5 Keys to Starting a 6-Figure Coaching Business

The coaching industry has been growing at a rapid rate for the past decade.

Coaching gives you a path to creating a profitable and positive business with minimal capital and corporate structure.

You can literally launch a coaching business this week and grow it to figures in the next 90 days.

But there’s one small catch.  Although the industry itself is growing at a phenomenal rate, only a small percentage of professional coaches are actually making a 6-figure income.

The average coach (with 5-10 YEARS of experience) makes less than $50,000 a year.

1. Provide Solutions to Problems Not Services 

Most coaches simply do not have a business.

They have a hobby and one that occasionally earns them a little bit of money.  To achieve lasting success as a business coach, you need a business that provides valuable solutions with clear outcomes for your clients.

You must have a personal brand, vision, and a message that other people can get behind and that speaks to their biggest wants, needs, and desires.

2. Stop fishing in the ocean and create your own pond

Most coaches spend time “fishing” for clients via blogs, podcasts, Facebook ads, and other outlets.

This is like fishing in the ocean alongside thousands of other business coaches most of whom are in much bigger fishing boats with bigger nets.

If all you have is a dinky fishing line, you’re not going to reel in a damn thing.  This is why you need to create your own private pond. You want to create a resource that you own and control where you have the power to decide who can and cannot cast a net.

There are two ways of doing this

Facebook groups and Instagram. Using these, you can create authority, brand awareness, and a more intimate connection with prospective clients.

3. Charge What You’re Worth

This is where deals fall apart quickly.  Most new coaches think they need to begin their business by charging a moderate fee before scaling up.

Less experience = lower fees…Right?

What they soon discover is that they are overworked and underpaid. Because they’re getting so little per client, they spend way too much time trying to market themselves and find more clients, rather than actually coaching.

What’s more, clients once engaged in the idea of coaching soon disappear because the dirt-cheap rates don’t inspire long-term commitment.

Instead, be clear about your methods and solutions as well as your client outcomes so that you can confidently command a fee that you’re worth.

Don’t sell yourself or yourself short.

4. Overcome Yourself

We live in the Information Age. The strategies, tactics, and tools you need to successfully launch a six-figure business are all at your fingertips.

The limiting factor is you.

Becoming a successful coach requires becoming a bigger person. It requires growth, commitment, and an insatiable curiosity.

You will faces challenges, fears, and limiting beliefs you will even doubt yourself and what you’re capable of doing. But only when you can overcome these doubts will you be able to help clients.

One of the biggest roles of a coach is teaching clients to get out of their own way. The faster they can do that, the faster they can increase their income and help people grow.

But to do that successfully, you first need to get out of your own way.

5. Eat Your Own Food

Imagine you, as someone who never sets foot in a kitchen, trying to bake a cake from scratch. You don’t have a recipe and you don’t have any guidance.

How do you think that would go?

Seems like a ridiculous idea, but that’s exactly how so many coaches try to start a business.

They dive right in with no experience or knowledge and expect to be successful.

They spend hours touting the importance of coaching and mentorship on their own channels…but they are unwilling to invest in and work with a coach themselves!

They spend years scrambling to put all of the right ingredients together, all the while forgetting the most important ones because they didn’t really know how to build a business to begin with.

That’s why you need a mentor. Not just any mentor you need someone who can give you the exact “recipe” you’re looking for.

Your Uncle Peter, a chef at a local restaurant, isn’t likely to give you any helpful advice on launching a coaching business, so don’t ask him.

Seek out mentors who have been there and who have succeeded in the same ways you want to succeed.