This article is the fifth in our series, The Success Path. In the first article, we explained that The Success Path is a five-stage path coach-preneurs journey, as they go from coach, to startup business owner, to CEO. To navigate the journey successfully, it’s important to complete each stage before moving on to the next. In the exercise at the end of the first article, we helped you identify where you are now on The Success Path, and what you need to do to continue on this journey to whichever stage you consider your final destination. In the second, third, and fourth articles, respectively, we went into depth about The Declaration, Transition, and Attraction Stages: what they are, what you may face when you’re in them, and what you must do before moving on to The Attraction Stage. We recommend reading the previous articles in this series here, before reading the article below:
If you’re like so many of the coaches we work with, you’re passionate about making a difference. You want to guide people to creating transformation in their lives, and the more, the better!
But you’ve gone into business for yourself because you’re seeking balance. You want to be your own boss, make your own hours, and experience the freedom of business ownership.
You may wonder if you can make a big impact and experience that freedom, at the same time.
At The Coaches Console, we are firm believers that you can – when you have the right systems in place.
When it comes to The Success Path we outlined in the first article in this series, that’s what the fourth stage, the Evolution Stage, is all about: leveraging and growing your business.
It’s about reaching a greater number of people—expanding your impact—while working less and earning more money.
Your focus during the Evolution Stage is to create and implement the tools, resources, and materials necessary to bring automation to your business, add additional revenue streams, and work fewer hours … all while working with more clients, supporting them in exquisite ways, and earning more money.
Yes! This is the sweet spot!
What you may be experiencing if you’re in the Evolution Stage:
As startup coaches traverse the Evolution Stage, they’re gaining momentum and confidence!
You have your online Client Agreement in place, as well as systems for managing and tracking your payments and finances. You’re converting a majority of your sample sessions, and you’re supporting your clients. They’re experiencing great transformation, and you’re receiving incredible testimonials and case study stories from them. Things are moving along in your business, and you’re feeling great about the lifestyle and business you’re in the midst of creating.
Now, it’s time to leverage!
The Evolution Stage is all about applying the “wash, rinse, repeat” concept to your business—so that many aspects of your business can run on autopilot.
To illustrate the feelings you may be experiencing, I’d like to share a few snippets from conversations I recently had with startup coaches who are in the Evolution Stage.
“I’m missing upcoming goals and deadlines for clients.”
“I’m starting to lose clients because I don’t have a system that keeps them engaged.”
“If I do my job well as a coach, I coach myself out of a client. I don’t know how to keep clients coming back for more when there are so many other ways I can support them.”
“I just don’t have enough time to get everything done.”
“I love the work I’m doing and I want to keep working with more and more clients, but I just don’t see how that’s even possible; I don’t have enough time!”
“I feel like there are a ton of missed opportunities that I just can’t take advantage of because I just don’t have the time.”
What you should know:
If you want to continue to grow, you can’t do it alone. Leverage your time. Get support!
Many coach-preneurs in the Evolution Stage continue to do everything on their own, from marketing to scheduling to invoicing to meeting with clients. As they begin to offer group programs, they still do everything on their own.
To these people, we say: stop! There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for you to do it all. It’s time to get help.
This is precisely the time in your business when it is critical leverage your time. How? Get help! Hire a certified VA, a bookkeeper, an accountant, and so on.
Now, we’re going to walk, step-by-step, through the three core components of successfully traversing the Evolution Stage, so that you can truly leverage your resources – specifically, your most valuable resource: time.
Here we go!
The three core components of the Evolution Stage include:
Giving Your Clients Exquisite Client Support.
Exquisite Client Support empowers clients to create new habits, and therefore, to experience real transformation!
A hobbyist’s approach to supporting her clients is just showing up for the coaching sessions and providing great coaching. As a business owner, you realize there is more to being a coach-preneur than simply showing up for coaching.
You want to provide support to your clients before, during, and in-between sessions.
Furthermore, you want to leverage your time so that you can work with more clients in less time, and earn more money.
So the Evolution Stage is not only about offering Exquisite Client Support; it’s also about doing so in a way that doesn’t take up more of your time. Although that may sound tricky, it’s not.
It’s all about streamlining and automating the support in a secure and confidential way.
The key to streamlined, automated Exquisite Client Support: replace email with a private client portal.
Many startup coach-preneurs use email to share documents and forms, provide resources, and support their clients. Traditional email is not dependable, secure, or confidential. It’s time consuming, too, and it requires you to work harder to engage and support your clients.
That’s why we consider the private portal the backbone of Exquisite Customer Support. The private client portal is a secure, confidential place where your clients can get everything they need (a welcome packet, intake forms, scheduling information, session notes, homework, and more). This allows you to automate the delivery of any and all materials they need, when they need them. Plus, it gets your client organized, which ultimately ensures they get better results on the investment they made with you.
With a great private client portal, you can:
Include a session prep form that supports your clients in preparing to make the most of their coaching session with you.
Provide content and material to clients, to support them during their transformational experience.
Provide a recording of each session, as well as a post-session recap form that supports clients in integrating what they learned into their daily life.
Allow clients to schedule (or re-schedule) sessions to avoid the back-and-forth email nightmare that can sometimes occur.
Provide a secure way for clients to have access to you between sessions for “just-in-time coaching,” whether they want to share celebrations and big wins, seek support on urgent challenges, and upload material for you to review.
The bottom line is that a private client portal allows you to be extremely professional with your clients … and it frees up your time to focus on revenue-generating activities, including coaching more clients.
Here is a real-life illustration of the results you experience when you switch from using email to using a private client portal to offer your clients that Exquisite Client Support:
“I was trying to make it all work with Word and traditional email—or snail mail—and it was too cumbersome and time consuming for me and for my clients. I chose Coaches Console because there were so many details and I needed a single, secure online place to keep track of them. The Coaches Console helped me build my business more easily, and it now allows me to do more of the coaching and less administration. My clients and I stay connected between our sessions, in a way that is more secure and personal than we could with regular email. I don’t have to remember to send them a welcome packet; my system does it for me. And it gives my clients everything they need to know, in bite-sized pieces. It stops the overwhelm for my clients, and I notice they are applying the information more consistently than before, which helps their progress.”
When you’re in the Evolution Stage, you spend less time on the back end, administrative tasks, and technology … and more time on coaching!
Now you’re prepared to work with a greater number of clients in the same amount of time. In other words, you’re prepared to have a greater impact while enjoying the freedom and flexibility of the Entrepreneurial Dream!
Getting More Clients.
This is where the “wash, rinse, repeat” concept comes into play. During the Evolution Stage, you continue to research how effective your lead generation tools are, and make the necessary modifications to ensure it’s bringing in ideal clients who are ready to work with you.
You can continue to provide free resources, fill your funnel through various marketing activities, and take prospects through your sales funnel from free gift to sample session to enrollment conversation to onboarding to engagement.
Just keep workin’ it!
Pretty soon, you’ll reach your desired number of clients and/or the level of revenue where you want to be, while working the number of hours you want to work.
Leveraging Your Time.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, many coaches go into business for themselves because they want to make an impact while enjoying the freedom and flexibility entrepreneurship provides.
Of course, there are countless definitions of “success.” Some coach-preneurs simply want to supplement an existing income, while others want to make six figures.
That’s the awesome thing about the Evolution Stage: this is where you get to decide what YOUR version of “success” is, and leverage your resources accordingly.
There’s one thing most definitions of “success” have in common, though: making more money while working fewer hours, so that’s why we’re sharing some of the best ways to leverage your time, here:
Hire other people to take on the tasks that are not in your zone of genius. The most common first hires are a bookkeeper and a VA (Virtual Assistant).
When you’re a startup coach-preneur, it may feel difficult (or even impossible!) to think about paying someone else to do tasks that you could do yourself (even if you’re mediocre at doing them). But don’t you want to free up more of your time? When you invest in someone who is highly- proficient at those tasks, it takes them a fraction of the time that it might take you to do it.
I know, because I’ve been there (Melinda, here!). When we first started The Coaches Console, I did all the books and financial tasks for our business. I was pretty smart about it, and I could manage QuickBooks. Initially, this was necessary, because we just didn’t have the money to pay someone else to do it.
Then, we bumped into that moment: the moment where we realized I needed to spend my time marketing, networking, and selling. The more time I spent on the books and financial reports (which, of course, are vital), the less time I was marketing. So we were saving money by not paying someone to keep track of our books, but we were likely losing money in terms of bringing in new business.
Long story short, we hired a bookkeeper. And it took her 20 minutes to do what it had taken me half a day to do! True story. Not only was our cost low in hiring this bookkeeper, but it freed up a significant amount of my time to spend marketing, networking, and bringing in more clients and money.
Create leveraged programs.
As you work with more and more clients in a one-on-one setting, you’ll naturally find yourself repeating some of the core, basic teachings and inquiries that you provide to your clients.
This is an indicator that you’re ready to create a group program so you can put multiple people in the same room (literally or virtually) and address these commonalities to the group all at once.
Now, many startups feel stumped when it comes to creating content for group programs.
But once you’ve worked with lots of clients one-on-one, you’ll be gathering research about the best process to move your clients from Pain Island to Pleasure Island effectively. Then you can easily compile that learning into a group program and work with multiple people at once.
That being said, to leverage your time, take the common questions, exercises, analogies and resources you encounter during your one-on-one sessions, and turn them into:
A DIY (Do-It-Yourself) or home study course your clients can take themselves through.
A group coaching program.
Teleclasses or webinars.
Mastermind groups.
Bootcamp programs.
Exercise.
The Evolution Stage is all about leverage. So here is an exercise for doing so:
Step One. Review and analyze your last five to ten clients. Jot down what their challenges were, what their desired outcomes were, what kind of challenges they brought to your sessions, which coaching questions you asked them, and which resources you shared with them.
Step Two. Use those commonalities to create group programs.
Evolution Stage Mantra. To Leverage My Time, I Need Support.
Complete the exercises in this post, and enjoy the entrepreneurial freedom you work so hard for! If you’re interested in stepping out of your business to work ON it, rather than IN it, you may eventually choose to move on to the next stage, The Expansion Stage. (This is where you scale your business so that you can work minimal hours while making more money and a broader impact! FREEDOM!)
This article is the fourth in our series, The Success Path. In the first article, we explained that The Success Path is a five-stage path coach-preneurs journey, as they go from coach, to startup business owner, to CEO. To navigate the journey successfully, it’s important to complete each stage before moving on to the next. In the exercise at the end of the first article, we helped you identify where you are now on The Success Path, and what you need to do to continue on this journey to whichever stage you consider your final destination. In the second and third articles, respectively, we went into depth about The Declaration and Transition Stages: what they are, what you may face when you’re in them, and what you must do before moving on to The Attraction Stage. We recommend reading the first, second, and third articles here before reading the article below:
To illustrate the importance of preparation when it comes to the Attraction Stage, I’d like to paint pictures of two different scenarios for you.
Scenario One: It’s Monday, and you have a ton to do. You have to take the kids to school, then go grocery shopping. After you get home and put the groceries away, you have to put dinner in the slow cooker, make a few quick calls, and then go pick up the kids and take them to their track meet. Here’s how it goes down: you wake up late because you hit Snooze on your alarm. Then, you rush to get the kids ready, and barely make it to school on time. Because you were running behind, you didn’t have time to clean out the trunk of your car from all the weekend shenanigans. Now, you don’t have anywhere to put groceries, so you have to rearrange the car to make space. When you get home, you realize the fridge is full and you have to throw away some leftovers before cramming the groceries inside. You’re now running behind, so you throw the ingredients in the slow cooker and hope you’ll have time to make those calls tomorrow.
Scenario Two:It’s Sunday, and you know you have a ton to do tomorrow. You have to take the kids to school, then go grocery shopping. After you get home and put the groceries away, you have to put dinner in the slow cooker, make a few quick calls, and then go pick up the kids and take them to their track meet. So, you take a few minutes Sunday to have the kids help you empty out the trunk of your car, so you have room for the groceries in the morning. You set up your slow cooker and clean out the fridge. You set your alarm so you can get up 15 minutes early. Here’s how Monday goes down: Even though you hit Snooze, you still have plenty of time to get the kids ready and get out the door on time for school. You get to the grocery store and put the groceries in the trunk before driving home to put them away in your cleaned-out fridge. You have a few minutes to spare, so you make your phone calls before putting dinner in the slow cooker. Then, you have a few minutes before leaving to pick up the kids, so you check off an item from Tuesday’s to-do list.
So, what is the key difference between these two scenarios? Scenario One forced you to be reactionary, right? Whereas in Scenario Two, you were proactive. You anticipated issues before they happened, and you saved time and energy because of it.
When it comes to The Success Path we outlined in the first article in this series, that’s what the third stage, the Attraction Stage, is all about: proactivelyattracting clients to your business.
It’s about being prepared to have those enrollment conversations.
Your focus during the Attraction Stage is to create and implement the tools, resources, and materials necessary to enroll and onboard new clients.
What you may be experiencing if you’re in the Attraction Stage:
As startup coaches traverse the Attraction Stage, they’re gaining momentum as they put into place the systems for growing their business.
You have all your contacts organized into one place, and you’re equipped, confident and ready—no, prepared!—to get clients! You’re clear on your commitment to pursue your dreams, and you have a thorough understanding of the best practices you need to set up to start and run your business.
This is where overwhelm can creep in, if you don’t have the tools you need. It’s also where things really get exciting. It’s where you finally get to start working with people, making that impact about which you’re so passionate.
So, ARE you ready?
To illustrate the feelings you may be experiencing, I’d like to share a few snippets from conversations I recently had with startup coaches who are in the Attraction Stage.
“I don’t know how to brand myself so I don’t even know how or where to start to get clients or market my business.”
“There are a lot of ways to attract clients; how do I know which one to choose?”
“I know this sounds silly, but I just don’t understand how to get clients; when someone seems interested in what I’m doing, what do I do next?”
“I’m trying to create a marketing plan that is consistent without being overwhelming.”
“I hate marketing, I just ignore it!”
“I need more confidence and a specific marketing plan to connect with prospective clients.”
What you should know:
It is critical that you’re proactive!
Many coach-preneurs in the Attraction Stage are reactive when it comes to enrollment conversations. This is where they get into the “Oh, Crap! Now What?” business model, and they’re forced to scramble behind the scenes to figure out how to get the results you need. This is a stressful way to find clients and build your business, to say the least.
That’s why the key here is to put your client agreement and onboarding process in place BEFORE you show up for the enrollment conversation, so you’re able to leverage the “yes” when someone decides to work with you.
If you don’t have these things ready to go, a new client may have to wait hours – or even days – until they’re officially onboarded. That means you risk creating a time gap that allows their gremlins creep in, causing them to get cold feet. On the other hand, when your client agreement, welcome packet, autoresponders, and client portal are in place and automated, everything is seamless, and your new client experiences immediate engagement … and you can leverage his or her, “yes.”
This stage is all about the enrollment conversation. While some startup coaches refer to this as a “sample session,” “discovery session,” or, “initial consultation,” the focus of this session is to get them to a solid, confident decision about what their best next step is.
Yes, you will provide some coaching and value during this conversation, but the point isn’t necessarily to get them to hire you; it’s actually to tap into your greatest skills as a coach and support these people in gaining clarity on their next steps.
Specifically, it’s about you guiding them to clarity about where they are now, where they want to be, and identifying how committed they are to making the decision to get the results of which they’ve dreamed—which is the heart and soul of an enrollment conversation.
So many coaches show up for sample sessions thinking all they need to do is great coaching. But this is more than just a conversation! There is more to be done behind the scenes to facilitate an effective enrollment conversation.
That’s why, now, we’re going to walk, step-by-step, through the six things you must have in place during the Attraction Stage, to ensure you’re fully prepared for kick-ass enrollment conversations.
Here we go!
Six things you must have in place to move through the Attraction Stage effectively:
An easy way for prospects on your contact list to book a sample session with you when they’re ready.
An ability to send appointment reminders. These appointment reminders should:
Be branded, so you create brand consistency.
Be specific, so there is no question about who is contacting whom, at what time, and in which time zone, as well as on which platform (phone, in-person, Skype, Zoom, Bridgeline, etc.).
Include a quick link to an easy session prep form to help your prospect get organized in advance, so they can make the most of their session (this also serves as a filter to ensure you spend time only on those people who are committed to showing up!).
An ability to file the information from the session prep form (above) into the prospect’s client notes so that you, as the coach and sales person, can be prepared in advance for the upcoming conversation.
An online client agreement at the ready, in advance of the sample session, so you can leverage a “yes” when your prospect is ready to get started. This client agreement form should include:
An electronic, “I agree” button, so when a prospect says, “yes,” you can immediately move him or her into action, supporting the decision to go for getting the results they most desire.
An easy way for you to ask for and receive money from your new client so you can leverage his or her “yes.”
An automated onboarding sequence that gets them engaged. This should include autoresponders that deliver the welcome packet and any other welcome emails!
Exercise.
The Attraction Stage is all about getting organized before you attract clients. So here are four steps to doing so:
Step One. Set up an online calendar where prospects can book their sample sessions. Be sure that it incorporates automated, branded appointment reminders that are time zone specific.
Step Two. Create a session prep form that asks your prospects five simple questions, so they can prepare, and so you can prepare (by reviewing their answers).
Step Three. Set up an online client agreement with an electronic “I agree” option.
Step Four. Integrate an easy, automated payment option for your new clients to get started as soon as they accept your online agreement.
One quick note here, before you take action on this exercise: when you use various technologies to implement each of these elements, overwhelm can get pretty intense. The more technology platforms you use in your business, the more of your time, money, and attention is put into managing the back end of your business, into being the go-between for the different technologies that don’t talk to each other. That’s why we recommend using one, integrated platform that can accomplish all of these things, so the back end of your business can operate like a well-oiled machine.
Please allow us a moment to brag:
The Coaches Console is that platform: it integrates all these elements in one place and makes it so easy for coaches to streamline and automate all of these very important pieces—without overwhelm!
Attraction Stage Mantra. When Preparedness Meets Opportunity, Success is Inevitable.
Complete the exercises in this post, and then move on to the next stage, The Evolution Stage. (This is where you onboard your clients and give them the exquisite customer support they need to create the results they want—and to become your raving fans!)
Watch your inbox for the next article in this series, which gives you everything you need to know about navigating The Evolution Stage.
This article is the third in our The Success Path series. In the first article, we explained that The Success Path is a five-stage path coach-preneurs journey, as they go from coach, to startup business owner, to CEO. To navigate the journey successfully, it’s important to complete each stage before moving on to the next. In the exercise at the end of the first article, we helped you identify where you are now on The Success Path, and what you need to do to continue on this journey to whichever stage you consider your final destination. In the second article, we went into depth about The Declaration Stage: what it is, what you may face when you’re in it, and what you must do before moving on to The Transition Stage. We recommend reading the first and second articles here before reading the article below:
If you were going to build a house, how would you start? Would you declare, “I’m ready!” and then run out to the unimproved lot and start nailing boards together? If so, you’d probably have a pretty ramshackle shelter, right?
The truth is, if you were going to build a house, you would first create a plan. Then you’d lay a foundation, right? A foundation gives your house a solid base on which to stand, so that it will be sturdy and safe!
When it comes to The Success Path we outlined in the first article in this series, that’s what the second stage, the Transition Stage, is all about: building a foundation for your business. It’s about getting prepared.
Your focus during the Transition Stage is to create the components to identify, find, attract, and engage prospects, and implement the funnels, strategies, and best practices to grow your list. Why? Because your list is the foundation for your coaching business.
Many coach-preneurs in the Transition Stage pursue their business—specifically—try to go out and get clients—without knowing, in advance, all the pieces and best practices they need, which results those pieces and best practices drive, and why they’re important.
With the right systems and processes in place, you can lay the foundation—incorporating the various pieces and best practices—for a successful business that is profitable and allows you to make that impact you dream of.
What you may be experiencing if you’re in the Transition Stage:
As startup coaches traverse the Transition Stage, they may begin to gain confidence. Although you know you have a lot to learn, you’ve put in place the pieces necessary to transition from full-time J-O-B to full-time coach-preneur. (Woohoo!)
You’ve got some cash reserves set aside, you know WHY you’re doing this whole coaching thing, and you’re READY to hit the ground running!
If there’s one word to describe you, it’s “enthusiastic,” and that’s great! (But, proceed with caution! More on this in a moment.)
To illustrate the feelings you may be experiencing, I’d like to share a few snippets from conversations I recently had with startup coaches who are in the Transition Stage.
“I don’t know how to reach people or start building a list from the start!”
“I don’t know how to reach people that I don’t already know.“
“It seems like I’ve been spending a lot of time doing things for my business every day. I mean, I’ve been busy ALL day. But I dread each week that I still have a lack of prospects, and I don’t have any momentum in this area, so I just keep myself busy hoping something will make a difference and somehow, someone will want to hire me.”
What you should know:
There’s a difference between being ready and being prepared.
Preparation brings order to the otherwise chaotic, overwhelming task of building a business. This means you take time, up front, to know what needs to happen, when!
If you don’t, everything feels urgent. You spend a lot of time just keeping busy, hoping something will pan out, and you feel pressured and fearful—and your investments in terms of time, energy, money, and resources may not pay off in terms of the business-building results you want to see.
The very first thing you must do during the Transition Stage is to find and engage prospects so that when you are ready, you can effectively convert them into paying clients. How do you do that?
List building. Your email list is your goldmine: your Number One Business Asset. Hands down, it’s THE Number One Most Important System when it comes to laying that foundation we talked about.
But we’re not talking just any email list. You see, your list is only effective to the degree that its members are:
Made up of your ideal type of client.
Excited and ready to receive the wisdom you have to share.
Organized.
Responsive.
If your list is sloppy, created for the sake of having names in a database or a bigger number about which to boast, or if it’s scattered across multiple platforms, you’ll struggle to have enrollment conversations that lead to paying clients.
Now, we’re going to walk, step-by-step, through the four elements of effective list building, which will ensure you move through the Transition Stage efficiently.
Here we go!
How to move through the Transition Stage effectively:
Build a great list! Here are FOUR elements of a great list that converts.
Element One of a Great List That Converts: It’s Made up of Your Ideal Clients.
We mentioned above that the Transition Stage is all about growing your list. To be specific, though, we want you to keep in mind that you must focus on the QUALITY of the list you’re growing. That old adage—quality over quantity—is certainly true, here.
Let’s play a game!
I have built out two mailing lists, and you get to choose one of them to start sending communications to.
List A: The list size is 5,000 contacts, made up of a collection of people who may or may not be similar to the type of ideal client you’d like to work with. It’s in the general ballpark, anyway. These people may not be spot on, but there are 5,000 contacts! When you send out an email offering a free resource, 120 of them might open the email and click through to check it out. And about 60 unsubscribe on each send.
List B: This list has 1,800 contacts. It’s a solid list made up of the exact type of person you’d love to work with. When you send out an email offering a free resource (the same one as above,), 420 of them open the email and click through to check out the resource you’re sharing. And because this list is made up of exactly the type of client you want to work with, facing the exact challenges you can help transform into results through your coaching, only six unsubscribe.
You’d choose List B, right? (Right?!)
Yes, your ego may want the bigger list. It sounds so impressive to say you’ve got 5,000 people on your list! But, what’s more important at the end of the day? Size, or results?
Results!
(If you’re thinking size, you may want to do some self-coaching around your need for your ego to take charge of your business – and I say this with LOVE.)
Transition Stage Pitfall: Letting your ego get the best of you. In an effort to alleviate the fear they’re experiencing during the early stages of their business, many startups allow their ego to get the best of them. They want to make themselves look better by boasting that they have a larger list. But if that list is doing more harm in the long run, who does that really serve?
Bottom Line: When you focus on quality, when you put your time and attention into adding ideal clients to your list, and you’re fierce in protecting the types of people who are on your list, you end up creating a strong list that grows quickly. The people you add to your list want what you have. They tell their friends, and you grow your list faster, with less effort.
You CAN have it all: quality and quantity!
Element Two of a Great List That Converts: Its Members Are Excited to Receive What You’re Sharing.
This is where preparation is absolutely critical. You want your list to be filled with your ideal clients, right? Well, how do you make that happen?
You offer them lead generation tools that are aligned with addressing the exact challenges they’re facing, and the transformation you help them experience when it comes to those challenges.
Lead generation tools are free gifts that you give people in exchange for their email addresses. They may take the form of downloads, checklists, free reports, or blueprints. They’re also a great opportunity for the people you DO know—your existing contacts—to refer their friends to you, to give people you DON’T know a taste of the transformation you provide.
Here are five components of an effective lead generation tool – the tool:
1. Clarifies the steps necessary for the ideal client to get out of the challenges he or she has felt stuck in. 2.Conveys an understanding of why those steps are critical. 3. Provides the promise of a different possible future … and how creating those results in their life will positively impact their world. 4. Paints the picture of what it would look like NOT to pursue a path of change (and how this will negatively impact their world). 5. Gives social proof that what you’re sharing actually creates the transformation, or the end results your ideal client desires.
Transition Stage Pitfall: Telling them the HOW. Your lead generation tool should never include the HOW. Explain the WHAT and the WHY. If they want to know HOW to actually go about making the changes, well, they have to hire you to get that information. 😉
Bottom Line: The more clarity that’s present in your lead generation tool, and the more effectively it conveys the information to your contacts, the more ready they’ll be to receive and engage in what you share with them! And, as a sweet bonus, their life will be better for having read it, even if they never hire you!
Element Three of a Great List That Converts: Your List Is Organized.
This almost goes without saying … almost. It is SO important that you have your list of contacts organized in one place. You’d be surprised how many people overlook this simple, but major element of list building.
For example, one of my private clients had her contacts scattered across seven different platforms (her smartphone, an old email account, a spreadsheet, Facebook, and a couple others).
This type of disorganization in the back end makes it extremely difficult to communicate with your people … and consider how much time it takes to repeat a single message seven times and send it out seven times in seven platforms!
There are two general ways to organize your contact list when you’re first starting out (and keep in mind that as your list grows and your business evolves, you’ll likely add a deeper level of organization to this segmenting):
1. By status type:
• Prospects: your ideal clients, or those who may know your ideal clients.
• Hot leads: people who have booked a sample session, are very curious and interested in what you’re doing and how it can help them transform, but haven’t made the commitment yet.
• Active clients: paying or pro-bono clients who are actively working with you in some capacity.
• Inactive clients: former clients who are no longer working with you.
• Buyers: people who have purchased other programs from you, beyond your one-on-one coaching packages.
The more organized your list is, the better you can communicate the right information to the right people to get the best conversion possible.
Transition Stage Pitfall: Diving into emailing your contacts without first putting the systems in place to organize them and streamline your communication process. Again, this is where preparation is key! The time you take to put all your contacts into one program, and to segment them appropriately will pay off in huge time, money, and energy savings almost immediately.
Bottom Line: Get organized! You’ll be glad you did. Not only will you be able to reach the right people at the right time, but you’ll continuously improve the quality of your list as you tell people only about the things in which they’d be interested.
Element Four of a Great List That Converts: Its Members Are Responsive.
A responsive list is a healthy list!
But what does it mean to have a responsive list? It means that when you send out communications of any kind—resources, promotions, referrals, content, a video—you get the best response. People open your emails, click through to the pages you’re linking to, and take the call to action you provide.
Creating a responsive list is centered upon your ability to send them quality, varied information, consistently. That means sending emails that:
1. Are different from one another, and arrive regularly. 2. Share great content. 3. Share great resources (created by you or someone else). 4. Introduce them to another helpful resource—one that helps them overcome challenges that impact their success in the areas where they’re working with you. 5. Provide fun, inspiring, or challenging personal stories so people get to know you outside of business.
Transition Stage Pitfall: Many startup coach-preneurs don’t want to seem “pushy” or “too salesy,” so they shy away from creating regular follow up. They fear being overbearing, so they go to the other extreme, and it’s radio silence, instead.
Bottom Line: While we recommend mixing up the type of content you share with your list (to keep them intrigued and engaged), we also want to remind you that consistency is queen! Send regular communication to nurture your list and build your relationship with its members.
Exercise.
As you now know, the Transition Stage is all about preparation. So here are four steps to getting PREPARED!
1. Go to the various places in which you have your contacts scattered (consider them all: Gmail, Yahoo, Excel, Outlook, your smartphone, Facebook, LinkedIn, that pile of business cards on your desk). Put those contacts all into one central place. For Coaches Console members, this is as easy as importing the contacts from various platforms into one organized, segmented list in your Console System. 2.Group your newly organized contacts/prospects by status type. 3. Group your newly organized contacts/prospects into segments, as outlined above. 4.Send a “Dear Jane” letter, telling all your contacts what you’re up to, the ideal type of client you’re looking to support, and the transformation your services provide. Then, ask them to opt in to your free gift or sign up for your newsletter, if they’re looking for what you have to offer!
Transition Stage Mantra.
Benjamin Franklin said it best: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Confucius said it pretty well, too: “Success depends upon previous preparation.”
Choose one of these and live by it!
In the Transition Stage, the more you can focus on growing a quality list—one that is organized, engaged, and responsive—the deeper you’ll build the know-like-trust factor. When people know you, like you, and trust you, they’ll book a sample session! Then they’ll hire you, re-hire you, and refer you to their friends, colleagues, and family members.
So many startups rush straight to trying to get clients, without taking a bit of time to build a quality list and build the relationships necessary for that sense of trust. After all, that’s what great coaching is – nurturing and supporting and being of service to those we love … and that especially includes the members of your list.
Being in business is a long-term game, and when it comes to coaching, it’s all about taking time to intentionally create a solid, kick-ass mailing list that will bring you results now and in the future.
Complete the exercises in this post, and then move on to the next stage, The Attraction Stage. (This is where you finally get to go out and attract the clients who need your life changing work! It’s going to be epic!)
Watch your inbox for the next article in this series, which gives you everything you need to know about navigating The Attraction Stage.
This article is the second in our The Success Path series. In the first article, we explained that The Success Path is a five-stage path coach-preneurs journey, as they go from coach, to startup business owner, to CEO. To navigate the journey successfully, it’s important to complete each stage before moving on to the next. In the exercise at the end of the first article, we helped you identify where you are now on The Success Path, and what you need to do to continue on this journey to whichever stage you consider your final destination. We recommend reading the first article here before reading the article below:The Start-Up Entrepreneur’s Success Path: The Critical Process of Mapping Your Route to Success
Have you ever jumped off a cliff, or even a diving board, into the water? There’s that moment, when you’re standing there, looking down, hesitating … and then you just do it: you commit. You commit to making that jump.
When it comes to The Success Path we outlined in our last article, that’s what the first stage, the Declaration Stage, is all about: making the deep, soul-level commitment to do whatever it takes to create the success of which you dream, even if, at this time, it seems counter-intuitive or counter-logical (I mean, who jumps off a cliff?!).
If you’re in the Declaration Stage, your focus is to gather what’s necessary to make the move from full-time job to full-time business. That includes having a financial cushion, so you’re able to make the transition without that feeling of desperation that it has to work RIGHT NOW, or you might go under water.
Many coach-preneurs in the Declaration Stage try to go it alone – to figure it all out by themselves. When they begin to get overwhelmed, gremlins creep in and stop any forward momentum.
With guidance, support, and a mentor to show you the way, you can lean in and “borrow” their courage until you locate your own. We’d like to share some of our guidance, here.
What you may be experiencing if you’re in the Declaration Stage:
As startup coaches traverse the Declaration Stage, they may feel nervousness, self-doubt, and trepidation. And it’s understandable! Starting a new business is a huge step out of your comfort zone.
To illustrate those feelings, I’d like to share a few snippets from actual conversations I recently had with startup coaches.
“Melinda, you told me, ‘No brand, no business, no problem,’ but I’m starting to think this isn’t possible and I’m just not ready for this yet. I think I need to figure out a lot more stuff before I’m ready to get going.”
“Melinda, I am scared to death! Like literally, it feels paralyzing to think about moving forward with my business. I don’t think I have what it takes to do this. What if it doesn’t work? What if I go for it, and it fails?”
“I don’t have any money. I need to make some fast, and I want to start my business. Can you tell me how to create a business when I don’t have any money?”
What you should know:
Most startup entrepreneurs, who begin in the Declaration Stage, simply don’t know what they don’t know. And that’s okay—you’re not supposed to know what’s involved to start and launch a business.
All you’re supposed to do at the beginning is make that commitment to learn what you need to know, and to do what you need to do, to build a successful business.
If you’re telling yourself you should know everything, right away, you’re going to feel stressed out and overwhelmed.
It’s natural to feel nervous, so be kind to yourself as you start this journey.
A mentor once told me, “Melinda, you must get profoundly comfortable with the discomfort of being an entrepreneur.”
By being the very thing we are, we naturally live outside our comfort levels all the time! It’s just the nature of being an entrepreneur.
This very nature, which drives our passion, is the very thing that can cripple us if we leave it isolated.
That’s why it’s so important to declare that we’re entrepreneurs at heart, and to dare to live outside our comfort zones … because that’s where our greatest passion and impact lies. And the best way to get comfortable constantly living outside our comfort zones is to surround ourselves with like-minded community, invest in a great mentor who can lead us along the way, and have massive compassion for ourselves. Oh, and make FUN a #1 priority in how we do everything!
So, make the declaration! Make the commitment! Breathe deeply, be present, and get the support and guidance you need to lean into the discomfort of being an entrepreneur. Give yourself permission to keep moving forward.
Now, we’re going to walk, step-by-step, through the three things you should do in the Declaration Stage.
Here we go!
How to move through the Declaration Stage effectively:
You may believe that the first thing you need to do as a coach-preneur is to get clients. This is actually backwards thinking! This may sound counter-logical, but getting clients is actually one of the last things you should think about. (Stay tuned for more on this – an upcoming article in this series will delve into this topic more deeply.)
As a coach, it’s important to be and look professional. If you hit the streets and start looking for clients before you’re truly ready, you won’t look professional at all—you’ll feel overwhelmed, nervous, and full of doubt. That’s why we want to make sure you have all the knowledge you need to move through the Declaration Stage effectively! Keep reading to discover the three things you must do during this stage.
Get clear on your WHY statement.
Why are you making this jump? Why are you starting a business rather than coaching as a hobby, or working for someone else? What is truly driving you to start a business doing what you love?
Dig deep!
Embarking on the entrepreneurial journey is a giant leap out of your comfort zone and into a cold pool of water! Because you are moving continuously farther outside your comfort zone, it’s easy for gremlins, doubts, and uncertainties to get the best of you. They try to push you back toward your comfort zone.
You WHY statement is like a lighthouse beacon! It gives you direction, as you swat away those gremlins, doubts, and uncertainties … like the very ones I’m getting right now, as I write this post, even though I’ve been in business for 14 years:
“What if no one likes this?”
“I shouldn’t put this information out there, no one will read it; everyone is too busy anyway.”
“This really isn’t going to help anyone get clients; just forget it.”
And then I picture Dahalia or Deni, or Margarita, or Tony and the very thought of the people I’m helping reminds me of my WHY statement, which compels me to keep moving forward.
Your WHY statement carries you through with focus, determination, and consistency as you move forward.
Exercise.
Create your WHY statement. Then frame it and hang it on the wall where you work, so you see it every day. For 14 years, my napkin with my vision and WHY statement has hung on my office wall. I refer to it often as my fuel when I hit doubt and uncertainty.
Then, post your WHY statement in the comments below – I’d LOVE to read it.
Get prepared, financially.
Most entrepreneurs operate in the creative, intuitive, nurturing side of their brain, and they often believe structure is limiting. However, in the case of starting your business, organization, structure, and preparation bring about the greatest amount of freedom, and the quickest results.
It’s simple, right?
When you don’t have things organized, and processes defined (and by “processes,” I mean a series of steps you take to get a certain result) in advance, it’s like you’re “shootin’ blind.” I might as well ask you to put on a blindfold, wad up a piece of paper, and hit that goal. You can’t see it – you have no idea where it is – so how in the world will you hit it?
Sure, there’s a chance you might get lucky, and hit the mark. But why leave it to chance?
When you have a bit of organization, and defined processes and steps already in place, you can clearly see your target goal, you know what it takes to reach it, and you simply repeat those defined steps over and over, to consistently reach your goal.
When it comes to your finances, it would be ideal if you could set aside a cash reserve of three to six months’ worth of your required, necessary, vital expenses (not the nice-to-haves, but the absolutely need-to-haves, like a roof over your head, food on the table, and clothes on your back).
Many entrepreneurs are hoping to leave a full-time J-O-B to start a full-time business, but without a financial cushion, you’ll likely feel desperate, or stuck and filled with trepidation, which may stop you from taking the action necessary to make your business dreams a reality. You’ll quickly run out of time, energy, passion, and money before you realize your goals
So, for a short time, commit to living carefully, when it comes to finances—be diligent in your expenses, protective of your spending and savings—so that you can eventually experience money freedom and momentum.
What if you don’t have this cushion and you can’t create it from your existing situation?
I recommend choosing one of two options:
Option One. Get a bridge job to help you create this cushion. A bridge job is a short-term, often part-time gig that is simple, requires little effort, and allows you to leave work at work. Its sole purpose is to allow you to save up enough money to create the cushion.
Option Two. Talk to your current boss about the possibility of creating a situation in which you go part-time for him or her, so you still receive a consistent income while freeing up some of your time to begin creating your new business.
Either way, looking at your job as a means to an end is liberating, and your situation will no longer feel like it’s strangling you!
Exercise.
Determine your absolute, necessary, fixed expenses each month, and then save $1,000 fast! Then, create and set aside 3-6 months’ financial cushion into a savings account. This may require a simple, part-time bridge job in the interim. This doesn’t delay your pursuits (rather, it catapults you toward them faster).
Get prepared, organizationally.
As I mentioned above, many startup coach-preneurs believe they must rush out and get clients, first thing. Taking that a step further, these same coach-preneurs believe that if they’re going to get clients, they need to have an official business—which means they need a business name, a logo, and a website.
Hold it right there.
This, too, is backwards thinking. Yes, creating a website, a logo, and a company name creates a strong business identity. But there are other things you must do before you complete these tasks.
Exercise.
Follow these steps to create a solid foundation for your business identity and brand to stand on:
Set up an LLC, S-Corp, or some type of business entity to provide protection for you personally and your personal assets.
Open a business checking account. Deposit $25 at a time until you save $1,000.
Obtain a P.O. Box for your business.
Create a dedicated office space, even if you’re working from home.
Schedule intended office hours.
Write a business plan that includes your goals for number of clients, revenue, and initial marketing plan.
Learn the best coaching business practices necessary to locate prospects, convert them, engage them, support them, and get paid by them.
Again, make the declaration! Make the commitment! Breathe deeply, be present, and get the support and guidance you need to lean into the discomfort of being an entrepreneur. Give yourself permission to keep moving forward, to believe in your dream, and do whatever it takes to pursue your dreams.
Declaration Stage Mantra.
As you go through your day, think these thoughts to continue to create magic, strengthen your courage, and keep moving forward.
My timing is perfect! Otherwise I’d be doing it differently.
I’ve never done this business thing. I am not supposed to know what to do, but I can align myself with those who do; and with their support, I am creating big magic and big success, fast!
I am profoundly comfortable with the discomfort of being an entrepreneur.
I am living like no one else so I can live like no one else.
And please share! Post your preferred mantra (from above or one of your own) in the comments below.
Go out there, and create magic!
Complete the exercises in this post, and then move on to the next stage, The Transition Stage. (You won’t want to miss this, because we’re talkin’ list growing, baby!) 😉
Watch your inbox for the next article in this series, which gives you everything you need to know about navigating The Transition Stage.
Every start up coach or service-based practitioner must go through the same five steps to reach the point where she or he is running a thriving business.
These steps reflect the 50,000-foot perspective: what your entire journey looks like.
Each of them is a building block on your journey to running a thriving business. So you also can’t “half-ass” them. You can’t ignore them. And you can’t skip any of them! Skipping them to reach the destination more quickly doesn’t equal success. In fact, if you do skip ahead, I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll have to go back and revisit the earlier stages.
A quick note: you know you’re off-roading if you haven’t yet created consistent results from the beginning stages and are already incorporating intermediate or advanced strategies. That is what ultimately creates overwhelm!
Because we love you, and because we love making things easy breezy for you, we’ve put the content we’re covering today into an awesome, beautiful, downloadable chart you can get for free, below.
It’s our hope that by reading the rest of this post, answering the questions at the end, and studying the chart, you’ll be able to see where you are now on a clearly defined path to success, and the journey to where you want to be. This is a visual representation of the idea that you’re moving through a process.
Side benefit: your world will feel less overwhelming or chaotic, because you won’t be spreading yourself too thin, trying to accomplish too much from too many stages, all at the same time. This approach takes enlightened discipline and a diligent commitment to yourself and your dreams (and it’s so worth it!).
So go ahead! Download your chart here, and then come back and keep reading (we’ll wait for you):
First, we’ll describe The Success Path and each of its Five Stages, and then we’ll give you an exercise to help you determine where you are now on the path, so that you know what to do to continue moving toward your dream business as quickly as possible.
The Success Path
As a new business owner, it’s helpful to see the path you’re taking to build your biz. Think about when you use your smartphone to map out your route to a particular destination. You enter your current location, and then your desired destination. Then, your mapping app calculates your route, and shows it to you.
Clear. Easy breezy. Right?
Why is it then, that many startup coaches or practitioners blindly pursue their passions without knowing, in advance, the route they’re going to follow, or the path that lies ahead?
When they do, they end up feeling lost and scattered, unsure of how far they’ve traveled, or how far they have left to go.
The Success Path solves that problem by showing startup coaches and practitioners the route they’ll be taking.
Let’s go over each of the Stages of The Success Path now, and then look at how they relate to the learning process.
Declaration Stage
Goal: To make the deep, soul-level commitment to do whatever it takes to create the success of which you dream, even if, at this time, it seems counter-intuitive or counter-logical.
Focus: Gather what’s necessary to make the move from full-time job to full-time business.
Blind Spot: Not creating a financial cushion to bridge the gap from J-O-B to business results. Your cushion should cover three to five months’ worth of essential, fixed costs necessary for survival. This way, you can proceed on the Success Path without that horrible feeling of desperation to make money immediately, like RIGHT NOW. If you can’t set aside the cushion in advance, consider getting a “bridge job”—a part- or full-time, low-stress gig—to help with these expenses as you get clear in your commitment, vision, and goals.
Transition Stage
Goal: To build your list.
Focus: Create the components to identify, find, attract, and engage prospects, and implement the funnels, strategies, and best practices to grow your list.
Blind Spot: Pursuing your business—specifically, trying to go out and get clients—without knowing, in advance, all the pieces and best practices you’ll need in it, which results they drive, and why they’re important; for example, what it takes to find, engage, and convert prospects into clients (Stage 2 is where a coach should focus on collecting names and building a list). Knowing these things brings order to the otherwise chaotic, overwhelming task of running a business. Take time, up front, to know what needs to happen, when. Otherwise, everything feels urgent, and you feel pressured and fearful.
Attraction Stage
Goal: To get paying clients.
Focus: Create and implement the tools, resources, and materials necessary to enroll and onboard new clients.
Blind Spot: Neglecting to prepare for enrollment conversations. Here, “prepared” means having your client agreement and onboarding process in place BEFORE you show up for the enrollment conversation, so you’re able to leverage the “yes” when someone decides to work with you. If you don’t have these things ready to go, a new client may have to wait hours or even days until they’re officially onboarded. That means you risk creating a time gap that allows their gremlins creep in, causing them to get cold feet. On the other hand, when your client agreement, autoresponders, and client portal are in place, everything is seamless, and your new client experiences immediate engagement … and you can leverage his or her, “yes.”
Evolution Stage
Goal: To leverage and grow your business.
Focus: Create and implement the tools, resources, and materials necessary to bring automation to your business, add additional revenue streams, and work fewer hours while working with more clients and earning more money.
Blind Spot: Not getting help and support. As you begin to leverage your time, you need to bring on support in implementing and orchestrating everything in your business, including groups, programs, and events. This support comes in the form of team members: a certified VA, a bookkeeper, and so on. If you want to continue to grow, you can’t do it alone. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day.
Expansion Stage
Goal: To scale your business.
Focus: Build your team, expand into new markets, and work minimal hours, while making more money and a broader impact.
Blind Spot: Attempting to do things in the same way you always have. What got you here won’t get you there. This stage requires you to evolve your internal systems and processes in order to manage the new ways you work with clients, and run your business and team.
Now, let’s look at how these stages relate to the learning process.
The Four Quadrants of Learning
We want to share with you the four Quadrants of Learning; in other words, the process you go through from the moment you launch your business to the moment when you’ve mastered it!
This is important to know because as you move yourself through The Success Path, you’ll go through a learning process—an evolution as a coach-preneur. In addition to knowing how to move along The Success Path, we want you to understand that learning process and evolution, because it will require you to step out of your comfort zone and into the next greatest version of yourself (and as you know, “out of your comfort zone” can feel uncomfortable … which is why we wanted to give you a heads up about what to expect).
These quadrants represent the emotional, behavioral and energetic journey you’ll experience as you move through the stages of The Success path.
Quadrant 1: Unconscious Incompetence. You don’t know what you don’t know, right? You’re just going through your day, nice and easy. Ignorance is bliss!
Quadrant 2: Conscious Incompetence. You encounter something (an experience, a desire, a dream) that sets you on a new path. You now know what you didn’t know before, but you aren’t sure what to do about it. This is where overwhelm begins.
Quadrant 3: Conscious Competence. This is where you bring understanding and order to the chaos. Because you’re still learning new concepts or strategies, mastery requires discipline and effort. With concentrated focus, you get the results for which you’re working. Things can be uncomfortable here. Most that are not cut out for the journey of starting and running a business often retreat back to their comfort zones here. In this stage this is where you become profoundly comfortable with the discomfort of being an entrepreneur. As we mentioned earlier, growth as a coach-preneur will constantly require you to step out of your comfort zone—and that’s actually a great thing as you step into better and better versions of yourself. So it’s time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable (we say this with love!).
Quadrant 4: Unconscious Competence: Habits are formed! What was once confusing or overwhelming is now second nature.
How It All Ties Together
When an entrepreneur first starts down The Success Path, her commitment to starting a business, pursuing her passion, and going for her dreams catapults her out of Quadrant 1 and into Quadrant 2. As she gets guidance and support, she sorts through Quadrant 2 and finds herself in Quadrant 3. And as she continues on The Success Path with continued guidance, support, and accountability (and connected to community), and moves forward toward her dreams and goals, she turns her new actions into habits, moving into Quadrant 4.
The Exercise: Where Are YOU on The Success Path?
Choose one answer – yes or no – to each of the following questions.
1.Are you still in a full-time job?
2.Do you have cash reserves set aside?
3.Have you created your WHY statement?
4.Are your contacts organized into one place?
5.Are you clear in describing your ideal client’s urgent challenges and desired results?
6.Do you have a free gift and lead generation system in place, that consistently grows your list each month?
7.Are you using a New Client Agreement as part of your enrollment conversations?
8. Is your onboarding process in place and automated?
9.Is it easy for you to get paid and track your finances?
10.Do you offer group coaching programs, teleclasses, mastermind groups, etc.?
11.Do you have a team?
Scoring
If you’ve left your existing job and/or have confidently answered yes, with confidence, to questions two and three, you have completed this stage and are ready for the Transition Stage.
Questions four, five, and six relate to the transition stage. If you answered yes, with confidence, you’ve completed this stage and are ready for the Attraction Stage.
Questions seven, eight, and nine relate to the Attraction stage. If you answered yes, with confidence, you’ve completed this stage and are ready for the Evolution Stage, if you want to keep growing.
Questions ten and eleven relate to the Evolution stage. If you answered yes, with confidence, you’ve completed Evolution and are ready for Expansion!
Whew! That is a lot of information, right?
We know it’s a lot to take in, and that’s why this is the first post in a series of posts about The Success Path.
Next, we’ll take a deep dive into each Stage (Declaration, Transition, Attraction, Evolution, and Expansion), so you can learn more about where you are now and what you need to do to move toward Expansion!
This information will be most valuable if you know where you are on The Success Path, so be sure to complete the exercise above before we move on! And meanwhile, don’t forget to download your The Success Path graphic, here, if you haven’t already:
When you think about running your business, how do you approach it? Chances are, you’re thinking like a coach. If you want to get your business up, running, and profitable as soon as possible so you can make the impact you’re here to make, then you need to shift your mindset. On this Facebook Live, we’ll explain the most common mistake startup coaches make, and how to start gaining momentum as a coach-preneur. I’m doing a free Masterclass training that will go deeper into this topic plus give you the 5 Critical Key areas and best practices to set up in your business as well as the sequence to set it all up in. Reserve your spot and transform that overwhelm into fun:
“I’m missing upcoming goals and deadlines for clients.” 
Giving Your Clients Exquisite Client Support. 
Include a session prep form that supports your clients in preparing to make the most of their coaching session with you.
Getting More Clients.
Leveraging Your Time. 
Step One. Review and analyze your last five to ten clients. Jot down what their challenges were, what their desired outcomes were, what kind of challenges they brought to your sessions, which coaching questions you asked them, and which resources you shared with them.
Step Two. Use those commonalities to create group programs.
“I don’t know how to brand myself so I don’t even know how or where to start to get clients or market my business.”
An ability to file the information from the session prep form (above) into the prospect’s client notes so that you, as the coach and sales person, can be prepared in advance for the upcoming conversation.
An online client agreement at the ready, in advance of the sample session, so you can leverage a “yes” when your prospect is ready to get started. This client agreement form should include:
An easy way for you to ask for and receive money from your new client so you can leverage his or her “yes.”
An automated onboarding sequence that gets them engaged. This should include autoresponders that deliver the welcome packet and any other welcome emails!
List building. Your email list is your goldmine: your Number One Business Asset. Hands down, it’s THE Number One Most Important System when it comes to laying that foundation we talked about.
Get clear on your WHY statement.
Get prepared, financially.
Get prepared, organizationally.
Every start up coach or service-based practitioner must go through the same five steps to reach the point where she or he is running a thriving business.
Declaration Stage 
Transition Stage 
Attraction Stage
Evolution Stage
Expansion Stage 