What I wished I’d known about setting up a coaching business – surviving and prospering post training by Lesley Hayman (Part 2 of 3)
My coach training was excellent, but it didn’t prepare me for what I needed to do to set up and run my own coaching business successfully. I want to share with you what I learnt. My first blog focussed on coach training. This blog offers you tips on how to survive and prosper after your training course.
Do they resonate?
What did you need and learn?
I’d done very well in my coach training course, I’d registered my company, I’d lovingly crafted my Linked-In page and told all my friends I was a coach.
Then … almost nothing happened
Alas, these steps alone will not get a coach far. I realised there is much more to do to attract clients. Here are some of my ideas and tips for moving forward, resiliently, as there will be many ups and downs in the early years of your business.
1. Working as an associate
If you don’t want to spend a lot of time focussing on marketing, one option is to become an associate at a coaching company. Associates work part-time on an hourly basis.
The plus sides:
The company does the marketing for you so that you can concentrate on the coaching.
if you choose a good company, you will find yourself in a community of very professional, stimulating and supportive coaches and options for high quality even inspirational training and supervision.
The down sides:
The company may take you on but have no work for you. At best, client levels are likely to fluctuate.
Also the company takes a percentage of the client fee, often as much as 50% or more. To counter the downsides to some extent, many coaches are associates in several companies.
Coaching companies vary enormously from the large global ones with 2000+ coaches to local boutique companies which can be quite specialised e.g. providing coaches to head teachers or to the legal profession. From my experience, most will ask for minimum standards from coaches. This is likely to include a coaching qualification, a credential, a certain number of hours of experience, insurance, supervision and continuous professional development (CPD).
2. Most of your marketing won’t lead to immediate results.
Don’t be disheartened: learn from silence and move on. Keep trying different things. New paying clients often come from the most unexpected places. And sometimes, you just need time. One coach told me that after an initial contact it took five years for the person to come back for coaching!
3. Keep doing pro bono work
It takes time to build up your paid coaching hours so I recommend continuing doing pro bono work after your course. This helps you build up your hours for your coaching credential, gives you more experience and benefits those who might not be able to pay for coaching otherwise. Some pro bono coachees will convert to paid coaching, and those satisfied with your coaching often refer you on.
4. It takes time for results to come, learn to take it in your stride
It’s hard when you’re doing a lot of marketing and you think you’re doing everything right – and nothing good happens. Your coachees keep cancelling, the coaching company you emailed with your immaculate coaching bio doesn’t reply, your carefully crafted Linked-in post gets a paltry 100 views. I’ve learnt the importance of managing one’s ups and downs and building resilience, otherwise you may get very disheartened. Many coaches give up in their first year as a result. Get a coach to help you, it makes a big difference
5. Create a network of like-minded coaching peers
Setting up your own coaching business can feel a bit lonely. I’ve found building a network of like-minded coaches, starting with your coaching-course colleagues, can be a great resource. They will support you during lean times and are a great first sounding board for your ideas, articles and social media. Reciprocal coaching will help you refine your skills and can count towards your credential (check coaching association requirements). Don’t be afraid to reach out to established coaches to ask for advice. The coaching community is generous, and many are very willing to share their experiences and knowledge of the sector. Be prepared to reciprocate.
6. Marketing is not just for the early stages of your coaching business, it’s for life.
You’ve been trying for months to get paying clients. Finally they come and you find you can do what you really enjoy doing: coaching. You breathe a sigh of relief, immerse yourself happily in the coaching ‑ and then suddenly a few months later you realise that most of your engagements are coming to an end. This is great news in that your clients have achieved what they wanted from the coaching and are now able to move on, alone. It’s not such good news for you, though; your once-buoyant client base has dwindled. The answer? Keep marketing and building your business developments through the good times. Marketing needs to be a permanent part of your business.
7. Make sure you have more than one source of coaching You may have struck up a great relationship with an HR manager who has provided you with a long stream of quality clients for more than a year and client feedback has been excellent. Then suddenly no more. Things change – managers leave, budgets get cut and companies change their strategies. You need to have several sources of clients to avoid being left high and dry.
8. Earning a full salary from coaching is tough.
A few coaches earn astronomically high rates, many more manage a reasonable salary, but most, especially in their early years, do not. There is a lot of competition out there from other coaches. As your coaching develops consider diversifying from 121 coaching to include mentoring, supervision, and group/team coaching. Or consider complementing your coaching with other types of work. For many this is consultancy, training or simply continuing to work in your day job until your coaching business can support you (unless, of course, generating an income from coaching is not essential for you).
At the end of the day, are all the effort, time, frustrations and expenditure worth it?
For me, yes, without a doubt. Coaching has proved more enriching, engaging and rewarding than I could have ever imagined.
Look out for my next blog on the nitty gritty of setting up and running your own executive coaching business covering the financial, legal, ethical, administrative and professional development aspects of running your business.
I look forward to receiving your comments.
To find out more about my coaching contact me via Lesley Hayman on LinkedIn
Lesley specialises in intercultural coaching for global organisations. Lesley’s international career has taken her to 33 countries, including 9 years in Japan where she worked for the British Council and learnt to speak Japanese. Other highlights include her role as Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa for the British Council and leading the global partnerships team for UCL. Lesley holds an MBA from London Business School and a Professional Certificate in Coaching (PCIC) from Henley Business School. She also specialises in systemic coaching and constellations work.
