7 Steps On How to Start a Business Coaching Course

Business coaching is a process that helps clarify the goals and vision of a business owner and assists them to devise a clear and especially tailored plan to achieve those goals and fulfill the vision. Business coaching provides the support a business owner needs in turning their visions into reality. A business coach gives an unbiased opinion when holding a business owner accountable where needed, they motivate the owners and remove the mental roadblocks owners have that are delaying their success. 

Business coaching is necessary because it gives business owners a structured plan and provides them a roadmap to build a successful business. Business coaches earn by providing their business coaching services on hourly and monthly retainer basis.

Business coaching courses are given value because coaching is an emerging industry in this era. People seek business coaching services to upscale their business and to generate more revenue. The demand of experienced and certified business coaches is increasing as more and more business owners realize the value of business coaching and the role of coaches in taking their business to the next level.

Keeping in view the surging demand of business coaching courses, written and explained below are certain steps that you’ll need to take in order to start a coaching business. 

1. Set Your Goal

The first step to creating an impactful business coaching course is to set clear and achievable goals and determine the measures with the help of which you’ll find out whether you have achieved your goals or not. Formulate a list of questions and answer them each to know your goals. Start by thinking and writing down your target income that you’re hoping to get by selling the course. 

Next, pick what kind of difference you want to make in the life of your clients with the help of this course and make an estimate about how long it takes you to make that difference. Choose the problem you want to solve; do you want to help clients see and use their strengths or identify their weak points and deal with them? Identify your ideal clients based on your skills and goals. Setting up these goals is necessary to keep you accountable to yourself and to help you focused and motivated. Therefore, mark it as a first step to starting your business coaching course. 

2. Identify Your Target Market

Business coaching is a vast field and there are many different markets in this field. Decide if you want to be an executive coach, a small business coach or would like to choose something entirely different. Choose the specific pain points that you’ll help your clients to resolve. You’ve already chosen your goals; now is the time to pick the goals you’ll help your client to achieve. 

You need to specify a niche for yourself in order to choose your market. Do you think you possess a unique skill that is in high demand in the business coaching market? Well, that’s your niche. For example, if you are a business coach that is especially good at helping artists to sell their artwork, then that’s your niche and artists are your target audience, making the art industry your target market. 

People look for specific solutions to specific problems and by identifying your target market, you can give those specific solutions to them and help them deal with specific challenges. 

3. Get a Certification

It’s time to look for a certificate that shows that you’re actually qualified to resolve the problems and deal with the issues you’re claiming to resolve, after you’ve chosen your goals and that of your ideal clients. Education is important in general, but the training you go through to qualify for a certificate arm you with specific approaches, methodologies and skills that you need to solve specific issues. 

Keep your goals and target audience in mind when choosing the training and certificate that works best for you. Consider consulting other coaches in your field and seeking their advice while you look for the ideal institute to receive your training from. Doing research on the internet and reading reviews on the website of your preferred coaching institute is another way to select the best option when it comes to training and certification. 

You add to your credibility with a certificate and the client is satisfied that you know what you need to know to solve their problem and are able to apply the knowledge you need to apply where needed. The certificate makes it likely that the client trusts you and is ready to pay a higher rate. 

4. Promote Your Expertise

Use the power of social media to promote your coaching expertise. The best part about promoting your business coaching services on social media is that it enables you to find the audience related to your target market there and you do not have to ask your clients to join you on a specific platform. 

There are specific communities for specific people on social media which you join and there you connect with your ideal clientele. For example, if you are a business coach who trains artists to sell their work, you join the artists’ community on Facebook, follow people, connect with them, grow your audience and ultimately turn them into your clients. 

Connecting with relevant people on social media is highly effective for those business coaches who are just starting out, since with the help of social media you are able to find out the desires of your target audience in an easy, fun way which you use later to improve your marketing strategies as well as your services. Start out by taking just 30 minutes out of your whole day to connect with people, comment on their posts, go live or join them when they’re live, and your name is going to be the first one to pop-up in their mind when they, or someone else in their circle, needs a business coach. 

5. Establish a Website

It’s time to establish your business coaching website after you have promoted your services a bit. Having a website authenticates your online presence and improves your visibility. It adds to your credibility as well and it is usually the first go-to place when people need services from a business coach about whom they’ve heard or read something somewhere on social media. 

Most of the clients for your business coaching course come from your website, therefore, you need to put the information on it which can answer the questions your ideal client wants to ask from you and clear-up their confusions. For example, your website should clearly state the specific problems your clients have and the solutions you offer for them. It must have the information about your educational background and certification that makes you qualified to solve the problems your clients are having so that they are able to put their confidence in you. 

Establishing a website is the first step towards establishing a solid business coaching brand. Therefore, be cautious in putting all the relevant information that satisfies your clients well and answers their question, so that you do not have to revamp your website every few days. 

6. Learn the Fundamentals of Service Delivery

It’s time to learn how to approach your clients systematically and professionally to turn them into long-term clients, when you finally start getting clients and begin to generate some revenue by your business coaching course. Find the tools and software that help you keep track of your clients and keep record of the data; such as emails and business information of a client. 

Select the model that works best for you, whether it’s online, in-person or through videos while choosing the service delivery mode for your business coaching course. It’s important that you select just the right tools for your delivery model; such as in the case of providing coaching services online, the app through which you provide coaching and other important software. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself working more on managing your business than working with your clients. 

7. Promote Your Coaching Business

You are prepared to move on to your last step after you’ve identified your business coaching goals, chosen your coaching niche and the market you want to target, built a strong presence on social media by networking and created a business coaching course website. And the last step is to explicitly begin to promote your business coaching course. You are now ready to publish a well-drafted sales page, post about your coaching services on social media, create a news-letter to share your experiences and case-studies through it and pitch your business coaching services when you meet people in different in-person networking events. 

It takes time to be good at your elevator pitch because it takes confidence and excellent communication skills. Keep in mind that you’ll face rejections when you pitch your business coaching services at start but most of the time it’s not you, it’s them. For example, perhaps they have an affordability issue, or are unable to invest time in getting coached at the moment etc. 

It’s still important to practice and improve your elevator pitch even if most people say no; because someday, they are going to need a business coaching course and with an effective pitch, your name will be the first to pop up in their mind. 

What is Business Coaching?

Business coaching is a process that helps clarify the goals and vision of a business owner and assists them to devise a clear and especially tailored plan to achieve those goals and fulfill the vision. Business coaching provides the guidance, support and accountability a business owner needs to advance their business and take it to the next level. Thus, business coaching is more like a collaborative relationship between a business coach and a business owner in which a business coach who is well aware of the current market trends, makes strategies and uses tools as well as their experience to achieve the short-term and long-term objectives of your business. 

What Does Business Coaching Do?

Business coaching provides the support a business owner needs in turning their visions into reality. A business coach provides an unbiased opinion when holding a business owner accountable where needed, they motivate the owners and remove the mental roadblocks owners have that are delaying their successBusiness coaches recommend new methods and provide unique networking strategies which contribute to the company’s growth. Sometimes, with the help of business coaching you are able to start a business from scratch or save one from failing as well. 

Why is Business Coaching Necessary?

Business coaching is necessary because it gives business owners a structured plan and provides them a roadmap to build a successful business. Business coaching not only helps business owners see the weaknesses that are becoming a hurdle in the success of their business, it also arms them with tools and skills with the help of which they can deal with their problems themselves. It prepares them for the future so that they will need less and less assistance in growing their business. 

How Does a Business Coach Earn?

Business coaches earn by providing their business coaching services on hourly and monthly retainer basis. So, how much does a business coach earn? An experienced coach will charge differently than a business coach who is just starting out. There are many other factors as well due to which the average salary of a business coach varies across a wide range. However, it’s estimated that a business coach charges anywhere from $250-$500 hourly and $1500-$4000 monthly. There are other ways for business coaches to earn as well; such as offering their services in the form of packages, providing business coaching training and offering an online or physical business coaching course. 

Is a Small Business Coach Distinct?

No! A small business coach is not much different from an executive coach or other type of coaches. Just like any other business coach, a small business coach helps you develop your business plan and strategies, finds a way to execute your ideas and assists you in making your business model successful and profitable. They act as an accountability partner as well and offer a third-party insight to solve the problems of your business. Small business coaches know the ins and outs of running a business very well and can help you in managing your day-to-day tasks as well as in handling your stress as a business owner, thus supporting you in becoming the entrepreneur you desire to be. 

Do Business Coaches Earn Money?

Yes! Business coaches earn money by different means. Such as, business coaches get paid for offering one-on-one or group coaching sessions to clients, they make money by conducting training for business teams, they participate in public events and deliver lectures in conferences for which they’re compensated. They earn by writing a book and training other business coaches as well. 

How Can I Create a Business Coaching Course?

Start by developing a unique template to create a business coaching course. Map out the basic structure of your course and while you’ll be tweaking it to suit the needs of each one of your clients, the fundamentals of the programs remain the same. Developing a structure this way will save you a lot of time. 

Offer something that your competitors are not offering through your business coaching course. Make it reflect your distinctive preposition. Focus on consistently delivering high quality services through a well-structured business coaching course following a template that identifiably belongs to you.

Pricing is another factor that impacts the salability of your business coaching course. Consider giving such a price tag to your course that is not so low that your client does not value your services and not so high that your ideal client is unable to afford it. 

Some of the other important procedures that you need to follow while starting a business coaching course are given below. 

Do Initial Assessments

The further structuring is tailored according to the unique needs of the client begins right when you meet the potential client for the very first time, after you’ve developed the basic structure of your business coaching course. During this initial assessment, devise your questions in a way that the discussion leads you to know the current circumstances of the client and what they’re frustrated about. It tells you the high-level goals of the client and what it is that they hope to improve with the help of your business coaching goals.

Your first meeting with the client makes you aware of any business coaching experiences that your client has had previously and what was the outcome of it. Moreover, at the end of the meeting, you need to be well-informed regarding the preferred coaching method of your client if any; for example, how do they feel about workbooks and videos etc. 

Follow S.M.A.R.T Goals

Developing goals for your client to achieve is the next step after initial assessment. You need to know what success looks like for your client and what are the specific skills they need to succeed in achieving their goals. You have to use S.M.A.R.T methodology which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely to cultivate these skills and to reach the goals. It means that you divide each goal into different chunks all of which must be very specific and achievable with a measurable outcome. It must be very much relevant to the skill you are aiming to cultivate as well. 

For example, if you are aiming to cultivate communication as a skill and your goal is to enable your client to speak confidently in public events, you can devise your specific objective with a measurable result like this:

Present before at least an audience of ten, once every week. 

Think of Tactics and Activities

Use the tactics and activities in your business coaching course that are tailored specifically to meet the needs of your client. For example, if you think your client can benefit from one-on-one sessions, plan your business coaching course accordingly. And if you believe a combination of video and audio sessions coupled with some homework will suit the needs of your client more, then go for it without missing a beat. Self-guided activities and helping the client with other resources plays a role in enhancing the effectiveness of your business coaching course as well. 

Dig Resources

The basic template of a business coaching course is incomplete without listing and collecting all of the materials you are going to use to deliver your services. The materials include anything from worksheets and videos to different planners, checklists, journaling prompts etc. 

Keep in mind that it’s not absolutely necessary to create all of the material yourself. Feel free to use the coaching material developed by other business coaches or even from coaches of other fields if it relates with your business coaching course. Just make sure you give credit to the person who originally created the material.

Do a Week-by-week Plan

Map-out your business coaching course by identifying the milestones you are hoping to achieve by each session and divide them into weekly goals. Determine the steps you’ll take to help achieve your client’s goals. 

For example, if a person is looking to develop their communication skills as an executive or a business owner and they take up your course to achieve the purpose, start by a weekly goal for your client of effectively communicating with at least five team members. Then during the weekly session, the two of you are going to discuss and find out the attributes of effective communication and the ways with the help of which your client can incorporate them into their daily communication.

Plan the other activities as well which you do with your client to develop their communication and give some homework so that they’re able to practice what they have learnt during the session. Provide the related material to your client, such as videos, so that the client is able to go back to it instead of contacting you every time if they face any difficulty in the future.

Do a Progress Evaluation

Do not forget to do the progress check After you have wrapped up the business coaching course. 

Go back to your initial assessment and have a look at the questions you asked at start for this purpose. Invite your client and ask them the effects of your training on their situation and do they feel frustrated about it anymore? If not, do they think your business coaching course did the trick? Ask them to share if they have any questions about the training process or regarding the reinforcement of their newly gained skills.  

Do Collect Any Feedback

The last step is to perform your own evolution after you’re done evaluating your client’s progress as a result of your course. Ask your clients to give you feedback directly or simply create a google form including the questions you want to ask your client for your performance check to ensure that you meet all their expectations. 

The google form can include such questions as how would your client rate the quality of your business coaching course, and what is it that they suggest which can improve the quality of this course etc. 

How Much Money Do I Need to Start a Business Coaching Course?

The cost of starting a business coaching course depends a great deal on what you choose to be your service delivery mode. In case you choose to go exclusively online, the cost will be low. You’ll have to spend on a good quality laptop and a smartphone, speedy internet and on purchasing your website domain. The cost of marketing services for your business coaching course will be included. The total amount still does not exceed $1000. 

The cost will reach up-to $10,000 or in some cases, exceed it if you choose to deliver your services face-to-face or go for a combination of online and physical service delivery modes. This time, the cost includes insurance money, your expenditure on securing office space and office supplies, and on the legal permit of starting a business. Another thing you will be spending on is different tools and software that you’ll need to manage clients as well as to run your business smoothly. The expenses will also include your office rent and utility bills, and of course a fast internet connection. You have to spend on hiring some employees for your office as you grow, so put some aside for their salary and bonuses as well. 

In a tech-dominated world, it looks much easier to start an online coaching course instead of a physical one. Still if you feel you can be a more effective business coach while coaching your clients face-to-face, feel free to go for it but be ready to invest a huge sum.

What are the Types of Coaching Courses?

Coaches have been around for years. But recently, the coaching industry has developed so much that it has divided itself into several different branches; each named according to the need it caters for. Such as there is financial coaching in which trained professionals tell people how to effectively plan their finances, there are business coaches who help people in running their businesses smoothly etc. 

We have compiled below a list of the top five most popular coaching services and how they help people. 

Financial Activities Coaching

As the name suggests, financial activities coaching help people in improving their financial behavior by helping them to become financially literate. Instead of simply sorting out the issues the client is currently facing in managing their money matters, this type of coaching focuses on developing long-term finance-smart habits. Just like other types of coaching, financial activities coaching doesn’t simply tell the client what to do; it instead enables and facilitates clients to set their own long-term financial goals and to find ways to achieve them. 

The services of financial activity coaches are used by common people as well as large corporate firms since it’s not uncommon to feel difficulty while making a budget. Sometimes, you spend on things you ought not to and then you feel the need of making a financial plan and holding yourself accountable with the help of it. Financial coaching helps you structure your budget in the best possible way. 

Career Development Coaching

In a fast-changing world of today, various careers emerge and several disappear in a span of a few years and sometimes, of a few months. In circumstances like such, it’s easy to feel confused about choosing a career, whether you are a fresh graduate, or an employee working in an industry for years. Career development coaching helps in such situations. It helps industries as well as individuals to figure out which career path will help them the best way to reach their full potential. 

A career development coach has quite a unique job to do since no two career-finding journeys are the same and thus, they have to coach every individual and industry in a different way. Career development coaches help their clients with their job seeking interviews, career planning, in building a personal brand, and in exploring new career opportunities as well apart from aiding them in choosing a career. 

Business Coaching

Business coaching is a type of coaching that helps business owners and executives in achieving their work goals. For this purpose, business coaches use different strategies tailored according to the unique needs of their clients; such as building the leadership skills of the client, helping them to create effective business strategies, working on their confidence or assisting them to transform their personality and mindset. Usually, all that most business owners want from business coaching services is to pace-up the growth of their business. 

Business coaching is effective for individual business owners as well as for industries who want to train their executives. The relationship between a business coach and a client is built on trust. Utilizing their vast experience in the field and their training as a business coach, these coaches analyze where their client needs help the most and they target that area. Thus, effective business coaching results in more than revenue growth; it offers several long-term benefits such as the client mastering valuable skills of team-building, leadership and resilience. 

Life Coaching

Life coaching is a type of coaching that helps people in finding a purpose in their life and in achieving their personal and professional goals. Since each individual has a different life with different problems, life coaches often wear multiple hats to help their clients deal with various issues. It means that the issues life coaches help their clients to deal with, range from relationship and divorce problems to career issues, financial issues and the issues related to their professional life. 

Life coaching is the type of coaching sought mostly by individuals to be more productive, to improve time-management, to create a harmony between their work and personal life and to achieve several other goals on an individual level. Industries and organizations often refrain from getting services of life coaches. They prefer getting financial activities coaching, career development coaching or business coaching; so that they can improve the performance of their employees and take their business to the next level. 

Health and Wellness Coaching

A health and wellness coach helps people to improve their relationship with their own body. Health and wellness coaching targets achieving multiple goals to improve the physical and emotional health of their clients; such as losing or gaining weight, committing to make a change to their life health-wise and sticking to that commitment by changing their behavior, working to adopt a positive life-style etc. 

Just like life coaching, health and wellness coaching also deals with their clients on an individual level mostly. But if you belong to such industries as gymming, food industry, education, nutrition, or health (hospitals and clinics), getting the services of a health and wellness coach will benefit you a great deal. 

How to Get More Clients for Your Business Coaching Course?

There are two ways to get more clients for your business coaching course; one of them is through organic marketing while in the other one, you’d have to pay for the marketing of your services. You provide value to your audience, attract more people and build a strong clientele by consistently providing high quality services in organic marketing. Therefore, the clients you make this way will put their trust in you no matter how high your rates are. 

There are several ways to provide more value in organic marketing which you can begin with. Such as speaking at public events and disseminating your knowledge through free webinars, helping people by answering their questions without charging for it, networking with other business coaches, and working on becoming the kind of coach you think you’d hire for yourself. 

Paid marketing works well if you want to get specific results but you’ll have to ultimately combine it with your organic marketing strategies. For example, if you market your business coaching course through paid ads, but there is no one who knows your name and nobody on the web is talking about it, it will be of no use because people will hesitate to put their trust in you without effective networking. 

Therefore, start from using organic marketing strategies and back them up with paid ads when the time comes, and see how the magic unfolds if you want to get more clients for your business coaching course. 

How To Promote my Business Coaching Course?

There are several ways with the help of which you can effectively promote your business coaching course. Some of those are listed below.

• Social Media: social media is a place full of potential clients and opportunities if used in the right way. And the best thing about using social media to promote your business coaching course is that you do not have to spend a lot. 
• Virtual coffee chats: The digitalization has enabled people to have one-on-one virtual coffee chats with the person of their choice. Feel free to use these chats to connect with your clients and potential buyers.  
• Past clients: Stay connected with the people you have worked for before. It’s easier to sell your services or business coaching course to people who have already used your services than to those who do not even know you. 
• Networking events: There are online and offline networking events taking place from time to time. Attend one such event related to your field, prepare a good elevator pitch before going and promote your business coaching course in a killer way. 
• Freebies: Create a free offer for your ideal client, like a checklist or a guide. Hook it to your email and use it to promote your business coaching course. 
• Referrals: Create friendships in your field, network more and more and use your network to get more clients for your business coaching course. 
• Facebook groups: Use facebook groups of your field to provide value. Engage with people and find the ideal client for your business coaching course. 
• Guest posting: The readability of your blog is low at the beginning. Therefore, use blogs with high traffic to attract and engage with your ideal client and include a link back to your website. 
• Speaking gigs: Speak up about what you know and use your speaking power to attract more clients and to promote your business coaching course. Use multiple platforms; such as facebook groups, instagram live sessions or linkedin. 
• SEO: Search Engine Optimization helps your client find your services. So, promote your business coaching course with the help of best SEO practices so that you are found easily by your ideal customer. 
• A solid website: A well-structured website with some value to offer converts visitors into buyers. Therefore, make your website worthwhile and professional to promote and sell your business coaching course. 
• Affiliate marketing: Attach yourself with a larger program that does not conflict with your brand values and use it to promote your business coaching course. 
• Partnership and collaborations: Collaborate with a business having a larger audience and use it to promote your business coaching course. 
• Online summits: Participate in the discourse related to your field in an online summit. It is a great source of organic marketing and increases your brand value. 
• Paid ads: Paid ads work best when you have already established your worth by organic marketing. Use paid ads to attract clients when your brand has stabilized a little and you have some money to spare. 
• Pinterest: Pinterest is more like a search engine where your content is found by the clients when you optimize it well according to the platform. Use it to promote your business coaching course. 
• Podcasts: You present yourself in front of a large audience as a podcast guest. Use the opportunity to provide value to your listeners and it becomes an effective tool to promote your service. 
• Local organizations: People love to support local businesses. Partner up with a local business and use it to promote and sell your business coaching course. 

Out of these many ways, few work better than others and are therefore used widely. Such as using social media for the promotion of your business coaching course, participating in virtual and physical networking events, building a solid website and applying best SEO practices to promote your services prove to be a game changer. 

How Can You Be an Effective Business Coach?

There are several qualities that an effective business coach possesses and you work on yourself to develop these qualities in you as the time passes. You need to have climbed the ladder of the corporate world by being a successful business owner currently or in your past to become an effective business coach. It is how you know the difficulties a business owner faces while working to grow their business and how to deal with those difficulties. Moreover, your clients are able to put their trust in you if you have your own profitable business since they’ll know you are not working from a place of hope; you are really able to bring value to their business by your experience. 

You also need to tailor your strategies and funnels to suit the needs of each of your clients. You do not use a one size fit all method if you really want to prove yourself as a great business coach. Instead, you need to translate and transform your best strategies in accordance with the specific goals and visions of your client. 

An effective business coach has a wide network as well so that not only they learn from the people working in the same field as themselves, they have some people to rely upon as well when any of their clients face a problem they do not know the solutions to. So, they’ll instantly contact the person in their network who they know has dealt with something similar and is therefore able to help them. Therefore, another thing that you need to be a good business coach is to have a wide network. 

Another trait that an effective business coach has is to provide their clients with tools, resources and skills which help them succeed without needing the services of a business coach again and again. Therefore, to become a truly effective coach, you need to gradually help your client to grow and develop, until they are able to find the solutions of their problem without your support.  

Is a Business Coaching Course Worth It?

A business coaching course is totally worth it because it adds value to business by enabling the business owners to grow and run their business smoothly and effectively. A business coach teaches their clients useful skills through these courses, such as time-management, team-building, communication, and problems solving, with the help of which they increase their productivity and generate more revenue. Therefore, purchasing a business coaching course should be considered more of an investment than just a paid service a business owner gets for some purpose.