Get Your Panties Out of a Wad and Make More Money

Every day, coaches waste time, money and energy trying to master “the perfect” marketing strategies for their business. They know that if they just get it right and integrate the one, perfect, magic marketing strategy into their business, it will be the answer to their prayers – they’ll coach more clients and make more money. And more importantly, they’ll finally be successful at what they set out to do.

Entrepreneurs get so consumed with the various marketing strategies in the world of business that they focus so much time, money and energy learning and perfecting the strategies, and hardly any time integrating the strategies; much less seeing the results.  There are so many choices – speaking venues, webinars, free teleclasses, networking, advertising, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, sample sessions, authoring a book, and on and on and on.  People get caught up in making sure they select the “right one” because if they don’t, they fear their business will surely fail.  Don’t get me wrong. Marketing is essential in business. And the strategies I’ve listed will bring success.  The problem is that too much focus is placed on them while little or no focus is placed on what a coach is naturally good at (and loves to do).  Why make it harder than it has to be?

This leaves coaches with, as Kate and I call it, their panties in a wad and all out of sorts. They are frustrated because they’re making no headway toward getting clients. The “perfect” marketing solution they just knew was going to be “the one” to lead them to their success has not generated the results they hoped for.  And when one strategy doesn’t work, they are off to spend more time and more money locating the next “perfect” strategy to be the answer to their prayers.  This vicious cycle leaves a coach distracted from the goldmine right in the palm of their hands.  But they are so focused on marketing, they aren’t cashing in on the results that could be achieved in their business, simply by being the best at what they do – supporting their clients.

When a coach can place their attention toward integrating Exquisite Client Support, the ripple effect can begin.  You see, you are already magnificent at supporting your clients during the coaching session. It’s true, right? You’re an amazing coach and your clients LOVE how you support them.  The misconception is that this level of support is only done during the actual coaching session.  The truth is that when you can apply this same level of support from the moment they become a potential client, all the way to the end of their coaching agreement, and beyond, you create raving fans, which leads to referrals of new clients.  Your clients actually do your marketing for you!  And when you provide this level of support to your clients, they experience a faster return on their investment and accomplish even more than they originally set out to with you.  This leads to extended client agreements, and a bigger impact on your bottom line.

The key to integrating this type of support is to leverage your time, to automate the interaction and to bring consistency to the way in which you support your clients.  The goal is to spend less time as you provide more in-depth support – and it is possible.

I had someone once tell me that they experienced success in their business not because they mastered the absolute, perfect marketing strategy, but because they simply became the best at what they did.  Their clients loved them; they got the results they originally desired (and beyond) and regularly referred new clients to them, to the point they had to create a waiting list. In fact, one client was willing to wait 6 months to work with her because she was so good.  Imagine having a waiting list of your A+ clients.

When you place your attention externally on trying to figure out the right marketing to apply in your business, the typical result is analysis-paralysis.  So get your panties out of a wad, recognize the goldmine within you and become the best at what you do.  Cash in on the amazing way you are already supporting and being of service to your clients. It’s time to take it beyond the coaching session.  And the result will be an increase in your revenue, extended client agreements, and raving fans willing to wait 6 months to work with you.

Are you ready to cash in on the goldmine in the palm of your hands, to be the best at what you do? If your answer is yes, we invite you to join our Business Success Inner Circle of coaches, growing their businesses, and making a big difference, and money, too!  We so believe in this business growth program, we are offering the first two months FREE! Try it out; you will soon be leveraging your own strategic partners to create more clients and to make the difference you are meant to make.

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Charging What You Are Worth

Have you ever had the following battle in your head (be careful, this is treacherous territory you are venturing into)?

“I’m fresh out of school and just starting my coaching business so people won’t pay as much for my coaching services as they would a more experienced coach.”

OR

“If I can just get them to understand how coaching works, i can justify my prices so they’ll want to hire me.”

If you have ever had these thoughts (and by the way there are many others) then you are not alone.  Many coaches buy into these two myths when it comes to setting up their coaching model and establishing their prices and, as a result, lose hundreds and even thousands of dollars each month.

This article will bust through these myths and equip you with what is necessary to charge what you are worth and what you deserve.

First – stop selling coaching.  If you attempt to sell coaching as a service you will immediately create the resistance within the prospect of, “Is this worth spending my money on?”, and the only battle in front of you is to overcome ALL of the objections the prospect has as to why they shouldn’t spend their money on your services.  Start selling the end results.  Remember those MasterCard commercials when they portrayed two or three examples of how much something cost, and the final example (which by the way was always the end result) was always “…priceless!”?  When you help the prospect paint the picture of the end result they will accomplish in their life as a result of working with you, your services now become “…priceless!”

Second – stop discounting all that practice coaching you did with your peer coaching buddies while in school.  Did you know on average that when a coach finishes their coach training they will have acquired over 350+ hours of coaching?!  That isn’t anything to dismiss, yet when you have the thought of “I’m a new coach so I should charge less”, you are doing exactly that – discounting the time, energy and investment you made in your coach training.  Start owning all the hard work and investment you’ve put into yourself and account for those hundreds of hours you completed during your training.

Third – implement systems and processes so that you are 100% sure that you can and will deliver on what you’ve promised your prospects.  Many coaches attempt to get their clients without having a solid business foundation in place.  What they don’t realize is that when they run their business this way, the often unconscious energy within themselves is, “Oh crap, now what do I do?!” when it comes to servicing their clients.  Nothing wreaks havoc on a coach charging what they are worth than an underlying worry and doubt about making sure their clients are getting what they deserve.  If you do not have systems in place and you are not 100% confident you can deliver for your clients, you will diminish the fees you charge – because you have to; you’re only providing mediocre services to your clients so they should only pay you mediocre prices for what you do.

So how do you establish your prices?

Here are a few pieces of information that will help you formulate your model and your fees:

1. On average, a successful coach in this industry is charging in the upper $300’s to low $400’s/month for private 2-3 coaching sessions/month.  And $150 – $200/month for group coaching.
2. The average one-on-one coaching agreement duration is for 6 months. The average group coaching duration is 3 months.
3. New coaches should charge no less than $350/month for their services (that is my personal opinion and not backed by any research other than the hundreds of coaches I’ve worked with over the years)
4. Pro-bono and Barter clients should be limited to a set number (1-2 clients/month at most)
5. “Friends & Family” discount should be limited to a set number (1-2 clients/month at most)

A few Key Points to know you’re on the right path to charging what you are worth:

1. When you think you’ve set your fee, double that number (now we are getting somewhere); I’m serious!!!  Most coaches, without realizing it, charge only HALF what their services are worth!  Double the number and stand fiercely for the difference coaching makes in this world!
2. When you think of the dollar amount you’ve set as your monthly fee and you have this slight sensation of vomiting – you’re close.  Then practice saying that fee into the mirror to get used to the number rolling off your tongue.
3. When you hear a prospect say, “That’s all you charge for your services?” – You’ll know you’re on the right path because what you actually charge ($400/month) is considerably less than “…priceless!”
4. When you can proudly (even though it scares the crap out of you) stand for the fees you are charging and think, “Damn, I’m getting paid this much to do what I love”, you’ll also know you’re on the right path!

Be fierce when it comes to setting your business model and prices.  You, better than most, know how powerful the impact of coaching is on someone’s life.  Be fierce and be greedy because the business of coaching is changing lives, one person at a time. Demand nothing less than what you deserve. Demand nothing less than what the client deserves. And you both will walk away knowing the world is a better place because of it.

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How to Respect Money

Guest Post by Barbara Stanny, The leading authority on women and money. Barbara is a Best Selling Author, Motivational Speaker, Workshop facilitator, Money and Wealth coach and Coach Trainer.  Original post on BarbaraStanny.com.

There’s a big difference between making a good living and enjoying a good life. You demonstrate respect and appreciation for money the same way you would anything else of value in your life, be it an heirloom rug, an expensive hand tool, a close friend, or cash in hand. If you want it to last, you’ve got to take care of it. Throw it around carelessly or ignore it completely and guess what’s going to happen?

Remember, my goal is not just to put a fatter paycheck in your pocket. I want to help you achieve financial independence, which means making a good living and enjoying a good life, where money enhances your well-being, not exacerbates your stress. Financial independence does not come from what you earn. It comes from what you do with what you have. No matter how sizable your salary, the money will slip through your fingers if you bypass this step.

Yet this step is frequently neglected, even by the best and the brightest. It was the biggest surprise I had when interviewing six-figure women. With earnings that ranged anywhere from $100,000 to $7 million, the whopping majority, as confident as they were professionally, were surprisingly insecure financially. They were so busy making money they didn’t bother to take care of it.

Of all the people I’ve interviewed for my books, or met during my travels, I can safely say, the ones with the highest net worth were not necessarily the ones who made the most money. They were the ones who took the best care of their money.

Rampant, unintentioned spending is often the culprit. Like Pavlov’s dog salivating when it hears the dinner bell, as soon as people boost their earnings, ‘Ka-ching,’ they bump up their spending, then wonder where those extra bucks went.

THE CHOICE IS YOURS
Making conscious, deliberate choices about what you do with your money is precisely what this step is all about. And as I see it, there are only four choices you need to make to fully respect and appreciate money. I call these four choices the Four Rules of Money.
1. Spend Less (Only buy what you can easily afford)
2. Save More (Pay yourself first)
3. Invest Wisely (Put money in assets that grow in value over time.)
4. Give Generously (Use your money to make a difference )

Most of us have the giving generously part down pat. But unless you handle the first three, giving can become an act of self-sabotage. Not only do you jeopardize your future security, but you diminish the impact you can have with your money. Read more

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Pay-It Forward – Coach’s Challenge

Tom and I were watching football the other night and, as men and their remotes will do, at commercial time Tom changed channels to see what else might be on of interest. We stumbled upon the movie “Pay It Forward”.  A wonderful heartening story about a teacher and his class of, I believe, fifth graders and the challenge he gave each of them: Think of a way to change our world and put it into action.

We were at first charmed, and by the end, football went by the wayside and became the commercial filler for the movie.  The story unfolded as the young man, Trevor, decided to do nice things for people, whether he knew them or not and whether they asked for it or not.  He felt in this way he might at least make a difference in the lives of others to the small extent he could and that when they asked what they could do in return for him… he asked each of them to do something unexpectedly nice for 3 others and so on…his system: Pay it Forward…

Trevor’s system did not always work as he had expected or hoped and at times he was down right depressed that it seemed he was not even able to start the ball rolling.  Several of his initial attempts were thwarted either by the person who received the good deed not responding and paying it forward or other times he ran into people’s inability to deal with their own fears in order to take the necessary steps to enjoy the gift he gave.  Trevor’s determination stayed true and he created enough awareness that eventually a reporter interviewed him on TV about his goal for “Pay It Forward”.  He explained that it takes a person that is willing to be strong and sometimes overcome their fears to really make a difference.  Each person has to choose to go out on a bit of a limb, take a risk, but that the rewards were worth the effort.  He also commented that if you never try anything different, then you may be missing the best life has to offer, you will stay in your comfortable and gray world and miss the warmth, connection and Technicolor that could be.

Trevor learned there were no guarantees with his experiment, but he made the conscious decision to continue to try it anyway. His experiment did not fail with me, as I write this article to share with each of you.

Today, I parked in town and bought a $5.00 parking permit.   When I was ready to leave there was an older gentleman struggling to figure out the parking computer.  I handed him my ticket, which was good for another two hours.  He was delighted and asked if he could pay me for it…. I told him to pay it forward… Thanks Trevor!

To me this story is all about abundance and learning to give unconditionally…Giving of the overflow… it has been called… is all about learning the spirit of money and good deeds (which are often substituted for cash) It is in the spirit of money that we begin to attract abundance. In the spirit of money we discover it’s true value and power. The spirit of money is where philanthropy lives. Have you ever wanted to create a foundation to support a great cause?  Learn the spirit of money and you will soon attract an overflow to share as you wish.

Coach’s Challenge:
“Pay It Forward”. Then, if you accept, I challenge each of you to do something nice and unexpected for 3 people, if they ask how to repay you, tell them: “Pay it forward!” I figure if 100 people read this article and just 30 of you take my challenge …then Trevor, and our world, will have won exponentially!

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