In this weeks guest post Karen Williams shares her experience and knowledge about running a successful coaching business.

The secrets of successful coaches

what stops coaches from running a successful business?

By Karen Williams

In 2006 I trained to be a coach. After experiencing coaching to help me to refocus my stuck career, I realised that I found my true vocation and started my training with one of the UK’s leading coaching organisations. When I qualified in the November, I set up my business, Self Discovery Coaching. Like many new coaches, I expected clients to come to me as I knew I had a great service to offer to them, but I quickly I realised that I didn’t have a clue about how to run a business.

“The difference between someone who is or is not successful is that total self-belief.” ~ Dawn Breslin

Rolling on a few years, I established a reasonably successful career coaching business, but still felt something was missing. I was also noticing that there were great coaches out there, but many lacked the business know-how to develop a successful business. Many were returning to their previous profession or getting consultancy work to supplement their coaching income.

“Success takes bravery, courage or something. You do things that frighten you; you feel the fear and do it anyway.” ~ Blaire Palmer

I started some research and I found that many coaches were struggling with the same problems:

• Getting, finding and retaining clients
• Deciding on a niche
• Getting the marketing message right
• Managing their time
• Being frustrated by lack of funds
• Demotivation due to lack of clients
• Taking action rather than waiting for everything to be perfect
• Having enough self belief and confidence in their skills

So in 2009, when I had to carry out my modelling project for the NLP Master Practitioner qualification, I knew exactly where to start. I decided to model the mindset behind a successful coaching business and had the great opportunity to learn from some coach business owners and model what works for them.

“Success means being the best coach I can be and leading a life that is in balance, in keeping with my values” ~ Suparna Dhar

I realised that I was learning some key principles from each of these people. I had the enormous pleasure of interviewing 11 successful coaches and business owners such as Michael Neill, Gladeana McMahon, Duncan Brodie, Hannah McNamara and many more. So I decided to turn my research into a book, and The Secrets of Successful Coaches was born (out early 2011).

“Success does not require a positive mindset, but enjoying success does. If your coaching business is not a part of your wonderful life, what’s the point?” ~ Michael Neill

So what are their secrets of success?

• They run a business that they are passionate about, based around their values.
• They have a strong self belief and a winning mindset, focused on a clear business vision.
• They have quickly learnt that they have needed the business skills to make their business a success.
• They have a clear long term vision about their business and take daily steps to make it a success.
• Most of them have a clear niche that enables them to focus on their ideal customer and how they can help them.
• For those who don’t have a niche, they create amazing successes with clients that they love to work with.
• Much of their business is built on referral and recommendation, so they are each great coaches as well as business people.
• They have great networks that they have developed and many work with other experts in their field to further develop their strengths.
• They have a good support network, such as a virtual assistant, IT support, a cleaner, associates, and web designer.
• They have a coach, mentor, supervisor or all three to further develop their business.

“Success is also about being with other people and seeing them grow and develop, and having the satisfaction of having had some part in that, however small.” ~ Gladeana McMahon

So what are you going to do to create your successful business?

In November 2010 I created a mentoring programme for people who are in the early stages of setting up a coaching business. If this is you, you will have a dream, goal or plan, but will find it hard to know where to start. You will probably feel overwhelmed by the volume of information out there and not know where to start. I see creating a business just like baking a cake and you need to know what ingredients you need and in which order to place them in order to make your business a success.

To find out more about the business mentoring programme for new coaches, just email me or call 023 9200 6418 and I am offering a discounted strategy session for the first 5 people who contact me.

About the Author/Further Resources

Karen Williams is a qualified coach and NLP Master Practitioner. She has run a successful career coaching business since 2006 supporting individuals to transform their career and find a job they will love. She also runs a business mentoring programme for new coaches who want to turn their passion into profit.

She is the author of the upcoming book, The Secrets of Successful Coaches and you can find out more about her research and free reports at www.thesecretsofsuccessfulcoaches.com. You can also download free podcasts with people like Michael Neill, Suzy Greaves, Allison Marlowe and other people interviewed for her book which will be available early January.

You can also find Karen on Facebook, follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.