Finding your why is integral to scaling any business, and this applies to scaling a sustainable coaching business as well. Why you started offering professional services will influence how much time you invest in the work and what level of excellence you expect to maintain.
Your why should be more than just “I have a degree and I’m qualified to do this!” or even “Making money is fun” – though those are fine reasons to coach. Your why must energize you every day and make you feel good about yourself and the service you offer others.
It can be anything from “My family has raised kids so they’re my inspiration for helping other parents” to “I’ve been investing since I was a kid and now I teach people how to do it.” The reason you were inspired to begin teaching others years ago may change, but it shouldn’t go out of style. If that happens, you’ll need to find another reason to inspire yourself.
This article will talk about some systems that can help you in scaling a sustainable coaching business beyond its current size. We’ll call these incremental system strategies because they bring small changes to your coaching business over time.
Create a company culture that inspires your team
A successful coaching business has people willing to join you as clients or staff members, so make sure you’re providing an environment where they feel motivated and inspired to contribute.
This means creating a supportive community that values diversity and inclusivity. It also means encouraging feedback, both positive and negative. When someone compliments another member of staff, let them know about it!
When there are criticisms, listen to what everyone has to say and take action accordingly. If something doesn’t seem right, address it immediately!
Your colleagues will refer to things they see working and not-working, and this can be used to improve your own practices. By paying attention, you’ll keep yourself up-to-date.
Establish strong leadership in your coaching business
As mentioned earlier, being an excellent coach does not automatically make you successful as a business owner or leader of people. Having a large number of followers that quickly lose interest is not going to win you any respect or praise.
Being able to motivate others to do what you want them to do is a key part of becoming a great leader. This can be difficult at times if someone else is doing something you wanted to have done.
Having strong leadership qualities will help mitigate this problem by creating loyal employees that stick with you and your company even when things get tough.
It’s important to note here that having strong leadership skills is not about getting a lot of attention – it’s about investing in the people around you so they feel appreciated and acknowledged.
This could be through giving them kudos after a job well-done, listening to their complaints, asking how their day was, etc.
Develop good management skills when scaling a sustainable coaching business
Achieving success as a leader is not about being a mastermind, it’s not about having lots of tricks up your sleeve or knowing what buttons to press to get people to do things. It’s not even about being able to manage others, although that helps!
It’s about developing strong leadership qualities such that those under you feel safe enough to be themselves and challenge you in an appropriate way. You want them feeling confident in you so they can go off and do their job while you concentrate on yours.
As a coach, leading and managing yourself will always pose a bigger challenge than leading and managing someone else. But investing time in learning how to lead effectively will ensure that you don’t lose sight of your own goals because you didn’t pay attention to someone else’s.
Think of how to grow your coaching business
Even with all of these strategies in place, it is still important to think about how you can grow your coaching business beyond what you have currently got going on.
This could be through offering more services or developing new skills that you offer clients. It could be via expanding your network which includes potential client contacts as well as people who are working in the field you already work in.
It could also be by investing in additional equipment or technology that helps you do your job better.
Create a marketing plan
A marketing plan is an integral part of running a business that teaches you how to promote your services or products via online and offline strategies. You can refer to this as a sales strategy, advertisement strategy, outreach campaign, etc., depending on what kind of marketing you want to do.
A good marketing plan outlines all the steps you will take to spread your message and influence more people in your field to work with you or use your services. It also helps you track your efforts and measure success so you know if it was worth it!
There are several types of marketers out there, and they’re not all the same. What works best for one type of business may not be effective for others. Finding out which types of marketing work best for you requires doing some research and testing.
That is why it is important to have a systematic way to evaluate different types of marketing. By having a process, you can start from something basic like writing a paragraph to creating an incredible advertisement.
Here we will go over five easy ways to begin developing your marketing system and then moving onto other systems later.
Focus on customer service when scaling a sustainable coaching business
A successful coaching business does not scale up with, “We’re going to have more classes and consultants so that we make even more money!” Rather, it is about offering high quality services at an affordable price in ways that are scalable.
This will create more engagement and exposure which can lead to new clients or referrals. It also allows you to lower your overhead by spending time on things such as creating content, advertising, etc., only requiring limited resources.
There are many strategies and systems you can use to achieve this. Here are three of my favorites.
1. Offer a free initial consultation
Many professional coaches offer a free initial consultation where they talk through their services and what you would get out of hiring them. This gives you both some context for whether this position is right for you and them some insight into if you are compatible.
It also helps them determine if they feel like they can contribute towards your success and help you meet your goals. For those who can make a difference and fit well together, you eventually come together under a contract!
Some companies will even ask you to pay for their consultations via subscription or per session depending on how much you want their services. This way you do not spend any extra money unless you need to!
2. Use technology to provide better service
Technology has made our lives easier in lots of areas, including working.
Be consistent when scaling a sustainable coaching business
Consistency is one of the most important things you can be in this business. This means being consistently present, consistently active online, consistently sending emails to people, etc.
It’s easy to lose momentum when you are working hard to promote your coaching service, but you need to stay motivated!
You will also need to remember that it takes time to see results with social media marketing – the initial investment may not return much quickly. You will have to keep investing in these systems to reap the benefits.
That is why it is so important to maintain consistency over an extended period of time. The more you invest into the system, the better it will function for you.
If you start to feel tired or overwhelmed, take some paid time off and re-focus later. It will give you a chance to regain momentum and get back into a productive rhythm.
Build a team that supports you
A sustainable coaching business has to keep developing new skills and strategies for reaching your goals. This can make it hard to focus on supporting one particular person, because there are so many areas of expertise you need to pursue.
As mentioned before, being a coach means having knowledge about different types of psychology and skills such as motivation, leadership, communication and persuasion.
Running a coaching business also requires specialized tools and systems which help you manage your time effectively and communicate more clearly with people.
This is particularly important if you want to maintain strong relationships with clients.