It takes the right support to accelerate a coaching business. A team is essential. Your time is best spent on things that only you can do, so build a team around you to do the rest, and create a lifestyle of balance.
No man is an island. Work only in your strengths and find the people to help you do those things that are not strengths for you right now.
Some of these ideas are for people who are a little further along,
but in the beginning I had a coach. I had a marketing coach and I was going through my coach training. It helped me to grow and really played a key role in my growth.
Then I added a virtual assistant, and that doubled my income. Then I moved to a coach at an even higher level and higher marketing program, and that doubled my income. Then I added another virtual assistant, and I kept growing and growing. There's a pattern here. Plan to work with people that are going to support you and can really help you in growing a team.
A virtual assistant (VA) is someone who provides administrative support to you who works from a remote location, almost always their home. They can specialize in marketing support, web services, whatever it is you have hired that particular VA to do for you. They are contractors, so you don't have to have employees. They're a remote professional who works within your business.
I like to work with people who are experts in their areas, so I tend to work with several different virtual assistants. I choose people who really excel in their particular field and use them for those particular tasks and project management.
It's the key to service professional business - anybody who's going to run a service-oriented business where you're delivering coaching, consulting, or training, anything like that. They're lifesavers because you don't need an office for them, and they can do everything for you that an in-house assistant can do.
Create a business model that supports your lifestyle.
You must from the start create a business model that supports your life and your desired freedom. If you don't, before you know it the business is going to be running you.
A strong business model is layered with growth and financial opportunities that don't require your supervision and presence to generate revenue. That's what I teach with the multiple streams of income model. It's really important because you need things that don't involve you to make money.
Sometimes you have to do things old school and learn the hard way. I'm a perfect example of that. In the beginning I worked really hard to create a business, and before I knew it I just had another job.
I was only working with one-on-one clients, it's hard work, and every dollar I made was dependent on those hours. When I shifted that model and offered other products and programs that didn't have to involve me it made a huge difference.
I like to preach that from the beginning so you're thinking about the future, "What can I have besides clients? Can I have programs? Can I have an audio series? Can I have something on tape that families can listen to in their car? What are other streams of income that I can create?"
Building your team and developing additional streams of income that don't rely on your involvement, are key to the success and longevity of your coaching business.
