How to Start Your Online Coaching Business

When I found the coaching world it was like an alarm went off deep inside me to alert me that yes, finally, this is what I was made to do.

It is this way for a lot of us.

When I inquired the online coaching world, it wasn’t the first time I had heard of life coaches. If I thought back to when I was younger, I remember hearing about life coaches and thinking “I could totally do that!” and somewhere between then and growing up and a whole lot of “should’s” I forgot all about it.

My first experience with a coach named Flora Sage, a spiritual life coach. I used to watch her videos on Youtube when I was around 13 all about healing, resilience, and manifesting.

After that was the iconic Iyanla Vanzant, that I encountered on Oprah’s show.

Which leads me to my first point of how to start your online coaching business.

1. You are already a coach.

Seriously. Those who have been called to this path have usually been doing it the majority of their lives. I have been life coaching basically since I could talk. I was the girl at the party that hung towards the back to talk boy problems and give advice. I would “coach” my cousins girlfriends who were much older than me about their relationships. I was the one called at 1:00am for advice in high school. I have always done this, I just wasn’t always paid for it.

Now I am a business coach, and I have been preparing to do this my whole life. My credentials are my experience. A huge problem a lot of new coaches have is asking themselves is “Who am I to teach on that?” and the real question is, who are you not to? Your experiences are valuable. They are the stuff that needs to be shared, taught, and monetized.

The first step though before I get started on any of the other stuff is recognizing that you are 100% qualified. I believe there are special hearts drawn to this field. I don’t believe it is random. I believe we were called. I believe that when there is a call on your life you find yourself drawn to certain things over and over or certain interests, and there is a reason.

You might feel a little crazy right now, but you are on the right track. When you’re new you are looking for validation and I am here to give you that validation.

You are worthy.

You were called.

You have something to say.

There are people who need your gifts.

You are already a motherfucking coach.

If you think back, everything has added up to this. The lessons you learned. The things you experienced. You’re unique point of view. So understand that this work is almost all mindset. You are already qualified to do this. There is no age requirement. There is no being “ready”. You are ready enough.

2. How Do I Get People to Pay Me For This?

The short answer is you just start.

The longer answer is you establish somewhere to keep your content, like social media, a website, a blog, etc (a combination of all of them) and you give a lot of free content. You build an audience person by person. You talk about your programs, you get paid.

A lot of coaches start out as bloggers (hi!) others start out on Facebook and start sharing their knowledge, others use Youtube and Instagram. It honestly doesn’t really matter, choose what works best for you and be consistent about adding value.

When you’re a coach, you are selling a transformation. The #1 rule of the entrepreneur world is we do NOT trade time for money. That= shitty minimum wage and charging hourly and still having a part time job because you can’t afford your bills.

So when you launch your 1:1 (just working with one client at a time) practice understand that you are selling a transformation.

If you are a fitness coach for new moms trying to get back into fitness then you are selling the feelings of being back on track, being able to work out at the level they used to, etc.

If you are a life coach for newly divorced women, you are selling the feeling of starting life over, setting new goals, working on self love, etc.

If you are a love and relationship coach for co-dependent women, you are selling the feelingof finding their soulmate, feeling fully secure in their relationships, how to stop attracting emotionally unavailable partners, etc.

You get where I am going.

It’s just like Real Estate. No one ever really sells houses, they sell homes.

They sell the sound of their clients children’s feet on the hardwood floor in the all white kitchen with an island before dinner.

They sell the feeling of cuddling a partner in the early morning in the master bedroom with huge windows and phenomenal light.

They sell the feeling of relaxation that washes over you in the custom bath tub with jets after a long day.

It is the same with coaching. Humans are emotional creatures, and all you need to do to get clients, and sell well, anything, is to understand that you are selling a feeling and then talk about that feeling everywhere.

Talk about it on your sales page.

Talk about it in your Instagram captions.

Talk about it in your Livestreams.

Embody that feeling.

As for a step by step process (because sometimes you just need it laid out)

1. Realize if you gotten to the part that you are obsessively reading articles like this, you are already a coach. No special certification necessary. No agonizing over it. You are a coach already and you are equipped for the job.
2. Decide who you want to help. Some people will tell you that yiu need a super clear niche but it has been proven time and time again that it’s not true. For me, I am a spiritual person and I use a lot of spiritual tools in my coaching so for someone to be interested in working with me they’d have to believe or at least be open to believing in thing like the law of attraction, manifesting, journaling, etc. If all you know right now is that you want to help women right out of college who feel lost and need direction, that’s enough. You can become clearer as you go. I got my first client long before I had a clear niche.
3. Start talking about your services. You can start a blog, I have a guide here, you can just start with a social media presence or you can take the in person route and go to events and hand out business cards. It doesn’t really matter. Do what feels right. Start where it makes sense. I would recommend picking two methods though because the more you diversify your following the better off you are if Facebook decides to close its doors tomorrow.
4. Share your content. The more ways you share, the better. Text, audio, videos, all of the above, you start showing up. You start sharing your story, your truth, and wisdom. This acts as the first way potential clients interact with you.
5. Sell. You are a business, businesses sell things. So price your offer (for most coaches starting out their first offer is just working with them 1:1) and tell people about your offer. This doesn’t have to feel icky or pushy if you reframe how you think about selling. Selling is service! If you don’t sell your amazing offers, no one can benefit from them! So in order to help the people you need to help you need to sell. Selling just means talking about your offers and holding space for those who want to join, no weird pushy tactics required.
6. Get paid! You do your part by making it really easy for people to pay you. That means setting up a Paypal and using Paypal buttons, setting up a Stripe account, etc. Just have many ways for people to pay you for your amazing work!

3. How Do I Get My First Client?

Getting that first client can feel daunting. There are so many ways out there that people say you can do it but honestly, whatever way you can get behind is what you should do. For some people in person makes so much more sense so they hand out business cards and hang up fliers. For others it makes more sense to go through everyone they already know and tell them about what they’re doing and spread it word of mouth. Others just show up online and get started (the method I took) It all depends on you and I don’t think there is one right way to do it.

Getting your first client is a mindset game more than it is anything else.

If you’ve never done something like this before you might be thinking will anyone ever pay me for this? Once I get a client what will I even say? What if no one buys my offer even if I do everything I can to show up and sell?

These are all very normal fears and worries.

Here is my advice: Stay the course, hold space for your future clients and believe more than anything that your clients are coming.

If you get in the energy of oh god oh god oh god how am I going to pay for any of bills? Will I ever get a client? Am I good enough? You will get so overwhelmed and it will distract you from the real reason you are even doing this.

Your clients need you.

What you seek is seeking you.

When we get an idea for a product, or a business, or a service, or we have a message that is on our heart it is because someone is seeking that product, that business, that service, and that message.

I don’t believe in can be any other way.

People out in the universe are looking for exactly what you have to offer and share. They have called you with their own seeking, and it is up to you to get in front them, show up, and keep going.

I don’t believe we have dreams in order to not live them out. I don’t believe they are put there to tease us.

So one of the most important things to understand is that you are not trying to find clients. That feels lack-focused, icky, and like you have to trick people into working with you.

You are showing up with your message, you are holding space for people to invest with you ie: not spending all your time freaking out that no one will ever work with you, and you are seeing it through.

That’s it.

So the practical stuff?

Pick a method that makes since for you that we discussed above to advertise your services, share your message, sell your offers, get paid for them.

As for the actual selling stuff like price and how the sale goes down, I will share my experience.

Pricing is very personal. I don’t want to give you a number because I don’t want to give you an expectation. You price what feels right to you. You price in the beginning what you can get behind and you raise it from there. If you see every coach charging $12k for a 6 month program but you’ve never had a business and can’t wrap your head around that much money, you will get stuck and not be able to sell a package that price.

I had a business before this and have done the whole underpaid and overworked thing. I charge what is sustainable for my time. I charge high end because I book high end clients who are ready to actually change their lives and I know I am worth my price and more.

As for selling, many coaches do coaching calls to chat the details of their program which is totally fine but it’s just not my style.

I sign clients over DM or email. This is probably informed by my first spiritual business where I signed clients exclusively over DM. I personally feel like if you’re ready to work with me and you feel my energy and know that I can help you we don’t need a call to connect. You’ll know. You’ll feel it.

However, you can do calls if you want. Usually if someone shows interest in a program coaches will say “book a call with me” and it’s usually a 15 or 30 minute call where you chat about the offer and answer and questions.

It really is simple. Don’t make it harder than it has to be.

4. Coaching Resources

There are only a couple of things you need to run a coaching business.

Like, technically, if you aren’t interested in having a blog, you don’t even need a website. I think it’s cool to have one and it makes the most sense for me to have one, but you don’t need one. Plenty of coaches get by just using landing page services like clickfunnels, Lead Pages, and Kajabi.

So what do you actually need?

1. A way to accept payment– I would highly recommend Paypal. Or Stripe. Either way, you want to make it realllly easy for someone to pay you.
2. A place to hold your coaching calls– Usually coaching sessions last between 45-90 minutes depending on the coach. You need a place to actually hold the calls and I recommend ZOOM. You can do it over any video chat platform though.
3. Canva– I personally make worksheets/documents for my clients and courses so Canva is a must. I also use Pinterest to advertise so, yeah, Canva.
4. A Calendar– You can use Calendly, Google Calendar, A physical Calendar, whatever works. Just a place so you and your clients know when you have a meeting scheduled.
5. A Messenger App– A lot of coaches offer voice messaging coaching between calls in their 1:1 sessions and either use Voxer or FB Messenger. I use Voxer. It is a place where if a client wants to share a quick win they can and we can celebrate in real time or if a client has a question and they need support in real time, we can get down to it right then instead of waiting till next session.

5. So, what next?

Well, not much. You start! You start putting the pieces together, putting one foot in front of the other, and run full speed ahead. You start showing up and sharing your message and creating offers and changing lives!

I can’t wait to see the good shit you’re going to do in the world.

Other articles that might be helpful include:

What Is Money Trauma?

How To Start A Blog

Comment down below if this helped you out!

I believe in you so deeply.

As always,

don’t give up on your daydreams.