But I Shouldn't Have To Market!
Sarah Short
Turning qualified coaches into well-paid professionals | ICF-Accredited Marketing Courses For Coaches | Mentoring | Straightforward, No Nonsense, Actionable Marketing Techniques | Prices from ￡2500 (inc VAT)
When my girls were younger and taking exams, they would rage about the unfairness of it all. The oldest would flounce, shout, and tell me that exams are ridiculous and that she shouldn't have to sit them.
I told her that there was no point whinging. We live in a world where exams are part of life, and she can either rage against that or learn how to play the game and do it well.
(Fortunately, she did the latter!)
Shouldn't?
If I could have a penny for every coach who has told me that they shouldn't have to market - that it's not fair that they have to, after all, they're coaches, not marketers - I could buy myself a fancy new car.
These coaches of whom I speak rant and rage about the unfairness of it all - they shouldn't have to market. They just want to coach!!
When I ask them why they don't want to market, they'll tell me that's not what they learned to coach for! They learned to coach because they want to help people, not get involved in the business of marketing!
I shouldn't have to market! they shout.
Grow Up!
I hate to be so very pointed, but grow up! Raging about shouldn'ts is the work of teenagers, not fully functioning adults!
If building a coaching business was easy, we'd all have one, wouldn't we? Whinging and whining about the unfairness of it all is a ridiculous waste of your time.
It's hard to build a business - any business - that's why there are so many who don't own businesses compared to those who do.
Those who build successful businesses get over themselves, stop whinging and learn what they need to do.
Look on the bright side—there has never been a better moment to start a coaching business. Once upon a time, the cost of setting up a business was high. We needed office space, landlines, ads in the Yellow Pages and newspapers, cars, office equipment, someone to answer the phone—I could go on. It was expensive to start a business.
These days, the barrier to entry is incredibly low. You need an internet connection and some free software. However, you also need to know what to do, and that's where I come in.
The Coaching Revolution teaches qualified coaches how to build businesses. We do this initially by teaching comfortable marketing techniques that work, to get the client pipeline flowing because without clients, you don't have a business - you have a hobby.
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So you have a choice: will you rage against it all, or will you learn the rules of the game?
Let Me Ask You A Question
Building a business takes courage, grit, and determination. First, however, it takes a simple decision.
The decision is the answer to this question: Do I want my own coaching business?
If the answer to this question is yes, let me ask you another question. Are you prepared to learn the skills you need to build a coaching business?
If the answer to this question is also yes, then let me ask a final question. Learning to build a coaching business requires you to step out of your comfort zone. Are you prepared to do this?
If the answer to this last question is yes, then you can build whatever size of business you want to. The journey to a ￡10k per annum business and a ￡100k per annum business are two points on the same map. The difference is time. You have to hit ￡10k before you can hit ￡100k.
You may not want a ￡100k business - if you don't, that's fine. You can build a business of whatever size you want, provided you know what to do and knowing what to do means having access to that map.
When is the best time to start your journey to building a coaching business? Today of course!
As Liz Fosslien shows clearly in this illustration, waiting until you're ready isn't particularly helpful. (https://www.fosslien.com)
Who Are You Becoming?
In summary, it's up to you who you want to become. You can become a coach with a thriving coaching business, or you can stay being the coach who whinges about it not being fair.
DM me if you'd like to speak with me.
Author, Speaker, Coach, Consultant
6 个月I wonder whether the almost non-existent barrier to entry these days (compared to needing an office, a letterhead, a bunch of insurance policies and even some staff in the last century) is what makes people feel so entitled about what they want to do (deliver their service) and don't want to do (everything else that is involved in running a business). It's a weird reversal of Gerber's E-Myth in which someone likes making pies, starts a pie shop and ends up not make pies, (the thing she enjoys) because that's what the staff are doing while she does everything else needed to run the business. The idea that she could have a pie business without a pie shop (or possibly a factory) isn't considered!