Let’s say you’re a solopreneur or otherwise building a small but mighty team, and that you’re selling something you’ve created based on your particular way to solve a problem.
You’re a service provider. That means you may not be all that interested in this month’s playbook about coaching programs.
You’d be forgiven for thinking this month’s playbook doesn’t apply to you.
Forgiven, but with a caveat: if you don’t think about coaching, you’re ignoring a potentially lucrative opportunity to add a revenue stream.
So why should you set up a coaching program, and how on earth would you go about doing that?
I’ll get into the how in just a bit, but first, let’s focus on why you’d want to set up a coaching program if your main revenue stream is a service.
A coaching program is a great way to add at least $1000/mo revenue stream
That’s what we’re about here: creating multiple streams of income so that if for some reason, the leads start slowing down on your services, you don’t panic. Plus, $1000/mo is a pretty conservative estimate. Chances are pretty high that you’ll end up earning more than that.
And by setting up a coaching program, you can activate an entirely different part of your brain. Which is helpful, since simply doing more of what you’re building your expertise around will lead to burnout, whereas
Coaching helps your clients level up in a way they can’t simply by hiring you for your services
You can help your clients gain momentum, impact, and clarity simply by asking the right questions.
Think about it this way: in your business, you’re likely to be several steps ahead of other people you know. How could you help someone a few steps behind you catch up?
You don’t need to be an expert. You don’t need to be better than everyone else in the world. You just need to find a handful of people who are behind you in the online business space. What advice would you give yourself two, three, five, years ago? Understanding that puts you in the right frame of mind for at least the rest of this article.
Coaching doesn’t scale, but it doesn’t have to
In my book, I tell people to charge $5000 for a six-session coaching package.
So, in order to add a $1000 per month revenue stream to your business, you’d need to have three coaching clients in a one-year period.
Or, you know, two and a fraction, but we’re not in the business of fractional people, so let’s go for three.
Your future coaching clients are people who most likely already know, like, and trust you
Which means you can send a handful of emails to people and get an actual response.
Think about one person you actually know who listens to your advice.
Open your email client.
Hit the “compose” button.
Send an email asking if they could use some one-on-one support.
Still have a blinking cursor in your email’s compose window?
That’s because you might need a bit of help structuring your coaching program.
Taking the time to set up a coaching program will give a framework to future digital products
Not only will you have a framework for your six-module digital product, but you’ll also get paid to create it, one person at a time.
This is so much better than creating something and hoping you’ll find an audience who will buy it.
Setting up your coaching program with future digital products in mind does a few things:
- Forces you to create structure (even an outline) before you get on a call with someone.
- Allows you to get real-time feedback on the direction you thought your program would take vs the direction it actually did take.
- Validates your offer. If you can get people to pay you to coach them one on one, you can get people to pay you a fraction of that cost to take your digital course.
Convinced that giving coaching a shot is worth your time?
All right, let’s set up a coaching program!
Step 1. Find out who you’ll serve
Don’t overcomplicate this.
The people you were going to email? The ones you already know?
What do they have in common?
Your coaching clients are most likely not the same kind of people who hire you for your services.
There’s a lot more about this in this month’s playbook, but we’ll leave it here for now.
Step 2. Research
Find out your competition and learn from them.
Many (MANY!) people get stuck in this stage. The internet, after all, is a rabbit hole of information you can find yourself lost in.
Step 3. Outline your offer
What problem are you solving with your coaching clients?
What are the results/outcomes they can expect?
What’s a reasonable timeline to get them there?
Once you have answers to those questions, you’ll have a good idea of how long your coaching program should be.
If you get stuck, go with six 90-minute sessions.
Step 4. Figure out your pricing
If $5000 seems too steep, lower it. It’s your coaching program.
But there’s a sweet spot to coaching. Chances are, you’re helping your clients solve a particularly sticky problem, and because it’s sticky, they have some resistance to solving it.
If they could have solved it on their own, they would have.
In fact, many of them tried.
So you need to make sure they’re paying you enough money so that they actually do the work they said they were going to do.
Step 5. Launch!
Send an email to the ideal clients you’ve been thinking about.
Here’s a rough framework for the content of that email:
Subject: get << result >>
Hi name,
<< a scannable paragraph, with bullets, outlining the problem you’re going to solve with coaching >>
<< maybe even add a gif or an image >>
I was about to give up, but I finally asked someone else for help.
The only thing that has consistently helped me with << problem >> was personalized feedback and advice.
Sometimes, you just need someone else to help you. Someone who isn’t as close to your business as you are.
After asking for advice << problem was solved >>. << here’s some proof >>
Today, I’m opening up a personalized program to help you << solve this problem I’ve so eloquently spelled out >>.
Here’s how it works:
<< structure, including details. All bulleted and formatted for people to scroll >>
There are only two slots. First come, first serve.
The cost is << cost >>.
Are you interested?
-your name
PS: This program isn’t for everyone, so no hard feelings if it’s not the right time for your business.
After your initial launch, come back to the playbook for the tech stack
The truth is, you don’t need a lot of fancy tech to set up a coaching program.
But after you’ve determined:
- You actually enjoy coaching
- You’re good at coaching
- And people want to pay you for your expertise;
Then, set up the tech.
Throw up a sales page.
Add it to your website.
Create an intake form.
Then set up marketing for it.
The truth is, you can set up a coaching program in less than a week
And if you want more help doing that, Emma put together a great playbook that goes in-depth into the form, format, and structure of a coaching program.
She even has advice about how to digitize your coaching program once you’ve had a handful of clients validate the ideas for you.
Get it here: Amplify Your Income by Adding a Coaching Program