Life coach business plan, what’s that? As a life coach, you probably view your business a bit differently than others types of businesses. You’re a one-person show, you don’t have investors, you aren’t going to franchise, you just want to coach – you can think of plenty of reasons you don’t need a business plan!

You probably resist creating a life coach business plan because you think it will take too long or you will never use it. Nothing is further from the truth. Every business needs a business plan, even life coaches!

3 Great Reasons to Have a Life Coach Business Plan

1. Planning
2. Goal-setting and attainment
3. Marketing

Planning

Writing something down is actually a form of planning. You can think about things in your head all day long, and you might have a great memory, but if you don’t write it down, you are going to forget some of it and not have it properly organized. Writing it down will help you create a structure for your plan, sort out what you really want from your business, and help you stay on track by offering a guide.

Goal-Setting and Attainment

You can’t have a business and not have goals. What type of coach do you want to be? Who do you want to coach? How much money do you want to make?

You should write down specific goals:

• How many clients do you want to have – by the first month, the first year, the fifth year, etc.?
• How much do you want to be able to charge – by the first month, the first year, the fifth year, etc.?
• What other products/services do you want to introduce, and the timeline you have for these new offerings.
• Personal goals – health, wealth, travel, relationships – working people can’t separate their work life from other aspects of life. You need to keep these personal goals in mind as you create and develop your business.

Most goals should be realistic – if you are just starting out and have no clients, a goal of over 20 clients by the end of the month is not realistic. If you made $10,000 as a coach last year, having a goal of $150,000 this year is probably not attainable. Creating goals that aren’t attainable will only discourage you and eventually lead you to give up the possibility for a great career.

However, putting a few goals into your life coach business plan that are a bit off the chart is not necessarily a bad thing. Shoot for the moon and stars, but also have reasonable goals as stepping stones to those more whimsical ones.

Marketing

Ah…marketing – that necessary evil that many coaches avoid like the Plague. But, you can’t ignore it – it’s fundamental to the success of you life coaching business. Every life coaching business plan must contain marketing and promotional information.

You marketing plan should include:

• Types of marketing you need to do
• Your target market
• Strategies, goals, tactics that will help maximize your marketing potential
• Ways to get better at marketing, or who to hire to create a better marketing system
• An actual timetable that lists your marketing goals – again, make them realistic!

If you want more income, if you want your business to succeed in the long-term, and if you want to have a presence in the coaching world, you need a life coach business plan. Don’t delay – whether you are just starting out or whether you have been in business for years and have avoiding writing a plan, now is the time to sit down and create a reasonable and viable life coach business plan.