One of our newer coaches asked me recently, “Should I just give up or wait a little longer?” She’s a very competent lady with an impressive corporate background and is very capable of coaching others in her profession. She has her website up, has done one small workshop and has one paying client. But she’s discouraged by the slow pace of response and new business.
Business success is not a function of time but rather a result of taking specific action.
I told her having a great website up was comparable to walking through the mall with a really nice business card in your pocket. You know it’s there but no one else is seeing it. I further told her that her business success was not dependent on “time” but on her specific action steps. Being open for business another month or another year would have little to do with her success. Only by doing sales and marketing activities would she have any chance of building her business.
I encourage new coaches (or any business owners) to anticipate spending no more than 20 hours a week in actual coaching. The rest of the time should be spent writing blogs or magazine articles, speaking, or directly building referral relationships.
Bring an old farm kid makes it easy to see this as a natural process. You don’t reap a harvest without doing a whole lot of work leading up to that.
- Planting the seed – building a website
- Weeding – clarifying your distinct offering
- Fertilizing – speaking, writing and networking to let others know
- Harvesting the Crop – having a customer show up ready to engage with you
I’m attaching the checklist we give all participants in our Coaching with Excellence live event. The first one will be January 29-30th – right here at the Sanctuary.
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