What To Focus On To Make More Money In Your Health Coaching Business

I hear it from my clients all the time…

“I want to start earning money soon so I can prove this business is viable and not just a hobby.”

“I want to feel confident that I can earn enough money to quit my job in the next 12 months.”

If you’re a newer coach, it can be so frustrating trying to figure out where to start when you want to bring in income quickly.

It seems like there are a lot of directions you can go and you’re not sure which path will get you where you want to go most quickly.

There are a number of ways to build a successful business, but if you want to start bringing in 3-5K per month consistently, I have one great big piece of advice for you.

Put all of your focus into getting one-on-one clients.

This is the same advice that I share with all of my clients when they’re trying to get their footing as a new health coach.

I know this contradicts with a lot of the information out there, but in my experience this is the best way for you to start bringing in a sizeable income consistently.

There are a few reasons one-on-one clients will pay the bills faster:

• Higher investment per client – each client you work with one-on-one will invest more with you than participants in a group program
• Fewer clients are needed to earn the same amount of money – again, if a client is paying more, you’ll need fewer to reach your income goals
• A large audience isn’t required – you don’t need a list of subscribers or a large social media following to sign-on one-on-one clients
• It’s the best way to get experience – creating large group and online programs is often the goal for health coaches, but working one-on-one with clients first will help you to discover your unique coaching style and figure out what your clients are really asking for

Plain and simple, one-on-one clients invest more for the support you provide them. Plus, the time and money it costs you to attract one-on-one clients is lower than filling a large online or group program.

 
To be successful getting one-on-one clients, put your focus in these three areas:

#1 Define Your Coaching Programs

You don’t need a fully customized curriculum and unique-to-you program to start out, but you do need to have a program to tell clients about!

When talking to potential clients, you want to make the coaching package feel tangible. Your program should have a name and a price, and you want to be able to communicate how this will help your potential clients achieve their main goal or alleviate their main pain point.

I recommend setting up 3 programs when you are starting out:

1. Low cost group program

I call this type of program an ‘easy yes’ program, because the investment is low but your clients will still get results in a short period of time.

I know what you’re thinking. “Amy, you said I should be getting 1:1 clients, why are you telling me to set up a low-cost group program?” Well, hear me out.

Even though getting 1:1 clients is the fastest way to meet your income goals, offering an easy “yes” program can actually help you reach that goal – if you get strategic about it.

The mistake I see coaches making with offering easy-yes programs is when they try to meet their income goals solely from enrolling a lot of people into their group program.

This is a really difficult thing to do when you’re a newer coach and don’t yet have a large audience.

The strategic route I recommend to my clients is using your easy-yes program to quickly get new clients, then upsell them into working with you one-on-one.

You see, once they’ve enrolled in your short group program and started to see results, some of your group participants will be so thrilled with what they’ve seen that they’ll want further support from you.

2. Mid-Range 1:1 Program

Your mid-range offer can be a 3-month program (which you can also call a 90-day or 12-week program) where you work closely with clients.

Instead of scheduling coaching calls every other week, set-up your program to have 3-4 calls each month. This will allow you and your clients to build momentum, maintain consistency and (most importantly) accelerate their results.

If you’ve offered an ‘easy yes’ program, you can offer this as their “next step” to continue working with you.

3. High End Program

Your high end offer can be almost identical to your 3 month offer but with a few extras.

This may be something you’ve never envisioned before, but allow yourself to get creative.

As a new coach, you might fear that you can’t sell high end packages.

You might think that you should focus on lower priced offerings, but here’s the deal….

Many clients want a high level of support and are willing to pay for it!

In my health coaching practice, my highest-end offering was by far the most popular.

And keep in mind that if you’re a newer coach, you’re probably not going to start out charging extremely high rates. This program will simply be a higher investment than your mid-range program. And over time, you’ll gradually increase your rates.

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed with the thought of having to create 3 different programs, you don’t have to! There are so many done-for-you programs available that you don’t need to spend months and months creating something from scratch.

#2 Choose 1 or 2 Proven Marketing Strategies

I often see health coaches struggle because they’re trying to do too many things at once, especially when it comes to marketing strategies.

If you’re trying to market your business in lots of different ways you’ll spread yourself thin and you probably won’t do a great job with any of them. (This was my experience in my early days as a health coach.)

This is why I recommend picking just one or two tactics and really dedicating your time and energy there.

When you’re brand new or getting your footing, my top proven strategies are:

• Speaking
• Organic Networking
• Forming Referral Partnerships
• Traditional Networking

I go into detail about each one of these strategies and who they’re best for in this article.

#3 Get good at ‘closing the deal’ aka sales

Getting potential clients to say ‘yes’ during your initial consultations is one of the best skills you can develop as a new coach.

It’s the difference between spending a lot of time giving out free advice, and getting to work deeply with one-on-one clients who appreciate you and pay you for your time.

As a wellness practitioner, you might feel resistance or discomfort with selling.

But being good at sales doesn’t mean you have to do anything icky, sleazy or dishonest.
What it really means for health coaches is connecting with the people who need your help, and giving them the confidence to say ‘yes’ to doing something for themselves.

This isn’t icky. When you learn the art of closing the deal, you’ll actually feel that you’re being of service.

A big part of being skilled at leading a potential client to a yes is by articulating the value in what you offer and communicating the potential results they can achieve.

Let’s think about this from a numbers standpoint.

Let’s say you’re having 4 initial consultation calls every month, and you’re focused on selling your mid-range program which is $997.

If you’re closing only 25% of your calls, that’s only 1 new client per month and $997.

If you’re closing the deal 75% of the time, that’s 3 new clients every month and $2,991.

For the same amount of time that it takes to book 4 initial consultations you could triple your income.

You can see how fine-tuning your ability to close the deal can make a huge difference in the success of your business.

 
Now I’d love to hear from you.
Have you been focusing on getting one-on-one clients? How do you think you could be more effective at getting clients consistently?