Step 1: Learn the Art of Coaching and Practice

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Becoming an effective coach comes from practicing your craft and developing powerful conversation skills. You want to learn how to listen to understand rather than listening to respond. For example, you’ll want to know how to notice a person’s tone of voice, facial expressions, and changes in their demeanor. It helps to be able to summarize what a client has said and repeat it back to them for clarity, and it’s helpful to know how to ask powerful questions that get your thinking deeply and differently than they have before. 

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Many coaches ask me the question: Should I get certified? My take is that if you have an extensive background and experience in your chosen niche already, you may not need a coaching certification to get started. However, if you don’t have much prior experience, working with a coach that specializes in helping you start a coaching business and/or participating in a coaching certification program can prove to be incredibly helpful to build your skills and confidence.. Either way, learning the art of coaching and perfecting your techniques should be your first action step.

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Step 2: Identify Niche & Target Audience

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If you've spent some time researching coaching and entrepreneurship, you've probably heard the terms "niche" and "target audience”... but what do these words actually mean? Well, in business and marketing, it is impossible to resonate with everyone, and to help everyone with everything, so business owners niche down and get specific about what they do. To identify your niche, you want to think first about what you’re really good at. Perhaps you’re really good at creating meal plans or fitness routines for yourself, or maybe you’re great at public speaking, or networking, or self-care, or thinking positively. What comes naturally to you that doesn’t come so naturally to others that you can teach them? 

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Next, consider your “target audience”, or who you want to help. Is it busy moms, men in tech, high-schoolers, or millennials? Whoever they are, these are your people, your community, your tribe. They will typically share common interests and care about similar things. You’ll want to get to know this group of people very well, and you’ll want to keep them in mind when you are creating content and services for your business.

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Although niching down is great for marketing and connecting with a certain group of people who need your services, niching down also enables you to overcome imposter syndrome because the more you work in a single area of coaching, the faster you build confidence and become an expert in helping people in that area! 
 

Step 3: Do Strategic Research

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Conduct competitor and market research. Once you've identified your Niche and who you want to help, it’s helpful to find other coaches and entrepreneurs who are already working in that space, helping your target audience, and being the kind of coach you want to be. Take note of how they show up in their business. Take note of the services they offer, the content they post, and how they connect with their audience. Take note of what you like and what you might do differently in your own coaching business. This is called conducting Competitor Research.

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Furthermore, you’ll want to conduct market research. Market research is the act of gathering information about your target audience’s needs and preferences. Many new coaches and entrepreneurs skip this step, but it's crucial to interact with real people in your target audience on a neutral basis. This can look like sitting down with a member of your target audience and picking their brain about struggles they have related to your niche, or it could look like creating a short survey that you can share with lots of people in your target audience. Conducting market research helps you learn their language, what they care about, what motivates them, what they struggle with, and what they think a solution would be. The more that you learn about your target audience, the more you can speak like them and the more you can resonate with them.
 

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Step 4: Create an Irresistible Offer

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Next, you will use what you have learned from your competitor and market research to formulate an irresistible program for your target audience. What did you learn that your clients need to get them from Point A to Point B? It doesn't have to be complicated, but it should make sense, address your client's needs, and get them to their goals. 

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Focus on offering value and transformation to your clients. Selling a coaching program or package is what will make your coaching business profitable, but remember that people buy things to get results. Know this offer inside and out because it is what you’ll be promoting in your business to make profit.
 

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Step 5: Build Brand Awareness

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Your business is made up of the services and the products that you offer to your client, but your brand is the image and the personality for your business. It’s your message and how your business is being perceived by others. Your brand includes your mission, your purpose, your passion and why you do what you do. It includes your story and how you got started with the work you do. It also includes visual elements, like logos, colors, and fonts which can bring a sense of professionalism and familiarity to your audience. 

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Your brand is so important because it is what  helps you connect with your target audience. Without a story and background, your business can seem sterile, so show your personality and raise awareness around different beliefs you hold. If you take time to do this early on, you'll already have more eyes on your business when you create content and start releasing your coaching products and services.
 

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Step 6: Post Content that Converts

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Some call this "sticky content," but it's providing valuable content that attracts people in your target audience. It is not simply posting whatever comes to mind; it is posting content that teaches, educates, and entertains your audience. It's posting content your audience appreciates and relates to; content that allows them to feel seen, heard, and understood. Furthermore, posting content that converts means talking about the services you provide in your business and having a call to action that encourages people to sign up for your services. 
 

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Step 7: Sign Clients by Closing the Sale

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As an entrepreneur, having effective sales skills is essential to your success. So you’ll want to spend a considerable amount of time getting good at sales. You can learn about sales by reading books, purchasing a sales program, or hiring a business coach. However, selling isn't easy for everyone, and I've found that sales anxiety is one of the biggest obstacles to building the business of your dreams, which I don't want for you. 

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To excel in sales, I encourage you to first work your mindset around sales and making money.  Many people think about selling from the standpoint of being a manipulative, “sleazy salesperson” that lacks integrity. But, think about it - if your toilet breaks, and it’s overflowing and leaking dirty water all over your bathroom floor, will you think the plumber who comes and fixes it is taking advantage of you? No! Likely, you’ll be really happy to see them and you'll be practically begging the plumber to take your money so they can fix the problem of your leaky toilet and relieve you of that burden. It’s the same for most of us - sales is service when you're providing value to others from a place of integrity and truly helping the person on the other side of the sale. Most of us are willing to pay money to relieve our burdens, pain, problems, and struggles. So if you want to build a profitable coaching business, it’s very important to maintain a healthy mindset around selling, so you can confidently show up to sales calls, connect with clients, and close the sale. You got this.