You’ve spent months preparing to become a coach. You’ve hung your shingle and nothing. You’re struggling to get clients. Getting coaching clients can be stressful and if you aren’t sure where to begin, here are my Top 3 Tips to helping to you grow your business.
1. Niche + Pass
I know it is hard to consider narrowing your market when you are trying to grow your practice. But when you know who your audience is and can be very specific, you make it much easier for them to choose you. For example, I know a career coach who works with women who recently relocated to the U.S. from France. Her sessions are spoken completely in French. And she is booked solid for months!
What unique insight or skill do you have that can draw an audience? Perhaps you have a very technical background, or speak four languages, or had a 30 year career in Logistics. Whatever it is, build on your passion and experience to identify your niche—the area that will add the most value to your client’s needs.
2. Do As You Say & Hire a Coach
I had a coach well before I became a coach. I know firsthand how powerful a coach is. My first coach helped me see that I was slowly fading in my job in corporate America. I needed to take that leap of faith and start my own business. I’ve hired several coaches over the years. I have my favorite coach who has been there through it all and has become one of my closest and dearest friends. Afterwards, I hired someone with a radically different personality. She was loud, aggressive, and knew just the right questions that made me question everything.
Every single coach pushed and helped me think through tough situations in a way that both validated me and stretched my thinking. I experienced different coaching styles that helped me refine my own style and and helped me boost my business.
3. Find a Digital Marketing Guru
Marketing has changed significantly over the years. I know this because of my clients—exceptional marketing executives who are seeing their career chances evaporate if they did not innovate and evolve. These executives, if they were in any other functional area, would have stellar résumés, but because they are in marketing, they are losing out to other candidates with digital marketing skills. No longer are we in the “if you build it, they will come” marketing world. Today there are concepts like MVP, content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO.
Marketing is becoming less aggressive. Less in your face. And more connecting—relational and social. If you aren’t already a guru in digital marketing, find someone who is. Don’t be lured by a marketing firm that says they know digital marketing, ask around for referrals. Some of the best digital marketing experts aren’t part of large agencies and marketing firms that may not have the time to really understand your needs. We’re entering a world where we’re making money in very different ways on the internet. Don’t get left behind.
4. Bonus Tip: Join Our Career Coaching Community
Here’s my little shameless plug. To tie in all the three items listed above, if you’ve narrowed your niche to career coaching, join our coaching community. There you’ll be able to find many other coaches to be your career coaches and jump on our coat-tails with our digital social content marketing. Grow your coaching business. Sign up. It is easy and for now, it is free. Don’t delay. Join today!