Three Things I Wish I Focused on When I Launched My Coaching Business
Published in Duke Health & Well-being Coach Training Alumni Newsletter, Spring/Summer 2024
Three Things I Wish I Focused on When I Launched My Coaching Business
By: Rosy Crumpton
Marketing and branding, making sure you meet all regulatory requirements to health coach in your area, and taking care of your own health and well-being are all massively important and necessary attention areas, but they are not the 3 things I wish I placed so much focus on to start and grow my health coaching business.
As a practicing health coach and business owner of 6 years now, (half of that time as a part-time health coach) I’ve tried a plethora of things to make a name for myself as a now full-time health and wellness coach. It feels like I’ve thrown all the spaghetti at the wall and that I’ve had to learn how to gain new clients the hard way.
As I transitioned away from a 16-year career in social work and into the health coaching space, I focused heavy on branding. A new website, new social media handles, picking out a soothing color palette, a meaningful logo that wrapped it all up was all fun and exhilarating. I love the finished product. It took up a lot of my time, but oh time well spent...right? Wrong.
I wanted people to get to know me as a health coach and no longer as a social worker. I needed people to learn about this exciting new thing I was doing and think of me for their health coaching needs, I’d tell myself. Sharing my resources and expertise is helpful to everybody. It made sense...right? Sort of...but wrong again.
Establishing myself as a legitimate business, getting liability insurance, researching other businesses like mine in my area, researching price points, etc. was a priority. Yes, these are all necessary introductory first steps as you launch your health coaching practice, but also, only the things that make you a legitimate business...not a real practicing one. To be clear, do these things but also move on to what you really need to focus on shortly thereafter.
First- tap into your immediate professional circle. We all come from some professional background. We’ve all gotten this far, and chances are you haven’t been a lone wolf through it all. Your current circle, the people who know you professionally can turn into your referral circle.
I thought I needed to find a new professional circle. I put a lot of energy into meeting new people, joining new professional networking groups, and while there is nothing wrong with that , new groups mean you’re starting at zero with them. With your existing circle, you have a head start . It will still require effort to leverage those networks to identify some possible paying customers, but you do have a head start. Working from the National Board Code of Ethics, you wouldn’t necessarily aim to be a health coach with your old co-workers, but consider the ripples around your already established impact. Are you or your professional contacts connected to groups or organizations that could benefit from your offerings? Are the current volunteer groups you’re part of looking for someone like you, but in a health coaching capacity this time? These connections can be your advocates to lead you to money-making opportunities. Talk directly with people you already know. Re-introduce yourself in your new health coach role. They already know you and your work ethic; you just have a different problem you can potentially solve for them as a health coach.
Second- focus less on website, logo, and other “fun” and “easier” things to deal with and place more energy into what is directly going to bring in revenue. It pains me to think back on the countless hours I
spent designing pretty social media posts and thoughtful messages only to realize years later that my clients weren’t brand new people who had found me on social media. Get one paying client out in the real world. Now get a second paying client. Where are they coming from? Focus on that market. Now get your third, fourth, and so on. If social media is where they’re coming from, great...focus there. But if not, analyze where your paying customers are finding you and focus your energy and attention into how to gain more clients from that circle.
Third- it’s all about the numbers. This advice was given to me time and time again before I paid attention. As a human feeler/healer person, I would much rather focus on how to help people rather than deal with the numbers part of being a business owner. But if you want to be successful, the numbers must make sense. Add up all your monthly business expenses and use that as a guide for how much money you need to bring in to sustain your business. Now that you know what you need to break even, you can use that as a guide to help you thrive. Think about every expense that goes into being a health coach and take those numbers into consideration for pricing what you offer. SMART goal your business plan, especially the finance part of it.
Growing within the health coach profession having come from an already established career has been a journey that requires patience as I imagine any other career shift would be. Get comfortable with all parts of the job, even the most uncomfortable parts. If you want to be a health coach and not think about anything else, you can do that at various places that are hiring health coaches. If you want to be a health coach business owner, get used to wearing all the hats. You’ll be IN the business (doing the health coaching) and ON the business- everything else that comes with it- finance, marketing, compliance, networking, etc. and the harmony of it all. The fact of the matter is that if you don’t have clientele to keep you in business, analyze how you’re allocating your time and efforts.
Wishing you much success doing what you love.