5 Crucial Steps for Launching a Coaching Business as an Influencer

So you’ve got yourself a nice social media following and you’re earning some cash on your content through influencer marketing partnerships, YouTube ad revenue, etc. — awesome! If you’re wondering about the next step in your business growth, it might be time to take a close look in the mirror. 

No, seriously. Look in the mirror right now, and you’ll see the biggest asset of all: you, and your expertise. You might have a lot to offer someone else just by sharing your own knowledge and experience. 

A growing number of influencers these days are branching out into a new and profitable arena: online coaching. In 2021, coaching has become a billion-dollar industry, and it’s growing every day, especially as technological advances make it easier than ever to connect with an expert from anywhere in the world. 

Coaching is a fantastic way to share your experiences and expertise with the world while diversifying your revenue streams.

As a coach, you can set your own schedules and hours and choose exactly who your clients will be. And as an influencer, you’re already several steps ahead in the game because you have an active social following that you can tap for potential clients. 

Ready to get started? Here are some of the key steps you’ll need to take to make your new coaching business a profitable reality. 

1. Figure Out Your Niche and Who You Want to Help

The first question, and your first task, is one of the most important of all: What kind of coach do you want to be?

For example, you might start with picking an overall type of coaching, such as: 

• Life coaching — You want to help people navigate life’s challenges and life transition periods by letting them discover who they are and how they want to live their best life. 
• Business coaching — You want to help others start successful businesses, give them tips on advancing their careers, enhance their leadership skills, or share your knowledge of your industry.
• Health and wellness coaching — You want to share your expertise in diet, fitness, or lifestyle changes to help others become healthier, both mentally and physically.

But deciding your broad coaching category is just the beginning. You need to dig down as far as possible and find a niche within that category.  

One way to identify your niche is to think about who your ideal coaching client might be. For example, if you decide you want to be a business coach helping others become influencers, who would your clients be? What areas would they be interested in? How much experience would they have already? 

Part of the reason a niche is so important is because it will help you find clients. There are thousands upon thousands of life coaches out there, but only so many life coaches who might be perfect for a 30-something vegan trying to start their own real estate business in a rural area. Or what have you. 

If you’re still having trouble narrowing things down, check out the next couple steps for more ideas. 

2. Clarify What You Have to Offer

Once you’ve decided what kind of coach you want to be, it’s worth asking next: How do you know you’ll be a good one? What makes you special? Why would someone choose you as their coach over one of the many other options around? 

What makes you unique and valuable as a coach is probably a combination of various factors. Those could include: 

• Experience — You can share all you’ve learned in getting to be where you are today, and advise people on how to navigate the challenges you’ve already been through yourself. 
• Interpersonal skills — The best coaches are great listeners who are skilled at asking the right kind of questions to help people figure out their own path. 
• Background and knowledge — Your education or hard-earned DIY know-how means you have a level of expertise that you can pass on to your clients who still have a lot to learn. 
• Personality and coaching style — Are you a relentlessly optimistic cheerleader? A tough-as-nails drill sergeant? A quietly analytical thinker with razor-sharp insights? Your unique personality style will offer something to clients depending on what they need and what they’re looking for. 

It’s important to do some reflecting along these lines to assess your capabilities. And it’s going to be critical to understand what makes you unique when you start promoting yourself and selling your coaching services to potential clients. By clarifying what makes you special as a coach, you can position yourself against the competition and appeal to your ideal clients directly and persuasively. 

3. Decide How You’ll Communicate and Work with Your Clients

You’ll have some logistics to figure out next to determine how exactly your coaching will work. 

For example, how will you charge for your services? And what exactly will your services include? This could range from packages, subscriptions, one-time or monthly or yearly rates, etc. Your services could range from one-on-one conversations at regularly scheduled times, or an “all access” pass of sorts that allows clients to contact you whenever they need guidance. 

And how will you communicate with your clients as a coach? Options include: 

• In-person sessions — For local clients, you can meet for coffee or in an office space to discuss their goals.
• Video chat — Even if you’re halfway around the world from your client, you can schedule times to chat virtually via Facetime, Zoom, etc. This is one of the most popular options for online coaching at the moment, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic — it’s a great way to still “see” their face and have a full conversation.
• Phone, messaging, and texting — Phone calls and especially text messaging can offer a more convenient way to connect with many clients, especially for quick turnaround issues.
• Email — Sometimes written communications like emails can be really helpful for coaching; some clients benefit from having the time to write out their problems and questions in advance; and your written responses back to them can become something they can save and refer back to again and again. 

And of course, you may want to have multiple approaches depending either on the client, your services, or the type of coaching package(s) you’re offering. 

4. Hold Some Pilot Sessions with Friends and Initial Clients 

If you’ve never been a coach before, you’ll want to learn as much as you can about how to be an effective coach, such as by taking classes online, studying on your own, or even obtaining a certification.  

But there’s only so much you can learn from school or books — when it comes to helping clients become their best selves, you really need to learn by doing. 

Start reaching out to friends and other people in your network to offer free or extremely discounted pilot sessions. This will allow you to test out your ideas and approaches in real-time and see how they (and you) work best. Make sure you ask for as much feedback possible from them afterwards about how it all went, so you can learn from the experience. 

This is also an incredibly valuable opportunity to start getting some testimonials. Ask them to describe their experience in a sentence or two (or longer, for a full case study) that you can start using in your promotional materials to sell yourself when you officially launch your coaching business. 

5. Get the Right Tools to Promote and Manage Your Business

When it’s time to launch your coaching business as an influencer, you’ll likely need a few tools and systems to help make the magic happen. These can include: 

• Communication tools — A second phone number is going to be crucial for your coaching business. You want to keep good boundaries between your life and your clients and protect your privacy by not giving out your full number. Moreover, a public phone number comes with tools that help you manage your contacts and send promotional or coaching text messages. You may also want tools for smoother video chat experiences. 
• Promotional tools — You’ll need a certain amount of help to get the word out about your new coaching business. This might include creating your own website, if you don’t have one yet. Or if you’re mostly social-media bound, you could start advertising your coaching services and your phone number in your profile. Tools to help you manage your social media profiles and postings could be essential for your promotion efforts, too.
• Business and money management tools — Depending on your background and experience, this could be one of the trickiest parts of launching your own coaching business. You’ll need to figure out systems for invoicing and payment collection, tracking current and potential clients, managing expenses and taxes, and all that fun stuff. There are also a number of all-in-one tools out there designed specifically for aspiring coaches. 

In all these cases, you don’t necessarily need to break the bank and buy a lot of expensive software off the bat when there are many free options available. At the same time, especially after you run your pilot or trial sessions, assess which tools are going to be 100% essential and invest strategically in them. 

Remember that there are two purposes for these kinds of tools: one, to make your life easier and enhance your processes for growing your business; and two, to provide a better coaching experience to your clients. Don’t underestimate the importance of prioritizing what will be most helpful for your clients!  After all, in the end, your clients’ satisfaction will be the single most important driver in your success as a coach. 

TL;DR:

Launching a coaching business can be a fantastic way to take your career as an influencer to the next level and diversify your revenue streams. After deciding what kind of coach you want to be, you’ll need to clarify your unique value so you can better promote your services to potential clients. You’ll have some decisions to make about how your coaching will actually work — and then, as much as possible, you should test out your approaches with friends or other people in your network. Finally, decide which tools you’ll need, like a second phone number, to give your clients a great experience and make your life easier. While taking the leap to coaching may seem daunting at first, never underestimate just how much you have to offer to others in the world who may be struggling!

Are you ready to get your own public phone line and more?

Toosa, a powerful new audience communication platform, will be launching soon. Don’t miss out! Get on the waiting list now for updates and find out how to be one of Toosa’s first users.