Hey healthy lady!
In this deep-dive blog post, I am going to be sharing my secret, step-by-step process for creating an effective business plan so you can reach consistent $5K months with a solid action plan - one tailored to you, and the healthy and wealthy ‘lifestyle business’ you want to create.
I’ll be explaining the ONLY 3 things you need to focus on to get clients and make great money - and ultimately hit those $5k months as a health coach or wellness entrepreneur.
Then we’ll take a sneak peek at the 3 biggest mistakes that health coaches and wellness entrepreneurs often make when they're getting started or struggling to find success so that you don’t make them too!
1. Clarify Your Vision & The Lifestyle You Want To Create
I want to start by talking about lifestyle - and why is it SO important to get clarity on what you want from your business and your lifestyle right from the very beginning.
Most women get into a business like health coaching because they are absolutely driven by a deep desire to help others, and do meaningful work in the world - and at the same time, they are also looking to design a business that’s going to offer themselves more freedom and fulfilment, and that’s going to fuel their health and happiness.
For many finding that freedom and fulfilment does mean breaking away completely from the corporate 9-5 schedule - whereas for others it may mean building their business part-time.
We all have very different visions for our businesses, but for most of us a career like this represents a nourishing “freedom lifestyle” that we’d very much like to design; so it is SO important to create our business right from day one knowing what that vision is.
Because we don’t want to build a path and build a business that gets us locked into a lifestyle that isn’t even what we wanted in the first place, do we?! Which is why now, at the very beginning, is the time to chart that path (the right path), make the plan, and start working towards it.
2. Find What Drives You In Your Business
One of my very favourite books is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - this is a classic book on money and wealth consciousness, and if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend that you do!
In it, the author explains that you need a burning desire for money and success to come your way. And as we step into building our own businesses, I couldn't agree more - we need to have that drive if we are going to thrive as entrepreneurs.
Because we’re no longer turning up to a boss, or working set hours sitting at our desk. We actually have to have passion and determination in ourselves to go for our dreams!! ✨
Which is why it is essential and important to find and identify the burning desire that drives us. That is what keeps us going in building our business when ‘the going gets tough’ or we’re lacking energy and motivation.
And 100% YES, money can be that burning desire - and in Napoleon Hill’s book he talks about that specifically - the burning desire of how much money we want to make and why that’s important to us.
But for women, we’ve got really clear that our dreams and our desire for money and financial freedom are not JUST about having money in the bank.
Because we’re often after something different - something beyond only money.
Our definition of success is maybe more complex than the men that the book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ was written for many moons ago.
We're not just looking for money, we're looking for more.
So, why are you building a business and what are you looking for?
I’m going to drop a list in here that actually came from a Huffington Post article on what women define as ‘success’ today.
And there are many different ideas in here - so as you read these, have a little think:
Why do you want success in your business? What does success really mean to you? What is that burning desire that’s going to make you so committed and driven in your business - because you cannot wait to have that essence or experience in your life?
Is it:
Realising that your contribution to the world is valued.
Making a difference by teaching others to achieve success.
Living and loving FULLY, without shame and without apology.
Promoting a just or good cause.
Going to the beach every day.
Making your family happy by spending more time with them.
Maybe it’s playing an active role in gender equality.
Having the ability to control your own schedule.
Being healthy and having a job that helps other women do the same.
Having the strength to try, try again even when you fall on your face.
Being proud of yourself.
Doing your best, and being grateful for everything good in life.
Finding a healthy balance between a loving home and a career you enjoy.
Having clients in your life who always make you smile.
Loving what you get to do for a living.
Doing something truly impactful and knowing you're helping others.
Finding the good in life’s inevitable imperfections.
Knowing that your daughter will be able to stand up for what’s right and not be afraid to be herself around others.
Being able to be in the moment, instead of constantly go, go, go.
Using your unique strengths, skills and experiences in your work.
As we look through this list we can see that our definition of 'success' is often connected to how we show up for others; how we feel about ourselves as the head hits the pillow at night; how we feel about the difference we’ve made... and what sense of peace and purpose that we’ve felt during the day.
And this does not mean we don’t want to be wealthy in a financial sense - we absolutely 100% do - but women in general also want to be wealthy in a more holistic soul-fuelled sense, too. And I want you to know that you can have both.
When we get clear that the desire for money can actually enable and facilitate a lot of these things in our life - connecting to that purpose can be what drives us forward.
And helps us realise we can make a change when we start to serve others, and we start to be served with a great income that allows us to live our biggest life.
Take some time to journal your thoughts on what is important to you; what does success mean to you; and what YOUR burning desire is.
3. Journal ON Your 2-Year Business Journey
Now let’s start to map out what you want from your business in a more practical sense. There doesn’t have to be any right or wrong here, but start to brainstorm through now as I read you some questions.
Where do you want your business to be in a couple of years?
I'm not just talking, “I need $50k this month, or $100k in 6 months.” Let those big, grandiose concepts drop away, and get into a grounded reality of where you want to build your business to in a couple of years' time - a sustainable business that fuels you and the lifestyle you want.
Where do you want your business to be a couple of years from now??
Get that vision clear in your mind. Journal on it.
How does your day look? How does your week look? What and where would your dream business be - if you absolutely knew you could create anything in two years?
Now, with the end in mind, it's time to rewind the tape back to the present moment. It’s like we’ve just loaded that next two years into an old VHS or cassette tape and we’re rewinding it back to today. 😛
As you rewind it you might get some visions, or maybe not. It’s perfectly fine… write down or journal on what comes to your mind. And now we’re back in the present moment.
Next, I want you to hit fast forward to 6 months from now. In 6 months from now, you’re a 1⁄4 of the way into that two-year goal. Take a couple of moments now and journal.
In the next 6 months, or even 6 to 12 months, how is your life looking? How will your days look? What happens when you first wake up in the morning? What are you doing during the day? How many clients are you working with as a coach? Are you working with clients every day, some days, mornings, evenings, weekends?
It might not be at the ultimate dream outcome yet, but you’re pretty well on your way.
Start to get a picture - 6 months on your way to the 2-year goal.
How is your lifestyle looking? Is there more freedom? Is there more time with your kids or your husband or your girlfriends? Are you going to yoga more?
And then pull that back a little bit to 3 months.
How many days or hours a week would you like to be working in 3 months from now? The financial income and freedom will be coming later, these months are where you start to build.
What’s important to happen in 3 months?
When you pull that tape back, how many clients would you need or want to be working with in 3 months? And what else are you choosing to do in your days? How’s your week looking? Relationships? Health and Happiness? What’s going on in your life in 3 months?
Then this next bit is very important...
Between that 3-month vision and TODAY, it’s likely that some things are going to have to shift or change. You’re going to have to commit to something, say no to something, and say yes to something. WHAT needs to change?
That is ESSENTIAL to get clear on.
What would your goals be for a 3-month period from today to reach that first vision? Trusting that that first 3-month vision will lead you to the 6 months, will lead you to the 12, will lead you to the 2 years.
Is there anything that jumps to mind? Like: “Amanda, there’s no way that I could reach that in 3 months if I’m on the path I am now!”
Get crystal clear.
I encourage you to delve deeper into this exercise. Journal on each of those points in your business journey – definitely spend longer at the two-year mark and allow yourself to dream bigger!!
Maybe you reflect and think: “Oh, actually in two years if I’m honest I’d like to be talking on stage; I’d like to be flying around the world; I’d like to be on a magazine cover; I’d like to have 40 clients; I’d like to only have 10 clients.”
What’s that bigger dream for you? Keep playing this week with the different levels of the timelines and set your own mini goals for the next 3 months that will help get you there.
4. Create Your Healthy Wealthy ACTION Plan
Now we’re going to drill down into mapping out a plan that can bring your big picture vision into reality - at least from a business perspective.
As a health coach, I encourage you to sell what I call Purposeful Packages - aka: your signature coaching program - as opposed to selling single sessions.
Download your free guide to Create your Purposeful Package Here >>
Here is how you will make your Healthy Wealthy Action Plan: If you were selling $1,000 3-month coaching packages - and you were aiming for a $5K per month income - you would need to be selling five packages a month.
You’d have 5 clients the first month, 10 by the second, 15 by the third - at which point your first 5 clients would have finished their program - and then you’d just keep replacing them with 5 new clients.
So you would never be working with more than 15 clients at any one time. (( This is the example I often give in my trainings for a $5k month - which you can watch here. ))
But not everybody wants a $5k month, or not everybody wants 5 new clients a month!
And not everybody wants to charge $1,000 for a coaching package. Some of you might actually be ready to charge $2,000 for a package; some of you might only want to charge $500...
So I want you just to take some time to map this out, and start working backwards from that vision you just had - how many hours a week did you see yourself working? How many clients? How much money did you need?
We need to do some maths at this stage and work out: For you to have that dream lifestyle and reach your goal income, how many clients would you need to be working with - and at what price point?
You can either start as I have here with the money: So this is a $5k plan.
Let’s say you want $4K – maybe you only need to get 4 clients a month. Maybe you can only take 4 new clients, but you want the $5K in there so your package may be $1,250.
There’s 3 key factors to keep in mind here: The price of your package, how many clients you want to have, and how many hours you want to work!
So you must get clear on:
How much you want to charge per package to create the income you want…
How many clients can you take on – max – and then break that down into how many you would need each month…
Look at your schedule - is it realistic, how does it feel? How many days or hours can you work each week - does this plan honour that?
For some of you, you’ll look at this standard $5k per month plan and think YES!!
“This is my plan, Amanda! This is exactly what I’m going to do. Five new clients a month, $1,000 for a 3 month program, over time I’ll build it to a 15 client maximum load, and I’d like to work part time.”
For others, you’ll be going: “No way. I only actually want two clients at a time, or two new clients a month. Or say I can take a maximum of 6 clients because I’m going to work weekends only.”
I want each of you to map out your own plan of clients here. ☺️
5. Understand The Foundations of Building A Health Coaching Biz
Now let’s look at some of the foundations of building a coaching business. This picture below is possibly the MOST important piece to get your head around. Yes, it can look so simplistic - but this really is everything you need to build a successful health coaching business. ⤵️
So, let’s work backwards...
To get clients you need to get Discovery Sessions. (For those who don’t know Discovery Sessions is the term I use for a sales call. Some health coaching schools call it a Health History - like IIN does.) I have a very set way that I teach my clients to do a Discovery Session that really converts.
You can download my 7 Step Simple Sales Script here >>
Working backwards again…
You can’t get a client without a sales call. And the only way you can get a sales call or a Discovery Session is by getting your offer in front of people 😊. Those first 2 big boxes!!
As a health coach, 80% of your work is about getting yourself and your message in front of ideal clients who would love to buy from you.
There are different ways to get in front of people. In-person there’s things like signature talks, presentations, workshops, networking events.
You can also do this online: Building a list and nurturing your following through a newsletter. Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories, YouTube - all your social media channels! - blogging, guest posting, through investing in Facebook ads.
In general, I find that most people I work with think they’ll just dive in online and that will be the quick fix for their biz, and the clients will come rolling in.
But, actually, most clients at the beginning will come through the ‘in-person’ channels. It takes time to build the online pieces, which is why getting clients online is step 2, not 1.
I want these 3 boxes in the diagram above to really be ingrained in your brain.
There’s nothing more important.
There’s nothing more to a coaching business than this. It’s actually very simplistic. I think a lot of people over-complicate it!
At the end of the day, you need to get yourself and your offer in front of people. You need to invite people to work with you. You need to hold your Discovery Session, and then you need to convert those prospects into clients.
It’s a numbers game too - so to get four clients you might need to do about 10 discovery calls a month. And to get 10 discovery sessions then you need to get in front of a bigger number of people each month!
Your focus is going to be getting yourself in front of people and getting your offer out there - so that your dream clients know that you have a solution for something that they’re looking for.
6. The Biggest Mistakes I See My Clients Making
I do want to share these 3 big mistakes that I see many people make, so that you don’t make them too! 😬
Hiding behind the computer – I get the thinking that if we spend hours on Facebook perfecting a single post, or getting our blog perfect or getting the logo perfect (is it purple, or pink, or teal, or black?!) is going to bring us clients. The hard truth is, it’s NOT! Don’t fall into perfectionism, don’t sweat the details, and don’t neglect the in-person pieces.
Getting bogged down in technology – Yes, technology will come into play when you start taking your business online, but if you’re spending hours trying to figure out how to fix some code or button on your website, your time and energy is being spent in the wrong place. You didn’t become a health coach or life coach (or whatever heart-centred business you’ve started) to be a tech expert. So be really, really careful here. People can convince themselves they’re working ‘on’ their business by doing this, but really it’s an avoidance tactic or just black and white wasting time!!
Not taking ‘imperfect action’. We need to be in action of some kind in all stages in growing our business, but nothing you do is ever going to be perfect. But we need to keep taking consistent imperfect action at all times and keep going in the game anyway - because when you’re in the game that’s when the confidence and the clarity and your client-base and cash-flow is going to build.
7. Don’t Compare And Stay In Your Own Lane…
Finally, I feel called to end this blog post by reminding you to NOT compare yourself to others. Each and every one of us is on our own path and it’s so important never to compare yourself to others.
I KNOW it’s very easy to say this - and perhaps less easy to practice...
We’re in the online world and we see other health coaches and one day we’re feeling inspired by their content and want to be like them - but the next day we’re like, “Oh my gosh there’s no room for me in this industry, they’ve already done it!” It's a double-edged sword.
Staying on your own path and TRUSTING that you’ve been called to be a health coach for a reason - and you will bring your own unique message into the world in a way that nobody else can - is key. 🗝
The truth is…
If 100 health coaches today all lined up on a stage in front of thousands of people and you all said exactly the same message - some people in that audience would only be able to hear it from you.
They needed to either hear it from YOU - whatever it might be – the exact words that you used; the nuance of YOU. Some people can only hear it from you. Some people are not inspired by those who already are out there and are waiting for you to show up.
And what makes you unique is when you share YOUR truth on the matter – yes, even if it seems different to what everyone else is saying or what’s trending right now. Be brave enough to share what YOU think.
When you're brave enough to put that out into the world, THAT’S when you're going to SHINE – online and off (whatever medium you choose) – and people will be coming to you saying, “There was just something about you I felt so connected to!”
That’s where the magic will happen. 💛
So remember, stay in your own lane! Don’t look around, because it’s SO easy when we’re building our business to get distracted; and we can lose our confidence very quickly when we see what others are doing. Don’t look around and compare – that will slow you down. It’s never going to serve you.
Wallace D. Wattles - who wrote another of my favourite wealth consciousness books, The Science of Getting Rich - says that wealth can only come from creation, not competition.
My own experience of this has been:
When I get down to work and pour out my heart into a blog post, a workshop, a talk, or whatever it might be - even coaching my clients! - if I just stay true to my voice and not worry about anything else that’s out there - it flows, it thrives, and it shines.
The minute I look around – which, by the way, we will all do and we’ll inevitably fall off the no-comparison wagon! – the wealth is no longer flowing.
And by wealth I don’t just mean financial wealth – I mean the freedom in you; the abundance in you; the fulfilment and happiness in you. If you stay in your true creation and just block out the world and bring forth your message, wealth will flow.
Love,
Amanda xx
PS: Do you have a little more time on your hands? Read of these blog posts - they’re your perfect next steps:
How To Get Your First 10 Clients: 10 Super-Simple Steps For New Health Coaches! >>
How to Build An Online Following: The Definitive Guide For Health Coaches + Wellness Entrepreneurs >>
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