Don’t think you need a coaching business plan? Well, if you aren’t planning on becoming a coach, then no, you don’t need one. But, everyone who wants to become a self-employed coach must have a coach business plan.

What is a Coaching Business Plan?

A business plan is a guide that is designed to provide a road map from the starting point of a business to any number of different desired destinations. It doesn’t need to be a long., formal document; it’s not some formal college thesis you are forced to write. You only need an extremely detailed, formal document if you are seeking investors and funding. Most coaches don’t seek out investors – so a brief, yet organized, comprehensive, and concise document will do the trick!

A Business Plan Template

Here’s what you need to include in a coaching business plan:

• Values – what is important to you and what will be important to your business. What difference do you want to make?
• Outcomes – what desired outcomes do you expect. What are the desired goals of your coaching business? This includes financial or income goals.
• Niche – what type of coach do you want to be? Where is the intersection of your passion, the needs of the market, and your ability to provide outcomes to your clients?
• Target market – where is there a need for your services? Identify the type of client or group of clients with whom you work well.
• Competition – who will you be competing with? Is there room for you as a coach in your particular location. Identify your competitors, how much they charge, what they offer, and how they promote their practices.
• Promotion – create a beginning marketing plan. Identify the ways you will market and promote to attract and retain clients.
• Administration – include all administrative items – licenses, certifications, business tax permits, software requirements, accounting needs, and more.

At the end of the coaching business plan, you should include a SWOT analysis. This is where you identify in outline, and easy-to-read form:

• S. – Strengths (your skills, knowledge, contacts, competitive edge, etc.)
• W. – Weaknesses (lack of finances, lack of experience, etc.)
• O. – Opportunities (lack of competition, large untapped target market, etc.)
• T. – Threats (economic conditions, competition, high cost to start, etc.)

Why Do You Need a Coaching Business Plan?

If you need funding and are seeking investors, it’s obvious why you need a business plan. But for most coaches, the reasons may be a bit less obvious. But, you do need one!

Here are the main reasons that coaches need a business plan:

• Writing a plan forces you to review your business concept, organization, and goals all at once.
• You will force yourself to think about marketing and promotion right away. Some coaches ignore this one nasty detail – you have to market and promote to survive!
• You will be able to monitor progress toward your business goals.
• You will have a handy reference guide to refer to as you conduct business.
• The coaching business plan forces you to act. If you’ve set a goal of 20 clients in six months and you haven’t reached that goal – you may be motivated to work harder with marketing. It provides you with details on your goals and how to reach them!

A good coaching business plan will contain a section on targeted marketing. To be successful, you need to clearly define your target market and how you plan to market your services to them. Clearly identifying your target market will help focus your marketing efforts and save time and money over the long term.

Define a Target Market in Your Coaching Business Plan

Coaching is a competitive business and there are many niches in which you can elect to focus. To be successful as a coach, you need to clearly define your target market and get to know the people to whom you wish to sell your products.

You should do plenty of research on your potential buying audience. Your target market could be millions, or if you focus on a narrow niche, it could be much smaller. You should define the gender, age range, income level, marital status, and more for your potential customers. The motivations and inspirations for purchasing your services or products should also be clearly listed and defined.

As you create a comprehensive coaching business plan, you should also learn as much as possible about your target market, including:

• The motivations behind their needs and wants.
• What would make them choose your coaching business to satisfy their needs.
• The purchase habits of this group.
• Future potential changes in this market
• The scope of your target market – local, national, international.

Focus Your Marketing Efforts for Maximum Efficiency

Targeted marketing is the act of focusing your marketing efforts toward the preferences, habits, and needs of your defined target market. You merely use the demographic and habit information to create a successful marketing plan.

By outlining your marketing in a coach business plan, you can then use the plan as a handy reference guide in the future. Your defined target market and your initial marketing efforts toward that market can also be changed and adapted as your business grows and matures.

Targeted Marketing Saves Time and Money

Your coaching business plan is a vital resource for your business. It helps to guide you as you make decisions, and it offers reminders on who you are, what values you possess, and the goals of your business. But, if you have written a comprehensive section on marketing, it can also save you money.

Promotional messages and ads can be sent to only those individuals who fall within your target market. Though the digital age has made marketing easier to do, it still takes time and costs money to mass market. When you narrow your focus and target certain groups, your marketing is much more efficient and effective. It can also save you time and money, both of which can then be used in other ways to build up your coaching practice.

A comprehensive coaching business plan is a necessity for anyone starting out as a coach. There are many reasons it helps you achieve success; one of the most important reasons is to detail your marketing and promotional plans. When you include a definition of your target market, and potential ways to market to this group, you are creating a great resource that you can use to make your business a success.

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If you want to have a successful coaching business, you need to create a successful and productive coaching business plan. It’s tough to compete if you don’t have a plan!

What’s a Business Plan?

Every business needs a plan, and a coaching practice is no exception. Before you hang out your shingle and start coaching, you need to create a detailed plan of how your business will be run.

In the simplest terms, a business plan is a guide – it’s like a treasure map that outlines the ways for you to reach your goals and dreams in your business – to find and grab your treasure! Your coaching business plan needs to detail how the business will be set up and how it will be operated. It should cover the personnel, the finances, the marketing, the administration, and anything else that is critical to the successful operation of your coaching practice.

Should a Coaching Business Plan be a Long Boring Document?

If you’re starting up a multinational corporation, your document is probably going to be over fifty pages – it’s going to be filled with legalese and details. However, a coaching business plan can be much, much shorter. As long as you include the basics, you’ll be fine

There are many places online where you can find information on how to create a business plan. You can also find templates that will make it even easier.

How to Make a Coach Business Plan Successful and Productive

To take your business plan one step further, you should include ways to attract clients. After all, you can be a fantastic coach, but if you don’t have any clients, you’ll never get the chance to show how good you are!

Coaches are made, not born. Sure, some people are probably born with qualities that give them just a bit of an edge at the beginning. But, no one is born a great coach. Coaches become great through education, experience, mentoring, and effort.

Since coaches are made, it also follows that coaching practices are made. To help make they great, you need to follow a plan. If you have a plan on how to attract clients and become a better coach, this will make it easier. So – coaches, your business plan should have information on ways to attract clients and to improve your coaching skills.

Coaches Need Mentors

Many business plans will have ways to get clients – advertising, networking, cold-calling, websites, social media. Business plans will also have details about education and skill improvement. This is great, but most coaching business plans lack one critical component in the pursuit of excellence.

What is it that your coaching business plan needs to stand above most of the others?

Mentors! That’s right – mentors! Coaches get better, good coaches become great, and great coaches become even greater when they work with mentors. Your coaching business plan should include details about how you will seek out and work with mentors to improve your skills.

You obviously know the value of mentoring – you are a coach, or thinking of becoming a coach, and you know how valuable coaching is. If it’s valuable for your clients – guess what? It is just a valuable to you!

If you combine your successful promotional techniques (methods detailed in your business plan) with improved skills gained through education, experience, and mentors, you are on the way to finding that pot of gold (coaching income) listed on your treasure map.

Coaches – Don’t Forget to Include Mentors on Your Business Plan

When creating a coaching business plan that is successful and productive, don’t forget to include everything you need to become a better coach. One of the most overlooked items is mentoring – if you remember to include it, and then follow your plan, you’ll have an advantage on the competition!

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You know you need a coaching business plan, right? You should know that a well-written and comprehensive business plan can help be a success in the coaching business. Though many coaches overlook the importance of a good business plan, writing a good plan can be one of the most important things you can do for your success.

Yes You Need a Business Plan

You might think that just because your business consists of only you that a business plan is unnecessary. You might think that just because you are only starting out as a part-time coach, that writing a coaching business plan is a waste of time. But, you would be wrong. Every business, from a sole proprietorship to a multi-national corporation needs a comprehensive business plan.

Test Your Coaching Business Plan Knowledge

Here is a simple quiz to test your knowledge about business plans. It’s good to have an idea of how a business plan is written before you begin on your own coach business plan.

1. What section of the business plan is usually written last?
   1. Market definition
   2. Executive summary/ administrative
   3. Vision statement
2. What section of the business plan is usually placed first in the plan?
   1. Values section
   2. Executive summary/ administration
   3. Mission statement
3. What timeframe does a business plan usually address?
   1. 12-24 months
   2. 24-48 months
   3. 5 years
4. What is the biggest mistake you can make with a business plan?
   1. Not doing enough research
   2. Not having one
   3. Both
5. Does your coaching business plan need financial projections and forecasts?
   1. No
   2. Yes
   3. Maybe
6. What type of goals should your business plan contain?
   1. Short-term
   2. Long-term
   3. Both

Now that you’ve taken the quiz, let’ see the answers.

1. The answer is (B).
2. The answer is (B). Yes, this section is often written last because it is basically a summary of your business, but it appears first because it provides a good overview of what your business is all about.
3. The answer is (A). Most business plans address a time frame from 1-2 years. However, it is up to you to decide. You can certainly project out to five or ten years as long as you realize that your plan may need modification at some time.
4. The answer is (B). However, both answers are good because not doing enough research is one of the most common mistakes when writing a business plan. But, not writing one would be your first and only mistake!
5. The answer is (C). Large businesses need to include comprehensive financial projections in their plans because they may need to look for capital or investors at some stage. A sole proprietorship, the type of business most coaches have, usually don’t need much more than income estimates based on price charged and number of clients.
6. The answer is (C). Both short-term and long-term goals should be included in your coaching business plan. Having clearly defined goals of both types is important for decision making and assessments.

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Most people don’t think about the mistakes they are making when they create a coaching business plan. They are usually striving to include everything they can. Coaches are especially prone to mistakes since they often enter their profession with little real world business experience – they think all they have to do is learn about being a good coach. They forget that they also have to be a good business person!

Why Do I Need a Business Plan?

This could be classified as the very first mistake – you shouldn’t even be asking this question. You shouldn’t even be thinking about this question! But, here’s the first answer to this question.

• It’s a must-have if you are planning to look for a loan, approach investors, or bring in a partner.

This first answer doesn’t apply to many coaching practices, but the next few are explicitly for coaches who think a coaching business plan is a waste of time:

• It will help you make decisions – about what to offer, what niche to enter, what to charge.
• It will serve as a reality check – big ideas are great, but goals that are unreachable aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
• A coaching business plan also serves as an action plan – composed correctly it offers a step-by-step guide to starting your business and getting off to a great start.
• It will help you develop new ideas – if it’s a flexible document it can be used as a creative tool to come up with new coaching and marketing ideas and solutions.

Now that you know why you need a coaching business plan, let’s explore the most common mistakes business owners make when creating this all-important document.

The Top 6 Coaching Business Plan Mistakes

1. Writing it because you know you’re supposed to write it. If you just go through the motions, it won’t serve it’s a purpose as a founding document for your business, a step-by-step guide to starting your business, and as a creative tool to operate your business.
2. Writing it all at once. Think it’s best to sit down one night and get it all done, just like you used to do for your college essays? Nope! It’s best to create it over a period of time – writing it in sections and adding to those sections as you come up with additional ideas.
3. Not making it a document of priorities. Though a coaching business plan will contain an abundance of information about your business, potential clients, and market, you need to create priorities. What should be done first? In what order should specific tasks be completed? It helps you get the bigger tasks done first and then move on to the other ones.
4. Don’t finish your coaching business plan. Huh? Don’t finish it – why should I leave it incomplete? You don’t want your business to be done before it starts, do you? Leave your business plan open-ended – this will allow for changes, flexibility, and adaptability. Your business is on-going – your business plan should be, too!
5. Not being honest. When you forecast the future or predict client numbers and revenue – be honest. Optimism is good, but your optimism and excitement when starting a new business must be tempered by realism. It takes time to build up a coaching business – many coaches take years before they are pulling in the big bucks!
6. Don’t over-emphasize the business idea. Yes – you have to include a mission statement, but there is much more to a coaching business than that. Coaching business plans must be detailed and comprehensive. It’s great to say that your goal is to be a great coach with plenty of clients who pay a high fee for your services, but it’s the details that will help you reach those goals.

A Business Plan is Your Founding Document

A coaching business plan is your founding document. Create it with care, treat it with respect, and update it as market and business changes happen. It is one of the foundations of your coaching practice – without it, your business may crumble and break apart!

Hope you took some great value out of this post today! I’d love to hear your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment with your thoughts or questions. And also, you can click on the Twitter button below to retweet this article… Thank you!

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