You want to start a public speaking coaching business. What’s the first step?

You need to identify your unique selling proposition and target audience. Consider your expertise, experience, and passions. Are you a subject matter expert in a specific industry or a communication style? Who are your ideal clients? Think twice before you start reaching out to your target audience.

Starting a public speaking coaching business entails a multifaceted approach that begins with a deep introspection of one's own speaking abilities and expertise. It necessitates a thorough understanding of the market dynamics, including the identification of target audiences and their specific needs. Crafting a comprehensive business plan becomes outlining services, pricing strategies, and marketing tactics. Legal considerations, such as business registration and obtaining necessary permits, must be addressed, alongside the development of a compelling brand identity. Building a robust online presence through a professional website and engaging with potential clients via social media platforms are crucial steps in attracting clientele.

Define Your Niche and Target Audience: Determine the specific niche within the public speaking coaching industry that you want to focus on. Consider your expertise, interests, and the needs of your target audience. For example, you might specialize in coaching executives, entrepreneurs, students, or professionals in a specific industry

To launch a public speaking coaching business, the initial step is market research. Public speaking is highly valued today, and understanding market gaps is crucial. Many possess skills but lack motivation. By providing timely guidance and leveraging your leadership qualities, you can inspire change and establish a successful enterprise.

Researching your market is a crucial step in starting a public speaking coaching business. You need to identify your potential clients’ pain points, needs, and goals. By researching your market, you’ll gain valuable insights and position yourself for success.

For us to successfully meet the needs of our target audience, we must conduct a market survey and develop a solid business plan.

Once you have identified your target audience, you need to define your offerings, such as one-on-one coaching, group workshops, or online courses. Considering your expertise, market demand, and competitors’ rates, you need to determine your pricing strategy. You can offer packages or tiered pricing to cater to different budgets and needs.

Some thoughts to consider: Know Your Worth: Consider your experience. More expertise? You might lean towards higher rates. Look Around: What are others charging? It gives you a ballpark to start from. Package Deals: Think about offering different levels - from basics to all-out support. It helps cater to different needs and budgets. Flexible Pricing: Having both hourly rates and package deals can appeal to a wider range of clients. Extra Touches: Things like workshops or additional resources can make your services stand out and might justify a higher price. Open Ears: Listen to what your clients say. Their feedback is gold for tweaking your offerings and finding that sweet spot in pricing.

Gain Relevant Experience and Credentials: Build credibility as a public speaking coach by gaining relevant experience and credentials. This might include obtaining certifications in coaching or public speaking, honing your own public speaking skills, and gaining experience through coaching sessions, workshops, or speaking engagements.

Marketing your brand is essential in starting a public speaking coaching business. You will need to create a strong brand identity, including a logo, tagline, and website. Leverage social media, email marketing, and content marketing to reach your target audience. Finally, you can network with industry leaders, attend events, and offer free resources or webinars.

Amateurs compete. Professionals create. Support other coaches in the industry. No one can coach the way you do with your unique blend of skills, qualifications and experience, so lean into your individuality.

Personally for me I'm getting leads for paid workshops and 1:1 coaching through the social media content I am creating over LinkedIn and Instagram. Putting out great informational free content helps position you as a thought leader in the niche. If you don't have a big advertising spend then building your personal brand organically is your best bet. I love this phrase: give, give, give before you take so give as much free knowledge you can through your content to build a brand recall in your audience's mind.

I’ve been training coaches in speaking for years and one of the first things I teach is to stop relying on a script (yes, that includes the awful safety net of reading from a power point)! Only speak on topics you know inside and out - that way, you don’t *need* to script it. The same goes for sharing our own stories - the human interest signature keynote. You know your story better than anyone. It doesn’t need a script! Remember the key elements you want to share - beginning, middle, end - how you want people to feel and what you want the take away to be. It’s massively important to leave people uplifted and in the place of possibility. It’s about your audience, not you. Also, remember that over-rehearsing creates plastic speakers ??

Finally, starting a public speaking coaching business can be a rewarding and fulfilling career path. However, you can never stand still. You need to continuously improve your coaching skills, knowledge, and expertise by attending workshops, webinars, or coaching programs. You can collaborate with other professionals in related fields, such as communication trainers, executive coaches, or HR consultants, to expand your network and offer complementary services. You also consider offering free consultations or assessments to potential clients to demonstrate your value and build trust. Best of luck on your way to building a successful public speaking coaching business!

Contact everybody you know who would consider engaging you, and secure one paying client. Deliver an outstanding service, ask for a testimonial, and ask for a referral. Reputations builds from there, and with that reputation comes a natural rise in investment to engage you. Don't focus on creating a fee structure - focus on becoming BRILLIANT and start with people you know.

All my life I've struggled to teach or speak from notes. I really don't find it works for me. For one thing without notes you can make eye-contact with your audience and react to their mood.

People buy what they want. Not what they need. 85% of our decisions are emotional. 15% of it is our logic which justifies our emotional purchase. I’d train my ability to make my audience feel, to get them to be able to think of the problem and recognize how said problem is affecting them. I’d also train my tonality and focus on my audience for engagement and trust. I’d consider what they might be thinking, and address it in a playful tone. If I were going to be doing public speaking, I’d want to learn those skills, and train them.