By Gladeana Mcmahon and Antoinette Oglethorpe
This is the first in a series of articles aimed at helping coaches deal with the variety of factors associated with setting up a successful coaching practice
Part one: Guidelines for coaches starting out in business
Many qualified coaches love coaching so much they want to make it their full-time profession. However, being a competent, or even an excellent, coach is not an automatic guarantee of financial success (McMahon, Palmer and Wilding, 2005). Before you set up in business you need to consider three core factors: business acumen, professional expectations and personal need/resilience.
Each year thousands of well-intentioned hopefuls complete their qualification. Yet within a year many fail to earn a fraction of the income they need, or had hoped for, and must return to alternative employment.
Many coaches focus only on developing technical skills, knowledge and tools, and have much less understanding of the practical and commercial aspects of a business.
In this new series of articles we will provide practical guides to setting up and developing a successful practice.
We start in this article with general guidelines for those starting out.
Do you really want to do this?
If you are going to be successful, your passion for coaching must be complemented by a strong wish to run your own business. It doesn’t matter if your plan is to work one, two, three or even seven days a week, as long as you also spend those days building the business. For example, you need to carry out or manage marketing activities, meet with client prospects, write proposals and “do the real work” of coaching, all while taking care of invoicing, revenue collection and office administration (Oade, 2009).
Find out more
Talk to other coaches about the challenges and rewards of self-employment.
Are you dissatisfied with your current job and believe self-employment is a way out? What would success look like for you as an individual? Is it about earning a certain amount, having independence and autonomy or working certain hours or days? Will setting up a practice help you achieve this?
Fatal flaws
Becoming self-employed for the wrong reasons. Just because you love coaching doesn’t mean you should set up business.
No business experience. You need to wear many hats to run a business well – over and above your professional skills.
Develop a clear proposition
As with all small businesses, you need to start with a vision. Be clear from the start who your target clients are and what services you are offering. Don’t be all things to all people. Instead, find an area you can call your own and build a name and for yourself (Evans, 2011).
Make it work
Reflect on the coaching projects you have found most satisfying. Who do you most like to work with? What kinds of problems do you help with?
Think about your experience – will it distinguish you from others? With so many coaches on the market, you must have a unique selling point.
Fatal flaw
Failure to define and understand your target market. Who are your clients? Are they companies? If so, what industry, size, location? Are they individuals? If so, what gender, age, issues? You should be able to identify them in one or two sentences, because you’ll need to target your marketing as effectively as possible (Schenck, 2005).
Embrace sales and marketing
Develop new business even when you are busy. This means constantly marketing yourself and your business by making phone calls, sending emails, maintaining your web and social network pages and raising visibility.
Make it work
Learn the basics of sales and marketing. Talk to others who are running their own practices, get a book, find a website, get a mentor, do your homework. Then try various marketing activities, focusing on those that work.
Fatal flaw
Passive or ineffectual sales and marketing. Getting a website and some business cards is not enough to get potential clients knocking at your door.
Set yourself up for success
A successful business relies on a good network of contacts providing different types of support at different times.
You need practical support, such as childcare or help with chores. You need technical support in areas outside your expertise, such as IT or finance. And you need emotional support for when times are tough. What about financial buoyancy? Many practices take a year or two to get going. Can you guarantee positive cash flow during that time?
Make it work
Develop and nurture relationships with business mentors, and surround yourself with other self-employed people running their own businesses.
Build your virtual team and use them for the things they can do better than you. Above all, get a well-respected accountant. Their advice, support and guidance will be invaluable.
Calculate how much money your business will need, from start-up onwards. Develop a plan for how you will fund the transition period until the practice is established.
Fatal flaws
Trying to do everything yourself. If you really don’t want to do certain tasks (or don’t have the skills), hire someone to do them for you. Use your time instead to generate presence and income.
Not enough money at start-up. Many people underestimate how much they will need. Even if you are only working from home with a laptop at your kitchen table, there are a number of other costs involved (McMahon, Palmer and Wilding, 2005).
Setting up and developing a coaching practice isn’t easy. But it can also be a wonderfully fulfilling and rewarding challenge. You can make a success of it if you are honest with yourself, have some self-belief, offer a good service and take care of business and professional matters.
Gladeana McMahon is UK chair of the Association for Coaching
www.gladeanamcmahon.com
Antoinette Oglethorpe provides executive coaching, training and facilitation for organisations
www.antoinetteoglethorpe.com
References
G McMahon, S Palmer and C Wilding, Achieving Excellence in your Coaching Practice: How to Run a Highly Successful Coaching Business, Routledge, London, 2005
A Oade, Starting and Running a Coaching Business: The Complete Guide to Setting Up and Managing a Coaching Practice, (Small Business Start-Ups), How to Books – Kindle, London, 2009
V Evans, FT Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan: How to Win Backing to Start Up or Grow Your Business, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, London, 2011
B V Schenck, Small Business Marketing for Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, London, 2005
Coaching at work, volume 8, issue 1