Thinking of starting a coaching business?

Congrats! Starting a coaching business can be the start of a rewarding and fulfilling journey. Coaching as a profession can allow you to positively impact the lives, health, relationships, and careers of others while allowing you the freedom to have your own business and all that entails.

But starting a coaching business from scratch is no easy feat! While Instagram coaches may seem like it’s simple, it’s actually more challenging than just calling yourself a coach and creating a business Instagram account.

Starting a coaching business from scratch requires a lot of strategy, planning, and intentional actions, so that you can start your business on the right foot — and not waste time, money, or resources in the process.

What to know when you’re starting your coaching business

Most people who start a coaching business are not necessarily entrepreneurs, business experts, or marketers. There’s no shame in that! But you do need to be aware of what you don’t know so that you can be prepared for your journey as a business owner.

When you decide to start a coaching business, you also become a business owner. Becoming a business owner means there are certain things you’ll need to know, understand, and do in your business.

For example, you’ll need to know how to set up a business and decide on your business structure. You’ll need to identify who exactly you want to serve (i.e., your coaching niche.)

You’ll need to learn how to create coaching packages and what to charge for them, as well as how to market your coaching services, and how to sell coaching (which is usually done with discovery calls.)

There’s a lot to learn! But you can learn it.

Honestly, the fastest way to start your new coaching business is to hire a business coach who is experienced in helping new coaches. This can help you get your business off the ground faster, get your first clients sooner, and have a plan for moving forward to grow your business.

Hiring a business coach to help you start your coaching business

The right business coach can help you start your coaching business on the right foot and know what steps to take, in which order, and how to take them, so that you have all the support, strategy, and tools you need.

As a holistic business coach (and a certified coach myself), I can help. I’ve been coaching since 2015 and I’ve developed a proven process to guide my clients through the process of starting a coaching business — totally from scratch!

After spending hundreds of hours coaching clients on starting their businesses, I’ve developed my own unique signature process that takes into account the strategy, tactical, and mindset aspects you’ll need to manage to become a business owner.

Here’s a checklist of some of the basic steps you’ll need to follow when starting a coaching business. Keep in mind, this list doesn’t include the common mindset challenges that often arise when starting a business!

10 steps to start your coaching business from scratch

Step 1: Define your coaching niche. 

Any good coach training program will give you the basic skills to coach practically anyone. However, “anyone” is not a good target market, and so you’ll want to define your coaching niche when you start your business.

Do you want to coach people on their careers, their relationships, their health, their business? Are you a career coach, a life coach, a business coach, a wellness coach?

You’ll want to choose a niche where you have both expertise on the subject matter and passion for what you do.

Step 2: Research your ideal coaching client.

After you’ve defined your coaching niche, you’ll want to take it a step further to define your ideal client.

If your niche is career coaching, you’ll want to identify who you are coaching. Are you a career coach for new moms who are returning to the workforce or for tech professionals who are burned out? Are you a relationship coach for newly divorced women or for newly married couples?

You want to go beyond choosing your area of focus and define who you want to serve. Although this can be tricky when you’re just starting out, taking time to do market research for your coaching business will help you learn and understand who you can best serve. 

Step 3: Set up your coaching business structure

When you are starting a coaching business, you are also starting a business, which is a legal and financial entity. You’ll want to set up your business infrastructure, including registering your business, deciding if you’ll start as a sole proprietor or LLC, obtaining any necessary licenses or permits, and setting up systems for payments, bookkeeping, and taxes.

Starting off on the right foot legally and financially will make your business run a lot smoother operationally, especially as you scale and grow.

Step 4: Create a business plan for your coaching business

A coaching business plan can serve as a roadmap that outlines your business goals, strategies, and financial projections. It’s important to develop a business plan to help you stay focused and on track as you start and grow your coaching business. Your coaching business plan should include details about your coaching niche, target market, your coaching packages, marketing and sales, pricing, and financial projections. 

Get a Coaching Business Plan Template Here

Step 5: Create your core marketing message

Your core message is that key statement that explains who you are, who you serve, and how it helps. More than an elevator pitch, your core message must resonate with your ideal clients by speaking to their needs and desires, while communicating how you can help. Creating a clear core message will help you establish yourself as a coach and differentiate yourself from other coaches in your niche. Check out this post on how to define your core message.

Step 6: Create your coaching packages

You may have heard this before, but clients don’t buy coaching packages; they buy the transformation they can achieve through a coaching package. But you still want to set up coaching packages (as opposed to offering only single sessions) with the goal of supporting your clients to achieve what they want to achieve.

Even though each client is different, when you know your ideal clients, you can identify and understand their main challenges and desires, and create packages that support them in achieving that. Creating compelling coaching packages can help you serve your clients in a deeper way, while allowing you to better manage your own time, energy, and finances.

Step 7: Create a brand and website

Creating a strong coaching brand and coaching website helps you attract clients and give prospective clients information on who you are and what you do. Think of your website as your online home and your brand as the color, decor, and personality of your home.

Your website allows you to establish an online presence, showcase your expertise, and share content that can attract your ideal audience. Your coaching brand differentiates you from other coaches and helps to build trust, credibility, and an emotional connection with your audience.

Step 8: Create a marketing plan for your coaching business

When you start a coaching business, you want to do what you love: COACH! That means you need coaching clients. To find coaching clients, you need to have a way to attract, nurture, and convert prospective clients into paying clients. This means you’ll need to learn about marketing!

There are many ways to market your coaching business, such as networking, social media, and SEO. You can also offer free coaching sessions or webinars to build trust and establish yourself as an expert. Of course, you don’t want to try and attempt ALL the ways there are to market, but find the most effective ways for you. Then you want to create a strategic marketing plan.

Step 9: Define your sales process for your coaching business

Marketing your coaching business will help you attract clients and build your audience. You’ll also need a sales process to bring the right fit clients into working with you at the right time. Many coaches start by offering a discovery call or free coaching consultation to anyone who is interested in working with them. You can optimize your sales process by using intake forms and pre-call communications to give your prospective clients the information they need to go further, as well as to ensure you’re getting the right fit clients on the consultation calls with you. 

Step 10: Commit to your learning and growth — both as a coach and a business owner

As a coach, you’re likely passionate about your growth and development. (That’s probably what led you to coaching in the first place!) So you’ll want to keep up on your own personal development and training. You can do this by enrolling in training programs, attending industry conferences, and even hiring a coach for yourself. This will not only help you improve as a coach, but also demonstrate your commitment to providing high-quality services to your clients.

You’ll also want to continue to learn and grow as a business owner, so you can scale and grow your coaching business over time. This means investing in your own business knowledge in the areas of finance, operations, marketing, sales and more.

Ready to start building your coaching business?

Starting a coaching business from scratch requires not only good coaching skills, but solid business planning skills as well. By defining your niche, developing a business plan, creating a brand and website, and focusing on a clear marketing and sales process, you can establish a successful coaching business that serves your ideal clients and allows you to do what you love: Coach! 

Ready to get started? Take the first step to building your coaching business from scratch with this free checklist.