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Great! You want to make a living out of coaching and training? Many people have been there, and haven‘t really succeeded. They have made the attempt, and are back in the casual or part-time workforce, in order to support their coaching dream, or have completely abandoned it.
Depending on a few crucial points, turning a coaching hobby into a business can be daunting or enjoyable; in reality it‘s frequently a combination of the two. A number of these points can be applied to owning and running any kind of business, but a couple are specific to the training or coaching business:Confidence in your teaching skills.
Can you justify your fees to clients if you haven‘t really developed your teaching skills? Have you overcome the disempowering inner hints telling you that you are not worth it? Do you feel you have good integrity charging the fees you have decided upon? Do you charge these fees because that is what other coaches and trainers charge? There are plenty of Joe Blows who think they can instruct other people. They think it is just giving advice and supervising and calling the shots to get it done, or simply offering some platitudes as opposed to real coaching. You will find that after a few months into your coaching and skills training that you become aware of the complex and challenging set of skills needed for this career. You become keenly aware of its difficulties. Self-doubt and discouragement begin an erosion of your confidence. Overcoming and regaining confidence in your coaching/training skills requires practice, and as much education as your time and purse will permit. You need to practice, and hire coaches/trainers whose skills far exceeds your own. Practice and read up on different coaching processes. This way you will enlarge your skills and listen to your coaching calls. Self critique and improve upon you talents.
Be willing to market your services and close the sales. This is a big stepping stone. All you want to do is coach. As a business owner with little income, you aren‘t in the position to hire marketing and sales professionals to take on this role. It is important you view coaching/training as an intimate service offering; people want to feel they can rely upon and trust you. They will need to experience your service offering before committing to buy. This experience will create a needed confidence in your ability to successfully help clients. Remember to blow your own horn and speak with certainty describing the benefits clients will experience by working with you. Many people aren‘t born with sales abilities. Personal development courses are around to help you become comfortable and proficient in selling your services and products.
Finances and time are essential to successfully building a business. It might take 2-5 years to enjoy profitability in a coaching/training business. Ideally you need to plan to have sufficient time and money until reaching sustainable profitability without feeling desperate. Clients and prospects smell desperation a mile away. Trust me; this is not a good look. The frustrations and wrestles with finances can be consuming and will impede your coaching/training abilities. You might find yourself needing to justify your worth to avoid the client sacking you. This is not fertile space needed for good coaching/training. Keeping your day job is a good sign that you are willing to act to maintain progress. Couples are a boon, where one works
Believe in yourself. Believe you are capable of achieving the business success you desire. Self belief is bolstered by a series of small successes. Reading, attending business and training seminars, watching videos and having access to a great coach all help to build an environment conducive to building and maintaining self belief. Build wisdom and competencies. You will see yourself accomplishing the needed steps to success. Coaching/training will find you examining your own beliefs and skills. You‘re ahead of the game compared to lots of new business owners.
Are you motivated by real desire to succeed in coaching/training? Desire deals with what you want and the intensity of that want. Pursuing the coaching/training role requires flexibility. Ask yourself is this what you want, and are you willing to make sacrifices or apply yourself to achieve it. You can marry coaching/training with consultancy work. Guts are needed to be responsible for your business with its ups and downs. You must have a good feel for what it takes to meet the needs of business ownership. You will find yourself doing more jobs in the business than simply coaching, training and consulting. You will be doing many jobs for at least a couple of years or more until your business becomes sustainably profitable. Don‘t succumb to disappointment – treat it as a challenge worth pursuing!
Persistence pays off! Persistence is needed when pursuing any dream. Persistence might be compared with the size of a tank, and desire – the fuel. A Mack truck desire isn‘t going to hold up if you only have a lawn mower fuel tank. There is a lot to learn about starting and building a business. Natural horsemanship used in the horse racing industry is a new service in thoroughbred training. It will take time for it to be fully embraced by the race horse industry. Inroads are already being made using well known natural horsemanship identities such as Monty Roberts, Frank Bell and John Lyons. Persistence will see you hanging in there, being flexible, and exhibiting a lot of gumption. You need a master coach to keep you growing in your coaching/training skills sets, and a great business coach to keep you business growing at a sustainable rate.
Other considerations may contribute to your business success as a coach/trainer. Lacking them does not mean failure. A business plan clarifies what you want your business to look like. It includes the kind of services you offer, to how many, and to what type of clients. The plan includes your expenses, and predicted income. What clientele do you serve? How? How will you contact them? It will feature the benefits of working with you. Marketing tasks will appear in your marketing plan. The plan is a roadmap, and designed to be flexible. You can fly by the seat of your pants. Having a map / plan will keep you on course, contain contingencies if flexibility is needed, and you can expect an easier journey. It is a true saying ‘the business that doesn‘t plan plans to fail.‘
Construct a substantial contact database. Fill it with people who know and trust you, and who would be willing to pay you in this new business. It pays to check to see if they have the financial means to afford your services. You can also start from scratch and steadily build this list of good contacts.
Substantial marketing and sales experience is a plus. It helps you to grow your business promoting and selling your services, and keeping an eye on the competition, and regulatory environment in which your business exists.
Career experience with horses, or the niche market your business is specializing or serving, is a real business plus. Lots of brilliant thriving businesses have started as hobbies. Your commitment to the transformation of a hobby into a new business venture will drive its success.
