Are the Holidays Bad for Business Coaches–or Is that Just an Excuse?

Are the Holidays Bad for Business Coaches–or Is that Just an Excuse?

Are the holidays bad for business coaches?

Or is it just an excuse to take your foot off the gas pedal?

Many business coaches treat the period from November 25 to January 3 or so as one big extended holiday.

And according to Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling™, here are the most common excuses made by people to justify their doing less work during this protracted “holiday.”

1. No one’s doing any work. It’s the holidays.
2. Nothing gets done till January. It’s the holidays.
3. No one sets appointments till the New Year. It’s the holidays.
4. Too much to finish up to take the time to prospect. It’s the holidays.
5. Prospects are taking time off. It’s the holidays.
6. I’m taking time off. It’s the holidays.
7. My assistant is taking time off. It’s the holidays.
8. Their assistant is taking time off. It’s the holidays.
9. No one wants to be bothered. It’s the holidays.
10. No one is thinking about work. It’s the holidays.
11. Prospects leave the office early. It’s the holidays.
12. Prospects go to the office late. It’s the holidays.
13. Everyone is having office parties. It’s the holidays.
14. No one’s thinking about business. It’s the holidays.

Most of these are just plain B.S. — and a convenient excuse to take it easy.

The #1 misconception about the holiday season is that no one, especially your customers and prospects, is working very hard, if at all.

But that’s pure baloney: Most of your customers and prospects are actively doing their jobs and running their businesses all year long….

And therefore need your products and services just as much now as during any other time of the year.

Most of your customers and prospects are actively doing their jobs and running their businesses all year long....And therefore need your products and services just as much now as during any other time of the year.

If you are not there to serve them as promptly and efficiently as you usually do, you risk disappointing them.

In fact, if you become largely inaccessible or totally disappear for too much of the holiday season, some of your customers may become disappointed and displeased.

They may also take their business to one of your competitors who is not slacking off during the holiday — and may even be working extra hard to provide the quick and reliable service you
aren’t.

By all means, be home with the family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and celebrate New Year’s with them and with friends.

But otherwise, be there for your customers … so in 2020, your customers will be there for you.

Want to get a jump start on the new year? Get a FREE 30-day trial of our comprehensive business coaching system.

How to Boast (Professionally) and Land More Coaching Clients

How to Boast (Professionally) and Land More Coaching Clients

Years ago, I was talking to a brand new business coach with massive professional credibility. Over his long and illustrious corporate career, he’d run several successful business units over $200 Million in sales with over 100 employees. On top of that, he was a master of all the business disciplines with strong educational credentials and a good family life to boot! Given his tremendous experience and successful life, you’d think he’d be able to land more coaching clients than he had room to accommodate, right?

Wrong!

This guy didn’t have a single client. Not one! Zip, zilch, nada.

It blew my mind. I mean, he was beyond qualified. Talented, personable, experienced. I knew for a fact there wasn’t anything a typical business coaching client could throw at him that he didn’t have the ability to handle with ease!

So what was holding him back?

Well, for whatever reason, he wasn’t sharing this important information with prospective clients!

Needless to say, I gave him the following advice: You need to learn how to boast–professionally, of course–so that you can land more coaching clients.

“The steak is there,” I said. “Let’s make it sizzle!”

You need to learn how to boast--professionally, of course--so that you can land more coaching clients.

How to Craft a Sizzling Hot Bio

A simple template like this will boost your credibility and make your bio sizzle.

My client needed to learn how to brag on himself–and one of the best ways to do that is by creating a piece of marketing collateral that does it for you: what I like to call a sizzling hot bio.

Note: this is NOT a resume or a CV, but a tastefully-designed marketing resource that highlights your professional accomplishments in clear terms that are metrics-based.

(What’s that you say? You don’t have a sizzling hot bio in your marketing toolkit? Good thing you can download a FREE template here, no opt-in required!)

Once I’d shared my template with him, I walked him through the process:

First, I asked him to identify the major periods in his career. This could be companies, job titles, roles, or projects.

Then I instructed him to write 1-2 sentence descriptions of each major period, featuring the #1 accomplishment or high point. This had to be jam-packed with numbers: percentage increases in revenue, profitability, client census, etc.

Next, he needed to add all his educational achievements, professional recognitions, and awards.

Finally, I encouraged him to include a couple of tidbits about his personal life to show he was well-rounded and successful across multiple areas of life, not just business.

A few days later, a dramatically improved bio showed up in my inbox. We put it to work immediately.

Not surprisingly, his marketing results quickly improved–particularly as both he and his telemarketer began to share his sizzling hot bio with prospects. He landed his first client shortly thereafter–and many more since then, I might add.

Looking for more great tools and tips like this? Check out our FREE ebook, How to Become a Business Coach for a step-by-step guide to the basics that every business coaching practice needs to succeed!

Where Are Your Priorities?

Where Are Your Priorities?

Christmas is fast approaching, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to slow down a little and reflect on what’s most important.

Because believe it or not, business is not my top priority.

Maybe that sounds strange to your ears–after all, I’ve poured much of my life into building my businesses, and helping my clients build theirs.

But at the end of the day, my family and my faith come first.

And quite frankly, it’s not even close.

Don’t get me wrong. My work is important. It’s how I provide for my family and how I help others provide for theirs. And I like to think that I do so in a way that honors both my family and my God (at least, that’s what I strive for!).

But at the end of the day, there are things more important than work.

Connection, relationships, integrity, faith–these matter much more to me than the number on the bottom line.

And this time of year gives me an opportunity to put my money where my mouth is.

To be fully present with my family. To show up in my community. To celebrate with the people I love.

And this time of year gives me an opportunity to put my money where my mouth is. To be fully present with my family. To show up in my community. To celebrate with the people I love.

This time of year, no matter your background or beliefs, I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what matters most to you.

Where do you find the deepest meaning? This is a chance to recalibrate, refresh, and reconnect with the people and priorities that drive everything else.

From my family to yours, I wish you a wonderful Christmas and holiday season!

P.S. A question I always hear is this: do I worry I’ll lose steam or revenue around the holidays? Nope. I plan for it all year, and don’t actually lose all that much steam. Check out my series on marketing over the holidays to see how I do it, or Bob Bly’s fantastic post on the myth of the holiday slump. While you’re at it, feel free to download our FREE ebook, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock StarThink of these great resources as our Christmas gift to you!

Gratitude: An Overlooked Business Coaching Success Secret

Gratitude: An Overlooked Business Coaching Success Secret

It’s Thanksgiving time in the United States, one of my very favorite holidays. Around this time every year, my heart just fills with gratitude–for my family, friends, a profession that allows me the time and resources to enjoy them…and of course all our clients, contacts, and colleagues at the Coaches’ Coach. And actually, gratitude is one of the world’s best-kept business coaching success secrets.

You see, gratitude creates success and satisfaction in every area of your life–even when things aren’t going as well as you’d like. That’s because gratitude orients you in what is positive. It sharpens your focus on what you have…keeps you motivated and upbeat…and that empowers you to be proactive instead of reactive, to operate out of hope instead of fear.

(And with all the chaos swirling around us, the ability to operate out of hope instead of fear is an extremely valuable skill!)

After all, anyone who has ever achieved greatness in any endeavor has done it, not by protecting themselves from what they don’t want, but by pursuing with passion and energy that which they do.

A Gratitude Exercise for Business Coaching Success

So if I could make one recommendation: this Thanksgiving, take some time to really reflect on what is right in your life. Put aside the problems for a moment–clients who aren’t progressing, trouble in your personal life, financial or health difficulties–and ground yourself in the blessings you’ve been given and the success you’ve already achieved.

Do this little exercise that really gets my “gratitude muscles” working: make a list of the top 20 things you’re thankful for. Usually by the time I get about halfway through I have to stop and just take in the joy!

Just for one day, don’t think about what you could do to “improve.” Don’t make goals and forecasts for future growth. That’s important too, of course…but give yourself an opportunity to truly bask in everything you’ve got, right now, to enjoy.

Just for one day, don't think about what you could do to "improve." Don't make goals and forecasts for future growth. That's important too, of course...but give yourself an opportunity to truly bask in everything you've got, right now, to enjoy.

I guarantee that you’ll wake up the next morning with more clarity, drive, and passion for life and the work you have to do. 

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at the Coaches’ Coach!

How Long Will It Take Me to Become a Business Coach and Build My Book of Clients?

How Long Will It Take Me to Become a Business Coach and Build My Book of Clients?

So you want to become a business coach? Great decision!

If you’re like most, you probably have this question that we hear from beginning business coaches around the world:

“How long will it take me to become a business coach and build up my book of coaching clients?”

Obviously, this depends entirely on you, in a sense. But there are rules of thumb. Let’s begin by establishing what it means to earn a decent living as a business coach. To most people, that means a six-figure income as a full-time business coach, AFTER your business expenses. That means your business pays you more than $100,000 as payroll and you live on what’s left after taxes are deducted. With this rule of thumb in mind, let’s look at a realistic timetable.

Time Required to Become a Business Coach Earning Six Figures 

  • Some people can become six-figure business coaches in as little as six to 12 months, depending on how many of the Six Critical Skills they already possess (see below).
  • Most people need 18 to 24 months to become a business coach earning six figures because they have significant gaps in the first four Critical Skills.
  • A smaller group never hit the six-figure mark and end up quitting the business and going back into full-time employment. This happens to the vast majority of business coaching franchise buyers who end up with very little working capital after paying exorbitant sums to franchisors.

Must-Have’s for Starting a Business Coaching Business

To achieve the goal of setting up a coaching business within a reasonable amount of time, you need a really great business coaching system that includes the following:

  • Tools: Armed with checklists, how-to guides, financial calculators and other coaching tools, your process of setting up a coaching business becomes much easier.
  • Templates: There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing campaigns, printed materials, sales letters and all of the other collateral needed to successfully market yourself when you’re starting a coaching business. Proven and customizable templates can give you a jumpstart and save you lots of money and frustration.
  • Training: Both video training programs and one-on-one mentoring to learn all the facets of building your business coaching business are critical.

Of course, while setting up a coaching business from scratch may be right for some people, most aspiring business coaches opt to invest in a business coaching system to fast-track the process.

The Six Critical Skills Required to Become a Business Coach

There are 6 critical skills required to become a business coach and build a sustainable business over time. Any good business coaching franchise or business coaching system will have well-documented systems for learning and executing each of these skills:

  1. Generating Leads: how to build a low-cost lead generation machine with an “unlimited marketing budget” (proficiency with lead-gen strategies that pay for themselves predictably.)
  2. Booking Appointments: how to book appointments with business coaching prospects without undue anxiety or stress.
  3. Leading Seminars: how to lead both live and virtual seminars that convert your prospects into paying clients or, at a minimum, move them further along in your sales process.
  4. Winning Clients: how to win new clients by demonstrating the overwhelming value of business coaching.
  5. Onboarding Clients: how to skillfully onboard new clients to maximize the longevity of your coaching engagements.
  6. Coaching Clients: how to coach your clients and transform their businesses into profit-making, lifestyle-enhancing investments.

An optional seventh skill is Building a Firm–learning how to transform your business coaching practice into a professional firm by building a world-class team of associate coaches that can run the firm without you so you can exit the business when you’re ready to do so.

Mastering each of these critical skills is required to become a successful business coach and build a sustainable business. When you consider this list of skills, the learning curve may seem a bit formidable for some. That’s why it’s critically important that you’ve got sufficient funding to outlast the learning curve involved in building a business coaching business.

Budgeting for Becoming a Business Coach

I highly recommend that you begin your venture with a war chest of funds to get you through the learning curve described above.

If you are going to become a business coach full-time right away, it’s highly likely that you’ll be burning through your war chest just to put food on the table. In that case, I suggest that you begin with 12 to 18 months of working capital including living expenses. If you plan on starting a coaching business on a part-time basis or if you have other sources of income, you may need just 6 to 12 months of working capital. But for a full-time endeavor, give yourself at least a year or more to make your coaching business profitable enough to yield a six-figure income. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying too hard to sell you something.

Accelerating the Path to Becoming a Business Coach

An important step to radically accelerate the process of becoming a successful business coach–as with anything in life–is to begin working with a seasoned, veteran mentor. We recommend that you connect with an experienced business coach who knows how to generate $100,000 to $200,000 per year as a full-time business coach. Working with a coaches’ coach will help you avoid the hidden land mines that can easily destroy your attempts to build your coaching practice.

In summary, plan on needing 6 to 18 months when setting up a coaching business. Be sure you have at least 12 to 18 months of working capital in reserve. If you want to learn how to become a business coach quickly and efficiently without tripping over the land mines, check out our FREE ebook, How to Become a Business Coach.