Your Coaching Success Blueprint: 6 Essential Lessons I wish I’d Known When I Started My Coaching Business

Starting a coaching business can be a thrilling journey, but it's not without its challenges. From lack of confidence and clarity, to tech woes, and isolation, it’s fairly easy to feel totally stuck and overwhelmed. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

As a wellness coach who embarked on this path in 2017, I can tell you that there are a few crucial lessons I wish I had learned earlier. 

In this blog post, I'll share the top 6 things I wish I'd known when I first started my coaching business. From the importance of finding your niche to the value of investing in business coaching, these insights have transformed my business and will do the same for yours. 

So, whether you're a budding coach or a seasoned pro, read on to discover how these game-changing strategies can take your coaching business to new heights.

1: Niche Down

I learned the hard way how imperative it is to to niche down in your business, as I started my wellness coaching business in January 2017 with 5 different niches!

My niches included emotional eating, anxiety and depression, insomnia, autoimmune disorders, and self-care for helping professionals…so basically I could serve anyone and everyone.

I was multi-passionate and I had experienced all of these things either personally or professionally being a mental health therapist for 20 years.

I was afraid to niche down for fear of excluding those I could help.

But guess what actually happened?

I served no one…or I guess I should say barely anyone. I maybe got 5 clients that first year or 2 in business.

I was very discouraged, frustrated, and confused why no one was signing up for my programs.

I finally did #2 on this list and it changed EVERYTHING!

2: Invest in Business Coaching

Investing in business coaching and support is another absolutely critical piece to long-term business success. 

You simply don’t know what you don’t know. And as a Master Certified Wellness Coach, I didn’t know a lot about running a successful online coaching business when I first started.

It wasn’t until I felt so disheartened by my lack of success in my business and working 50+ hours a week for less than $2k/month that I realized I HAD to get help.

Investing in my first business coach was scary and I definitely didn’t feel I could afford it. But I also knew I had to give my business everything I possibly could to make it work.

My first business coach taught me so much and I loved learning about the business and marketing side of things; so much so that I began learning everything I could.

From that, my whole business changed as I fell in love with business and marketing and completely pivoted to mindset & business coaching. I wanted to help female health & wellness coaches to avoid the mistakes I’d been making and to create a solid foundation for their wellness coaching businesses. 

To date, I’ve invested around $50k to learn everything I can about business and marketing, which has not only helped me create a thriving business, but also for my clients to get amazing results in their businesses.

Now I will always be in some kind of coaching program, course, or mastermind; it’s just part of my business success plan to further my knowledge, keep up to date on the latest business trends, and gain invaluable support and accountability from like minded entrepreneurs.

Investing in business coaching has been THE best decision I’ve made in my business to scale my growth. I say that not just because I am a Business Coach, but truly we all need a business pro supporting us along our journey.

3: Start Small (Mini-Offer)

Most wellness coaching certification programs out there teach you to create a signature system/offer for your ideal client. Not bad advice in and of itself. 

However, what almost always happens is wellness coaches spending months and months, sometimes years perfecting a huge signature program that they don’t even know if their ideal client wants or will invest in.

And of course during that isolating time spent behind the computer creating, they’re not helping anyone or bringing any money into their business. They begin to question themselves and their ability to be a successful wellness coachpreneur.

Can you relate?

That’s exactly how I ran my business for years!

Until I understood the magic of Mini-Offers and Beta Launching. With a Mini-Offer, you’re creating a small & specific win for your ideal client and then you beta launch it (meaning you create it as you go).

By doing so, you can get your offer out there so much more quickly and you haven’t wasted all this time creating something you don’t even know if someone wants.

I believe so whole-heartedly in the power of Mini-Offers, that I created and beta launched my own Mini-Offer called Make Money Now: Bring $1k+ in to Your Wellness Coaching Business.

In Make Money Now (MMN), we identify your 1 clear niche, your juicy mini-offer, and how to strategically beta launch it so you can get proof of concept, help your ideal client get a specific win, and make money as quickly as possible.

In fact, the first time I launched MMN, I brought in over $4k and I continue to relaunch it and bring in additional money throughout the year.

If you want to create your Mini-Offer as quickly and easily as possible, check out Make Money Now.

4: List Building

Building your email list is the second most important thing in running a successful business…only 2nd to revenue generation, but your email list is the biggest opportunity to build revenue. So you can understand the incredible importance of building your email list.

I began building my email list pretty early on in my business, mostly through delivering in person workshops. But I found this strategy was pretty slow going.

My list remained pretty stagnant for several years, despite the fact that I was emailing my list every week and posting on social media weekly.

It actually wasn’t until I discovered THE best way to build my email list: Getting in front of other people’s audiences. Whether that be through guesting on someone’s podcast or blog, or running joint workshops and webinars, or swapping freebies with someone else’s audience, that my list finally began to consistently grow.

But my favorite strategy to get in front of other entrepreneurs’ audiences? Being a contributor to resource bundles!

Here’s how that works: you partner with an entrepreneur or company that is hosting a resource bundle (a group of digital products for free or low cost). Each contributor provides a digital resource, like a guide, ebook, mini-course, or template, etc. to the resource bundle. Each contributor then promotes the bundle via social media and to their email list. Anyone who wants the resource bundle can get access by signing up with their email address. 

So you’re now getting exposed to all the contributors’ audiences. I’ve been involved in multiple resource bundles over the years and have seen my list more than double in just 1 week's time while the resource bundle is being promoted.

Interested in becoming a contributor for a resource bundle? Simply email me at laura@alberswellness.com and I’ll share how to get started.

5: Create Your Client Journey/Ecosystem

For years in my coaching business, I created “random” one off programs, digital products, guides etc. that would help my wellness coaching clients in their business building. 

However I didn’t really have a roadmap or journey to take my clients on.

It wasn’t until I understood and created that journey that my business scaled to another level.

Here’s what I mean:
Now when I work with wellness coaching clients, they most often come to me first through my Mini-Offer: Make Money Now, to gain clarity on their niche, and start making some money in their coaching business.

From there, they enroll in my Business Building Breakthrough (BBB) Hybrid Group Program to focus on all the other aspects of business building. In BBB, I take my clients through my B.O.S.S. Method of Building Organized and Successful Systems where they Set up their business like a B.O.S.S., Create offers like a B.O.S.S., Attract Clients like a B.O.S.S., and Market like a B.O.S.S.

Once they have their strong business foundation laid and they’re starting to bring in clients, it’s about taking it to the next level with Copywriting Support.

As a Clickworthy Certified Copywriter, I help my clients create their marketing materials and copy that helps them land consistent paying clients. We create their website copy, sales pages for their offers, email welcome sequences to nurture their audience, and promo emails to sell their offers.

So while I still have 1 niche: wellness coaches, I help them through the journey of their business from just starting out (Offer: Make Money Now) through scaling their coaching business (Offer: Business Building Breakthrough) to creating compelling marketing materials (Offer: Done for-and done with you-copywriting).

I am not only clear how I help serve my clients, but from a business perspective, it makes so much sense to work with your clients in multiple ways rather than constantly trying to find new clients.

I encourage you to do the same if you’re not already. Think about who you help and what’s the journey you take them on to reach their full transformation? What are the different challenges and results your 1 niche has? How can you serve them in a more profound and comprehensive way?

Want to gain clarity on how to create your client’s journey? Let’s chat about your unique business and how to make this work for you.

This brings me to the final game-changing thing I wished I’d done so much sooner in my business…

6: Invest in an OBM

An OBM is an Online Business Manager who’s there to manage all aspects of your business — operations, projects, people, and metrics. They handle everything from the logistics of planning an event to product launches to overseeing the day to date operations of running your business. 

They’re there to act as strategic support to you, the leader of the business, and to help you meet your business goals.

With my amazing OBM, Monica, she helps me strategize about my business and then implements those strategies. It’s like having a virtual assistant and a business coach in 1!

Having Monica as my OBM has felt like having a business partner and cheerleader, someone to bounce ideas off of, to get excited about my ideas and at times question my sanity :).

But what I love most is leaving the loneliness and isolation that often accompany being a work from home entrepreneur. Having someone who cares about myself and my business success is vital in keeping my passion, motivation, and perseverance strong in my business.

Wanna learn more about Monica and if she might be a fit for you in your business?

Simply email me at laura@alberswellness.com.

So there you have it, the 6 lessons that have helped me navigate the ever-evolving landscape of the coaching world. While my journey as a coachpreneur has been filled with ups and downs, but these 6 lessons have been the guiding stars to success.

Remember, it's okay to niche down and focus on a specific area of expertise – in fact, it's more than okay; it's essential. Investing in business coaching can be a game-changer, even if it feels intimidating at first. And don't spend forever perfecting a massive signature program; mini-offers and beta launches can get you started faster.

Building your email list is like planting the seeds of your coaching empire, and don't underestimate the power of collaborating with others to grow your audience. Finally, crafting a clear client journey can take your business from a series of disconnected services to a comprehensive transformational experience.

And speaking of journeys, I'm here to support you on yours. If you're ready to take your coaching business to the next level, whether that means finding your niche, mastering mini-offers, building your email list, or creating a client journey, I'm just a click away at https://www.alberswellness.com/. 

Let's chat and explore how you can make these strategies work for you. Remember, your coaching business is not just about what you offer; it's about the impact you make, and I'm here to help you make that impact even greater.

Cheers to your success! 🚀