Keep Telling Yourself You Don’t Need a Business Plan for Coaching Practice

You don’t need a business plan for coaching practice – you can keep telling yourself this over and over again. But, repeating something doesn’t make it true. You do need one. I’ll tell you why, but first I’ll give you a few excuses not to write one!

 Business Plan for Coaching Practice

Business Plan for Coaching Practice – pedrosek © 123RF.com

Why a Business Plan?

What is a business plan for? Coaching practice and any other type of small business may seem to be too small for a business plan. But, big or small, every business needs some type of plan. Does a four-thousand square foot house need a plan while a one-thousand square foot can be built without one? Hardly.

If you are going to try and build a coaching practice, even a small one, you need to write a business plan!

No Need to have a Business Plan for Coaching Practice

Here are a few excuses for you when denying you need a business plan. These will come in handy for the lazy, the procrastinators, and the terminally unsuccessful.

  • It’s too hard to write a business plan. It takes so much time and effort and produces very few results.
  • There are plenty of successful businesses without a business plan.
  • Only companies looking for funding need a business plan.
  • It’s just me – one coach and one coach only. My practice is too small to need a business plan.
  • Why write one? I’ll never use it – it just seems like an exercise in futility.

Do You Want to Succeed or Fail?

Those excuses are good ones, I’ll admit. But, they will only set you up to fail. So, if you want to fail at your coaching business, then, by all means, use any and all of those excuses you want.

But, if you want to succeed, you might take a moment to consider this: Failing to plan is planning to fail. I think Benjamin Franklin said this. I know the great coach, John Wooden used it, and Winston Churchill said it during World War II.

Considering whether a business plan for coaching practice is worth it? You’d do well to remember Ben Franklin’s axiom.

Why Have a Business Plan?

  • Business plans help you get started by serving as an outline of what you need to do, how you need to do it, and when it needs to be done.
  • Business plans outline the core of your business – your mission, your vision for the future of the business, the values with which you will conduct the business, and your goals for the practice.
  • A good business plan for coaching practices detail the target market, the ways in which you will reach this target market, and the outcomes you can offer this target market. It contains your market and your marketing plan.
  • A business plan offer a comprehensive yet concise strategic plan for the trajectory of your coaching practice.
  • A good business plan for coaching practice will hold you accountable. You can look back to see if you have achieved your goals, are on target to reach those goals, or are falling short of where you need to be.

To learn more about how to generate an endless wave of high paying coaching clients, get your FREE Instant Access to our “Life Coaching Business Blueprint” video toolkit
when you go
HERE.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
Writing Team, Coaches Training Blog Community

You Don’t Need a Business Plan Coach

There are many types of coaches, but one coach you will probably never see is a business plan coach. I doubt there is much of a need for business plan coaching, but you never know.

Business Plan Coach

Business Plan Coach – Aleksandr Kalugin © 123RF.com

I would advise you to go into another line of coaching. It’s not that complicated to write a business plan and there is help everywhere. I doubt anyone would want to pay a coaching fee for someone to help them with their business plan struggles!

You Might Need Help With a Business Plan

A business plan is very important. It serves as the founding document for your business. It also serves as a guide and a handy reference document. It gives you reason to think about your values and purpose and vision. It helps provide you with structure and organization. Though some entrepreneurs see a business plan as some form of obstacle – it is actually not that difficult to compose and complete.

However, some people might need help writing a business plan. Some people might not know how to begin. Some new business owners may struggle with the content and sections in a business plan. Some people may struggle to put it all together. Some people may just give up in despair and go ahead without one!

Does that mean there is a need for a business plan coach?

Does that mean there’s a large target market for someone who wants to coach people in writing business plans?

You Don’t Need a Business Plan Coach

You may need a life coach, or a wealth coach, or a career coach, or a health coach, but you probably don’t need someone to coach you on writing a business plan.

Would you pay $50 or $100 for someone to coach you on writing a business plan? Highly unlikely.

You may need help. You may need to see some examples. You may want to use a template. You may need to do some research. You may need to talk to your peers and associates, but you don’t need a business plan coach!

You Do Need to Write a Business Plan

Though you don’t need a coach, you do need to write a business plan. Even if you are a coach with a one-person shop, a business plan is an important piece in your success puzzle. Don’t start your business without one!

5 Reasons You Need a Business Plan

  1. To map your future. The plan will serve as a guide and allow you to measure success and goal achievement.
  2. To list your values, vision, and mission. These will guide your business and offer direction. They will be in your plan for future reference and referral.
  3. To make decisions. You can use your stated goals and values to make decisions concerning new products, new markets, and new coaching niches.
  4. To create an action plan. If you have created a comprehensive business plan, it should provide you with plans of action – for markets, goals, and new ventures.
  5. To market and promote. A good business plan will offer details on marketing – both types of marketing and assessments. This allows you to create new marketing plans when needed.

There is plenty of help online or in numerous books. You can easily help yourself when writing a business plan – you don’t need a business plan coach!

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “Life Coaching Business Blueprint” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your life coaching business blueprint videos.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
Writing Team, Coaches Training Blog Community

2 Items to Always Include in a Life Coaching Business Plan

If you are starting a life coaching business, you need a life coaching business plan – simple as that. No excuses!

A business plan is your founding document, your reference guide, your business instruction manual, your constitution.

Life Coaching Business Plan

Life Coaching Business Plan – basketman23 © 123RF.com

Business Plan – Yes or No

You’ll probably come across a few experts who say that a business plan isn’t necessary, especially if you are just starting a small business which isn’t seeking funding, financing, or additional capital from investors. Well, technically they’re right as there are no legal requirements to create a business plan. However, I imagine those experts are just trying to get people to read their article, blog, or post by taking a contrarian view.

A Business Plan Won’t Guarantee Success

A life coach business plan won’t answer all your questions or solve all your issues. It won’t guarantee profit, prosperity or success. It will make you a super coach or a coach to the stars. There is much more to success than creating a business plan. But, it is one small yet significant component of success, and anyone thinking of becoming a life coach should seriously consider creating a comprehensive business plan.

2 Items to Always Include in a Life Coaching Business Plan

There are many items to include on a business plan – some are universal for all businesses and some are more related to the life coaching business. You can find these in numerous articles and blogs on the Internet, and would include administrative tasks, a mission statement, a list of values, a description of the target market, and more.

However, here are two items you may find (or may not find) in other articles. These two items are absolutely essential to creating a comprehensive life coaching business plan. If you are starting a life coaching business, you must take the time to include these two sections in your business plan.

  • Client Outcomes. This is the raison d’etre of coaching. This is why you coach, and this is why clients pay for your coaching. What outcomes can you offer clients? How will you achieve those outcomes? What expertise or skills do you have that will help you help them reach these outcomes? Will your target market pay for these outcomes? Is there enough demand for your outcomes in your area, or online? A useful life coaching business plan will have a detailed section on client outcomes.
  • Marketing is always the very large and scary elephant in the room. Very few coaches like to market and promote. Most run screaming from the room when marketing is mentioned. However, without marketing no one will know about your great coaching skills. Without a good starting marketing plan, you’ll be sitting all alone in your office, waiting for the door to open or the phone to ring. Your life coaching business plan must have a good section on marketing strategies, and ways to measure and assess the benefits (or lack of benefits) for any promotional strategy you create and implement.

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “Life Coaching Business Blueprint” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your life coaching business blueprint videos.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
Writing Team, Coaches Training Blog Community

5 Reasons Why You Need a Coach Business Plan

Do you need a coach business plan? Most of the experts will say that all businesses need a business plan, but does that include coaching practices? Does that include someone who just wants to hang out a shingle calling themselves a coach? You bet it does!

Coach Business Plan

Coach Business Plan – MICHAIL PANAGIOTIDIS © 123RF.com

Why Don’t All Entrepreneurs Have a Business Plan?

Research has shown that many entrepreneurs fail to create a business plan. This research also shows that a business plans greatly improves the odds for a business to succeed. It helps to develop a successful new product, organize a company, obtain capital and funding for their company, and helps to generate sales over the years.

But, is it important for a small, one-person coaching practice to create a coaching plan before stating?
Even though most coaches won’t need to raise capital or funding, or develop a product (at least, initially), or organize a large company with many employees, a coach business plan will still help you reach success and prosperity.

Don’t skip the important step of writing a business plan when starting your business!

5 Reasons Why You Need a Coach Business Plan

Here are the reasons a business plan is needed for all coaching practices, large and small:

Define and Review

Writing a plan forces you to define and review your business concept, organization, and goals all at once. You can include the vision and mission statements, and a list of values by which you will run your business. These serves as reminders for as long as you coach about the reasons you are a coach, the way you will conduct yourself as a coach, and the manner in which you will run your coaching business.

Define and Analyze Your Target Market

Many coaches fail to define their target market. They just become a coach with no thought as to who they will be coaching. Writing down your thoughts on a target market and making a quick analysis of that market (is it large enough, is it defined, can they afford your services, do you have the outcomes they are seeking?) is crucial to your success.

Think About Marketing

Most coaches ignore marketing, but if you want to succeed, you must make marketing a priority. Writing a marketing section in your coach business plan forces you to detail marketing strategies and think about how best to market your services. This section should also include ways to assess and measure marketing strategies.

Monitoring Progress

Since your business plan contains your goals, both sort-term and long-term, you can easily monitor progress by looking back to your coaching business plan. You’ll instantly know where you stand compared to your predictions or goals. It’s a great assessment tool!

Reference Guide

A business plan serves as a handy reference guide. It’s like an instructional manual for your coaching practice. Whenever you need to assess or reassess something in your business, you can look at your coach business plan for motivation, inspiration, satisfaction, or a plain old kick in the butt!

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “Life Coaching Business Blueprint” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your life coaching business blueprint videos.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
Writing Team, Coaches Training Blog Community

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Writing a Career Coaching Business Plan

Having a career coaching business plan is a necessity for everyone who decides to become a career coach. A business plan serves as a founding document and a handy reference for all types of businesses, including coaching practices.

Career Coaching Business Plan

Career Coaching Business Plan – rawpixel © 123RF.com

Career Coaching Business Plan Outline

Here is a brief career coaching business plan template that can be used for all career coaches:

Part 1: Administrative – the nuts and bolts of starting and operating a business.

Part 2: The Coach and the Coaching – define who you are as a coach, what type of coaching you’ll be doing (career coaching), what niche (if any) you plan to pursue, and what outcomes you can offer your clients.

Part 3: The market – what group is your target market, what is your competition, what is local business environment like, and how the economy affect your business.

Part 4: Mission, Vision, and Values: This can be separated into three section where you list your mission (what your businesses does and why it exists), your vision (where you want your business to be at some time in the future), and your values (what characteristics, attributes, and qualities define your coaching).

Part 5: Marketing – how will you reach your target market and let them know about your great coaching skills? What media will you use to promote your business? What is your budget? How will you measure success or failure?

Part 6: All career coaching business plans should contain a section on SWOT (or something similar): S – strengths, W- weaknesses, O- opportunities, T- threats.

What Questions to Ask Before Writing a Business Plan?

Before you begin composing a business plan, you should take a few moments and ask yourself some questions. The answers to these questions will help you write an effective and comprehensive business plan.

Question 1: What need are you serving? A carefully crafted answer to this question will go a long way toward defining your target market, creating an effective marketing plan, and building your business.

Question 2: What is the profile of your most likely clients? This question will also help you clearly define your target market and make the acquisition and retention of clients easier.

Question 3: What makes you a great coach? Answering this question honestly will help you recognize the values that will sustain and drive you as a coach. The answer will also help you compose clear and concise values and mission statements.

Question 4: What are your objectives and priorities for the first year? A career coaching business plan should be both short-term focused and long-term focused, but having clear objectives and priorities for the first year provides motivation and guidance as you attempt to grow your coaching practice.

Question 5: Are your objectives SMART? To be S.M.A.R.T. your objectives need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timebound.

Question 6: What’s your financial picture? You may not need a section on finances – usually only businesses that may seek funding or loans complete this section. However, it is wise to have an idea of what the cost may be to start and promote your business. You career coaching business plan may not need this information, but knowing where you stand financially before you write your business plan will help you create and compose it.

Even Your Online Coaching Business Needs an Online Coaching Business Plan

Do you need an online coaching business plan for your online coaching business? Should you take the time to write a business plan even if you are just starting out, have no clients, and have no idea if your business will even last a month?

Online Coaching Business Plan

Online Coaching Business Plan

Why Start a Coaching Business if You Don’t Plan to be Around in 10 Years or More?

Everyone who starts a business has a dream? But, some people don’t really have the confidence it takes to realize that dream. If you start a coaching business, you should have enough confidence and belief in your skills to think your business will be successful and prosperous. You should believe!

So, if you lack confidence, you might want to consider working for someone else. Why take the risk if you lack confidence that there will be any reward for your efforts?

Now that you are confident in your confidence, and you plan on still being in business for the short and long term, you need a business plan. If you are starting an online coaching business, you need an online coaching business plan.

Even Your Online Coaching Business Needs an Online Coaching Business Plan

It doesn’t matter what type of business you have – even online or home businesses need a business plan. And yes, your online coaching business, even without any clients, needs an online coaching business plan. Here’s a few reasons why:

  • Writing a business plan forces you to take a second look at all your ideas and to reconsider everything – your values and vision, your marketing plan, your target market…everything!
  • Having a good business plan is an effective way to monitor progress. You can check back periodically with your plan to see how the business is progressing.
  • A properly written business plan details your goals, targets, and parameters. Who is your target market? What types of coaching will you do? What certifications will you need? What are your one-year, five-year, and ten-year goals?
  • What type of marketing will you start with? What other types of marketing will you consider in the future? Create an outline of promotional vehicles based on cost, and then list ways to measure their4 cost-effectiveness.
  • A good business plan will also list future ways to make additional income. Coaches can use DVDs, articles, blogs, books, seminars, group coaching, and more to make additional money.
  • A comprehensive business plan will detail ways to brand yourself in the highly competitive coaching field. Slogans? Logo? Website design? Your online coach business plan should have it all!

Writing a business plan is crucial to the success of any business. Your online coaching business plan is an effective tool that can be used for the life of your business. You can revise it, amend it, add to it, or completely redo it, but you should always have a business plan. It should be comprehensive, clear, detailed, and written.

To start a coaching business without a business plan is like heading out into a snowstorm without your winter coat. It may seem easier at first, but soon you’ll be wishing you had taken the time to grab that coat out of the closet (or write that business plan)!

The Ideal Life Coach Business Plan Sample

If you are a life coach, you need a life coach business plan – sample what others have done and create one that fits your business. Every business needs a business plan. As coaching gets more competitive, a well-written business plans will be one of the keys to success.

Don’t fall behind your competition before you even start! Don’t fail before you even have a chance to succeed! Create your own unique business plan from looking at samples from other similar businesses.

Life Coach Business Plan Sample

Life Coach Business Plan Sample

Where Do You Find a Life Coach Business Plan Sample?

Life coach business plan samples are available all over the Internet. Sample business plans are not difficult to find, but you definitely want to find one that is specifically for a life coach. You can use information from other types of plans, but you must find a few examples of life coach business plans. Using the wrong type of plan is better than no plan at all (because there are many similarities between different types of business plans), but you’ll get the most bang for your time if you sample ones designed for a life coaching business.

So – just open up an online search engine and put “life coach business plan sample” or some variation of order or words, and see what comes up.

What Should a Life Coach Business Plan Contain?

Every good life coach business plan sample will provide similar information, and you should take samples from a few different ones to help create your own plan. Though your business plan should be unique to your business, goals, and style, it will still contain elements found in other life coach business plans.

Here are the basic of a good life coach business plan:

Business Summary

This is where you include the who and the what. Who is involved with the business and what will the business do. Type of business, location of business, and other pertinent information can be included here. All administrative and structural information should be included in this section.

Business Goals

This is where you identify your goals and develop an action plan to reach those goals. Just as you will be doing this for clients, you do this for your life coaching business – and write it down!

Vision Statement

This is similar to goals, but it is more of a visionary statement than one with measurements and assessments. An example would be – to become the leading life coaching choice for corporations in my area.

Mission Statement

Also, similar to the section of goals section and the vision statement. However, it falls somewhere in between these two and further clarifies your vision and reinforces your goals.

Responsibilities

Who does what? If you are the only person involved in the business, you may include hired help such as accountants, marketers, and others.

Rates and Session Structure

This section will include how much you charge and what types of services you’ll offer – monthly plans, group rates, etc. This section should also include information about the rates and plans of your competitors.

Marketing

This will be a detailed section on how you plan to market, and how you should assess the impact of various types of promotion. Not every life coach business plan sample will have this section, but your business plan will be lacking without it!

SWOT

What is SWOT? It stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This will be a comprehensive section on what you do well, in what areas you need improvement (both business and coaching), what opportunities you see in your area and niche, and what threats (competitors, economy, etc.) can potentially derail your success.
If your business plan contains all these sections, you are off to a great start! Your plan can also be used as an excellent life coach business plan sample for others entering the business!

A Sample Business Plan for Coaches

A business plan for coaches is an absolute necessity. Every coach should have one before they open their doors to clients.

Business Plan for Coaches

Business Plan for Coaches

Every Coach Needs a Business Plan

This article will outline a business plan for coaches. It can be used as a guide when creating your own business plan. Everyone coach’s plan will be different because every coaching practice is different. But, if you are planning to start your own coaching business, make sure to have a formal, written plan before you begin!

A Sample Business Plan for Coaches

Mission

This is a statement about you and the coaching business you plan to operate. You can mention something about why you became a coach and what motivated you to open your own coaching practice. It should basically answer the question: Why are you doing this? And, it should be concise – probably 30 words or less!

Vision

The vision statement is sometimes used interchangeably with the mission statement, but, in fact, they are different. The section should focus on the future and what the business will look like and what outcomes have been achieved for clients if the mission is achieved. Coaches should focus on the future in this section!

The Elevator Speech

Most business plans ignore this section, but it is actually a critical part of well-written business plans for coaches.  This is where you write down a short answer (one that can be said in the time it takes an elevator to go a couple of floors) to the question: “What do you do?” And one speech to the question: “Why should I hire you?”  Including an elevator speech (or two) in a business plan for coaches gives you the right words to say when approached about your coaching business.

Products/Services

This is the section where you describe what you do and for whom you do it. What segment of the coaching industry do you align with? Do you have a niche? Will you seek to move into a niche in a certain period of time? Who is you target market? What group of people do you want to coach? This section should also include details about products you may wish to create in the future – books, group coaching, seminars, DVDs, coach training classes – any ideas you may have after you become established in the industry.

Marketing/Promotion

This section will include details on your initial marketing strategies and any future plans for promotion. You should clearly define your target market, methods to reach that market, outcomes you can offer individuals in that market, and ways to assess how well your marketing strategies are performing. If you plan to hire anyone to help with promotion – website design, social media manager, promotional help – these plans and related costs should also be included.

Administrative

No business plan for coaches is complete without details on the administrative part of the business. Licenses, office space, fees, accounting methods, and other tasks needed to run a business should be detailed here.

Your Business Plan – Complete, Clear, and Comprehensive
Every business plan for coaches should be clear, complete, and comprehensive. It should contain everything you need to start and operate a business. It should contain both tangible and intangible items. It should also be written in clear, concise language – it is a founding document for your business and should be used to track progress and reinforce concepts as time goes on!

6 Tips for Writing Usable Coaching Business Plans

Think coaching businesses don’t need coaching business plans? Well, think again. It doesn’t matter what type of business you have – life coaching or selling lemonade on the side of the road, you need a business plan!

Coaching Business Plans

Does a Coach Really Need a Business Plan?

The short answer is YES. The long answer is Of course!

The Small Business Administration notes on its website that “the importance of a comprehensive, thoughtful business plan cannot be over-emphasized.” William Bygrave, a professor at Babson College conducted a study in 2006 in which he studied several years’ worth of Babson College graduates to determine if the ones who had started their businesses with a formal, written business plan were better off than those who started their businesses without business plans. The answer he found was surprising – it didn’t seem to make a difference.

So – what’s the answer? Prevailing wisdom and the advice of many experts is to write a business plan, and coaches, coaching business plans are needed, too!

You Can’t Write a Business Plan Just to Get it Done

Perhaps one of the problems with some entrepreneurs is that they really don’t put much effort into writing the business plan. A coaching business plan, or a plan for any type of business needs to be comprehensive. Research, effort, and time is required to create a functional business plan.

It’s not a repot for school that you do at 11Pm the night before it’s due – it’s a project that will take some research time and more time developing the concepts. Just like a coaching practice, coaching business plans aren’t created in a day!

6 Tips to Creating Usable Coaching Business Plans

Here are a few quick tips on writing a business plan for a coaching business:

  • Give yourself plenty of time to write the plan. A few days, a few weeks, whatever it takes to finish a comprehensive business plan.
  • Don’t write it during normal working hours. If you are working another job while starting a coaching practice, don’t even think about trying to compose it in between meetings, phone calls, and conferences with the boss!
  • Make it comprehensive – cover areas such as Administrative, Vision, Values and Core Principles, Desired Goals and Outcomes (both short term and long term), and Marketing.
  • Include a SWOT analysis. What’s SWOT? S -strengths, W – weaknesses, O – opportunities, and T – threats.
  • Don’t forget to include a section on marketing. Most coaches hate marketing, but it is an absolute necessary part of running a successful coaching practice. It must be comprehensive and include different possible types of marketing and ways to assess success or failure.
  • Be sure to look at examples of other coaching business plans. This is a good way to find an outline for your own business plan.

If you are ready to start a coaching practice, you should invest the time in creating a comprehensive yet concise business plan. It should be a formal, written plan that will serve as a guide and reference for as long as you own your coaching business.

Why Have a Business Plan for Coaching Classes?

Do you need a business plan for coaching classes?  If you have coaching business where you are teaching coaches, you need a business plan. If you have any type of business, you need a business plan.

Business Plan for Coaching Classes

First a Few Lies About Business Plans

Before we get into an overview of what a business plan for coaching classes should contain, let’s go over a few of the misconceptions – the lies!

  • It’s hard to write a business plan. Don’t be so lazy – yeah, it takes some time and a little bit of effort, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist or sequester yourself in a locked room for days to finish a business plan.
  • There are plenty of successful businesses without a plan. Lebron James is the best basketball player of his era, and though there is a chance he would be in the NBA without any training because he was blessed with a tremendous amount of talent, but do you think he would be as successful as he is without training his ass off like he does? Success takes training…and planning!
  • Business plans are only for companies looking for funding. Yes, a business plan is a must if you are going to be seeking capital. However, there are numerous other reasons to have a business plan – direction, guidance, reference, and clarification re a few of those important reasons.

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

This bit of wisdom from Benjamin Franklin is applicable in many situations. John Wooden used it with his basketball players, Alan Lakein used it in his books on time management, and Winston Churchill used something similar during World War II.

It is also true in business. Successful businesses aren’t usually the result of serendipity and luck, though that certainly happens at times. Success in business is usually the result of hard work and planning.

Why Have a Business Plan for Coaching Classes?

If you build a house without a plan, can you imagine what it will look like? Don’t take this chance with your business. Here are a few reasons you need a business plan for coaching classes:

  • It is estimated that 70 to 80% of all businesses fail in their first year. Of the ones that survive, only half survive for five years. What’s one thing that could help your coaching classes business defy those odds? That’s right – a business plan!
  • Some people think that a business plan is a static document, but nothing is further from the truth. Because business and market environments are constantly changing, a business plan is a dynamic and living document that can be changed to reflect new realities.
  • Business plans for coaching classes help ensure that everyone is on the same page. Unless you are running the business and teaching all the classes yourself, you need to make certain all members of your team know the guiding principles and strategies of the business.
  • A business plan is like a game plan. Think of yourself as a coach and your business plan as the strategies about execution you write on the blackboard.
  • A business plan for coaching classes will hold you accountable. It can be used as a reference to see how well you are doing. In some ways, a business plan is like a coach – it helps you identify goals, develop an action plan, and provides accountability.