How I Started a Profitable Coaching Business in 2020 — Step by Step
And how you can start yours today.
No, I’m not Tony Robbins. He’s my dad. (Kidding.)
After spending three years engulfed in self-improvement, getting my shit together, and helping others get their shit together…I decided to dive into life coaching during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.
That was six months ago.
As of writing this, I have nine regular, paying clients. I can honestly say that launching a coaching business is the best decision I’ve ever made. Here’s why.
• 😇 It’s fulfilling.
It’s hard to ignore the impact you’re having on people when you sit down with them and hear about their improvements. My eyes have watered several times while hearing about a client’s joy in the results they’re seeing. You become so invested in the well-being of the people you work with and fulfilled by their progress.
• 💪 The benefits spread to other areas of your life.
In a few short months, I have become noticeably better at listening, articulating my thoughts, and noticing patterns in others. Outside of coaching, this has strengthened my relationships and has made it easier to connect with strangers. And while there is no substitute for getting your own coach, the skills you build allow you to better analyze and coach yourself.
• 💸 It’s additional income.
Coaching done properly is not about getting into people’s wallets. However, at the end of the day, it’s a business. You’re providing a service for someone. You’re bringing them value. Delivering this value feels euphoric as a coach, and if you can make money doing it, it’s an insane bonus. Sometimes I’ll get out of an amazing session and think, I can’t believe I get paid to do this.
I’ll show you how to get there, too.
Getting started.
I remember the excitement I felt after I told my friends, “I’m going to start coaching.”
After a few pats on the back and some affirming words, I got to work.
I consumed hours of Evercoach videos, tried to build the perfect landing page, and brainstormed a bunch of different marketing tactics. After chiseling away for two days straight, I was ready for clients to come flooding into my inbox…
Have you ever seen the Black Friday video where the store clerks were preparing to be stormed, but when they lifted the gate there was just one calm dude walking through? Yeah, the store in this case was me, except there were no dudes interested in what I had to offer.
That’s when I learned my first valuable lesson.
Get your first client as quickly as you can. 🧊
What does a coach do? A coach, well, coaches.
That means you need someone to coach. A person. A living, breathing human who you can have a conversation with.
Before you try any sort of marketing strategy, your number one priority is to have your first session with someone.
How do you convince someone to let you coach them when you have literally zero experience? Simple.
Talk to anyone and everyone you know and offer them free sessions. Start with your inner circle.
Use your network. Don’t worry about finding a bunch of Facebook groups or online forums. You have everything you need right in front of you. Go through your phone and email contacts. Scroll through your online friends and followers.
Call them. Text bomb them. Write them a sensual poem.
Best friends. Family. Colleagues. Your Aunt Pam’s neighbor…
It really doesn’t matter who it is. It also doesn’t matter how well it goes. You just have to get the ball rolling.
A great way to get your friends on board is to propose it as a favor to you.
Which sounds better?
- “Can I coach you?”
- “I’m starting a coaching business and I’m super pumped! Would you help me practice by letting me coach you? It would be really helpful and valuable to me.”
People who care about you want to help you. Let them.
Your first session.
My first session was with one of my closest friends. It went terribly.
It was awkward. She responded to me like I was interrogating her. She was defensive. Then I was defensive about her defensiveness. It was a mess. The entire time I was thinking, This is harder than I thought!
But who’s great at anything their first time doing it?
Although my first session didn’t go as planned, I did it. I sat down with a client and completed a coaching session. Its lack of success was drowned out by the fact that I had taken the very first step to becoming a person who coaches people.
My thoughts as I recorded that session in my notebook:
Who’s next?
Get your reps in. 🏋️♂️
It was a sluggish and nerve-wracking start, but I kept asking people to help me practice. Before I knew it, I felt confident and comfortable before every session.
As more friends agreed to be part of my army and sign up for sessions, I was hooked.
I gave up on having any sort of online presence.
It only took a few weeks of coaching my friends to learn my second valuable lesson:
Starting out, your main focus is to coach as often as you can.
Coaching is a skill (*a particular set of skills*). It’s like having a well-equipped toolkit.
Your goal is to make sure you have plenty of tools in your tool belt and to know how to use each tool well.
Active listening. Exercises. Powerful questions.
There are so many basic conversational and communication muscles that must be worked to have an impactful coaching session. You must get a ton of reps in so you can work these muscles out.
You’ll slip up. Mistakes will be made.
That’s good. That’s how you learn what not to do next time. It’s how you pinpoint what you need to do differently to be a more effective communicator.
I’ve said things I shouldn’t have said, done exercises that didn’t resonate with the client, tried to solve the client’s problem for them, and much, much more.
This person is trusting you with their goals and desires. They’re opening up to you. You don’t want to blow it.
But you will sometimes.
Ironically, the more mistakes you make in the beginning, the faster you’ll improve as a coach. You become more valuable. Which brings me to lesson #3…
Don’t chase money. Chase bringing value to others. 🤝
I had a core group of four friends who basically helped me get my coaching business off the ground. They were my early adopters. My ‘Day Ones.’
Not only did I get tons of practice, but by having clients consistently coming back each week, I also had evidence that I was providing them value. It was working. 😁👍
Here’s the hill I’m willing to die on:
Goals are great.
But if you dedicate yourself to giving as much value as you can to people, your goals will inevitably accomplish themselves.
With my core four, I made a rule.
“I will never ask any of these core four for money. But if any of them offer to pay me, I will accept.”
This did two things:
- It took pressure off my shoulders.
- It allowed me to focus 100% of my attention on being the most helpful coach I could possibly be.
Again, this beginning stage is about proving yourself. Prove to others you’re worthy of their time and attention first, then worry about their money. Prove to yourself that you can do what you’re setting out to do.
Soon enough, you’ll start to feel your business (and yourself) growing.
Growing your coaching business. 📈
Okay, so I had a few buddies letting me coach them. I was improving as a coach. So I asked myself, Can I start marketing now?
Derek Sivers answers this question in his book Your Music and People:
It comes down to one observation: Are your fans telling their friends?
If not, then don’t waste time promoting it yet. Keep working, improving, and creating, until your fans are telling their friends about you.
In our case, we’ll replace ‘fans’ with clients.
In the context of coaching, this isn’t strict advice.
Of course you should be telling people about your coaching business! I made a bunch of Facebook posts about mine. It even landed me an ongoing client. Facebook Messenger was my best friend in reaching out to acquaintances.
Spread the word. Bring it up in conversation.
The point here is not to keep quiet until you’re the perfect coach. You just shouldn’t expect marketing to do much for you when you’re new to the game. You land clients by proving to them or to their friends that you’re worth it. Which brings me to…
Referrals. 🗣️
One of the key moments for me was when my clients started recommending me to their friends without me knowing it. Derek would be proud.
Word of mouth is the strongest form of marketing there is.
Eventually, I made a coaching page to have an online presence. It does a good job explaining exactly what I do while also showcasing my sense of humor and easygoing nature.
But it has landed me zero clients. None.
People have even reached out to me to tell me how much they enjoyed reading my page…without signing up.
Lesson #4. It doesn’t matter:
- how pretty your design is
- how awesome your copy is
- how many emojis you use
If people have no real evidence of your value, they won’t schedule a session with you. The best evidence you can provide is through free sessions or referrals.
Making some damn money. 💳
Some of you are probably pissed it took me this long to get here. Let that hammer home all that you have to focus on before you start earning income.
Remember my rule for my core four? I would never ask any of them to pay me, but if they ever offered, I would accept.
Well, in the span of one month, two of the four said the exact same thing:
“I get a ton of value out of these calls, man. If you ever want me to start paying, just let me know.”
Done and done.
The first time I got paid for a coaching session was one of the most surreal moments of my life. Seeing that $40 payment land in my bank account gave me chills. I was getting paid to do something that I was glad to do for free.
So I charged someone for my coaching. What’s next?
Pricing. 💰
If you have ever worked for yourself, you know how violently uncomfortable naming your prices can be.
You have to determine your own value in dollars. This is where imposter syndrome takes control.
- I’m no expert
- I’ll charge really low until I get good
- I don’t deserve this much money
- They’ll find out I don’t know what I’m doing
These thoughts played on a loop in my head as I debated how much I should charge people, and whether I should even charge them at all.
The first step to conquering imposter syndrome is to understand that if you’re a human being, it’ll never really go away. It’ll just change its shape.
Here’s the cycle:
- You nervously raise your price
- Nine times out of 10, the client gladly accepts
- You now have a new standard until you nervously raise your price again
- Repeat
When my two early adopters offered to pay me, I was terrified. Asking anything over $20 felt like I would be stealing money from them. But I turned on my confident voice, and said:
“Once I establish the business, I’ll be charging $80 per session. Since you’ve helped me get this thing started, how does $30-$50 sound?”
It felt high. But notice how I anchored my proposal with a much higher number. When negotiating, this tends to soften the blow of the lower numbers you then provide.
I wasn’t lying. I would charge $80 eventually. Throwing out the number 80 makes something between 30 and 50 seem like a bargain.
Again, they both had the exact same response:
“Let’s go with a happy middle. $40.”
And that’s how I started to get paid for coaching.
Again, it’s scary. It’ll always be scary if you have a conscience. But remember that you are providing value to people. If you have clients returning to you to get more of what you’ve got, you deserve to be compensated.
Keep stretching your comfort zone and your business will follow suit.
I remember going from $40 to $50. Same level of fear. My clients were totally fine with it.
Then, I leapt out of my comfort zone and started charging $80. Same level of fear, but this time…Yup, my clients were totally fine with it.
You don’t make $100 a session until you make $100 a session.
If you help others get to where they want to go in life, that’s a powerful thing. People are willing to invest their time and money for that.
Cost is just a representation of value. Keep stretching.
Improving your coaching skills.
As I said before, the absolute best way to get better at your craft is to coach as often as you can. No amount of books, podcasts, or YouTube videos will help you if you’re not practicing what you’ve learned on your clients.
You can even practice coaching when you’re simply having a conversation with a friend. Ask them questions that make them think. Listen deeply to what they’re saying.
It’s not uncommon for my friends to stop me in the middle of a discussion to ask, “Are you coaching me right now?”
Hehe. Yes. Yes, I am.
Having said all that, here are the resources which have helped me the most:
A perfect starting point for getting you into the mindset of starting your coaching journey. The author also hosts a YouTube channel, which can be helpful too.
The bible of coaching. Teaches you how to listen.
Tons of free and cheap resources to teach you science-backed coaching tools.
- Groups and meet-ups
This one takes the most effort on your part, but it’s absolutely worth it. Find Facebook groups and connect with other aspiring coaches online. It’s so much easier when you realize you’re not in this alone.
I joined the Insight Coaching Academy for free and it was awesome. Three weeks. Three sessions. I met tons of coaches who are now in my network. Put yourself out there and meet people who are doing exactly what you’re doing!
Just four resources? Yes. Here’s why.
You should always be learning and sharpening your coaching abilities. But you don’t want to overwhelm yourself with research. There are simply too many books to read, talks to listen to, and groups to join.
Pace yourself. Consume only as much content as you can feasibly handle at any given time. Don’t worry about filling your bookshelf with the ‘Top 20 Books Every Coach Should Read.’ Just focus on the one you’re reading now and think about how you’ll apply those lessons to your practice.
It’s easy to want to feel prepared. But the best way to prepare is to start before you’re ready.
Pick a book. Listen to a podcast. Watch a video.
Then get out there and learn on the job.
One final note on improving: Having regular check-ins with your clients is massively effective for your growth as a coach.
Every four or five sessions, my clients and I have a 15 minute post-session chat about what’s working for them and what isn’t.
Feedback. Feedback. Feedback.
Not only does this address subtle bugs in your game, but it’s also the best way to experience how wildly different people are from one another. Each client has their own unique:
- Strengths/weaknesses
- Goals
- Fears
- Limiting beliefs
- Ways of learning and processing information
Sure, you’ll notice similarities and patterns from a bird’s eye view. But calibrating your coaching to each individual’s wants and needs is where the gold is.
Remember: You’re coaching the person, not the problem.
Listen to your clients to find out how you can do just that.
Getting more clients.
Once you have multiple clients meeting with you regularly, you will naturally want to grow your client base.
Here’s how I grew mine.
Aside from a few referrals from clients I already had, the most effective method for attracting new clients was by simply reaching out to them personally.
No coaching agreement happens outside of a conversation. You have to talk to people.
I learned this from my three weeks in the Insight Coaching Academy.
Here’s the process (originally from The Prosperous Coach):
- Connect
- Invite
- Create
- Propose
Let’s go through them.
1. Connect 💬
Reach out to someone — an old friend or an acquaintance — and offer them a free coaching session.
Show them what value you can provide and let them see if you are a good fit. Go out of your way to help them.
You might ask, How can I chat with them without them feeling like I want something from them?
Simple. Don’t expect anything from them.
Here’s the template for how I do it. This has given me half my clients:
Hey {friend}! It’s been a while.
I hope you’re doing well. (Start with a personal and unique note — don’t make it feel like you just spammed a bunch of people with the same message copy and pasted. People hate that and it feels robotic.)
You may know this already, but lately I’ve been sitting down with people to help them get to where they want to go. I was wondering if we could sit down and you could tell me what you’re working on — personally or professionally.
I may or may not be able to help, but I’d love to try.
At the very least, I’d love to just catch up with you! (This eliminates the feeling of being sold to. Because you’re NOT here to sell them anything. You’re here to see if you can be of service.)
Let me know and we’ll set something up.
Cheers.
Notice how I didn’t use the word coaching once. People are more likely to put up walls if you come right at them with a product or service. You just want to talk to them.
This isn’t about lying or misleading. You genuinely want to help people and you’re just seeing if they’re open to chatting.
In one week, I sent something like this to 11 people.
- 7 of them responded
- 2 said no to the coaching but yes to a catch-up
- 5 agreed to a coaching call
- 4 became new clients
How did they become my clients?
2. Invite 📆
Offering someone a free session doesn’t just show them what you’ve got. It also shows you if you could see yourself working with this person in the future.
Coaching is a relationship between two people. It has to work both ways.
Which means if the first session went fantastically and you’re stoked to work with this person again, you invite them to do another session.
I absolutely loved this. Let’s meet again next week to see how those Action Steps worked out for you. Does the same day and time work for you?
Again, totally free.
You’re both still trying to figure out if it’s a good fit. After a great session, you need to see if they vibe with you. You can judge this by the actions they take and how they feel the following week.
Schedule the second session right after the first and make it a week out. The more time people spend away from the first session, the more likely they are to forget its value.
When you meet again in a week, it’s time to decide.
3. Create 💑
If they tried out their Action Steps and are pleased with their results — in other words: if they experienced a positive change — then you’ve proven your value. Halfway there.
The other half is how good you feel in helping them. If you’re just as pumped as they are, it’s a fit.
You have now created a coaching relationship.
You helped guide them through something, big or small, and they took action to produce a result.
Now the final step.
4. Propose❓
You reached out. You offered a free session. It went well. You helped them come up with a plan. You scheduled a second free session. You see how the plan went. You see if you two are a good fit. You are.
Now you float them the question:
Would you like to talk about what it would look like if we continued working together?
Don’t just throw your prices at them. Give them the opportunity to opt in or out.
If they decline, that’s totally okay. Remember: You weren’t expecting anything from them in the first place. Don’t see it as a waste of time. See it as extra practice for your coaching and proposal skills.
If they accept, you go through your pricing and rates. Articulate them clearly and confidently. Sound professional, like you’ve done this a million times.
You can offer a per-session rate or try coaching packages. As you improve and grow your business, you’ll want to step away from the former (e.g. $80/session) and toward the latter (e.g. $1000 for three months).
If you’ve made it this far: Congratulations! You now have a new client.
To be fair, it does sound like a sales funnel. But the key difference here is that even if people don’t make it all the way to the bottom of the funnel, it’s a win-win for everyone.
For the people who declined my coaching but still wanted to chat, we had lovely conversations.
Every business has a sales process. Yours can be a totally ethical one, where the goal is to be as helpful as humanly possible. It’s sustainable…and it’s fun.
Conclusion.
If you’re interested in getting into coaching, chances are you’re interested in helping people.
Helping people and growing a business aren’t mutually exclusive. In coaching, they’re the same exact thing. Growing your business allows you to expand your reach and help more people.
Now go out and do it. 😎
