My recent post on when a coach should hire a VA brought up some follow up questions. To answer your questions, I interviewed an expert — Kellie deRuyter, business & marketing coach for VAs.

Do all VAs have skills in most anything a coach would need help with?

Kellie: A coach shouldn’t expect any individual VA to be skilled in every task or project the coach might need. Like everyone else, VAs have certain skills they’re great at, others they can perform reasonably well, and some things that just aren’t their forte. Many VAs specialize. The key is to find the VA who best suits your top priorities and your work style preferences, who will also offer expert referrals for tasks they don’t do.

Continue reading A Virtual Assistant for Every Coach

In the early days of the coaching industry, coaches used to handle everything in their business themselves, from admin to marketing to developing clunky templated websites. It was the “penny wise – pound foolish” mindset of practitioners who hadn’t yet taken themselves seriously as business owners. In the long run, this approach stunted the growth of the coaching industry and coaches alike.

Now, many coaches work smarter. They build their business with the expert support of mentors, web designers and virtual assistants from the get-go. The result: coaches who invest in their business make more money faster. With their learning curves shortened and time well-leveraged, they stay off the money for time treadmill and enjoy themselves more.

Continue reading When Should a Coach Hire a VA?

Do you think of yourself as a coach or a coaching business owner? Strange as it may seem, how you see yourself could affect your long-term success. Embracing the business side of coaching will shorten your learning curves and help you feel more prosperous all along the way.

Continue reading Awakening the Coaching Business Owner in You

My computer consultant was at my office last week optimizing my Macbook for my next business trip. Opening up my email, he said: “OMG, your inbox is clean!” Then he looked around my office. “Are you really this organized?” I am. To be successful I have to be.

Stuff is distracting. If your office and inbox are overflowing and you don’t like it any more, keep it clean with these five Jiu Jitsu moves:

Continue reading Five Jiu Jitsu Moves to Organize Your Coaching Business