Many new coaches have no idea about the reality of building a successful coaching business today.

Thanks to books like “The 4-Hour Work Week”, people have flooded to the coaching industry, hoping to strike gold with an online business.

They have visions of the laptop lifestyle and can picture themselves lounging on a beach chair in Mexico with a flood of new clients begging to work with them on Facebook.

Here’s the stark reality:

To succeed as a coach, not only do you need to know how to market and grow a business offline and online, but you also need to be an awesome coach! Spoiler alert: it takes way more than 4 hours per week.

Many coaches are well-intentioned when they start their businesses. Typically, I find that coaches have personally overcome a big challenge in their life and now want to “take that mess and turn it into a message.”

Perhaps they left a crappy corporate career, started a side hustle, and had some success with it. Perhaps they built a small business of their own.

But, overcoming and winning in a personal experience is not the same as being able to get that same result for your coaching clients.

An important key to your success as a coach is your ability to create, sell, and provide a model for change to your clients.

A model for change is a reliable and replicable proven process that helps people address their problems effectively.

Let’s examine three steps to creating, selling, and providing a model for change to ensure your clients’ success as well as your own.

Step One: Creating a Model for Change

The coaching business is the transformation business.

The first question in building your model for change is: what is the problem that your coaching client has that they don’t want?

The second question is: what is the outcome or pleasure they want that they don’t have?

From there, you need to document every single step in the process of going from where they are to where they want to be.

The key here is to be very specific about the action steps.

Your clients don’t want to buy vague generalizations. They want clear, concise information, AND they want you to hold their hand every step of the way.

The coaching business is also an information business. In the information business, informational alone does not transform. Action transforms.

How can you make it simple, easy, and fun for your clients to take action?

Narrow down the action steps into no more than five pillars or keys. Brand your five pillars with a unique name and positioning.

Mine is called the Rising Influencer’s Profit Process™.

Step Two: Selling Your Model for Change

In the coaching/transformation/information business, there are some key concepts that you will need to master to sell your model for change.

First, timing is everything. If what you do is not new (which hardly anything is anymore), then you will need to put a new spin on it. Make it socially relevant.

In my business, I packaged up a monthly membership program for emerging female entrepreneurs and called it Boss Women Rock™ to ride the zeitgeist of women’s empowerment happening now.

Second, the real money comes on the backend. You will need lots of front end offers that give away value for free without expecting anything in return. There are a million ways to do this, but here are a few ideas:

● Post long-form answers to questions in Facebook groups without selling or pushing an agenda. Just be helpful.

● Publish a book and give it away for free.

● Hold a workshop, seminar, or event and giveaway tickets.

● Create lead magnets online and give them away in exchange for an email.

● Create your own Facebook group and provide free coaching to the members.

The key is that you must have front end promotions going at all times.

Third, become a marketing junkie. Learn how to write copy that sells. Study the greats like Dan Kennedy and Gary Halbert.

Writing books is a great way to market yourself and promote your model for change. Write the book as a manual for implementing the model for change. Don’t worry about losing clients because you give away all your best ideas in a book. Most people will need help implementing it. Plus, you will book speaking engagements, media interviews, and more opportunities because you have a book that helps people.

Constantly test your ideas with your best clients by making tons of offers, playing with marketing copy, and trying different front end concepts until you get it right.

The fourth point I’ll make about selling your model for change is to package it up as a tangible, physical product. This helps to take an intangible concept like coaching and makes it real.

Step Three: Providing a Model for Change

As I mentioned previously, your clients are going to need this process to be simple, easy, and fun.

Now, I know what you’re thinking…

You’re thinking, “But Jen! Change is hard! How can I make coaching simple, easy, and fun?”

Some basic concepts for ensuring your clients change are:

● have a set schedule for when the coaching will take place,

● document your process and provide online 24/7/365 access to the information without making it overwhelming,

● set goals that are manageable and realistic,

● and hold the client accountable.

In my membership program, I’ve integrated gamification and created fun BINGO cards members can mark off as they complete actions. I also deliver content in unique formats like a magazine.

You’ll have to get creative and think through some ideas that will work for you. Be in constant product development mode, thinking about how you can make your program simpler, easier, and more fun.

As you launch or build a coaching business, keep in mind that it’s not enough to just hang out a shingle that says “Coach: Now Open for Business” and sip pina coladas on the beach. You will need the ability to create, sell, and provide a model for change.

Jen DeVore Richter