Ten years into my coaching business it dawned on me that selling coaching sessions was keeping me from earning well.
At the time, I was continually frustrated with:
- How I was chasing every client and every dollar.
- How I was working too hard for my income.
- That my clients were not ideal clients for me.
- How most clients would not stay with coaching long enough.
- How difficult it was to plan my time because I never knew how many clients I’d be serving.
Can you relate to those frustrations?
I worked on a solution that solved them all using strategic thinking. Honestly, I hadn’t done that much before then. Like many solopreneurs I was just scrambling day to day to scrape together a good income.
I want to share the solution I came up with that forever erased those 5 business problems. This will be eye opening!
What Do You Want to Earn Annually From Coaching?
I meet a lot of coaches every month — either because they’ve bought a Nail Your Niche Strategy Session with me or we meet in a Discovery Call where they are considering enrolling in my 5-month VIP Coaching Business Breakthrough program.
I always ask coaches what they want to earn annually.
It’s amazing how many haven’t thought about that. I get it. You’ve finished training, you are about to launch or have launched and it seems like the name of the game now is JUST FIND CLIENTS!
But I’ve learned that it’s important for a business owner to have financial goals.
You might be thinking why does this matter now? Because if you know your financial goals, you can strategize what you offer, for what price and how many clients you’ll need to serve annually to earn those goals. It helps you plan and take smart actions, organize your time and set your schedule.
Ultimately, it helps you have a better business and a better life!
There are schools of thought about money goals – be realistic and aim high. I suggest both. Have a relatively realistic goal and have a stretch goal too. Track your monthly earnings along both. And then vow to never get discouraged by your results. Your earnings will improve if you put some focus on it.
Success is not only about how much you earn. It’s also about lifestyle, the type of clients you serve and most importantly, your level of satisfaction with how you are earning your living.
I started my business because I no longer want to work for someone else achieving their goals, doing things their way and being subject to what they are willing to pay me.
What is your BIG WHY for being a coaching business owner? You are more than a coach. It is valuable to realize now that you are a business owner and take on that ownership with pride.
So, what is your annual income goal and what is a stretch goal that will motivate you to go beyond what you can imagine right now?
Do the Math
Most new-ish coaches, set their prices at anywhere from $25 to $150 per hour, speaking in terms of US dollars here. You might have different packages … 3 sessions for $450, 6 sessions for $900, 12 sessions for $1800. Sounds good, right? It’s not bad as a start but it’s a hard way to earn.
Let’s take this further. If your goal is to earn $150,000 annually and absolutely all of your clients buy the 12-session deal, you will need 83 clients every year! Eighty three clients is big burden on you. It will take a lot of marketing and enrolling to bring in that many clients annually. I will talk in a minute about group programs.
Selling coaching session packages is literally selling coaching, which is also really hard work. If you haven’t listened to my #1 most popular episode called Why is it Hard to Sell Coaching? … be sure to listen to that one. It’s episode 229.
I help my clients do the math so they can earn well and serve less clients every year. It solves all of those frustrations I mentioned earlier. Imagine … if you only have to enroll 20 clients each year:
- You can have a program that is, by design, longer term. You get to help your clients, and less of them, transform in a much more meaningful way.
- You can easily organize your time because you’ll have fewer client sessions each week.
- You will know exactly what your earning potential is and won’t ever chase a payment because each client pays up front for your long-term, high-ticket program.
- You can work less and market less.
- You can attract high-quality clients because they invest in themselves at a higher price and they won’t have to consider whether you are worth it to continue on.
Think Differently About Your Coaching Fees
Look, I know what goes through your mind when you are pricing. Probably the same worries I had as a new coach.
You might think $150 per hour sounds exorbitant! Would anyone or should anyone pay more than that for coaching?
The issue here is perspective. If you’ve just come from being an employee you might not realize all that goes into your hourly rate or salary — health insurance, paid vacation, sick days, social security — things that are deducted from your pay. If you’re not considering those costs you might think just $50 per hour seems decent, right?
Your investment of time and energy as a coaching business owner goes way beyond session time. You invest money regularly into your own business infrastructure:
Web design costs
Apps like an email campaign company and so many other things
You’re paying your own social security, health insurance and taxes
Add to that the hours and expenses of marketing
All of that needs to be considered when you price your services as well as how many hours you can actually give to your business realistically. Plus your target audience and the scope of the work you do with them in your coaching niche should be taken into consideration.
I recently challenged one of my VIP clients to price her signature program at $12000 and she agreed. That’s $4000 more than I charge. Why? Because we considered who her target audience is and what price would convey the value they would expect.
It’s time to think out of the box about your business. You can, you know. There is NOT a market price for coaching. And you get to do your business the way you want to.
Group Coaching is Usually More Work for Lower Profit
A quick word about group programs …
After several years of trying group programs, I found that business model takes significantly more labor hours, technology, expenses and energy to serve 12 – 30+ people.
IF you charge enough for your 1:1 program the profits are much higher than they are for group programs while labor is lower.
Enrolling people into group programs is more difficult that enrolling 1:1 clients. You need a large leads list and to be a savvy email marketer. And it’s embarrassing if you do not fill you group and have to give back money to the few who did enroll.
That said, if you know group work will be better for you, find the way to do it profitably. Go into it with your eyes wide open and don’t buy into the hype about it. Assess all the costs and what your profit will be if you sell your group program and enroll enough people.