How to Start & Promote a Coaching Business from Home – The Complete Guide

Starting a coaching business is a great way to use your skills to help people succeed and lead happier lives. 

You know why?

Because many people are looking for a life coach. And as you’d probably know, a good life coach will always help people to achieve their goals, overcome their challenges, and improve their personal and professional lives. 

Generally, people start a coaching business for various reasons. And the reason you want to start this business matters a lot because it will affect all your decisions. 

So, below are some pertinent questions you need to consider answering…

Are you looking to become a life coach because you want to find freedom and your own personal fulfillment? 

Do you like helping other people improve their lives? 

Or are you planning to start a coaching business because you want to escape from your 9 to 5 job and live your life on your own terms?

Whatever the reason, in this guide, you will learn how to start and promote your coaching business from home, right from the scratch. 

This guide will take you through the three stages of the process, it will also give you a blueprint on how you can successfully establish your coaching business from the comfort of your home. 

Alright, let’s get started below…

Stage 1: Start with the Basics

The first stage of the process deals with some of the basics that you need to work out. In this stage, you decide what type of coach you want to be. 

There are many different types of coaching. Life coaching, financial coaching, business coaching, career coaching, and fitness coaching are the common types of coaching. 

This section takes you through the steps you can take to decide what type of coach you want to become and how you can do that. 

Define Your Mission

The first step to start a coaching business is to define your mission. 

Find out, what are you good at? What are the special skills you have that can help other people? What do you love to do and excel at? 

These are some of the questions that can help you find your mission as a coach. 

Once you answer these questions, you can then move on to write a mission statement.

A mission statement will give you a clear direction and a solid understanding of your intentions for your coaching business. 

Find Your Target Audience

The next step is to define your target audience. 

Who are the people who will benefit from your coaching? 

Who will be interested in your coaching services?

You can define your target audience based on demographics like gender, age, income, education, among other factors. This will give you a clear idea of the people you want to market your services to. 

Consider Getting a Certification

A certificate in your desired type of coaching increases your credibility. It makes you more trustworthy before people as they see you as an expert. 

Getting a coaching certificate also allows you to hone your skills and enhance your learning. 

It helps you get better at coaching by giving you an updated view of coaching in your niche. 

Even though getting a certification is not necessary, it can help you to start your coaching business on the right foot. 

Organize Your Knowledge to Monetize It

As a coach, your knowledge is the product that you are going to sell to people. For you to share your knowledge effectively, you need to compartmentalize and organize it. 

This allows you to design your coaching sessions in a more organized way. 

By dividing your lessons into different groups and sessions, you can span your coaching sessions over more extended periods, like 6 months or a year.

That would be better compared to just one coaching session where you share all your knowledge.

Depending on your situation, a one off coaching session may not work well for you or your client as you will not make much money, and your client will not benefit from your lessons effectively. 

Instead, you can have one or two coaching sessions per month, discussing a specific topic. This allows you to work at a comfortable pace for your clients and makes you more money. 

Figure Out Service Delivery Basics

The next step is to work out the service delivery basics. This will lead you to answering questions like;

• What will be your coaching channel? What platform will you be using to schedule and conduct video sessions and interactions with your clients?
• What supplemental sources will you offer to your clients? Do you have an eBook, PDFs of your sessions, or gated content?
• What will be your primary communication channel with your clients?
• What will be your rate for your services?

Stage 2: Work Out the Technical Details

Once you have figured out the type of coach you want to be and worked out the basics, you can continue to the next stage. 

This section takes you through the technical details of starting your life coaching business from scratch.

Create a Business Plan

A business plan is your roadmap to starting your coaching business. 

It will help you to clearly define your products and services, target market, business goals and the technicalities associated with starting a business. 

By writing a business plan, you will be clear on how your business will operate. Your business plan will cover the following things.

• Your services and target customers and how you aim to reach them
• Business goals and objectives
• Business structure. A sole proprietorship is the most common structure for a coaching business.
• Your business costs and budget. This will include your initial training and certification costs, coaching equipment like a good quality desktop or laptop, a headset, website design, and domain name registration.
• The name of your business. Your business name should be simple and easy. It should reflect your brand values. You need a name that will make a good first impression on potential clients. 

Buy a Domain and Create a Website

Once you have decided on a business name and made a business plan, then you need to purchase a domain and create a website.

You can do it yourself or hire a website developer. 

In today’s digital world, most people look for coaches through search engines like Google, Bing etc. 

A website makes it easier for people to find you, learn about your skills and services, and contact you. It increases your credibility and makes you more trustworthy. 

You can use it to share your supplemental material with clients, make appointments, set up a calendar, and do a lot more. 

Tie Up the Loose Ends and Market Your Business

Once you have made a business plan and created a website, you need to register your business, open your financial accounts, and purchase your coaching equipment. 

After tying up all the loose ends, you can start marketing your business. 

This is the step where you set up marketing strategies for promoting your business online. 

Stage 3: Promote Your Coaching Business and Scale It

Starting your business is one thing and promoting it is another. 

Naturally, promoting your business online will help you get more clients and scale your business. But before you get started, you’ll need a clearly defined marketing plan for your business.

This section offers some valuable strategies that you can use in this regard. 

Maximize Your Potential with an Engaging Website

Creating a website for your business is not enough. You need to make it engaging for prospective clients. You can do this by:

• Investing in a unique website design, a good, reliable, and fast hosting service, and an easy to browse layout. You can also use images from stock photo websites to make it more visually appealing and engaging
• Have your website content written by a professional copywriter who will come up with persuasive, engaging content for your website
•   Setting up a coaching blog section where you can provide value to prospective clients and show them your skills as a coach

Leverage the Power of Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms are a fantastic way to market your coaching business. 

Most of your prospective clients can be found on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. 

You can use your social media accounts to attract more customers and build your brand. You can interact and engage your customers to ultimately turn them into loyal clients. 

Engage in Webinars, Events and Free Coaching Sessions

Promoting your coaching business is easy if you do it right. All you have to do to get things working is to commit to it and invest your time. 

The opportunities are endless.

• Webinars are a great way to interact with a global audience and promote your business to a wider audience
• By attending more events or setting up a coaching event yourself, you can bring together a lot of prospective clients and market yourself to them naturally
• You can show prospective clients what difference you can make in their lives by offering free coaching sessions. This makes it easier for them to trust you and avail your services

Find New Clients with Email Marketing 

By offering gated content on your website, you can build an email list for your business. 

Email marketing is a highly effective way to reach more clients.

By sending regular emails to your list, you can share newsletters, share updates, and give value to people. 

It is a great way to interact with your audience and promote your business. 

Final Words

A coaching business is an incredibly rewarding, low risk, and high profitability business with low set-up costs, great independence and flexibility. 

There is no doubt that starting a life coaching business is a daunting task and often seems impossible.

The reality is that it is easier than advertised. All you need is to be committed to it and be ready to give it your time and a little money. 

By following the steps shared in this guide, you can successfully start and promote your coaching business online and create the life you dream of. 

So, it’s over to you now. Do you need further support on how to start and become a life coach? Get in touch with us here.

That said, what’s your biggest struggles when it comes to starting a life coaching business from the scratch? I’d like to read your comments.

About the Author

Jason Snaddon works with people to create the life of abundance that is within us all – whether that be career, business, health & well-being, financial, relationships, joy, happiness, and fulfillment. Since 2005 he has been consciously creating an abundant life and loves to share his learnings to help people create the life of their dreams.