There’s plenty of room in the market for more coaches. Contrary to what some are saying, learning how to start a coaching business can be extremely lucrative for reasons mentioned below.
But you’ll only make money at it if it’s done a specific way.
There are steps to a coaching business you don’t want to skip. And thankfully, we can help you get started in as little as 90 days if you’re serious about it.
Because at the end of the day…
“If you don’t create your dreams, someone else will pay you to create theirs.”
If that hits home and you’re ready to create our own dreams, here’s what you’ll learn:
- Coaching rise
- Area of expertise
- Pain points
- Method
- Customer
- Coaching type
- Offer
- Funnel
- Getting the word out
Self-Teaching is on the Rise—But it’s not Really “Self”
A better term for it would be “independent learning.” It’s the idea that individuals can utilize the internet to learn highly specific skills they need to succeed in exactly the area they want. They don’t need to shell out tens of thousands of dollars on college, much less spend several years getting where they want to go.
So how do they learn these skills?
By people who are experts in exactly what they want to do.
Technically speaking, this is akin to an apprentice style of learning, something that was the norm prior to formal education. Back then, a student would follow a master, learn their trade, study beneath them, and have that job when they become old enough to do it on their own. The traditional education system looks far different today.
But it is changing.
All of this is to say that coaching, as a business, is extremely lucrative if you know how to go about it the right way.
How to Start a Coaching Business That Will Succeed Long-Term
The “right” way to learn how to start a coaching business has to do with making sure you’re meeting a need and that the people who have that need can find you. Plus, you’ll want to focus on something you excel in because the results will matter.
Days 0-30:
1. Determine your area of expertise
This is actually often the hardest part. Unless you came here with a coaching idea, you’ll have to spend some time on this. Not because you’re not skilled, but because the best coaching business you can start is in an area you have a lot of experience and skill. For most of us, those two things are actually somewhat of a mystery.
Because the thing is, what we excel in is easy. What’s easy isn’t noticeable. It’s just a part of our everyday life.
But if you worked in a certain field for years, taught yourself a useful skill, there’s a lot to pull from to determine your area of expertise. This will ultimately be what you coach on.
That being said, if you’re not completely sure how to start a coaching business because you’re not sold on an idea yet, here’s a couple different ways of determining how to figure it out.
Macro Skills VS Micro Skills
There are a couple different avenues you can take for the core focus of your coaching program. Most businesses will fall under two different types of skill sets.
Macro Skills:
Think of these as large, all-encompassing skills. They’re the pillar topics, are comprehensive, and have large-scale application. For example, this would be a coaching program that teaches people how to start a coaching business. It’s broad, and speaks to a lot of various types of people.
Other macro skills that can be made into coaching businesses are:
- how to build a business
- how to become a photographer
- how to start a homestead
- how to crochet
As you can see, the pattern is that each of these topics is broad and has a lot that goes into each. There’s not really anything wrong with macro skills, but I often advise that people start here, and narrow the focus of their coaching with micro skills.
So start here and brainstorm. What macro skills can you teach? What do you have experience with?
Micro Skills:
These types of skills are of a narrow topic, highly niche driven, and have very specific application for either the outcome or for the type of person who will be executing the skill.
Microskills are still in demand, too. After all, they say “the riches are in the niches” for a reason.
If you want to learn how to start a coaching business, it’s best to look at how you can take your macro skill and focus on coaching to the micro skill of it.
These are examples of microskills for the same list of macroskills above:
- how to build a watercolor art business selling prints
- how to become an in-home pet photographer
- how to start a homestead while living in a city
- how to crochet small animals to sell online
Are all of these perfect coaching topics? No. That’s another thing to look at. What of your skill sets is best taught in a live setting, on a coaching call with you?
But first, just focus on the micro skill that you can coach at a high level. It will be far easier to market and you’ll get better results if your coaching offer is highly specific. What you’ll actually coach on and the curriculum you offer will depend on that topics pain points.
2. Research expertise pain points
This is, personally, my favorite part of the process. The internet (and people, really) give you everything you need to know about speaking directly to them and solving problems. You just have to know where to look. Therefore, I’m divulging a few of my favorite sources to learn about people’s biggest areas of concern for various niches.
Reddit is gold. It’s where people go to ask questions on any given subject, including many skills. Just go to the site, make a profile (so you can ask questions) and start searching. It’ll give you a ton of information, and you can further your search by identifying the popular subreddits.
Here’s my process, and let’s use the coaching example of “in-home pet photographer” for this one.
First, go to the reddit homepage and type a keyword in the search box. Remember to think of what words or phrases a person seeking help in this area would use. In this case, I used “pet photographer business”. Next, hit enter to search and view what pops up.
As you can see, one of the top answers is someone literally seeking advice about how to start a pet photography business. Click on any responses, and even open them in a new tab if there are several.
Review the posts and garner information about what the person is actually seeking.
In this example, they’re wondering a lot about what to charge, where to take the photos, and whether or not offering prints would be worth it. That’s great information to know!
Now to keep researching with this method, click on the subreddit that post is from. In this case, it’s the “r/photography”. And repeat the same type of search within the subreddit. You’ll know you’re searching specific in that group when the subreddit is visible in the search bar, like this:
Repeat the process until you have a list of the most common questions you see. These will be areas you’ll focus on with your coaching. And remember: the more emotional the concern, the stronger it is! So keep those, too.
Facebook Groups
Facebook groups work similarly, but you’ll first identify the group, and then search within it.
For instance, let’s say your coaching business involves teaching people how to crochet animals to sell. You’ll want to start by going to the search bar and finding a crocheting group—preferably one that’s a crochet business group. Choose one that’s active. Generally, Facebook will show you how many posts per day in each group.
Start combing through the posts in the group. If you’re not finding something right away, go ahead and search within the group by navigating to the search bar. Use keywords that would appear in someone’s post, and start broad.
For example, something like “make animal” or “teddy bear” or a type of animal will help.
Repeat the same process as with the Reddit example above. That is to say, record the biggest questions and concerns someone has about this.
SERP
Google is a marvelous tool. The SERP (search engine results page) is tailored to meet the needs of people searching, so you know that what’s populated is the most popular for any given keyword.
What I like to do is look at the “people also ask” section relation to any keyword.
For example, let’s use the coaching business example for watercolor prints.
As you can see, there are a few questions that newbies are wondering that you can use to help shape your coaching business—and even your content! But more on that in the funnel building section below.
3. Create your angle & name
I like to group these two steps purely because the method can often dictate the name you choose for your business. However, a full business name isn’t always necessary for a coaching business. Many coaches choose to go by just their name—more on that later.
In order to learn how to start a coaching business, you have to determine the how of your coaching methodology. This is the angle.
If there are a hundred holistic health coaches out there, what makes yours different? What specifically will you help clients focus on?
Another example would be watercolor prints. How will you coach people? Will you focus on expanding their unique artistry or will you teach them how to create prints that serve a hot market?
The angle you take with your coaching business will dictate how you teach it and also who will be attracted to that offer. Think about what means more to you personally. What do you wish someone would have helped you with more?
More than anything, to learn how to start a coaching business, remember to think of the how. What will your unique method of coaching be? Let that guide you.
Days 31-60
4. Create your ideal customer
Once you know enough about your expertise and the common problems people face when trying to pursue it, you’re ready to start creating your customer. Commonly known as an “avatar” as well.
This is the singular person you will make content for, talk to, write to, and think about when crafting the rest of your coaching business. In order to learn how to start a coaching business, you need to focus on narrowing who your services are for.
Spoiler: they’re not for everyone.
For example, someone who wants to learn how to make crocheted baby blankets for family isn’t interested in crocheting animals to sell as a business. By creating an idea customer, you’ll be able to specify your messaging so much that it speaks very loudly.
Oddly enough, by speaking to only one person, you’ll resonate with way more people than if you try to speak to everyone.
That is to say, by getting concrete, you’ll hit very specific areas of interest for a vaster group.
Here are some questions to help with this:
- What is your ideal customer’s demographic information (age, gender, location, income level, education, etc.)?
- What are their primary goals or aspirations?
- What are their biggest challenges or pain points?
- What motivates them to seek coaching services?
- What are their values and beliefs?
- How do they make purchasing decisions?
- What objections might they have to investing in coaching services?
- How do they prefer to communicate (e.g., email, phone, in-person)?
- How do they define success in their personal or professional life?
- What other products or services are they currently using?
- What would make them choose your coaching services over competitors’?
5. Choose a coaching type
Even though you know you want to coach, there are various options to do so and you can always tailor it to meet your needs.
There are two common types of coaching offers for businesses:
- Individual coaching
- Group coaching
When most people start out, they do individual coaching. This is 1-on-1, and you meet at certain intervals to work through what you’re teaching them. With this method, you’ll be able to customize the experience and offer exactly what that client needs in the moment. You’ll often have more variety this way.
Group coaching, on the other hand, allows you to make more for your time. Since you might meet with five people at the same time, all who paid a certain fee to be there versus one person who paid the same fee.
It’s important to note, though, that group coaching is typically priced at a lower tier but more on pricing next. If you go with group coaching, one thing to remember is that the outcome may be more varied, and it’s more likely that some clients will fall off track, not do as well, or not get their needs met.
What you really want to think about here is what you will most enjoy. Take into account your time, how often you want to be on calls, and what type of environment is best for the outcome of your business.
Many coaches will actually offer both, with limited slots for the individual coaching.
6. Create your offer & pricing
Now it’s time to put together your offer, and price it accordingly.
The Offer
How are you going to help people? This is what your offer should be. Not only how, but what is the end result you’ll help people achieve from where they’re starting?
Above all, your offer is the transformation you’re promising your client. Not what you’ll do for them.
Many offers work well by positioning it as “From [starting point] to [desired end result] in [timeline].” However, you don’t have to give a certain timeline if that’s not something you want to commit to.
The idea is to create an offer that changes someone. It’s the transformation they pay for. Once they know the “what” of your offer, they will want to know the “how.” So make sure to put your coaching program together with an order, structure, and what you’ll coach on.
Be clear about exactly the outcomes you’ll help someone achieve.
Pricing
There is no right or wrong way to price something. Especially if people buy it. In order to come up with a good price for your coaching business, start by researching the competition. See what their prices look like and begin there.
Moreover, do some math and work backward. How much do you want to earn each month? Remember to consider paying taxes and business expenses in this total. Work through the numbers until you arrive at a point that’s in line with the competition (doesn’t have to be exact) and works for the income you want to make.
Days 61-90
7. Create your funnel
Every good marketing funnel (aka, how you’ll sell your coaching) has these pieces:
- Free content
- Lead magnets
- Email nurturing
- Paid offer
Let’s take a look at each of them further so you understand what you have to build out in order to start making sales.
1. Free content
I’ll make this easy for you. First, you’ll refer back to the main questions and pain points you uncovered above. Next, you’ll make content online addressing and answering them.
That’s it. Truly. This seems simplified because it is simple. Don’t overcomplicate it.
The main thing you’ll have to think about is what type of content you’ll want to make. That is to say, should you make video, written, social media posts, or a podcast? Think about where your ideal customer spends time online.
If they’re on TikTok for hours each day, then it’s likely you should make videos there.
This is a really strong blog post about how to go from 0 to 250,000 followers in 4 months on TikTok, and the advice works for many other forms of content. The bottom line is that you have to share our expertise via free content.
From the free content, you’ll send your audience to a lead magnet.
2. Lead magnets
It’s important, when learning how to start a coaching business, that you take lead magnets seriously. This is what grows your email list. When it comes to coaching services, email lists sell the majority of your products. But you have to get them there first.
Most often, a lead magnet will be a helpful problem solve related to your coaching.
Let’s say you did your research on pet photography and decide that people aren’t sure which equipment is best to photograph animals. So you put together “The Ultimate Guide to Pet Photography Gear” that will help them know which is best, and how equipment may differ from that used to photograph humans.
In order to get people to download this lead magnet (also known as a “freebie”), you might make free content about:
- Mistakes pet photographers make with their gear
- What you didn’t know about pet photography gear vs other types of photography
- How to save money on pet photography gear
- The biggest challenge faced when shooting animals versus people (gear-related answer)
These can all be used to recommend people download your guide to get the gear right.
After someone opts in, they’re now on your email list, where you will nurture them individually.
3. Email nurturing
Most people automate this step, and that’s a good idea. In order to set up automation, just research email providers and choose one that fits your budget and needs.
Once someone opts in to a lead magnet, they should get an initial email from you with the delivery.
From here, every few days, they should get an email from you, strategically placed to sell your coaching business. These often vary, and range from introduction emails to client stories, to story scenarios of exactly what they’re going through with the fixes, to your own obstacles and challenges along with how you solved them.
This is a time to give value. Don’t just keep asking them to buy.
Share your expertise. Give advice. Give them a sneak peek at how you do coaching.
Then make the offer. See how I positioned that as an offer, not an ask?
Offer them to join your coaching program to solve the challenges they had (like with the gear) and the challenges they don’t realize they have, because they haven’t yet done this.
Bonus email tips: space your emails out so they’re not overwhelmed. Write them as if you’re speaking directly to a person, using “you” and “I” when necessary. Plug their name into the email using a feature the email provider has for a personal touch.
And read and respond to replies.
4. Paid offer
This is usually a landing page of some kind.
If you sell directly from the page, it will be a place that can collect their card information.
However, most people learning how to start a coaching business will do a sales call, often referred to as a “coaching call” or “consultation” to see if they’re a good fit. This is best when you’re offering individual coaching slots as it will also give you a feel for if this is someone you want to work with..
Plus, coaching packages are typically fairly expensive, and most people don’t want to drop a couple grand on an online page without talking to a human first.
Either way, you still want a landing page where people can either schedule a call or make a purchase. While this can be available everywhere, you will also link to it in your emails when nurturing clients and encouraging them to sign up for a consultation call.
8. Get the word out
This is the most important part. Everything else is for nothing if you don’t work on sharing your business! You have to market your work. Thankfully, this part is actually covered in the “free content” section above!
But that’s not where it has to end. In order to establish credibility in your field, especially if your business is more than just a skill and involves health, wellness, and mindset, it’s best to get on a speaking platform.
Longer-form content like podcasts or speaking on stages can go a long way to help you market yourself as a coach and gain authority.
Plus, much of that content can be repurposed for free content on your social media channel. Double win!
Learning how to start a coaching business in this day and age can be complicated, but it doesn’t need to be. These steps can get you there in as little as 90 days if you prioritize the time to do it well.
