Archive for August, 2006

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“Business” is not optional

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

If you are like most life coaches, you are a coach because you love to coach!  However, key to your success is not only your passion for coaching, but also your willingness and ability to do business.

At first, new life coaches sometimes conceive of a schedule that starts with the number of available work hours, divided by the time potentially spent with each client and that equals the ideal number of clients.  Sometimes income projections are then made based on this ideal number of clients. 

But, wait.  To gain the ideal number of clients, you need to factor in the business activities that will bring you the clients - that requires time.  So go back to the schedule and start over by first designating time for business activities.  Plan to coach in the remaining hours.  Expect to adjust your schedule until you’ve arrived at the balance between business and coaching that works for you.

  • The first bit of useful advice I heard on this topic was to set aside a day a week for marketing.  Though the specific advice of a day a week is good - the point is to regularly set aside time - whatever works for you.  This is where you admit to yourself that marketing needs to be done and you commit to doing it - so you’ve set aside time that you use productively for business activities that will bring you results.
  • A second bit of great advice I received early on is to utilize marketing methods that authentically reflect you, your style and your message.  Along the same lines is the advice to utilize your passion as fuel for marketing.  I can share from my experience my www.lifestoriescoaching.com website*, which was carefully created to reflect my unique passion for coaching.  As a result, it attracts clients who are a good match for my coaching style. 
  • And thirdly, for the business activities you are not passionate about or skilled at - hire experts to do that work.  Hire a virtual assistant or accountant or technology expert, for example.  If the money you pay for the expert services frees you up to coach and allows you to do other productive business activities you enjoy, then you are leveraging your dollars and time by hiring help.

 

Often in the coaching world we hear “you may be the best coach in the world, but if you don’t have any clients it doesn’t matter.”  How true is that?  Administrative work, technology, sales, marketing, etc. are probably not your passion.  However, “business” is not optional.  Your willingness and ability to do business is what brings you clients.

For help with creating a coaching business, mentor coaching is highly recommended and a significant factor in achieving success.  If you are not currently working with a mentor coach, contact me and ask for special rates available through www.christiancoachingresources.com .

Contact Linda Dallaire at 763.780.8508 or linda@lifestoriescoaching.com .

* The Life Stories Coaching website - www.lifestoriescoaching.com - was designed by Tim Hines of www.hinesdesigns.net - a wonderful web designer who is a Christian and was fully committed to developing a site that reflected what I believed God desired for my business.

 

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Smiling While You Work

Thursday, August 24th, 2006

As you envision and plan for your Christian life coaching business or ministry, consider your technology and space resources.

You may want to follow the lead of many life coaches and work with clients almost entirely by phone and via e-mail.  If so, your computer and related technology is critical to your business - as  is a completely reliable phone and phone service.  And a headset is standard equipment for a coach. 

Even though you can very well work from home - rather than renting office space - you probably need a home office.  (No, really.  The desk in a corner of the family room or at the end of the hallway probably isn’t your ideal office space, right?)  At least you need workspace that is dedicated to your coaching business and contributes to your sense of joy and success and while you work.      

  • Talk to successful life coaches who have businesses similar to what you are creating to find out what works - and doesn’t - for them. 
  • Then imagine yourself in your ideal office space, working.  As you picture that in your mind, look around and see what’s there.  (i.e. do you see a copier/printer/fax?  a color printer?  laptop?  PDA?  how about an iPOD or a coffee maker?  are you smiling yet???)  As you picture yourself working, how are you using your technology?  Write that down. 
  • Make a list of your expectations for how you will use your technology and your office space as you imagine yourself effectively and happily moving through your work day.
  • Take your list and make it happen.  What’s priority to invest in first?  (Probably a fully-capable computer and related peripherals;  OK, maybe for some it’s the coffee maker.)  What additional information do you need to make your ideal office space a reality?  Where/when will you get that information?  Now go to it! 

Don’t underestimate the importance of these resources.  Great workspace and reliable technology are definitely significant to the success of a new life coaching business.

Contact Linda Dallaire at linda@lifestoriescoaching.com or 763.780.8508.      

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Choose freedom

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006

The next resource up for discussion is finances.  Specifically, how are you going to financially support yourself until your new life coaching business is established?

The standard reference for how long it takes to establish a new small business is “three to five years.”  Recently, I ran this by an accountant who said, “it’s more like five years.”

Of course, some new coaches have hit the fast track and have more quickly established their businesses.  You can find marketing for coach training programs, products and services that promises a career where you make lots of money fast.  You can attend coaching industry tele-seminars and hear leaders tell you it’s possible as a new coach to make a six-figure income in less than a year.  This is certainly not the norm.    

It’s true that a life coaching business doesn’t cost a lot to start and maintain - when compared to other small businesses.  The biggest initial costs are your coach training, your own mentor coaching, and your initial investments in technology (i.e. computer, phone lines, etc.).

So you need some money to invest in your business and you need a way to support yourself while you are creating the business.  Perhaps you keep your current job to support yourself while you move into the new business.  Or maybe you have a fully-supportive spouse who wants to provide the income while you establish your business. 

The point is that if you’re starting a coaching business today with no other source of income or no financial resources to draw upon, you are very possibly setting yourself up for failure.  Trying to market yourself as a coach when you are desperate - really desperate for business - is not likely to result in attracting the clients (i.e. the income) that you need.

If you believe that your calling from God includes risking your basic financial stability as you journey toward a thriving coaching business, then go for it.  Otherwise, take a look at your finances.  At least consider with God (ask for direction) what risks to take and which to avoid.  Look at the cold, hard numbers, and make a financial plan that increases freedom - not recklessness - for your journey.

Contact Linda Dallaire at linda@lifestoriescoaching.com or  763.780.8508.   

 

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