Is Your Coaching Platform Holding You Back?

Coaching is a business, and like any business, it’s always evolving. The coaching industry is growing fast. According to iPEC, 1.5 million searches are made every month by people and companies looking for life coaches, business coaches, and executive coaches. https://www.ipeccoaching.com/hubfs/What%20is%20Coaching%20-%20iPEC%20Coach%20Training.pdf

And online coaching has become even more popular after COVID-19, with an increase of 57%. https://coachfederation.org/app/uploads/2020/09/FINAL_ICF_GCS2020_COVIDStudy.pdf

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Online coaching platforms are crucial for the success of a coach. The right platform helps coaches stay organized, measure impact, increase revenue, and connect with clients.

Ideally, you’re using an all-in-one platform that allows you to build your coaching program without complicated tech – which takes your focus away from serving your clients.

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5 signs that you're ready to upgrade your coaching platform

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Not all coaching platforms are created equal, and it can be challenging to evaluate how your current solution is performing. In fact, you may not notice what is holding you back from potential growth.

There are a number of signs that can indicate it’s time to take action and upgrade your system with something that will better suit your business needs. As you’re evaluating your current technology, watch for these 5 things:

1. You have too many plugins and they aren’t working together

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Many coaching platforms claim to be all-in-one, but once you buy in you find they don't include all of the technology that you need to run your program. As a result, you add plugins to integrate features like automated contracts, client progress monitoring, or community groups into your system.

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It sounds like a simple solution, but the hard part is making sure your new plugins work with your coaching platform. Keeping your plugins updated can be tough to maintain. And with every update you have to make sure that the Zapier glue holding your system together keeps working.

2. You have user, email, or funnel limits

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You probably didn't think it was a big deal when you signed up for your current coaching platform, but there are probably limits on the number of users, emails, or funnels that you can use.

At the time, these limitations didn’t seem like a problem. But as your business has grown, you're starting to bump up against those limits.

3. Your platform is dictating how you have to run your program

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One thing that I personally experienced as I grew my coaching program was modifying the vision for my program to fit what technology on the platform could do. It was really frustrating!

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A great coaching platform allows you to customize your workflows and your customer journey in alignment with your vision and your coaching style. It’s designed to increase your productivity and enhance the effectiveness of every coaching engagement.

It ensures that you can seamlessly deliver a customized customer journey tailored around your vision, while staying true to who you are as an individual coach.

This also means that as things change over time or as your business goals change, your coaching platform can grow with you.

4. You’re paying a VA to do simple tasks that can be automated

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Using a virtual assistant is a great business practice - there are always tasks better-suited for a VA to complete. But when you take a good look at your workflows, you’ll probably find there are also tasks, like invoice reminders or scheduling social content, that can be automated.

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Automations aren’t just for big companies. More and more coaching businesses are using them as well. Adding automations frees up your own time, allows your VA to work on higher impact tasks, and gives you the flexibility that you've been looking for in your business

5. Your platform isn’t scaling with you as you grow your program

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In a perfect world, your coaching platform will grow with you as your business grows. For example, the features a one-on-one coach needs aren’t the same as a coach who's running a large scale group coaching program.

As you scale, your coaching platform should allow you to add in the services that you actually need. The good news is there are platforms out there that can scale right along with you!

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What a great coaching platform can do for you

Having a true, all-in-one coaching platform means that you can run your business from a single back office that includes your website, your funnels, your CRM, your emails, and anything else need to run a successful business.

It allows you to evolve along with the online coaching industry and scale your business without compromising client engagement or coaching effectiveness

A good coaching platform helps you manage client relationships and connect with your clients authentically to help you grow your business, increase your revenue, and measure the impact of your work.

Most of all, a great coaching platform lets you serve your clients without spending your time, or your IT consultant’s time, fixing your technology.

What to look for in a new coaching platform.

So you've decided to make the change - what should you be looking for in an all-in-one online coaching platform?

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Your first step is to think about the processes that you already have, how they're working for you, and how to close the gaps in your process flow. It’s easy to overthink this, so make sure you keep it simple!

Once you've mapped out your ideal workflow, go over it one more time and look for ways that you can simplify. When you're happy with your business workflow, start listing out some of the things that you could automate.

Now that you're clear about your workflows, you can start doing your homework. There are a lot of online coaching software platforms out there so your next step is to make sure that your choice has the features that matter the most to you.

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The features that you need to grow a profitable coaching business are simple: 1. You need a great user experience; 2. You need a back office that's easy to use and can give you a quick snapshot of your business; 3. You need a method to easily deliver your content, whether it's a high-ticket course, one-on-one coaching, or a membership program; 4. Finally, you'll need a great set of administrative tools like automated contracts, payment processing, and appointment scheduling, just to name a few.

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Take some time to compare the different coaching platforms out there and even try out one or two to see if it meets your needs.

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If you'd like to find out more about how Systems with Strategies can help you grow your business, increase your revenue, and expand your client experience, you can book a call here. https://www.systemswithstrategy.com/calendar-demo/

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Conclusion

Regardless of your business size, the right all-in-one coaching platform has a lot of potential to help your business grow. The ideal platform helps you stay organized, measure impact, increase revenue, and connect with clients.

We recommend that you use your online coaching platform to manage and automate as much of your business as possible to free up your time and allow you to focus on doing what you do best – coaching your clients.