Hello Coaches 👋
You are going to know 10 essential business assets that make your coaching business and practice a secure and successful venture.
1. The first and Biggest Business Asset – You, Your Skillset, and Your Reputation
You’re the driving force of your business. It’s all about you. Be genuine, be your true self, and watch your vibes shine through. Our audience can figure out when a professional is pretending to be an expert and when they truly are.
Your second superpower is your skillset. That’s what makes you a coach with a difference. Identify the key elements of your game – communication, problem-solving, the art of asking questions, and more – and keep sharpening your skills. The more you upskill yourself, the more you earn the trust of your clients and prospects.
Other than your credentials, degrees, and accreditations, your reputation precedes you. What people think about you does more wonders and blunders than we think. Word of mouth is powerful.
A great reputation can help you with faster conversions and referrals, on the other hand, a weak and compromised personal brand can make you question yourself and your worth even when you’re great at what you do. Treat people around you like royalty, and delight your clients with not just great work but also amazing personal relationships; they will become your brand ambassadors.
Invest in upskilling yourself on a regular basis and take care of the following aspects of yourself
- Your mental and emotional well-being – Have a life coach in your support system and travel regularly to expose yourself to different environments and change.
- Your physical fitness, strength and wellness
- Your interpersonal and people skills
- Networking skills – Hire a networking coach
- Your business accreditations and coaching credentials + Read books or listen to the relevant podcasts
2. Website
Think of your website as your coaching headquarters. This is the place where your prospects and audience will come to know more about you, your offerings, and your success stories. Invest in getting a well-architectured website that is mobile-friendly, easy to understand and navigate, and loaded with convincing information about your business.
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Important
Remember that website is the first step. Ongoing regular promotion and SEO is what makes your website work for you. Without investing in website marketing, your website is a useless entity. Don’t expect it work for you and deliver leads just after you created one. It can sit for years without sending a single call.
A frequently asked question about website; I share my website on social media and with my contacts. Isn’t that a promotion?
It’s called sharing your website with contacts, it’s not promotion. You’re working for your website. Your website isn’t working for you when you share your website link with your contacts. The purpose and goal of your website is to bring potential clients and prospects who don’t know you; people who are looking for professionals like you and services you offer. That happens when you secure top rankings in search engines for your service-related terms.
3. Email List
Your email list is your fan club. They are willing to hear from you and have given consent to send regular useful content. The best part of an email list is its efficacy, high conversion and referral rate, and the likelihood of expansion.
Recommended: How to grow your email list to 10k active subscribers
4. Your Expression Channel
It can be a blog, podcast, or a video channel. It’s your stage to express yourself, your expertise, your experience and show your audience how you’re different from the rest of the industry.
Isn’t LinkedIn or Instagram my expression channel? One common question people usually ask when I recommend creating an expression channel.
Yes, you do express and share your life and expertise on social media networks. But you own none. These are the tools and platforms you should take advantage of. But haven’t you heard of Instagram accounts suspended, Linkedin reach dramatically going low or Facebook accounts being restricted?
Create your channel and use social media to drive the loyal audience who subscribes to your blog and podcast.
Find out: Why coaches must have a blog?
5. Resources Hub
Having useful and practical resources creates your treasure chest. Host these downloadable and interactive resources on your website. These resources not only grow your email list but also build credibility and trust in your brand and expertise. Think of these resources as your lead magnets. Your potential prospects use these resources to have an idea of your expertise and get more confident to try your services.
I created a resource hub that has over 15 useful downloadable and it adds 50-75 new subscribers to my email list every day.
Quizzes make another great resource and lead magnet. Check out this Blogging Readiness quiz that supports my blogging coaching program.
6. Book
Writing a book establishes you as an author which means setting the next level of authority for your name. Write a book to inform, educate and persuade your audience. Having a book under your name means setting your brand firm with a solid and lasting foundation.
I started with co-authoring an ebook with Emmanuel Fuavel about Social Media and wrote 3 more ebooks independently in the last 5 years.
Does an ebook work as good as a paperback?
Yes, it does. Publishing an ebook on Amazon and either online platforms lets you receive the response from your audience before you publish a paperback.
Get to know: How to write an eBook fast
7. Your Mini-course
A course puts your expertise in front of a broader audience. It expands and extends your influence and impact beyond one-on-one coaching to one-to-many.
Moreover, your course gives your potential clients more independence to utilize your expertise and be more confident for your premium services and one-on-one coaching.
And my favorite reason to create a course is to build a passive income source. There is a huge market for online courses and it helps you leverage your time and expertise better.
Create a full-fledged course when you have time, bandwidth, and support. Otherwise, start your game with a mini-course of 5-7 videos of 10-15 minutes each and a few good exercises, assignments and assessments.
8. Referral Tribe
This business asset is one of my next favorites. Your referral tribe is your cheerleader. This a close and special tribe of a few strong connections. They may or may not know each other.
They are your brand guards. They trust you, they love your work and coaching style and they know you well, personally and professionally.
Build a referral tribe slowly, nurture it over time, and encourage them to spread the word about you. Watch your coaching business and personal brand rise with the power and support of your advocates.
9. Community
The decision to build a community comes with big responsibility and commitment. The community works like a big supportive family cheering you on for your work and initiatives. The community gains are several, and the giving from your end is equally big.
It can take 1 minimum of one year to build, maintain and nurture an engaging and alive community where members start to trust the space and contribute to the growth.
You become the driving force of your community and keep showing up, adding value and encouraging the members to engage.
I recommend having 2-3 moderators and co-hosts to run the community at ease.
The best places to create communities are Facebook, Forum and Whatsapp. Communities at Linkedin takes longer and slower to grow and engage.
10. Network
Building a network is an unmissable asset. You can skip everything I mentioned above but I strongly recommend to start building a network even before you start your coaching business.
This brings the key question – why networking is important for coaches?
Network and networking is not just for coaches, it is important for every business owner. And coaches are business owners, first.
Here are a few core reasons why networking is important for coaches.
- It exposes you to different people, mindsets, ideas, and experiences. Eventually, you improve your leadership and people skills which helps you with better conversions.
- It builds a large network of people who know you and see you as a credible coach, eventually giving you a competitive edge in your industry.
- It helps you connect with like-minded people who share your passion and thought process, and develop relationships, leading to collaborations and partnerships.
- Networking creates your support system. I have had countless incidents when connections and professionals from my network have come to help in some serious situations.
- Your network isn’t just of fellow coaches. It is recommended to network with high-net-worth contacts, leaders, and professionals who have large networks. You build your relationships and network gradually.
Explore: How attending events and networking helped my business soar high
Remember two key rules of networking
- Give it time and don’t expect to monetize and utilize your network as soon as you build a connection. Build a relationship first, then comes a potential association.
- Develop the art of asking questions, active listening skills, and starting a conversation.
If you ask me about the top 5 best investments to make in your coaching business, invest in learning networking skills.
FAQs
What is the difference between Tribe, Community and Network?
| Tribe | Community | Network |
|---|---|---|
| Tribe is a small, exclusive personal network | Community is a large pool of professionals from same or multiple industries | Network is an interconnected personal web of relationships with people |
| Tribe can have 3-30 contacts | A community can be of any size from 10 members to 1000000 | Network has no size and it depends upon how many people one can manage in their network |
| Tribe members may or may not know each other. They all trust you and have high regards for your brand. | Community members may not know each other. They can create personal networks from communities. | The people in one’s network may or may not know each other, but they all know the network holder. |
How long does it take to create all these essential business assets?
It can take up to three years to build all essentials of a coaching business. The time it takes depends upon several factors such as size of business, industry, complexity of assets and elements, resources and support available, personal bandwidth and time, financial bandwidth etc.
Which three I should start first?
If I were to start a new coaching business today, I would keep the following three essentials of coaching business on my top priority.
- My personal brand and reputation strategy
- Build a network, invest in networking and people skills
- Create an Expression Channel, preferably a blog
What kind of investment it can take?
Somewhere between Rs. 3-8 lacs [USD $ 3.6k – 9.6k] over 1-3 years. The investment required depends upon several factors such as outsourcing vs. DIY, quality of your assets, speed of creation etc. Some potential expenses include:
- Website development – One-time website creation cost of Rs. 50k-1.5 Lacs [USD $ 600 – 1850] and annual recurring cost of Rs. 8-20k [USD $ 97 – 242] for hosting
- Marketing and advertising costs – Rs. 2-4 lacs [USD $ 2.45k – 4.83k] per year
- Upskilling – Rs. 1-2 lacs [USD $ 1.2k – 2.42k]
What if I am not able or willing to create all?
You can choose to skip the website in the first year of your coaching business. Having a one-pager microsite does the job of your web presence and doable for Rs. 10-15k [USD $ 121 – 181]
You can make a choice between writing a book and creating the course.
You can choose to start an expression channel or an email list.
Rest everything is an absolutely essential and doesn’t cost money but your time and effort.
Sunita, have you created all?
Except for the course, yes, I have created all and I am harvesting the returns on these essentials and assets of my coaching business for over a decade now.
Over to you
These are your essential business assets. Mix them, and you’ll have a coaching business that’s not only profitable but also fulfilling for you and your clients. Keep shining, superstar coaches! 🌟
Ready to take your coaching business to the next level? Check out how Digital Business Coaching can help your business growth.
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Sunita Biddu is a digital business coach and power blogging mentor helping coaches and small business owners. She helps with building a strong and profitable online presence and reputation that creates a self-sustaining business. Sunita writes on this blog once a week about easy-to-use guides and articles about business, coaching, social media and blogging. You can grab some of her free resources and ebooks from the resources section.
This is an informative post. I have made my notes. Waiting for more. Is there a way our website can host these courses too? I have mine on Zenler. Will blogs be relevant in the coming times when the audience is moving to an audio format more?
It’s best to host courses on third party platforms. These platforms take care of the sign up to execution and customer support. It’s more cost effective in terms of effort, time and money even if the platform subscription may appear high. Hosting courses on website is doable with plugins and customization with the help of a development agency if your website is built with wordpress.
Blogs are going to be relevant even after 100 years 🙂 Despite audio and video is in trends and work brilliant as marketing tools, they can not be skimmed like texts and blogposts. And that gives an edge. Videos, Audio and text blogs are all channels of expressions. Choose what you’re most comfortable with. Your preference only will keep you going and make the most of your choice.
great sir beneficial article thanks for sharing.