Are You Ready for a VA?

I’m A New Coach. How Would a VA Assist Me?

This is one of our most common questions and one of the biggest problems that new coaches have to face. Throughout coach training, you heard that you need a VA to help you with your new practice. However, you didn’t understand what that meant. Maybe the following questions crossed your mind:

1. How do I get my coaching business up and running with a VA? Or without?
2. What would a VA be looking for from me? Am I ready for a VA?
3. What do I want from my VA? What should I be looking for?
4. What other systems, applications, or processes do I need?
5. Will a VA be worth my money and time investment right now?

In this article, we will explore Question #2.

What Would a VA Be Looking For From Me? Am I Ready for a VA?

THINK ABOUT YOUR CURRENT RELATIONSHIPS: Look at your friends and family members that you cherish. What types of people are they? What about them is attractive to you? If you had to describe their qualities to someone else, what would you say? On the flip side, what do your friends and family say about your qualities that are attractive? If they had to say only one good thing about you what would it be? Remember that YOUR ideal VA will be attracted to you if presented correctly.

Have you ever watched the show “Bringing Home Baby”? Well, the new parents are chronicled as they make the transition into parenthood, bringing home their new baby. The first week of their life is shared across America from their joy down to their sleepless nights. Those of us who are mothers know that no one can truly be ‘ready’ for a new baby. Each one is slightly different. The same is true about being ready for a VA. You could have the funds to afford a VA and not be ready to handle the relationship. Or you could be ready for the relationship but not able to afford the commitment.

Another good way to get answers to these questions is to join us on August 18 from 5:00 – 6:00 PM Eastern for our next Keys to Success Call: Am I Ready for a VA. On this call, we will discuss some critical steps to take before you work with a VA.

Your facilitator will be Kim Gray, our Certified VA liaison. She has been piloting our newest program, the Inner Circle, with a select group of new and emerging coaches. This pilot group has produced some amazing results and given her some valuable feedback. By attending the call, you will learn about our next Inner Circles scheduled to start in September.

Next month, we will address Question #3: What do I want from my VA? What should I be looking for? So, take the time to reserve your seat on August 18 for our next Keys to Success Call and learn the answer to ”Am I Ready for a VA?”. Who knows? You might be one of our next Inner Circle participants in September!

15 Business Building Strategies for Coaches

During The Coaches’ Edge Extravaganza I had the pleasure of spending the day with 100 successful coaches and 18 industry leaders. Part of the day was devoted to small group networking in which we were grouped into 8-10 coaches per group.   Viki Winterton, co-founder of the Extravaganza and founder of The Coach Exchange, assigned each group to share the best business building strategies that had brought them the most success in their coaching business.

I share a few strategies for business building in this video.

Here is the collection of the Top 15 Best Business Building Strategies that were reported by each of the small groups during the Extravaganza.

1. Treat coaching like a business, not just a hobby.
2. Go with what life brings you rather than what you think it is “suppose” to look like.
3. Leverage your time and energy through creating strategic relationships.
4. Know your target market as well as your niche, they are two different things.
5. Integrate social media strategies, especially a Fan Page on Facebook.
6. Create value add products and tools that create additional revenue streams to compliment your primary services.
7. Always remember that you are not alone; you don’t have to do it all. Leverage the tools, people and resources around you to leverage your way to success.
8. Be true to yourself.
9. Create your “A-team” and use the technologies to help you do so; technologies such as e-lance.com; o-desk.com.
10. Networking. networking. networking. – get out of the house and get face-to-face with people every week.
11. Follow your passion, do what you love.
12. Create powerful conversations with prospect groups – workshops, seminars, retreats in which you can speak to many people in your target market at once.
13. Always do values driven work: values-based marketing, values-based promotions, etc.
14. Go for it!
15. Have fun!

Being one of the panel experts that was presenting later in the day on the topic of “Leveraging the Business Success Formula for Massive Success,” I was thrilled with this topic and actually a bit surprised by the results.  I had anticipated that the groups would share specific marketing strategies, specific types of networking groups, various promotions that were successful for them, or even listing the types of marketing that worked for them (print vs. word of mouth vs. public speaking, etc).  I was so thrilled to see that not only did some of the groups report on these types of tangible strategies, but the list included what I would consider to be part of the attitude or mindset of a business owner.  Creating a thriving business is not always about the strategy, the promotion or the event.  While those are vital and crucial, the mindset and attitude of the business owner is what is the fuel behind the success.

The common theme that permeated throughout the coaches and industry experts participating in The Coaches’ Edge Extravaganza was that in order to be successful doing coaching, you must treat it like a business.  This top 15 list gives a coach a hint at what that statement means.

So what have been your best business building ideas?  We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and let us know what has created success in your coaching business.