Most coaches don't have a problem with ambition or motivation, they don't lack passion or creativity, but still most coaches get stuck when it comes to starting a successful coaching business. If this feels familiar, you're at the right place. Hi, this is Ajit Nawalkha and today we're talking about how to start a successful coaching business. There are four key elements that you need to consistently work on to build a sustainable practice, and I say consistently because market will change, the industry will change, your clients' needs will change, and till the time you're working consistently on these four elements, you will stay on top of your game.
The first element is coach, coach, and then coach some more. If you're anything like me, you know that coaching is more than a job, it's more than a profession. It's a way of life. That's what makes successful coaches, successful. They're coaching all the time. They're coaching their clients, they are even coaching friends and family, sometimes they're even coaching absolutely for free! Say whaaaaat? Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying coach for free all the time, but you do need practice, and practice can only be done when you're coaching and you're coaching a lot. And sometimes, even if a client can't afford you, they can create business connections that might serve your coaching business. For example, I once coached a potential
client. They were so impressed with my ability that they introduced me to their circles. They introduced me to other friends that can potentially afford me.
Those introductions led to conversations eventually leading to a few paying clients. I couldn't believe this one act of service led me to paying clients. Yes, they were paying me! The message here is never stop honing on your skills, never stop learning new skills. Every best-selling author, the best coach that you've seen, started from nowhere. They started from nothing and then, they worked their way up to success because they were on a continuous journey to be better, and so should you. Your superpower is to help people through coaching, but you can't serve them if you don't serve yourself first. Remember with great power comes great responsibility. So own it! Master your power by always taking your skills to the highest level possible. You can only do that when you don't stop coaching. The second element is pricing. One of the most common questions I get, especially from new coaches, is Ajit, how do I price my services? It's a hard one to answer too. Price too low and you might find yourself in a situation where it's hard to make ends meet.
Price too high and you might overwhelm yourself with the amount of work you need to do for your clients or the amount of work you think you need to do for your clients. I need to be honest with you. There is no right price in the coaching industry. There's only the right price for you and the phase and the stage of the journey that you are in in your coaching practice. Most coaches charge by an hourly rate and that's fine when you are a part-time coach. But don't make the same mistake when you are looking to scale your coaching business and get more clients. Hourly rates will stunt your growth as a coach and will keep you working round the clock. Here's a mindshift I want to offer. Price for the results you offer to your clients. Note here I said results that you drive for your clients, not what you think is your value or your worth. We always tend to undervalue what we are worth in our own eyes.
You talking to me? You know I'm right. As you get better as a coach, as you get more skills, remember to re-evaluate your prices every couple of months. You're becoming better as a coach, you're delivering better results, you can choose better pricing models. The third element is coaching packages. As a new coach, one-on-one hourly sessions is a great way to find your methodology, on how you really create results for your clients. A coaching package is a series of coaching sessions that are designed to get to the outcome that your client desires. The two questions you want to answer to know what package to offer is firstly, what is it that my client desires? and secondly, what is the best way to get them that result? By going beyond 1-hour occasional coaching sessions, you create a possibility of better, more deeper transformational results for your clients. It's like hiking, the higher you go, the better the view. Here are some of the common coaching packages that you may want to consider offering to your clients.
First one is the long-term coaching package. You can think of it as a 2.0 version of the one-on-one coaching session. Instead of offering one-off coaching sessions, you offer a 2-month, 6-month or 12-month package that gets your client to a particular result. If you are more interested in creating deep transformation in a short period of time, you may want to consider running intensives. An intensive is a day-long coaching session designed to create the transformation without any follow-up or accountability. And my personal favorite, group coaching. As the name suggests, it involves bringing a group of people trying to get the same outcome together, and then coaching them together. It may seem like group coaching might be less effective, but the power and the wisdom of the group and the collective actually makes it a transformative experience. Up to this point, we have covered three elements. Developing your skills, pricing yourself, and creating packages. Now let's go to the fourth key element. Getting clients. Enrollment is probably one of those actions that coaches dread the most, but it really doesn't have to be that way.
If you're a fan of Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio or Tom Hanks, you might have seen the movie called "Catch me if you can." Based on the true story of a conman that cashed fake checks for years and escaped the law for years. – I don't know what you're talking about. – What, you think the FBI are the only ones on this guy? I mean, come on. Come on, he's dabbling in government checks here. I've been following a paper trail on this guy for months now. How was that possible? It's fairly simple. The real-life character Frank, and the character in the movie, had just insane confidence. It's the same thing that you need to enroll clients. Confidence. When you believe in yourself and the result you can create for your clients, you reflect tremendous amount of confidence towards your client, which shows them that they can trust you with the possibility of the result they want. Another tip for better enrollment is follow structure. A good enrollment conversation is a lot about the structure of the conversation.
Don't spend 30 minutes explaining the details of different packages you have, you lose them in the first 30 seconds. The key to a great enrollment conversation is that you talk less and listen more. If you carefully listen to your clients, they will tell you exactly what is the result they're looking for which allows you to tweak your message and tweak your package in a way that can position you as the person who will get them the result they truly desire. Last but not least, the best enrollment conversation is where the client goes, how can I work with you? Isn't that the best feeling? For this to happen, you have to open your clients' mind towards the potential of the possible outcome they will have when they work with you. Think about it like this. Say a new movie is out. You don't look at who's the actor, the producer, the director… You look at the trailer of the movie and, if it builds up that excitement, you go watch the movie.
A trailer is a teaser for the movie, it is there to build excitement for the movie. Think about your enrollment conversation like that. If you can create excitement and possibility for your clients in your enrollment conversation, they are much more likely to say yes. This also ensures that you don't have to chase them. They chase you. So these were the four fundamentals that you need to remember to start a successful, thriving coaching business. Which one was your favorite? What's the big insight that you got out of this video? Leave a comment below and tag a friend who you think might find this useful. Go ahead and subscribe for more videos like this. Thank you for watching and have a phenomenal day..
