The Ultimate Cost Control Framework for Business Coaches: Boost Client Profitability Without Cutting Corners

As a business coach, your ability to help clients grow their businesses profitably isn’t just about driving revenue. True mastery is found in teaching your clients how to control costs—especially when their businesses are expanding. In Episode 293 of the Business Coaching Secrets podcast, Karl Bryan shares hard-won insights on instilling cost discipline, using world-class examples, and offering practical strategies you can pass on to your clients today.

Why Cost Control Is Your Coaching Superpower

While many business owners—especially in their early stages—think profit comes from selling more, the most successful organizations in the world (think McDonald’s, Amazon, Apple) are obsessed with cost control. They track every dollar, even during exponential growth, while smaller businesses often let spending spiral out of control as soon as things pick up. When you help your clients develop the same habits as the giants, you set them up to keep what they earn.

The Key Principle: Don’t Just Slash—Optimize

Cost control isn’t about gutting the budget or operating on a shoestring. As Karl Bryan explains, it’s about finding smarter, more effective ways to solve problems and deliver value. This approach not only protects profit margins, it fuels innovation and efficiency.

A Simple, Effective Cost Control Framework

Use this three-step cost control framework from Business Coaching Secrets with your clients:

1. Perform a Cost Audit With a Strategic Lens

Don’t just skim the P&L or credit card statement. Go line by line. For each expense, ask:

• Does this get us a client?
• Does this keep a client?

If the answer is no to both, that expense deserves serious review. As Karl shares, “When your clients earn a dollar, they might keep 20 cents. When they save a dollar, they keep 100 cents.” Helping clients find unnecessary costs is one of the fastest ways to boost their net profit.

Example:

If a company is spending $5000 per month on an office lease and you’re able to negotiate that down to $4000, that’s $12,000 a year in pure profit without landing a single new customer.

2. Replace ‘Education’ With Implementation

Karl warns against spending coaching calls on information delivery that could be done more efficiently. Instead:

• Send educational videos or resources before the call.
• Use your session for implementation, execution, and accountability, not lecture.
• Cut calls from an hour to 30 minutes when possible—your clients move faster, and you double your capacity.

Action Step:

Curate or create videos on key topics (like market dominating position, upselling, bundling, or efficiency tools) and require clients to watch before their session. On the call, work with them to execute what they learned. This also involves their team and doubles the impact.

3. Focus on ‘Profit as the Domino’

Clients often pull you into the weeds—staff drama, minor crises, or personal gripes. Refocus the conversation on profitability first. Remind them:

“Profit is the domino that knocks over all the other dominoes.”

By improving their profit, you empower better hiring, team bonuses, personal time, and business freedom.

Example:

Instead of working through office drama first, identify how cost savings or small pricing increases can build profit and use that financial flexibility to address staffing or morale issues.

Bonus Strategy: Marginal Gains and Bundles

Karl highlights the power of “marginal utility theory”—making small improvements (2%, 5%) across many areas, rather than searching for a home run. Bundle offerings (think: the McDonald’s Happy Meal), upsells (“Do you want fries with that?”), and cross-sells can be adjusted incrementally to unlock hidden profit, even without huge sales growth.

Action Step:

List your client’s services and brainstorm simple bundled packages or add-ons. Test raising prices by 2-5%, monitor client retention closely, and continue optimizing.

Action Checklist for Coaches

• [ ] Do a full client expense review: Ask if each item gets or keeps a client.
• [ ] Replace 1:1 “information calls” with video content; focus live sessions on execution.
• [ ] Reframe every coaching session around boosting profit as the top priority.
• [ ] Brainstorm at least one new bundle, upsell, or cross-sell for your client’s business.
• [ ] Encourage clients to revisit contracts or recurring expenses for negotiation.

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