Do you ever have FOMO about aspects of your coaching business?
For example:
- Maybe you want to keep your audience and niche broad because you don’t want to exclude anyone.
- Or it could be that you bend over backwards to make something easy or more appealing for a potential client even though that doesn’t jive with your preferences.
- Or maybe it’s just not being able to say ‘no’ to opportunities. When someone wants you it doesn’t matter if it fits your niche or will help you attract ideal clients, you are there!
I learned that these things can land you with a chaotic business that doesn’t earn well.
Smart entrepreneurs know how to focus and make choices between this and that. They are decisive, and they are discerning about opportunities. They set boundaries on their time and so many other things.
The result is more financial success and more freedom in their life. So that’s what this short episode is about.
The Pipe Dream About Coaching Is Not As Good As It Gets
When I worked in corporate it was hard to get away working less than 50 hours a week, especially in a leadership role. There are high expectations, massive responsibilities and you’re trying to get noticed for raises and promotions.
When I decided to step away from that world and into coaching, I envisioned serving clients, one after the other each day for 8 hours a day — kind of like some therapists do.
40 hours a week sounded like heaven. I thought I’d coach 30-40 clients each week and not have to think about anything else.
Did you envision something like that too?
That vision blew away quickly and I had to accept that a large percentage of my time would be marketing – all the things one does to find, attract and enroll clients.
So, I did what many coaches do. I started looking for other models of serving clients. I broadened my scope, my vision and made my life … so complicated!
I won’t bore you again with the tribulations of trying to sell group, online and membership coaching models, except to say again that it was not for me.
I looked hard at that marketing and enrolling aspect of my coaching business and realized I wanted to enroll less clients because that was the time-consuming thing.
How could I earn more and enroll less clients? I moved back to 1:1 work with clients and made the offer more valuable so I could charge more.
I want to work less and do deeper work.
I’m at a time of my life where it’s not all about the hustle and variety of trying everything! I LOVE discretionary time!
What about you? If you have young kids at home, love to travel, or if you want to take 4 days weekends most weeks then you might like the idea of working less too.
I rarely work more than 25 hours a week AND still earn well. How do I accomplish that? There’s this trick I know …
The #1 Trick to More Freedom in Coaching
Some business mentors will tell you that you want to earn more have a funnel of offers at different price points so you don’t ever leave money on the table. If you have a large leads list and are really good at email and social media marketing that could work for you.
Building that will take a lot of up-front time and energy.
Another method to earn well as a coach is by limiting. Yep, this is my method.
Think about it … if you keep your business focused, you’ll have less to do which means you can work less. If it’s streamlined you can turn on a dime with your time. If you are niched to stand out, you don’t have to spend time convincing everyone to follow you. Here’s how you do it …
Limit These 5 Things in Your Coaching Business to Earn More
1. Limit who you serve – target a unique, narrow audience. This is not just a nice idea. It’s about standing out. Making a certain group feel special and being all about them in your business takes little time for big payoffs.
2. Limit the parameters of your work —focus your niche and do only what you love to do for that unique audience to help them solve specific big problems and achieve specific goals.
3. Limit your offers — such as just one high-ticket Signature Program and a single paid session. Ahh, simplicity!
4. Limit how many clients you serve annually — do high value long-term work with less people each year.
5. Limit the number of opportunities you say ‘yes’ to — learn to mostly say ‘no’ unless it fits your success criteria. Episode 238 is all about developing and sticking to your success criteria. Check that out at prosperouscoach.com/238.
Then, maximize your systems so that most of the day-to-day admin of your business is strategic and templated. I have my whole business tricked out.
My clients are always saying to me, “how to do respond to my emails so quickly?” It’s because I’ve made VIP time for them by not getting bogged down in everything else.
You can earn well as a coach on fewer weekly hours too. Streamline your business by setting limits, boundaries and parameters.