How to make your first $3,000 as a health coach
I recently received an email from one of our Wellness Business Academy students sharing the wonderful news that she’s made the decision to quit her corporate job and commit to her business full-time.
Then she dropped a bomb.
“I’ve given myself two months to replace my income before I start looking for another job.” Oy!
That got me thinking… if I had two months to replace a full-time income, what would I do, where would I start, and can it be done?
Heck, YES!
So I decided to write out a step-by-step guide walking my WBA student through her first 60 days of entrepreneurial freedom. This guide is for you too if…
- You want to replace your full-time income but don’t know how
- You aren’t yet making the kind of money you need or desire to be making
- The little free time you do have is being wasted on Facebook because you don’t know what steps to take first
- You’ve committed to growing your business but can’t seem to get it together
DISCLAIMER: Starting a business is hard work and not for the faint of heart. It takes dedication and self-discipline to grow a purpose-based business, especially when you are learning new skills (sales and technology) for the first time.
Yet, DO NOT EVER THINK FOR ONE MINUTE THAT YOU CAN’T DO IT, BECAUSE YOU CAN IF YOU CHOOSE TO. Success is a choice, not an accident. Are you ready to be successful?
Choose the Right Mindset
When I first took my business online I developed a NO PLAN B mindset. For me, for my WBA student and for you, there cannot be a backup plan — “If this doesn’t work out, I’ll go find a job.” Get rid of that option. It simply just doesn’t exist for you anymore.
Appreciate that almost everything you do from here on out will be unknown. You are creating something from nothing, so feeling extremely vulnerable (most of the time) comes with the territory.
Acknowledge the voice in your head — “Who do you think you are?” “Can I really do this?” “Will this work out?” — as a benchmark for creativity. The voices are only there when you push yourself outside of your comfort zone. No voice = you are playing it safe and not pushing your boundaries.
Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, says that before you achieve confidence you have to commit to the project. Commitment ignites feelings of courage. Then you start to feel capable of achieving the task. When you feel capable, you feel confident. You don’t start out feeling confident but you’ll get there by simply committing to a NO PLAN B mindset. Remember, success is not a given, it’s a choice.
Set the Entrepreneurial Stage
Setting the entrepreneurial stage happens before you quit your job. It’s important to set yourself up for success before you hand in the last letter of resignation letter you will ever write.
There is some information you need to gather so you can best determine where to spend your time and money starting up your business.
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
Answer these questions:
- How much money do you NEED to earn to replace your income?
- How much money do you WANT to earn in the first 60 days?
- Do you need to cut back or create a tighter personal budget for the first 60 days?
- How much money do you have to invest in your business?
It’s important for you to know your numbers. Numbers don’t lie and they will become your guideposts as you build your business.
Once you know how much money you need to earn, use that number to help you price your programs and set client attraction and conversion goals.
Here’s an example:
You need to replace a $3,000/month income.
Program # 1: $397 for 6 weeks (group)
Program # 2: $997 for 10 weeks (1:1)
You would need two 1:1 clients and five people in your group to replace one month of income.
The following month you’d need four 1:1 clients to replace the next month of income.
When you know your numbers, you can break the big goal down into little chunks so it doesn’t feel so overwhelming.
PLAN YOUR TIME
Ah, time freedom! Doesn’t it feel good to work on your own schedule? Of course it does. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is that I must manage my time or it will manage me.
Lunches with friends, afternoon coffee breaks, doing personal stuff in the middle of the day just because I can, procrastinating because I am only accountable to myself… then the end of the day comes and I’m miserable because I don’t feel like I’ve gotten anything accomplished.
I’ve been there. It’s not a good feeling.
- Create tight boundaries around personal time, social time, focus time and admin time.
- Identify your magic time and fiercely protect it. (This is the time where you can focus and get more done than you could all day)
- Inform loved ones that you will be tied up for the next 60 days as you start up your private practice and that you appreciate any additional support they can offer.
Do you have a family or are you responsible for anyone else aside from yourself?
Sit down with your spouse or partner and communicate the big reason why you are starting up your own business. As Simon Sinek says, “Start with why.” Ask for support, more support than usual for the next 60 days.
- Write out a list of all household responsibilities
- Write out a list of all child responsibilities
- Write out a list of all personal duties and responsibilities
- Review your calendar for the next 60 days to identify important dates and things that can be rescheduled
What tasks and responsibilities can you delegate? Who in your family or immediate community can take some of the responsibility off your shoulders for a short time?
Write the name of the person down beside the task so it’s clear whose responsibility it is. Remove as much responsibility from your plate as possible… and don’t feel guilty about it!
For example:
Who does the laundry, the grocery shopping, paying the bills, scheduling appointments, getting the mail, walking the dog, packing school lunches, reading the school agenda, cleaning the house, scheduling play dates, buying birthday party presents, and organizing family dinners? (Can you tell I’m also a mom?)
Set and communicate your expectations with your family members and friends — otherwise, you are going to get very annoyed. They don’t know you need a clear headspace and time to focus… all they know is that you are now available to go for coffee in the middle of the afternoon because you now work from home.
It’s perfectly OK to say, “I’m going off the grid for a while so that I can deeply focus on building my dream business. Spending time with you is important to me and please be patient if I don’t get back to you right away.”
PRO TIP: I replace the BUT in that sentence with AND. Read it again with BUT and it doesn’t feel good… use AND/YET whenever you can instead of BUT.
Create the Game Plan
Let’s avoid sitting down at the computer and not knowing where to start or what to focus on each day, OK? Pinky promise?
First, do a brain dump. Get everything swirling around in your head onto paper. It doesn’t need to be organized or neat and it sure won’t be pretty. Get everything out, including your worries and limiting beliefs.
Feel better? Put the paper aside.
Before you dive into creating anything — a website, logo, social media platforms, programs, etc. — you are going to spend time brainstorming and planning. Too many health coaches, nutritionists, energy healers and fitness pros go right into program-creation mode before creating a strategic plan for their business.
WHO, WHAT, WHERE, HOW
Who are you going to be a hero to? What kind of clients do you want to work with?
What are you going to offer them? Short-term/long-term programs?
Where will you facilitate your business? Coffee shop, clinic office, client’s home, Skype?
How will you take payment?
HANDLE THE ADMINISTRATION
- Register your business name (use your own name for now)
- Buy a website domain using your own name
- Register your social media platforms using your own name
- Choose brand colours
- Go to fiverr.com and hire someone to create a logo using your name for $5
- Subscribe to Aweber as your email marketing platform so you can start building your email list
There is NO need to reinvent the wheel. Someone else has already created a “good enough” program for you to use to get started. Since you likely don’t know how to create a turn-key program or have time to spend on creating one, your best solution is to invest in one that’s already done and tweak it as necessary.
Instead of investing money into building a website, use your Facebook page as a website. Don’t worry about any other social media. It’s a distraction right now.
TIME TO GET STRATEGIC
Let’s face it — there is a lot to do each day in order to start up and grow your holistic health business. And most of us have issues with self-discipline, follow-through, and strategically setting goals and a game plan to achieve them.
Revisit the revenue goal = $3,000/month.
We’ve already established how many clients that would take in the first and second month. Now let’s get strategic about it and create a game plan.
How many free talks do you need to give each month?
How many transformational conversion conversations do you need to hold to get the number of clients you need each month?
In your free seminar there are 20 people and you convert 10 percent of the room into clients = 2 new clients. So you would need to get in front of 60–80 people every month to secure 6–8 new clients/month, which is more than what you need.
Of course, over time, your conversion rate will improve so you will need to get in front of fewer people.
So your focus should be on booking speaking gigs with a minimum of 20 people in the room for the first 60 days.
In addition, here’s a list of must-do actions:
- CREATE A CLIENT ATTRACTION LEAD MAGNET – Create a lead magnet that ties in to your program so that you can attract the right kind of client who is interested in that topic/has that pain point (you will use this lead magnet as a free gift in each of your talks to grow your list)
- PLAN YOUR CONTENT IN ADVANCE – Brainstorm weekly blog topics that will double as newsletter content. Think of all of the questions you are asked about the topic you are an expert in, and each one becomes a blog (don’t want to blog? Film a video)
- CREATE A MARKETING CALENDAR TO PROMOTE YOUR CONTENT – What content are you putting out each day?
- SCHEDULE SPEAKING GIGS – Create a pitch email that you can further personalize to introduce yourself and offer free seminars to the 100 businesses and people you’ve already identified. Commit to sending out a minimum of 20 pitches per week
- INVITE PROSPECTS INTO TRANSFORMATION – Email friends, family and colleagues with a description of your business and a share a “family and friends discount” offer to work with you
SUMMARY
Now you have a plan to make you $3,000 as a health coach.
Get the right mindset.
Know your numbers.
Who, what, where, how.
Handle the administration.
Get strategic with your time.
Focus on the action tasks that drive your business forward and forget about everything else.
Take the path of least resistance. There is no need to make this journey harder than it needs to be by overthinking, overanalyzing and second-guessing yourself.
You’ve got this. You can do this!
