches

Is Coaching Worth Paying For?

August 3, 2010 | Read 13 comments and join the discussion

There are still people out there who don’t understand the value of coaching. Some define coaching the way Ambrose Bierce defined consulting: “To seek another’s approval of a course already decided on.” And some people think hiring a coach is like hiring a friend to listen to you.

But then there are people like Google CEO Eric Schmidt – the lead architect of the most successful business growth story in recent history. When asked to share the best business advice he ever received, he said “Everyone needs a coach.”

So, is coaching worth paying for? The answer seems to be: It depends on WHO you ask.

I think I know where you come out on this question, or you wouldn’t be staking your career on the power of coaching. But here’s my point: Draw your clients from groups of people that believe coaching is worth the investment.

So how do you find and connect with those people? The answer may not be obvious, but it is straightforward.

Choose a Niche Market Full of Seekers

Certain groups of people, because of who they are, will readily invest in their own personal and professional development. Here are three examples of niche markets that are full of seekers:

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Topics: Featured, Niche Marketing for Coaches

Do Your Next Coaching Clients Want What You’re Offering Them?

July 27, 2010 | Read 6 comments and join the discussion

I know you know what your current coaching clients want. But do you know what your prospects want? There’s a difference. Discovering exactly what prospects want from you is the key to enrolling lots of clients easily.

an offer with no takers So many coaches miss this, because they already know what they’re selling – their coaching services. It’s a natural way to think, but it’s also a classic marketing mistake. They try to sell coaching as the solution before they’ve even asked what the prospect sees as the problem.

You have a profound appreciation of the power of coaching, and that’s essential. But if it leads you to try to sell coaching, you may be setting yourself up for poor results. The basic law of the marketplace is supply and demand. You can supply all you want of something you think has value, but if there is no demand for it, it won’t sell.

That’s why established businesses do research before they launch a new product. I realize “market research” sounds pretty off-putting – technical, boring, expensive. But at its core, it’s just listening to people to find out what they want. What could be more coach-like than that?

I call this “listening to your market” – and you have everything you need to start doing it. To prove it, try these steps:

Continue reading Do Your Next Coaching Clients Want What You’re Offering Them?

Topics: Niche Marketing for Coaches