If you know how to do something due to your life experience or education, consider starting a freelance coaching business. Life coaches and business coaches are in demand. They can help lead clients to success based on a process they created that helped them succeed. You can coach one-on-one or one-to-many.
How to Start a Coaching Business
There are many ways you can be a coach but all freelance coaching businesses will have some things in common. Let’s look at how you can start a coaching business in any niche.
Hire a Coach Yourself
If you’ve never worked with a life or business coach, it can really help to find a good one with experience to work with to help you understand how the process works. For example, you’ll need some way to do intake, work with the client, handle the deliverable, and more. This will make more sense to you if you start as a customer.
Determine Who You Want to Work With
Based on your own experience, who do you want to work with? It can help to determine this before you choose your niche because that way, you identify what your audience needs you to do for them, and then you can provide that. For example, if you want to work with newly divorced moms to help them recover from imposter syndrome, you’ll be able to develop your packages easier.
Set Up Your Program from A to Z
Once you know who you want to work with, set up an entire program so that you know what you’re going to do with your clients from first content through the end of your coaching with them. Starting a freelance coaching business with a fully developed program is going to be easier to sell than if you don’t know what you’re going to do.
Choose the Way You’ll Deliver the Program
There are many ways you can deliver coaching these days. You can talk to them on the phone or you can meet in person. Working in a one-to-many system by using software like Amember.com or Jigsawbox.com to deliver coaching may appeal to you. You can also work with webinar technology like Zoom too.
Set Up a Website, Email List, and Social Platforms
Once you know who your audience is, and what you’re going to offer them and how, now you can set up a website that is designed to capture email addresses and promote your offers. You’ll need to work with social media to get the word out using paid ads and content.
Create Content
You’ll need content not only for the program you’re offering, but to market the program, and to even explain what coaching is to your audience. This content will be distributed on your blog, in social media, and in your packages as needed. You can create the content yourself, hire someone to do it, or even use private label rights content to get it done faster.
Get Training if You Need It
If you aren’t sure that you’re ready to do this without training, there is nothing wrong with getting training. Just understand that it’s not needed to do it, and it’s not really going to ensure that you do get clients. It’s not required by law either and most so-called certifications aren’t even legitimate. However, there is training that still helps you get set up and gives you the best chance to succeed.
Make Sure You’re Legal
Life coaches and business coaches usually have to get a business license and classify themselves as consultants. Make sure to talk to your tax advisor about this, as consultants in the USA are currently taxed a little differently than other types of businesses.
Mind Your Finances
Any business you start requires that you separate the business money from the personal money. The main reason is that it’s easier to keep track but also because if you intermingle funds, you can end up suffering from inaccurate taxation because you can’t prove yo ur income and expenses. Try using software like Wave.com, Quickbooks.com, or Go Daddy Bookkeeping so you can keep track, and always open a business checking account.
Coaches can live extremely lavish lifestyles with big events, or they can live more quiet lifestyles at home with their family. It really depends on what you want to do. You can become as big as Suze Orman, a financial coach, or you keep it small, coaching a handful of clients each year. It’s totally up to you and how you envision your life.
