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How To Write A Life Coaching Business Plan: 5 Templates
If you’re passionate about helping others fulfill their potential and reach new heights, life coaching could be a truly rewarding career for you.
This guide will show you how to create a coaching business plan that will help you turn your ideas into reality, so that you can start creating value and deliver real results to your life coaching clients.
5 Tips For Starting Your Life Coaching Business
Starting out as a life coach can seem like a big move, and there’s plenty to consider. For many experienced life coaches, it’s balancing the support, guidance, and coaching theory side of things business admin that can be a little tricky.
Maybe you see yourself more as a development professional than an entrepreneur, or perhaps you’ve helped others professionally but never quite had your own practice.
Regardless of where you are in the coaching game, here are some tips that can help you get started building a life coaching business of your own: [1]
- Decide on a clear, unique value offer. Life coaching is incredibly popular, and that’s not changing anytime soon. To distinguish yourself as a coach, think about the unique value you’ll create for your clients – what’s original about the results you can help them achieve, or how you help them get from A to B?
- Consider accreditation. The right life coaching certification can arm you with useful skills and knowledge in your field while boosting your credibility as a coach. There are plenty of qualifications available online for coaches, and you may find one that goes a long way to enhance your marketability.
- Set your business up, practically. Various states, regions, and countries have different systems for registering and starting an online coaching business. Make sure you allow time to collect or create all the coaching forms you’ll need to enroll and manage your clients.
- Develop or curate your coaching resources. To practice, you’ll need tools such as life coaching worksheets , lessons, exercises, videos (if you’re using them), and more. Create a database of all the coaching tools you’ll need so you know just where to find them when you land your first client!
- Create an online presence. Think about how you’ll reach out to clients, and prepare the things that will help you be discovered online. Some examples include a coaching website , social media profile, or listings in online coaching directories. A strategic way to approach this is by developing a marketing strategy, which covers all the ins and outs of how you’ll grow your visibility.
How To Write A Coaching Business Plan: 2 Examples
A coaching business plan should help you clarify why and how you’ll start and run your coaching practice, as well as the tools you’ll need to help others.
Creating a life coaching business plan might sound terrifying, don’t be put off. You can go into more detail if you prefer a comprehensive organizational roadmap, but your business plan should quite simply help you:
- Clarify your “Why” – What is the ultimate purpose of your business? What is your desired future vision for your practice and clients?
- Solidify your “How” – What are your coaching objectives/your mission? What approaches will you use to achieve them?
- Determine your “What” – Understand the interventions, tools, lessons, or solutions that will help you on your mission.
Depending on the depth of detail you’d like to go into, you can break your plan up into more or fewer sections.
The following two coaching business plan examples illustrate this.
Example 1: Lean Life Coaching Business Plan
A lean business plan is ideal for explaining your coaching practice succinctly, or if you’re planning a small coaching business.
Using this USA Small Business Administration sample as a guide, your lean coaching plan might include the following headings: [2]
- Business identity
- Target client
- Client pain points
- Your solution
- Your competition
- Revenue streams
- Marketing activities
- Team and their key roles, and
Lean coaching business plans can be particularly helpful if you’re keen to refine and enhance your business plan as you learn and gain experience.
Example 2: Life Coaching Business Plan Template
This life coaching business plan template from Profitable Venture is a more comprehensive example, starting with an executive summary and ending with a startup expenditure budget. [3]
SWOT and market analyses are used for an in-depth assessment of potential opportunities, threats, and rivals in the coaching industry.
3 Helpful Templates and Samples For Your Plan
Here are a few good examples of coaching business plans, including some extra sections you might want to include:
- 9 Steps to a Lean Life Coaching Business Plan from Coaching Online – this covers a few more sections such as your competition, marketing, and finances [4]
- Traditional Business Plan from the USA Small Business Administration – a traditional business plan that may work well for larger coaching practices [5]
- Business Plan Template for a Startup from Score.org – a 9-step template for new business owners. [6]
Creating A Business Plan For Your Online Coaching Business
Once you’ve decided on the most relevant format for your business plan, you’ll want to formalize it by writing it all down.
You will most likely be referring to it regularly, as you structure, run, manage, and grow your coaching practice, so it’s critical to keep your plan along with the rest of your business documents.
A quick, straightforward solution for most coaches is to create a digital business plan, as we’ve started to do below using Quenza:
Using Quenza’s Activity Builder , you can create custom sections for each element in your plan, as well as text boxes for all the information that will go into your tool.
This helps you store your plan in your coaching portal alongside your Client profiles, activities, and other coaching tools, so your plan is always near at hand as you start to build your business.
To create your own coaching business plan using Quenza’s Activity Builder, simply:
- Open and title a new Activity
- Create sections for each header of your plan, and
- Save your Activity to your Library when it’s done!
You can also print your plan as a PDF, or access and edit at any time on Quenza’s client app, as shown below:
There’s no right or wrong way to create a coaching business plan template, so don’t be afraid to add in headers or sections as your plan grows. As long as your plan takes you through each milestone of building and running your business, you’re on the right path to creating a successful, growing practice.
Best App and Software For Your Coaching Business
Quenza is a state-of-the-art solution for coaching professionals, regardless of where you are in the process of running your business.
Not only can you plan out your business as a first-time coach, but Quenza’s tools can help you deliver solutions, stay in touch with clients, and even market your business as you gain traction.
With Quenza’s features, for example, you can:
- Design, build, and deliver personal and group life coaching solutions
- Craft coaching programs, curricula, or entire e-courses from your existing tools
- Drip feed your solutions to coaching clients automatically, on a schedule
- Create and customize all your coaching contracts , coaching agreements, and feedback forms
- Collect and securely store all your clients’ data with Quenza’s HIPAA-compliant app and coaching platform
- Offer clients a centralized online coaching portal
- Stay in touch with and engage your clients throughout the course of your programs, using notifications, reminders, and multimedia,
- Track, monitor, and evaluate your clients’ progress in real-time, and
- Document your sessions with Quenza’s Client notes.
5 Unique Features Included in Quenza
We’ve already seen how important it is to carve out your niche as a life coach – and of course, you’re most efficient when you decide on your own workflow, processes, and style.
With Quenza’s custom features, you have all the flexibility you need to get creative with solutions and market yourself in a way that suits you.
For instance, you can make use of Quenza’s:
- Multilingual client app – to translate your own or your clients’ Quenza app into 16 different languages, and custom brand colors
- Group or private chat – to share feedback, reminders, or encouragement
- White label feature – to promote your brand by adding your logo to tools, forms, and programs
- Wheel of Life feature – to design personalized life Wheel of Life assessments , and
- Expansion Library – for customizing popular and evidence-based coaching exercises without starting from scratch!
Final Thoughts
These tips, templates, formats, and examples will help you craft a strategic business plan that can get your coaching practice up and running – even if you’ve never started a business in your life.
If you have a template of your own to share with your fellow coaches, do let us know in the comments below.
We hope this article was helpful. Don’t forget to start your 30-day, 1 dollar Quenza trial for all the tools you need to bring your business plan to life!
Quenza’s practitioner tools will help you craft and deliver powerful online coaching solutions from any connected device, and contains everything you need to run your life coaching practice digitally for brilliant client outcomes.
- ^ Truex, L. (2021). How to start a home-based coaching business. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-start-a-coaching-business-1794520
- ^ SBA.gov. (2021). Sample Lean Business Plan. Retrieved from https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2017-12/Sample%20Lean%20Business%20Plan%20-%20Wooden%20Grain%20Toy%20Company.doc
- ^ Profitable Venture. (2021). Life Coaching Business Plan Template. Retrieved from https://www.profitableventure.com/life-coaching-business-plan/
- ^ Coaching-Online.org. (2021). 9 Steps to a Lean Life Coaching Business Plan. Retrieved from https://www.coaching-online.org/life-coach-business-plan/
- ^ SBA.gov. (2021). Write Your Business Plan. Retrieved from https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan
- ^ Score.org. (2020). Business Plan Template for a Startup Business. Retrieved from https://www.score.org/resource/business-plan-template-startup-business
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Sample Life Coach Business Plan: Complete Template & PDF
This sample life coach business plan contains a detailed operating and marketing plan for a life coaching business, including life coaching services, target market, marketing strategies, competition, and financial projections.
It is a downloadable coaching business plan example that is available as a Google Doc, which can be used in Microsoft Word, Apple Pages or as a PDF.
Table of Contents
How to Use This Life Coach Business Plan to Get Clients
Each section this sample life coach business plan contains two parts:
- Coaching Business Plan Template – This includes details on what to put into each section of your business plan.
- Sample Coaching Business Plan Text – This part provides actual text from a real coaching business plan example that you can modify (or leave as is) for your plan.
Since most coaching businesses are started by individuals working as sole practitioners, I’ll focus on one-person businesses in this sample life coaching business plan. You can easily modify this plan if you have partners or are part of a management team. Just replace “I” with “we” and other plural forms.
I’ve also included an overview of financial projections in this coaching business plan example to help you chart a path to starting a coaching business.
Watch the Free Coaching Business Plan Webinar
The hardest part of starting a coaching business is getting clients.
The free webinar that I created as part of this sample coaching business plan shows you the fastest path to building your brand identity and awareness to get clients. It includes SEO for Life Coaches and a List of Life Coaching Keywords. I strongly recommend watching – it’s free! Register below:
Sample Life Coach Business Plan
Let’s start with the sections that make up your life coaching business plan. I include sample text below the description of what to focus on within the section.
The first in your business plan introduction to frame your coaching practice.
1. Coaching Business Plan Executive Summary
Additionally, the executive summary should highlight your key differentiators and explain why your coaching business will be successful.
Most Executive Summaries are at most one or two pages. As a sole practitioner for a life coaching business, your summary can be as brief as a few paragraphs.
Sample Life Coach Business Plan Executive Summary
As a life coach, I am excited to offer my coaching services to help people reach their personal and professional goals. My coaching business plan includes a variety of services that are tailored to each client’s individual needs.
I offer one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and corporate coaching services. I also provide coaching resources, such as books, audio programs, and online courses.
My coaching business is based on the belief that everyone has the potential to achieve their dreams. I am committed to helping my clients reach their full potential through my life coaching services.
Coaching is a very personalized business. Clients need to have a strong rapport with their life coach in order to realize their goals. They also need to trust their coach. To build and maintain that trust, I will build my brand identity and create awareness of my coaching services using content marketing.
This includes SEO keyword research to identify the ideal keyword terms that my target market searches for. I will optimize my local SEO presence on Google and use these keywords as the foundation to launch a social media campaign.
Since I am a sole practitioner, using outside resources will allow me to make the best use of my time. I will take advantage of pre-written content designed for coaches, which I can tweak to include my personal notes and experiences.
Doing so will enable me to go to market faster and maintain my online presence without sacrificing the time I need to provide actual life coaching services to my clients.
2. Coaching Business Plan Company Description
This section can also include information on the history of your coaching business and any significant milestones that you have reached.
It is okay to repeat a little bit of what you included in your executive summary in this section. Here you’ll have the opportunity to describe your company in greater detail.
Sample Life Coach Company Description
Life Coaching is a process that helps people identify and achieve their personal and professional goals. As a life coach, I help my clients get clear on what they want to achieve and create a plan to make it happen.
I specialize in working with entrepreneurs, business professionals, and business students who are seeking clarity and direction in their lives to achieve professional satisfaction. My coaching services are tailored to each client’s individual needs and include one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and corporate coaching.
My life coaching business is based on the belief that everyone has the potential to achieve their dreams. The key to my success is my ability to ask poignant questions that elicit deep thinking in my clients’ minds. I want them to see what life can be like out of their comfort zone while being in a safe space with our conversations.
By using before/after scenarios as one of my techniques, I can help clients remove self-inflicted limits they impose on themselves. Most of the time, it is these limitations that prevent individuals from growing and creating meaningful experiences that result in greater happiness.
3. Life Coach Business Plan Services Offered
The Services Offered section of your life coach business plan should provide an overview of the coaching services that you offer. This can include information on the types of coaching services you offer, such as one-on-one coaching, group coaching, or corporate coaching.
You should also include information on the format of your coaching services, such as in-person sessions, phone calls, video calls, or online courses. In this section, you’ll have the opportunity to describe your coaching services in greater detail and explain how they will benefit your clients.
Sample Life Coaching Services Offered
I offer a variety of life coaching services that are tailored to each client’s individual needs. My coaching services include one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and corporate coaching. I also provide coaching resources, such as books, audio programs, and online courses.
My one-on-one life coaching services are designed to help my clients achieve their personal and professional goals. We will work together to identify your goals and create a plan to make them happen. My goal is to help you gain clarity and confidence so that you can live the life you want.
My group life coaching services are designed for people who want to achieve their goals with the support of others. Group life coaching is a great way to get accountability and feedback from others who are striving to reach their goals. My group life coaching programs are available both in-person and online.
My corporate life coaching services are designed to help businesses achieve their goals. I offer a variety of corporate life coaching services, such as team building, goal setting, and conflict resolution. I also provide life coaching resources, such as books, audio programs, and online courses, to help businesses reach their full potential.
For those clients who prefer a self-paced approach, I provide coaching resources, such as books, audio programs, and online courses. These serve as stepping stones to acquire one-on-one or group coaching customers.
4. Coaching Business Plan Target Market
It is important to focus on a niche rather than offering generic services.
Life coaching as an industry is booming so prospects may not be able to determine who is the best life coach for them. When you focus, your marketing efforts can be customized to the niche you specialize in.
Think of it this way: if you were to build a patio for your house, would you hire a general contractor or a patio specialist? A general contractor remodels kitchens and bathrooms and will likely not be as familiar with the latest trends on patios. A patio specialist, however, will be versed in the best materials, designs and considerations for patios.
You would pick the patio specialist no doubt.
Similarly, your life coaching business plan should focus on a specific target group so that you become known as a specialist for your niche.
Sample Life Coaching Target Market
Given my strong background in corporate and executive leadership, I specialize in working with entrepreneurs, business professionals, and business students who are seeking clarity and direction in their lives.
The career paths of my clients typically hold a special place as part of their holistic identity. I focus on helping them see a vision of themselves that feels true and help them break limiting habits and beliefs. My goal is to assist clients in creating unbounded opportunities and new habits that foster growth.
My life coaching services are designed to help my clients achieve their professional goals and gain fulfillment in their personal lives.
5. Coaching Business Plan Pricing Strategy
The Pricing Strategy section of your life coach business plan should provide an overview of how you will price your life coaching services. This can include information on the rates you charge for your services, as well as any discounts or packages you offer. You should also include information on how you determine your pricing, such as by the hour, by the session, or by the project.
Sample Life Coaching Pricing Strategy
I charge $150 per hour for my life coaching services with a 2 hours per month commitment for a minimum of 3 months.
They also provide prospects with an opportunity to experience what it could be like working directly with me without making a larger financial commitment. My online courses are priced at $297 and $497, respectively, for a 3-month or 6-month self-paced course.
I offer group coaching at the rate of $200 per month per individual. This includes a two-hour session each month in a group of no more than 8 people. I also maintain the same 3-month commitment.
This way, group members can hold each other accountable for commitments they make in prior monthly meetings. This added bond increases the likelihood that new clients will become long term clients.
For corporate clients, I charge $2000 per month per group of up to 6 members. This allows an organization to experience group coaching tailored to improving employee productivity and satisfaction. This is the fastest growing segment of my coaching business because employers are struggling to retain top performing employees due to “The Great Resignation” which is affecting company output.
In a post-COVID world, I offer my life coaching services both in-person as well as virtually. Groups will meet either virtually or in-person for consistency, but not both. For example, an individual may not choose to attend an in-person meeting virtually because that breaks the rapport-building process that is integrated into my group coaching sessions.
6. Life Coach Marketing
Here are 10 marketing ideas to help you get started. Use these as fodder to create your detailed life coach marketing plan, which is the true heart of your business strategy.
Sample Life Coach Marketing Plan
This life coaching marketing plan will not focus on paid advertising, which is a flooded market. Instead, it will leverage the untapped and insatiable market for educational content to help people achieve their personal and professional goals.
The tactics presented below, when done in unison, will generate a steady flow of qualified leads into my lead generation pipeline.
- Develop a website . Aside from my Google Business Profile, my website will be one of the main ways clients learn more about my services. I will use the side not only to share information about my coaching packages, but also – and more importantly – to share my thought leadership content that I create. I will offer a few free guides and checklists to convert website visitors into prospects using a Optin Monster lead capture form.
- Create a social media presence . I will create a Facebook and LinkedIn page for promoting my content (see below) to my target market. As I ramp up in sales, I will explore paid advertising on these platforms, but as the initial effort I will use SEO and content marketing to grow my business.
- Acquire private label rights (PLR) content . I can use this material as a starting point to create social media posts, videos, online courses and articles. I will purchase credits from PLR . This is like having a content marketing writer on staff to produce the material that will propel my name as a coach into the marketplace. This inexpensive way to generate content will make my marketing efforts more efficient because I am a sole practitioner and need to optimize the use of my time.
- Search Engine Optimization . Using the free detailed SEO for Life Coaches guide provided by MoreBusiness.com, I will identify specific keywords related to my niche. This will allow me to quickly tweak the PLR content to create unique content to promote my coaching business. While most other coaches rely heavily on paid advertising on Google and Facebook, I plan to take advantage of the long-tail keyword strategy. This approach targets the numerous “low keyword difficulty” and “high search volume” phrases that my prospects use daily to find coaches like me. This will result in significant cost savings as I ramp up my marketing efforts. I will be able to tap into organic search traffic that continues long after the investment to create it.
- Publish regularly . As part of my branding efforts, I will publish my unique content on my blog and social media channels, including my Facebook page. By sharing my expertise and coaching tips, I will attract potential clients who are interested in my messages. I will use Canva to create attractive designs and schedule social media posts.
- Claim my Google Business Profile . For local SEO, claiming my Google Business Profile will enable me to have a presence that can show up on Google Maps when prospects search for life coaching services. Doing so will display my hours of operation, new blog posts, and send other marketing signals to reach my audience.
- Use online directories . Online directories can help me reach a wide range of prospects. In fact, adding my business to specific directories will dramatically enhance my potential presence on Google Maps when nearby prospects search for life coaching services.
- Speak at events . Getting involved in speaking engagements is a great way to build my reputation and attract new clients. I will reach out to 10 new associations each quarter in order to land a minimum of one speaking engagement that puts me in front of an ideal audience. I will also attend local events to network with business leaders who may be looking for coaching options for their staff.
- Teach workshops and webinars . An offshoot of speaking engagements, hosting my own workshops and webinars will provide an additional way to reach prospects. For my webinars, I will use EasyWebinar to create an automated webinar option that allows prospects to view the webinar on demand. New leads will receive my automated drip email sequence and become part of my email newsletter campaign to stay in touch.
- Create an e-newsletter . To stay in touch and nurture these new leads, I will send helpful tips, articles, and resources in my e-newsletter. This way, my brand will remain top-of-mind even for those prospects who are not yet ready to commit to a coaching program.
- Offer free consultations . An initial free consultation is traditionally a great way to introduce potential clients to my life coaching services. This allows prospects to experience my coaching services and build rapport so they become long-term clients.
The marketing strategy tactics listed in this life coaching business plan may seem like quite a bit for an individual practitioner to tackle. However, most involve an initial investment of time to set up and then run via automations.
Also read our guide How to Get Life Coaching Clients: A 9-Step Complete Guide
By leveraging PLR coaching content published through the lens of long-tail SEO keywords, I will be able to quickly gain exposure to the market I intend to reach. This will build my sales faster than other coaches competing for similar clients.
7. Life Coach Business Plan Financials
Sample Life Coach Financials
In the next 12 months as I ramp up my coaching business, I expect to generate $100,000 in revenue. My expenses will total $20,000, resulting in a profit of $80,000.
Revenue will come from the following sources:
- Online courses: $19,000 – estimated 40 sales at $297 and 15 sales at $497
- eBook sales: $2,000 – estimated 80 sales at $25
- Individual Coaching: $20,000
- Group Coaching: $35,000
- Corporate Coaching: 45,000
As I build my reputation as a life coach, I will add new courses and focus more on corporate and group coaching. These two revenue streams generate a higher profit margin than individual coaching clients.
8. Coaching Business Plan Conclusion
The conclusion of your life coach business plan should summarize the key points of your business plan and explain why you believe your life coaching business will be successful. This can include information on your target market, your unique selling proposition, and your plans for promoting and marketing your life coaching business.
Sample Life Coaching Business Plan Conclusion
I believe my life coaching business will be successful because I am passionate about helping people achieve their goals and have laid out an achievable marketing strategy.
My plan incorporates my strengths and capitalizes on using outside resources, such as private label content and SEO training for myself to increase my footprint quickly. I have a strong understanding of the life coaching market and I am confident in my ability to promote and sell my services. I have realistic financial goals and I am committed to making my life coaching business a success.
Starting Your Life Coaching Business
This comprehensive life coach business plan provides a solid foundation for you to create your own plan. As you know, getting clients for your coaching business will likely be your most challenging startup task.
Use the specific life coach marketing tactics presented here to create awareness and attract qualified prospects. Don’t follow the beaten path: Facebook advertising. Instead, make sure you tap the underutilized strategy of SEO keyword research.
The MoreBusiness.com SEO Coaching program can provide you with the exact steps and research to get your business up and running fast.
Author: Raj Khera , SEO Coach and Publisher of MoreBusiness.com
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Coaching Business Plan Template
Written by Dave Lavinsky
Coaching Business Plan
Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 500 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their coaching companies. We have the experience, resources, and knowledge to help you create a great business plan.
In this article, you will learn some background information on why business planning is important. Then, you will learn how to write a coaching business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.
Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >
What Is a Business Plan?
A business plan provides a snapshot of your coaching business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategies for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.
Why You Need a Business Plan
If you’re looking to start a coaching business or grow your existing coaching company, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your coaching business to improve your chances of success. Your coaching business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.
Sources of Funding for Coaching Businesses
With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a coaching business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. When it comes to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to ensure that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for coaching companies.
Finish Your Business Plan Today!
How to write a business plan for a coaching business.
If you want to start a coaching business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. The guide below details the necessary information for how to write each essential component of your coaching business plan.
Executive Summary
Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.
The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the kind of coaching business you are running and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a coaching business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a multiple coaching businesses?
Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan.
- Give a brief overview of the coaching industry.
- Discuss the type of coaching business you are operating.
- Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers.
- Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team.
- Offer an overview of your financial plan.
Company Overview
In your company overview, you will detail the type of coaching business you are operating.
For example, you might specialize in one of the following types of coaching businesses:
- Business coaching: A business coach specializes in helping business owners clarify their business’s vision and goals.
- Career coaching: A career coach specializes in helping individuals reach their professional goals.
- Life coaching: A life coach specializes in helping people make positive progress in their daily lives, relationships, and careers.
- Performance coaching: A performance coach specializes in helping individuals improve their performance abilities using techniques similar to a sports coach.
- Wellness coaching: A wellness coach specializes in helping individuals develop and maintain healthy habits.
In addition to explaining the type of coaching business you will operate, the company overview needs to provide background on the business.
Include answers to questions such as:
- When and why did you start the business?
- What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of clients served, the number of cases with positive outcomes, reaching $X amount in revenue, etc.
- Your legal business Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.
Industry Analysis
In your industry or market analysis, you need to provide an overview of the coaching industry. While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.
First, researching the coaching industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.
Secondly, market research can improve your marketing strategy, particularly if your analysis identifies market trends.
The third reason is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.
The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your coaching business plan:
- How big is the coaching industry (in dollars)?
- Is the market declining or increasing?
- Who are the key competitors in the market?
- Who are the key suppliers in the market?
- What trends are affecting the industry?
- What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
- What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential target market for your coaching business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.
Customer Analysis
The customer analysis section of your coaching business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.
The following are examples of customer segments: individuals, schools, families, and corporations.
As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of coaching business you operate. Clearly, individuals would respond to different marketing promotions than corporations, for example.
Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the potential customers you seek to serve.
Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can recognize and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.
Competitive Analysis
Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.
Direct competitors are other coaching businesses.
Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t directly competing with your product or service. This includes other types of self-development services, therapists, counselors, and online support groups. You need to mention such competition as well.
For each such competitor, provide an overview of their business and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as
- What types of clients do they serve?
- What type of coaching business are they?
- What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
- What are they good at?
- What are their weaknesses?
With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.
The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:
- Will you make it easier for clients to acquire your services?
- Will you offer services that your competition doesn’t?
- Will you provide better customer service?
- Will you offer better pricing?
Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.
Marketing Plan
Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a coaching business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:
Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of coaching company that you documented in your company overview. Then, detail the specific products or services you will be offering. For example, will you provide performance coaching, executive coaching, health and wellness coaching, or career coaching services?
Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.
Place : Place refers to the site of your coaching company. Document where your company is situated and mention how the site will impact your success. For example, is your coaching business located in a busy retail district, a business district, a standalone office, or purely online? Discuss how your site might be the ideal location for your customers.
Promotions : The final part of your coaching marketing plan is where you will document how you will drive potential customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:
- Advertise in local papers, radio stations and/or magazines
- Reach out to websites
- Distribute flyers
- Engage in email marketing
- Advertise on social media platforms
- Improve the SEO (search engine optimization) on your website for targeted keywords
Operations Plan
While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.
Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your coaching business, including answering calls, planning and providing coaching sessions, billing clients and collecting payments, etc.
Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to book your Xth session, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your coaching business to a new city.
Management Team
To demonstrate your coaching business’ potential to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.
Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing coaching businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.
If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in coaching or running a small business.
Financial Plan
Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.
Income Statement
An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenue and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.
In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you see 5 clients per day, and/or offer group coaching sessions? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.
Balance Sheets
Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your coaching business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a lender writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.
Cash Flow Statement
Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and ensure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.
When creating your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a coaching business:
- Cost of utilities, internet service, and office supplies
- Payroll or salaries paid to staff
- Business insurance
- Other start-up expenses (if you’re a new business) like legal expenses, permits, computer software, and office furniture
Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or a list of payment forms you accept.
Writing a business plan for your coaching business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will understand the coaching industry, your competition, and your customers. You will develop a marketing strategy and will understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful coaching business.
Coaching Business Plan Template FAQs
What is the easiest way to complete my coaching business plan.
Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily write your coaching business plan.
How Do You Start a Coaching Business?
Starting a coaching business is easy with these 14 steps:
- Choose the Name for Your Coaching Business
- Create Your Coaching Business Plan
- Choose the Legal Structure for Your Coaching Business
- Secure Startup Funding for Your Coaching Business (If Needed)
- Secure a Location for Your Business
- Register Your Coaching Business with the IRS
- Open a Business Bank Account
- Get a Business Credit Card
- Get the Required Business Licenses and Permits
- Get Business Insurance for Your Coaching Business
- Buy or Lease the Right Coaching Business Equipment
- Develop Your Coaching Business Marketing Materials
- Purchase and Setup the Software Needed to Run Your Coaching Business
- Open for Business
Learn more about how to start your own coaching business .
Finish Your Coaching Business Plan in 1 Day!
Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Coaching business plan?
With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!
OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You
Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.
Click here to see how a Growthink business planning consultant can create your business plan for you.
Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates
Websites for Coaches by Lovely Impact
How to Create a Simple Business Plan for Your Coaching Business
So… you’ve decided to start a coaching business? Or maybe to get more clarity within your current coaching business? Either way… congrats! The brainstorming phase is now over and it’s time to develop a plan of action. That’s right, it’s time to create your business plan!
Now before you freak out, take a deep breath. We are going to make this process as simple as possible for you. Unless you are applying for a loan, you do not need a traditional business plan. Do you know those crazy 300 page documents with all those charts? Yeah… those. We’re not going to make you do that! Together, we are going to create a short, sweet, but powerful mini-coaching business plan.
Inside this blog post you’ll learn:
✔️ Why you need a coaching business plan.
✔️ What to do before you start writing your plan.
✔️ What to include in your coaching business plan.
Why you need a coaching business plan.
A coaching business plan is really about clarity and focus for you, your partners, your investors, and your executive team. This plan will help you build a business that will support you financially, have an impact on those around you, and leave a lasting legacy you can be proud of.
The research you have to conduct to finalize a coaching business plan will help you peer into the future and predict different outcomes. Though it’s certainly not perfect, it helps you map out where you currently are and where you’re headed.
Get Your Free Coaching Business Checklist!
Fill out this form to access our free comprehensive business checklist with 149+ actionable tasks to setup your coaching business for success.
Plus, join our email list to stay up to date.
Specifically, a business plan helps you…
- Estimate total startup costs
- Understand your target audience
- Compete from the start
- Anticipate challenges
Bottom line? A business plan helps keep you on track. It ensures that you focus your attention on the right things and helps you avoid mistakes that could sink you.
Ready? We’re going to walk you step-by-step through the process of creating a solid business plan.
What you need to know before you start writing a business plan.
At Lovely Impact, we are all about dreaming big. Have you seen our tagline? “Launch your coaching website. IMPACT THE WORLD.”
We truly believe truly in that mission. However, every coaching business has to start somewhere. Unfortunately, many business plans are wildly unrealistic. The initial excitement of starting the business often causes coaches to massively overestimate how successful they’ll be and underestimate the challenges they’ll encounter.
In order to be effective, a coaching business plan needs to be realistic. Before you launch, you want to be relatively confident that you have a good chance of succeeding.
In many ways, a business plan should help you decide whether your coaching niche and business idea will pan out. It’s possible that you may put together your business plan and then realize that the potential outcome isn’t as bright as you initially thought. That’s okay. It forces you to go back to the drawing board.
This is why taking the necessary time to do the market research, analyze your financial needs, and map out your strategy for the future is super important. Don’t look at being realistic as the thing that’s preventing you from dreaming big. View it as building a foundation for a successful, long-lasting business.
What to include in your coaching business plan
We want you to put a lot of thought into each section of your coaching business plan. To help, we’ve not only included a free download in our Free Resource Library , but we’ve also broken each part down for you:
Section 1: Mission Statement: Keep your mission statement concise and specific but make sure anyone reading it will have a full understanding of your business. Your mission statement should include what you do, how you do it, who you do it for, and what value or need you are serving.
Section 2: Executive Summary: In this section, you should describe your business in more detail. What type of business is it? Why did you start this business? What does it mean to you and your customers? What industries do you service?
Section 3: Products and Services: Here you’ll want to list out and describe all of the products and services your business will offer. But we want you to dig a little deeper by including pricing and materials needed to provide them to your customers.
Section 4: Targeted Audience: Now it’s time to describe your ideal customer. Include demographics, influencers, trends, where they are online, and more. Don’t get too obsessed with this. In chapter 3 we’ll be doing a deeper dive on marketing research.
Section 5: Customer Needs: What need is your business fulfilling? Here you’ll need to discuss the pain points and frustrations of your potential customers, and how your business will solve those problems.
Section 6: Customer Acquisition: In this part of the plan, you’ll discuss where your customers are and how you will reach them. Include social media platforms, forums, magazines they read, activities they frequent, etc. Explain how you will use these mediums to promote your business and reach your customers.
Section 7: Competitive Advantage: What makes your business so unique? This is where you explain why you are better than your competition, how your products and services stand out, and what make you different.
Section 8: Owner Passion: Here’s a section that many don’t add to their business plans, but that’s the point of this course right? Describing why you are personally passionate about this business is important to keep you motivated. Be sure also to include your three top qualities that you will put into your business.
Section 9: Finances: Here we go! Don’t panic. For this part, we will keep it very simple. What are your financial goals? How will you fund this business? Finally, what is the cost to start this business?
Section 10: Business Goals: For this part, list what goals you plan to accomplish in 6 months, one year, and five years from now.
Download our free the coaching business plan worksheet
Ready to get started writing your coaching business plan? Head on over to our free resource library and look for the “MINI COACHING BUSINESS PLAN”. This guided workbook goes along with this blog post and was developed to help you create a short, sweet, but powerful mini-coaching business plan.
Sign up here: https://lovelyimpact.com/free-resource-library-for-coaches >>
About The Author
Hey! I’m Tee, a brand and marketing coach and the Co-Founder & CMO at Lovely Impact, a website template shop for coaches. I help coaches grow their coaching businesses digitally. Here on our blog, my content focuses on web design, marketing, business, and social media strategy.
Tee, thank you so much for this article! I’m planning to download the mini coaching business plan because I love how you laid it out here!
Hi Laura! I’m so glad this helped 🙂 The mini coaching business plan is laid out exactly like this, so if the article helped the download will follow the same process.
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Life Coach Business Plan Template
Are you thinking of starting your own life coaching business? Use Carepatron’s life coach business plan template to start turning your dreams into a reality.
What is a life coach business plan?
Life coaches help their clients to succeed with their personal goals through coaching, support, and creating action plans. Life coaching can be an alternative to traditional therapy or counseling, which typically focuses more on mental health issues rather than practical coaching. Life coach plans aim to achieve life goals for those who do not feel they need additional mental health support. As you don’t need a specific degree or qualification to become a life coach , many people change their careers to take on life coach responsibilities in order to help others.
This free life coaching business plan will help you kick off your life coaching business to a great start. Starting a business is a huge life decision, so if you have made it this far, congratulations! It’s time to turn those dreams into reality by making a practical and comprehensive business plan for your life coaching business. This plan is designed to help you get your ideas onto paper and provide a solid starting point for your business. You may have been dreaming about your marketing strategy or sales pitch for months now, but you may not have considered other important aspects yet. This template is designed to help you organize your ideas into a robust overview of how your life coaching business will fit into the existing market.
Printable Life Coach Business Plan Template
Check out these business plan templates for life coaches to improve the growth of your practice and streamline your operations.
How To Use This Life Coach Business Plan
It can be intimidating to start on your first business plan, so we have made our template super simple and customizable to use. Just follow these steps to use our life coach business plan template.
1. Download the PDF
The first step is to download the free PDF life coaching business plan template. You can either fill this PDF in digitally using the interactive text boxes, or you can print it out and fill it in by hand if you prefer.
2. Executive Summary
The first section of our life coaching business plan template is the executive summary. This is the overview of some of the key parts of your business including your mission statement, life coaching packages offered, team members and key roles in your business, and the type of company your life coaching business will be.
3. Competition and Customer Analysis
This section is an important one for differentiating your business from the competition. In this section, you will compile an overview of the market you will be entering, an analysis of your competitors, unique selling points for your business, and establish the target demographic for your life coaching business.
4. Marketing and Finance Plan
This section is for the practical side of things. How will you market your services? Once you have an interested potential client, what will be your sales strategy? How much will you charge for your services? What is your start-up budget, and what expenses will you have?
5. Management and Growth Plan
Finally, your business is bound to change as you grow, and nobody can predict the future. However, having a plan in mind for how your business will remain sustainable and develop as it grows is a great idea to include in your business plan. This section also includes the milestones you plan to reach to measure your progress, this could be measured in the number of clients you see, engagements with your marketing, or your client’s satisfaction with their life coaching.
Life Coach Business Plan Template Example (sample)
Some of the headings in this business plan template might be unfamiliar to you, so to help you understand this life coach business plan template, we have provided an example life coach business plan. This example is a completed version of the template designed to illustrate what this template could look like once all filled in.
Take a look at our sample business plan template:
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Who Can Use This Life Coach Business Plan Template?
This life coach business plan template is designed for people looking to start their life coaching business, but it could also be used for established life coaches looking to refresh their business model. This is in addition to other prospective coaching professionals such as business coaches, sales coaches, health and wellness coaches, personal coaches, or relationship coaches.
Whether you have been planning your business for a long time but have never taken the first step of developing a business plan, or if you have only just heard of life coaching and immediately realized it was for you- this business plan template can help you get off to a great start.
Why Is This Template Useful For Life Coaches?
Analyze your competition.
To understand where your business fits in the life coaching market , it’s important to understand the other businesses operating and the services they offer. Use our life coaching business plan template to assess your competition and figure out what you can offer.
Differentiate your business
Once you have an understanding of your competition, you can start working on differentiating your business to ensure it stands out. This template is designed to help you do this through the unique selling point, target demographic, and marketing strategy sections.
Realize your marketing strategy
Maybe you’ve been brainstorming marketing content already, or maybe you’ve never heard of Facebook ads! Either way, our business plan template can help you actualize your marketing plan.
Benefits of Using the Life Coach Business Template
Using this life coaching business plan template will help you get your ideas onto paper and take the first concrete step to start your life coaching business. The benefits of using this comprehensive life coach business plan template include:
Know your target demographic
The first benefit of completing our life coaching business plan template is understanding your target demographic. Knowing who you are marketing to is a huge part of your business that will inform all your future marketing and advertising decisions.
Reflect on your progress
You may be at the beginning of your journey now, but a few years down the line you will want to pause and reflect on how far you’ve come. Setting out your plans and intentions in this business plan template will give your future self a solid reference point for how you have progressed toward your goals.
Maintain your business focus
Writing something down means you can constantly refer back to it and stay on track. By collating your plans in our business plan template, you can ensure you are keeping sight of your goals as you go forward.
Stay organized
Our life coaching business plan template has already set out different sections and headings, all formatted for you. All you need to do is provide the content and you will have a well-organized and readable business plan.
Solidify your intentions
When you write down a business plan, it helps you to prioritize what is really important to your business. Solidify your intentions for your life coaching business with practical sections such as competitor analysis, mission statement, and marketing strategy.
Commonly asked questions
Life coaching and therapy have often been confused as both methods can help people with similar problems. One of the biggest differences is that therapists are licensed mental health professionals, whereas life coaches focus on helping their clients achieve goals and take positive actions rather than treatment of mental health issues.
That’s okay, we all have to start somewhere! If this is the case for you, you can leave the management team and key roles sections blank. Alternatively, you could establish several roles to fill in the future once you expand as part of your growth plan.
A mission statement will look different for every life coaching business, and there is no one formula for writing your mission statement. The mission statement should capture the identity of your business, as well as address how your business will solve problems for your clients in a way that differentiates you from your competition.
Why Use Carepatron for Life Coaches?
Carepatron is a state-of-the-art practice management software packed with features to take your life-coaching business to the next level. Carepatron is designed to save you time on administrative and management tasks, so you can get back to coaching your clients. Here are just a few things you can do in Carepatron to set your life coaching business apart from the competition:
- Sick of no-shows? Automate SMS or email appointment reminders for your life coaching clients in Carepatron and ensure your clients remember their appointments.
- Digitally manage your life coaching clients using Carepatron’s customizable tags system, and monitor the progress of your clients.
- Offer your clients access to their own Carepatron client portal on mobile or desktop.
- Take progress notes for your clients and store them securely with Carepatron’s HIPAA-compliant data storage.
You’ll find this PDF life coaching business plan template and many more in Carepatron’s community template library packed with time-saving digital templates.
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Business Coaching
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How to Create a Simple Life Coaching Business Plan (2023)
- By Luisa Zhou
- Coaching Business , Life Coaching
- Updated: March 15, 2023
Want to know how to write a simple coaching business plan?
You’ve come to the right place. Today, you’ll learn how to create a coaching business plan that will help you get clarity fast.
Here’s what you need to know!
Do you need a coaching business plan?
Here’s the thing:
You actually don’t need a coaching business plan.
I know on the surface, it might look like running a business involves fancy marketing tactics or that it takes an MBA to make it happen. And that a coaching business plan is part of it all.
But the truth is:
Owning a business is not a fancy, pie-in-the-sky thing that’s only available to certain people.
That’s why I don’t typically tell my students to create a business plan, because they don’t really need one.
But if you want a roadmap for yourself or you’re applying for a grant or funding (which might require a business plan), then, you might spend some time on a business plan.
That said, keep it simple and don’t spend too much time on it.
After all, there are plenty of steps you need to take to build your coaching business. You need to…
- Find your business idea and audience
- Understand how to position your offer
- Learn marketing and sales
And to get a quick start, the best place to start is to talk to potential clients. (You should do this before you write your business plan.)
Hop on a few calls and ask your potential clients why they’d want to buy your services. Not only will you get out of your head, actually understand what your clients are looking for, and get their feedback, but you might even land a client or two.
And these types of quick wins will build your confidence fast so that you see just how possible it is for you to build a business.
To find people to talk to, go to an online forum (like a Facebook group) where your audience hangs out and ask them if they want to get your advice in exchange for a market research call where you can ask them questions about what they’re looking for in terms of your services and why.
I explain the process in more detail here:
You’ll get tons of material for your coaching business plan — and you’ll create a really valuable plan, rather than base it on your own assumptions (a surefire way to fail as a new business owner).
Get the Ultimate Guide
For building a 6-figure coaching business so you can achieve more freedom, how do you write your coaching business plan .
The next step is to write your plan with this coaching business plan outline:
Introduction
- Executive Summary
- Company Description
- Product/Service Description
- Value Proposition
- Market Analysis
Business Model
- Sales Strategy
- Growth Plan
- Management & Staffing
- Financial Summary
And how do you write each of these steps? That’s what we’ll look at next.
Step 1: Introduction
An executive summary summarizes your coaching business plan. Include a high-level overview of:
- What your business does
- What you sell (your coaching services)
- Your business goals, what your market looks like
- Who your clients are
- How your coaching differs from other coaching offers out there
- How big you envision your business to get
- What your business model looks like
The company description explains what your business does and includes:
- The business structure (is your coaching business a sole proprietorship, incorporation, or another business structure?)
- Your coaching industry
- Your services
- Your long-term plan for if you want to ultimately sell or keep your business
- Your vision, mission, and values
- Your short-term, next-year goals and long-term goals for the next 1-5 years
- Your team (although you’ll likely not have one when you’re starting your business)
In this section, you present your coaching pricing strategy . How much do you charge for your services? (I recommend $1,500 for a 3-month package as a new coach.)
What pricing model do you use? Monthly, per-session, or a package price? I’m strongly in favor of a package price. After all, if your client doesn’t commit to a set amount of time for their coaching, how will they get results?
Also, is there a risk that your coaching offer infringes on someone’s IP rights? The main risk would be your coaching business name. That’s one of the reasons why the best way to get started is to use your own name as the name of your coaching business.
Step 2: Value proposition
The next step is your value proposition, which consists of two parts: your market analysis and value proposition.
Market analysis
First, you need to understand your target market . That means both your clients’ demographics and psychographics .
Their demographics are:
- Where they live
- Income
- Interests
But even more so, their psychographics explain why they buy from you. Your job is to figure out how to explain why your service is the one for them. In a way that’s true and believable and that connects with your potential clients.
What language do they use to describe their needs or goals? If you look at a 40-year old parent, they’ll describe their weight loss goals very differently than a 25-year old.
Ask yourself:
- What is the problem my clients want to solve?
- Why can’t my clients solve it right away?
- What’s the measurable outcome my clients want to achieve?
You also need to understand your industry . How big is your potential market? What trends are there? How might your industry be changing over time?
You can look at news outlets, government statistics offices, and academic research to understand where your industry is headed.
Additionally, your value proposition includes a SWOT analysis. Here, you analyze your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Remember that you don’t have perfect information and you will sometimes operate on assumptions.
So ask yourself what assumptions you have that could cause your business to fail, if they’re proven wrong. For example, assumptions about your coaching clients could potentially mean that your business fails.
Finally, you need to include a section on your competition , something that Harvard professor Michael Porter’s Five Forces Framework is useful for.
This model builds on five forces to determine the competitive intensity and the attractiveness of an industry in terms of profitability.
A coaching industry with a lot of competition won’t have high profitability. But fortunately, most coaching and consulting industries have mild competition, which means that they have room for high returns.
The Five Forces Framework consists of:
- Threat of new entry. How likely is it that new businesses will enter your market? It’s relatively easy to start an online coaching business, so there can be a lot of competition.
- Buyer power. What buying power do your clients have? You need to consider this so that you know if YOUR audience has buying power. For instance, if you sell career coaching to employees, they’ll have much better buying power than someone who is unemployed.
- Supplier power. Are there many suppliers on the market? If not, you might need to cover high costs. As a coach, this isn’t a huge concern for you, because you don’t rely on suppliers to sell your services.
- Threat of substitution. How likely is it that your coaching service will be substituted by a low-cost, better alternative? High-ticket coaching isn’t easy to substitute because people aren’t buying your services for the price; they’re buying it for the transformation they get.
- Competitive rivalry. How can you distinguish yourself from your competition? A few examples include: serving a specific group of clients, your marketing, or establishing technological leadership. As a coach, you’ll most likely use your niche and/or branding to stand out.
Value proposition
One of the main reasons why 20% of small businesses fail within the first year is that they don’t understand their value proposition. Your value proposition explains how your business will stand out.
Michael Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategies shows you how to create one.
It includes three factors:
- Cost leadership. If you go with this value proposition, you lead with price. You become a low-cost business in your industry. This isn’t anything I recommend for coaches. Scaling low-cost coaching would take a lot of resources and you’re far better off with offering high-ticket coaching services and then scaling less hands-on products, such as online courses.
- Differentiation. Your business stands out by being unique, for instance by having a unique solution to a problem. Take my client David, a health coach, who helps people lose weight with the help of herbs. That’s a very unique way to position a health coaching business.
- Cost focus or differentiation focus. Your business serves a specific niche, a specific target market need or a target market cost behavior.
For example, I started my current business when I realized that there wasn’t a great product for employees who want to quit their jobs and become entrepreneurs. I used differentiation focus to target a specific segment within a competitive market (business coaching).
This chart should help you answer two questions:
- Who is your target customer?
- How are you different from the competition?
Step 3: Business model
The next step is your business model, which consists of six parts:
An operations plan includes the workflows you’ll need to implement to make your coaching business work.
As a coach, you don’t need to put too much thought into this part. An operations plan mainly includes information about things like suppliers, logistics, and inventory. A coaching business doesn’t need more than yourself and your laptop.
Your marketing plan explains how you’re going to market and promote your business. Focus on where your clients are hanging out, such as on Instagram or Facebook or in a physical space like a Toastmasters or Meetup event.
Include answers to these questions in your marketing plan:
- What is the pricing of your coaching services? Why did you choose this price?
- How do you promote your coaching business?
- Where will you sell your coaching services?
- What are you selling and how is that different from other existing coaching services?
Sales strategy
Next, what does your sales strategy look like? In other words, what are the steps you take to make a sale?
For instance, your sales strategy could look something like this:
Facebook ad → Potential client subscribes to your email list → Potential client reads your emails → Potential client buys from you
Growth plan
What will your business growth look like? How will you, specifically and realistically, make it happen? Define the exact steps you’ll take to grow your business.
In this quick video, I show you how to plan for business growth:
Management & staffing
How is your business run? As a new coach, you’ll likely be the only person in your business. You shouldn’t hire anyone before you’ve done everything yourself for a while. The reason is simple: you’ll need to identify your market and build systems before taking on other people.
But you can define if you’ll start hiring people at some point. Decide what your business will look like.
Financial summary
Your financial plan consists of your income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement.
Income statement: Where do you get your revenue? What are your expenses? Use this information to make a profit-and-loss calculation. At this point, you can estimate your income. Around one out of every ten sales calls will turn into a sale in the beginning, when you’re just learning to sell.
Cash-flow statement: Your cash-flow statement is like your income statement, but you’ll also take into account when revenues are collected and expenses are paid. If more money comes in than is going out, you have positive cash-flow.
Balance sheet: List your business assets that you own and owe. Deduct liabilities from assets to get your business’ shareholder equity.
Plus, you’ll need to consider your risks. What are the biggest risks to your financial viability?
For example, let’s say you’re a health coach who teams up with a local gym to provide their members with health coaching. Your biggest financial risk (assuming this was your only way to get clients) would be that the gym went bankrupt.
If you know your risks upfront, you can prepare for them. By including them in your business plan, you understand your risks and can plan ahead.
Take the example above. You might team up with two or more gyms to ensure that you don’t rely on one income source.
And next, let’s take a look at a coaching business plan template that makes it easy to create your business plan.
Coaching business plan template
One of my favorite ways to create a business plan is to use the Business Model Canvas. This business model template was first developed by Alexander Osterwalder in 2005 and the idea behind it was to simplify how business plans are created.
The plan includes nine building blocks and you’ll be able to fill in each block with the help of the brainstorming you’ve done in the steps above.
I put together this fillable PDF to help you use what you learned in this post:
Start by filling in this PDF to answer all the business plan elements we’ve looked at so far.
And here’s the Business Model Canvas as a PDF.
Let’s take a look at each of the building blocks here below:
What coaching services do you sell? What’s the problem you help solve with your services? And what value are you providing to your clients?
As a coach, you sell coaching services. The best way to get started is to sell one-on-one coaching. You can later expand into group programs and online courses.
Customer segments
Who are your most important client segments? When you’re starting your business, one client segment is enough. In other words, what’s your niche?
Not sure how to get started? This guide shows you how to find a niche .
Revenue streams
List your revenue streams. As you’re starting your business, you’ll likely have just one: your first coaching package . Later on, as said, you can add on group programs and self-study courses.
How do you communicate with your clients? Which channels do you use to do so? For example, your main channel might be a few Facebook groups or Instagram. Essentially, this is your main marketing channel.
Here you can read more about marketing to coaching clients and the different channels you can use.
Customer relationships
What’s your relationship with your clients? Is it personal? Automated? It all depends on what your clients expect. For coaching services and especially as you start your business, your relationship with your audience will be personal.
When you’re building your business, your #1 goal is to give as much value as you can to people (without expecting something in return from them). That’s how you establish your reputation and show your value.
Just like I did when I landed my first client. I had helped her for free for two weeks. She realized that I could help her even more if we worked together and asked if I’d be interested.
Key activities
What are your key activities for executing your value proposition? In other words: what do you need to do to make your business operate successfully?
Your key activities are your coaching services; your client calls and the support you give them in between calls.
Key resources
What knowledge, money, people, and means do you need to run your business?
This one is easy: you only need yourself, your skill, an internet connection, and a laptop!
The coaching business model is great for new entrepreneurs who want to start a business because you can start without any upfront investment and by using skills you already have.
Key partners
Who are your key partners and suppliers? What partners are essential to your business?
As a new coach, you don’t really need partners. Later on in your business, you might have affiliate partners who promote you and joint ventures where you team up with another business to sell your product or service.
Cost structure
What are your business costs? These are determined based on your key resources, key activities, and key partnerships.
Early on, your costs will be very low. The main costs you’ll have include:
- Coaching contract (you can buy an affordable template rather than work directly with a lawyer)
- HelloSign (a virtual contract management tool with which you can send your contracts to your clients)
- Calendly (a scheduling tool for your coaching sessions)
- Payment processor, such as Stripe or PayPal (you need a payment processor to get paid by your clients and these will charge you a small commission)
- Educational material, such as business building programs/courses and books
But as your business grows, you will likely take on new costs. For instance: hiring costs (for example, a virtual assistant, support coaches for your programs, Facebook ads manager, and so on), advertising costs (Facebook ads), and different tools to build your business.
Over to you!
There you have it! Now you know how to write a coaching business plan.
What it comes down to is that you take these steps and create a simple plan based on them.
Ultimately, your business depends on the actions you take to market and sell your coaching. When you’re done writing your business plan, go out there and get your first paying clients. THAT’s how you show yourself just how possible it is to build your own coaching business.
What questions come up for you?
Let me know in the comments below!
Learn more:
How to Build Your Coaching Business
Checklist for Starting a Coaching Business
How to Build an Online Coach Business
About Luisa Zhou
Luisa Zhou has helped thousands of students build and scale their own profitable online Freedom Business. Fun Fact: She used to work as an engineer for the Space Station and holds a B.S.E. from Princeton. Click here to learn more about Luisa.
Hope you enjoy this blog post.
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Write the Ultimate coaching business plan in 10 steps [2023 Edition]
![Write the Ultimate coaching business plan in 10 steps [2023 Edition] coaching business](https://coachfoundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/word-image-51.jpg "coaching business plan examples")
Are you anxious to start your coaching business?
Are you still thinking about how to start?
Are you confused and wondering how to prepare a business plan for your coaching business?
If yes, then I would like to let you know that my condition was the same as yours, a few years back. I was confused about which strategy to follow. I tried hands-on social media, conferences , podcasting and various other tools. But, eventually, I didn’t get the outcomes as required. My efforts were not moving in the right direction.
Soon, I found the missing link. I realized that before starting a business, a proper plan was needed. I laid down the plans and strategies . There is an in-depth guide that I followed and still walking on the same path.
So do you want to know what my business plan involved? How I built a successful coaching business plan ? How I managed to use my experience?
Today, I am glad to uncover my coaching business plan.
Do you know the main difference between successful people and unsuccessful people?
Successful people do things they don’t want to do because they want the results that come from doing those things.
You can go through How to Start a Coaching Business to get tips to start your coaching business.
Take a month or even a day out of your business and step back. Take it all in. Next, strategize a plan of action. For a moment it may not seem productive. But when you do it, the results are amazing. Your efficiency and productivity will show massive growth.
Let me share a small story-
A monk was climbing up a mountain, he wanted to meditate at the top. While on his way up, he found a man who was busy chopping a tree. For a moment, the monk stopped. He started observing the man for some while and then moved further.
After four hours he headed back down the mountain. On the way, he found the same man again. Still, he was busy chopping. The monk was surprised. He tapped the man on his shoulder and asked:
“Excuse me, sir? Why don’t you take a moment to sharpen your Axe?”
The man replied that he didn’t have time for that. He further added that he had to chop down the tree. He didn’t want to waste time in sharpening the Axe.
So what does this story tell?
Planning involves proper time and it can fasten your growth.
I do not want to go into too much philosophy. Let me tell you what I did.
Creating a coaching business plan template is a daunting task for people who do not have a business background. But don’t worry I’m here to guide you through this. I will help you create a coaching business plan template.
Before I start I must tell you what is a business plan and why is it so important.
A coach business plan is a comprehensive document that tells you what you plan to do as per your vision and mission. It tells you what strategies to follow to achieve your set goals. It is a plan that gives you a roadmap to be followed to achieve your coaching business goals.
Now, why is it important?
Whether you are building a coaching business as an individual or as a company it is very important to write a business coaching program outline. Initially, you can write a simple business plan without the help of a professional business plan writer.
Let’s say you are a life coach, a life coaching business plan written by you will help to focus on the main components that will make your coaching business a success.
It will bring professionalism and will provide a roadmap for your coaching business goals.
The plan which I will share is a simple coaching business plan that will guide you to create your own business plan. It cannot be used to solicit funds from investors or banks. Investor funding will require detailed financial information about your business.
So, let’s get started. The key elements of a coaching business plan will include the below points-Shortcode
Whatever you envision for your venture needs to be described in this section. You need to answer a few questions here to start your coaching business plan- Why you are starting your coaching venture?
What is your vision for your coaching business? Do you want to revolutionize the coaching industry? What different you will do from others?
You have to explain all this here to show your business farsightedness. This will give you direction to achieve your goals and will keep you focussed.
It gives energy and inspires to make change happen. Vision is a visual image of your dream or idea which you want to achieve through your business.
After you describe your business vision you need to write a mission statement that will describe your business. The mission is the goal of your venture and very important for coaching business plan.
Mission plays a vital role as this seven letter word drives our professional and personal life.
In this section, you need to be clear about your goals and be ready to answer the following questions-
What change do you want to bring in people?
How do you want to help others with your coaching program?
Who can benefit from your program?
Are you passionate to bring change through your venture?
Think about these questions and try to answer it then you can visualize your mission.
3. Business Description
Write about your business in this section so that people get information about your business. It is vital to mention your niche, services, and products in your coaching business plan.
Set Your Niche
Here you have to select the niche of your coaching practice. The coaching niche will give a clear picture of your business. It will help you to define your products and services too.
Starting from life coaching, health coaching, career coaching to executive coaching , the list is endless. See where your passion lies and then get started.
If you are still confused and not able to find your niche then check this article The Ultimate Guide To Finding Your Coaching Niche and you will find your niche soon.
Set Your Services
Say for example some clients want detailed plans while others are simply looking for guidance. To attract more people you should have at least two levels of service.
Many coaches have various coaching sessions like once in a week, twice or thrice in a week. Clients can select the coaching sessions depending on their requirements.
Set Your Billing Methods
Will people be able to pay electronically? What about paying by checks? How many days do they have past due before services will no longer be continued? You need to define how payments can be made in your coaching business plan.
Set Up Your Website
I didn’t make a fancy website. I just highlighted how I can serve my clients. Don’t forget to include your certifications and licenses. Testimonials are like adding a cherry to a cake. I believe it can influence people greatly. Consult a web designer too. Do you want people to contact you directly through the site? If yes, the proper address is a must.
4. Target Market
The next step is to research on the target audience. This is an essential point for any coaching business plan . You do not have to work with all. Do a little survey and see who needs your coaching sessions.
So how you can do this?
Firstly ask questions like:
Is your business niche for college graduates who are seeking a job?
Is it for the business executives who want to grow their business?
Is it for women groups looking to work from home?
I identified my ideal coaching client through these questions. This helped me in creating marketing ideas in a much effective manner. I could now direct my messages to a specific group of people. Even I had the opportunity to develop specialized programs and workshops.
5. Marketing Strategies
What methods are useful?
How people will notice you?
Will you do the marketing/sales all by yourself?
Do you want to appoint someone for it?
What sales strategy you will implement? How do you want to present your sales team?
How to create a marketing plan?
The following are the key points which I suggest you should follow regularly.
After you figure out your target clients, try to locate them through your sales and marketing strategies. For this, you need to plan both offline and online marketing strategies in your coaching business plan.
How do you want to reach your clients?
When I started my business, I reached my target clients through introduction letters, flyers and brochures. This was mainly done to create awareness about the business.
I know that getting your first client is the toughest job. Use both personal and professional networks to help. For example, consider offering some free 15 or 30-minute coaching sessions . This is to encourage people to try your coaching services.
I learned how important it is to build connections. Thus, I organized an event. The invitation was given to all the closed ones, friends and people whom I could target. During the event, guest interaction was done. I explained my business and services.
It was essential for me to participate in various exhibitions and seminars. This way I could bring my business into the limelight. I could even develop connections with other stakeholders.
Next, it was important to advertise about business in public places. Hence, I posted information about the business at coffee shops, libraries and such.
For the online audience, I used various social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. The use of Google Ads is also an amazing sales tool.
For getting rankings on a search engine, I made my website search engine optimized.
In some time I started publishing articles in well-known magazines and newspapers. Create a blog or write articles for other blogs and media that provide tips that can help you gain exposure, as well as credibility.
Lastly, I used the tool for referrals that helped to grow fast.
I started an online community for my clients. There was a regular post. Members were given the invitation to share the group among others. This eventually helped me to scale my business.
However, in this whole process remember who you are serving:
For example, at times one on one sessions is like a burden on my shoulders. I need to put too much time.
I often came across executives who wanted a break from technology. Hence, for them, online programs did not work. I used some storytelling tricks.
On the other hand, those in grief didn’t like long presentations. Thus, I created short and sweet online programs.
Depending upon the group, the marketing plan is prepared which can help you to attract your clients and scale up the operations.
There is one common string that can work well for both offline and online marketing and that is ‘Coaching Certification’. Firstly, this is not required, but it can help you to upgrade your business.
Hence, I added this to my online coaching business plan.
It increased both credibilities as well as marketability. I got a chance to learn new things. Apart from that, I could charge more.
You should have knowledge and skills in the area you want to be a coach. This can come from personal experience, but still, you can do additional training that can hone your skills.
In case you want more marketing tips then do read How do I market my coaching business to grow your business.
6. Competition
You need to know your competitors as this will give clarity on the level of competition.
You have to plan how to set your business different from your competitors.
What is it that you could provide which others are unable to?
One of the experts advised me to look at competitors as a source of information. Further, he added, give time to research what they are offering?
How much fee do they charge?
What are their strengths?
I checked how my competitors marketed themselves. But I didn’t want to do the same.
It was time for me to identify something which I could provide better than others.
I knew that career coaching was something which I could do best. I started brainstorming ideas to differentiate myself from competitors. Next was to implement consultation calls and sales strategy.
What I did to make it more meaningful? How to differentiate? Hence, I had to decide my unique selling point (USP).
7. Organization Planning
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What should be the management structure of your business?
A coaching business plan involves defining the organization structure. This further leads to roles and functions.
I started with a few people. But eventually, it became big. Luckily, I had made the structure beforehand. Things became simpler.
I had hired assistant coaches. This was the point when my client base doubled. I used to generate passive income by hiring them. I had fixed a percentage of the fee for myself. This is how you can grow your business. In this section you need to answer questions like:
Do you need ambassadors to promote your coaching business?
Will you have partners or employees?
How many people do you want to hire? Who can support you well in managing your business?
What kind of coaching business do you want to create? I had various people who helped in growing my business. But proper plans led to bigger achievements. As per my experience, a business plan helps you to hire the right kind of people at the right time.
8. Equipment And Materials Requirement
When I planned to market my business, I listed down a few types of equipment required to start in my coaching business plan.
I was aware that video conferencing will be part of my work. Hence, I downloaded the needed software and purchased a quality headset.
Some coaches record calls and give them to their clients so they can review the session. Don’t you think that helps in gaining long term clients?
For this, I bought a recorder. It is used to record all video/audio calls and share the sessions with clients.
4 Hard Truths About Building A Coaching Business will give you an idea about the toughest part of coaching business.
9. Financial Planning
Now comes the budget plan. Without money, a business cannot grow and a coaching business plan will be incomplete without this.
I found many coaches who charged a modest fee while starting a business. This is because they felt their experience is low. Hence, they charged low. Do you think that is justified? They may get more work but remain underpaid. Will you like working for a client if you are paid less?
Such instances taught me to plan my fee structure. I could confidently ask for the fee according to my worth. I wanted to avoid clients who love bargaining.
Next, you need to outline your financial model.
You need to add the following things in the model:
Start-up cost – Do you need to lease an office space? How much the lease would be? Do you need a computer and internet?
Financial projections – What all you need to include in profit and loss statement?
Funding through investors – Do you need a loan to support your business?
Ask if your audience can pay your rate? How much does the target audience earn yearly?
For instance, I initially coached a few college students. There were also young professional employees. I had made the wrong decision. Why? This is because neither of these groups could pay my current coaching fees .
I realized where I was wrong. Thus, I immediately redefined my audience. I focused on executives, and salespeople, CEOs who could pay my rates.
This is what I consider in my financial planning. I match my rates with the target audience.
Check out How To Sell High-End Coaching Packages to earn high-end clients.
10. Timelines
You have to decide timelines for your business. Business planning should be done as per these timelines and should be monitored at intervals.
I chalked out five different timelines in my coaching business plan and they are as follows:
Annual Planning
Set your yearly plan. I always devote some time and attention to yearly goals. For example, where would I see my business in a year?
My yearly plan includes both my business planning as well as life planning. This is because everything is connected at various levels.
Quarterly Planning
This involves regular checking. I schedule all the planning sessions on my calendar for a year in advance.
I aim to make these appointments a top priority. I don’t let anything get in my planning and I am ready with solutions for every obstacle.
Monthly Planning
I used to sit at the starting and end of every month for an hour. This involved checking the priority projects for the upcoming days.
Weekly Planning
I used to do weekly plannings on Friday afternoons, mainly because I relax on weekends. For the coming week, I noted my priorities.
There were questions which I asked like “How to allocate time to meet my weekly commitments?”
Daily Planning
This is something which later on became my habit. For instance, before leaving the office each day, I checked my top priorities for the next day. I took out 10 minutes to track my daily progress.
If I had achieved something, I would celebrate it.
Think about what you can be proud of? Admire what you achieved. This motivated me to work hard the next day.
Sometimes after all the plannings and achievements in life, you will feel you are behind many. You will get self-doubts and question your talent. Then it is time for inner development.
You have to develop the skills, to grow your business. A great coach does not necessarily achieve success in business. Hence, even though I had great value my business at times was falling flat. It was disappointing. But then I worked upon questions like:
What is my weakness in the coaching business?
One of the experts asked me how I am developing my coaching skills. Whether I am engaging with the right kind of people? Am I planning for the programs which I want to do? If not, why? How to implement it?
This is where I realized that to grow business I had to work upon my weakness too. It required self-discipline.
What to do if your excitement of starting a coaching business wears off? You do not reach your desired goals. Imagine if a group of ants stopped making the anthills. Will they be able to make the colony? No. Hence, I decided to work on my plans consistently.
Moral of the story:
You can have a coaching business plan with fewer complications. I avoided putting in too many products and services. There is no need to add 47 different ways of marketing about yourself.
And that’s pretty much it.
How about you? What is your business plan?
Is it focused or complicated?
See if you can get the main points of your plan properly placed. If you do it properly, you are on the right track.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the steps of a business plan.
A coaching business plan includes the following steps – making a list of the strengths and weaknesses of the company, moving on to a SWOT analysis, outlining a short-term and long-term strategy, creating project benchmarks, and defining the key success factors. Another additional step is how to price the business and launch a new product.
What must an entrepreneur do after creating a business plan?
A list of tasks that entrepreneurs should complete after setting up their business plan includes: obtaining startup capital, researching trade laws, reviewing business licenses, and choosing a company name.
What is one purpose of writing a business plan before entering the market?
Creating a business plan before entering the market can prove to be beneficial because it allows for entrepreneurs to look at the big picture of the company, from the way it will be running, to its goals and general purposes. It also gives entrepreneurs an opportunity to look at what they need to do in order to successfully and efficiently run their business.
What to include in a business plan?
Every business plan needs to include the questions and answers of these three fundamental issues: what do you want your company to accomplish, why should people buy what you sell, and how will you make it happen? It is important to take this opportunity to be very thorough with your business plan.
How to make a business plan?
To make a business plan, you must know what kind of business you want it to be. You will need to research your market, competition, and finances. If you don’t, then you run the risk of running out of money or building a business that is unable to make a profit.
How do you draft a coaching plan?
You can draft a coaching plan through plenty of documents and templates that can be used as a guide to help you brainstorm and organize your own thoughts. One great resource is the Coaching Business Plan Workbook and guide by Mary Baldwin and Amy Levin-Epstein.
How to write a business plan step by step?
The precise step-by-step guide on how to write a business starts with first outlining what your business will be and what your long-term goal is. Next, it’s important to start with developing your company’s mission statement, detailing who your customer is and what they want. This is followed by conducting market research and researching your competition.
3 thoughts on “Write the Ultimate coaching business plan in 10 steps [2023 Edition]”
This article was very simple and easy to follow. Extremely helpful. Just starting out so needed this kinda help.
Hi J Dawn, I’m glad you got great value from this piece. And since you are just starting out, the webinar would be extremely helpful to you so do register
Thank you so much, very insightful especially as I’m starting my coaching business.
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Coaching Business Plan
Quick and Easy Business Plan For Life, Executive, Health, and Business Coaches
A Sample Business Plan for Life Coaching
Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a coaching company and referencing a sample business plan for life coaching throughout your voyage will keep you on the path toward success.
There are plenty of sample business plans for life coaches on the Internet but how do you actually write a viable and convincing business plan?
Let’s review a sample business plan for life coaching you can use to inspire your own.
A Sample Business Plan for Life Coaching: Youth Alive Corp
Executive Summary Youth Alive is a new company providing high-level expertise in youth life coaching, channel development, distribution strategies, and marketing of coaching products. Its founders are certified life coaches. They are founding Youth Alive to formalize the coaching services they offer.
Initial focus will be development in the American market, or for clients in the Latin American market. As it grows it will take on people and coaching work in related markets, such as the United Kingdom market, and similar markets.
Mission Youth Alive Corp offers students and young professionals reliable, high-quality life coaching services for personal development and career development on an international scale. We offer a very high level of practical coaching experience, know-how and confidentiality.
Company Ownership Youth Alive Corp will be created as a Limited Company based in Florida, USA, owned by its principal investors, Alice Smith and Melanie Adams.
Management Team Alice Smith is the founder and owner of Youth Alive Corp. She will serve as the managing director, and is therefore responsible for all of the company’s operations as well as its chief fiduciary. Ms. Smith has spent her entire professional career in youth coaching and development.
Melanie Adams will serve as the company’s Program Director and will develop the company’s coaching programs. She will lead the learning sessions on-site and online. A native of Colombia, she is a dedicated, positive and outgoing life coach who has been extensively trained in youth development and education.
We will be hiring two course administrators, five full-time life coaches to conduct on-site or online coaching classes and workshops and two content developers to develop our website.
Start-up Summary Total start-up expense (including legal fees, logo design, website development, stationery and related expenses) is $65,350. Start-up assets required include $130,000 in current assets (office furniture and equipment, course development,etc) and $100,000 in initial cash to handle the first few months of coaching operations as sales and accounts receivable come in.
Products and Services Youth Alive offers youth coaching courses and workshops as well as the expertise an organization needs to develop new coaching products and services in new markets. This can be taken as high-level retainer coaching, project consulting, online workshops, coaching courses and publications and youth camps.
Market Analysis Our most important group of potential clients are students, young professionals in larger corporations and organizations or universities interested in developing white-label coaching solutions.
There are thousands of coaching organizations and individual coaches for every one of the few dozen well-known companies in the United States.One of Youth Alive’s challenges will be establishing itself as a real coaching company, positioned as a relatively risk-free alternative.
The key element in purchase decisions made at the Youth Alive client level is trust in the professional reputation, track record and reliability of our company. Youth Alive positions itself as the most obvious choice in terms of service quality, price and convenience and this will be attractive to youths in the United States and Latin America.
Promotion We intend to promote our organization and our unique value proposition on an ongoing basis via the following channels:
Internet marketing -This strategy consists of a well-designed, professional website that is informative, client-oriented and “sells” Youth Alive, reinforcing our value proposition of quality, price and convenience.
Open house sessions -Twice a year, we will host an “open house” and / or a “meet and greet” at select area locations where parents congregate and at our center. We will promote new youth coaching programs and give away free sample courses.
Financial Plan The following is the projected profit and loss for the next three years. Detailed break even analysis, monthly projected cash flow numbers and projected balance sheet are included in the appendix.
Year Annual Profits 2021 $120,000 2022 $180,000 2023 $350,000
Jeannie Cotter Editor/Writer Writer, Coaches Training Blog community
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Free Masterclass! 4 Simple Steps To Start Your Coaching Business Today
The ultimate guide to mapping out a rock-solid coaching business plan.
The 5-Step Roadmap To Create A Highly Profitable Coaching Business Plan Even If You're A New Coach
What's the first word that comes to mind when you see the word "coach" or "coaching"?
If you're a coach - and it doesn't matter whether you're just starting out or whether you've been coaching for decades - there's a high possibility that the words coach or coaching brings to mind things like:
These are all amazing elements of coaching and they're a big part of what you do as a coach and why you're a coach, but there's a word that's missing from that list...
It's the one word that's the difference between a successful coach who can create a ripple effect of positive transformation for hundreds - maybe even thousands or millions - of people and a coach who remains unknown, unseen, and unheard.
So, what's this mysterious word?
The word is BUSINESS.
There's a popular viewpoint in the coaching industry that when you serve with passion, and when you serve from the heart, clients will appear and your business will magically start to grow.
It's like that famous line from the movie Field of Dreams , "Build it and they will come..."
That sounds great in a movie but when it comes to the real world, it's a total lie!
Thinking you can become a successful coach if you put enough heart and passion into your work is one of the most dangerous and flawed beliefs out there...
And it's time to bury that belief for good.
The truth is the fastest, smartest way to become a successful, profitable coach is to create a strategic path for your practice with an awesome coaching business plan.
This Guide will take you through the exact steps you need to map out a rock-solid plan for your coaching business.
The best part? It works no matter where you are in your journey as a coach and unlike traditional business plans that can feel super intimidating and complicated unless you have a degree in business, this one is incredibly simple and absolutely effective.
Remember...
Coaching is a business.
The sooner you understand this fundamental truth, the faster you'll rise up along a profitable, purposeful path that allows you to serve more people and change more lives.
Ready to get started? Let's roll!
The 5-Step Coaching Business Plan
Creating your rock-solid coaching business plan , how to build a successful coaching business.
Ever heard of "Shiny Object Syndrome?" It's something a lot of smart, gifted entrepreneurs struggle with...
It's when you're distracted and sidetracked by countless creative ideas or exciting opportunities that you just can't seem to ignore.
Imagine this...
You have a great idea for an online coaching course around your niche or area of expertise as a coach and you start brainstorming and writing content for the course.
You're deep into your work and just as you're gaining momentum, a great coach you know - maybe someone you met in an online community or live networking event - reaches out to you.
Turns out, they have a great partnership or affiliation opportunity and they think it's perfect for you.
You're instantly struck by Shiny Object Syndrome. You abandon your course creation path and start chasing down this new opportunity with this coach.
A few days - or maybe even hours - later, you're hit with another idea. So you drop everything and start going at that new idea. And then, another idea pops up. And another and another...
What if you start an online coaching membership ? Maybe you should write a book ? Maybe you should build out a year-long mastermind program? Or start organizing retreats and seminars?
And on and on it goes.
Pretty soon, you've raced down a hundred different rabbit holes, but you have zero results to show for it in your business!
So, let's get one thing straight right here, right now...
Shiny Object Syndrome is a fast-track to failure. A great business plan is the exact opposite.
A coaching business plan gives you immunity. It protects you from having to chase one good idea after the next because you already know what your business needs and you'll instantly reduce the uncertainty of how you're going to create revenue.
Think about it...
When you've mapped out a solid business plan and you know how you're going to make money in your coaching practice, you can actually start to predict how much money you're going to make each week, each month and each year.
You can even do this exercise in reverse and create a business plan based on your financial goals and how much income you want to make. So, you set the goal first and then reverse plan to meet that number.
With an awesome business plan in place, you'll be able to direct your energy to the tasks, projects, ideas, opportunities that will work to grow a thriving, sustainable coaching business that brings you satisfaction and a reliable income.
It will give you a clear roadmap of what you need to focus on and how to manage your time better. It will also give you a sense of security to know you will reach your financial goals if you stick to the plan.
Throughout the rest of this Guide, you'll learn the 5 steps to building an awesome coaching business plan that works for you to achieve the goals you desire.
The 5 steps or 5 Cs are:
Conversation
Before we get started on step 1 in the next chapter, let's kickoff with "secret step 0" in the Take Action section below to set the stage.
This is where you identify distractions and take an honest look at your mindset so you can easily create laser focus around building an awesome business plan and an extraordinary coaching business that stands the test of time.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
That's an old Chinese proverb.
Your single step right now is to do a personal mindset check in and tune up.
Answer the following questions with 100% honesty so you'll be all set to take action and start creating a kicka$$ business plan as you move through upcoming chapters in this Guide.
Question #1
What are your current ideas around growing your coaching business ? This could be things like starting a membership site, building out a group program or anything else that comes to mind.
Note: Writing down your ideas will get them out of your head and help you pick a path that feels good to you as you start to create your business plan in the following chapters.
Question #2
Write down the names of people or places (online and offline) that have the power to distract you from tasks and projects in your business. This could be a good friend who loves to spontaneously invite you out for coffee, it could be endlessly scrolling through Facebook or Instagram or any other social media platform. List as many as you need to.
Note: This helps you identify your weak spots or triggers to "Shiny Object Syndrome" that take you away from the focus and energy you need to build your business based on a clear plan.
Question #3
What are your minimum, mid-range, and "out-of-this-world-awesome" financial goals for your coaching business each month and each year, for the next 3 years? You should also list out 1 to 3 dream gifts you will give yourself - travel around the world, purchase your fantasy home, make a generous donation to your favorite charity - when you hit each of your financial milestones.
Note: These milestone numbers will give you in depth clarity and unshakeable motivation to build a successful coaching business that lets you live the life you want while doing the work you love.
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VIDEO
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How To Write A Coaching Business Plan: 2 Examples · Clarify your “Why” – What is the ultimate purpose of your business? · Solidify your “How” –
The Pricing Strategy section of your life coach business plan should provide an overview of how you will price your life coaching services. This can include
Executive Summary · Give a brief overview of the coaching industry. · Discuss the type of coaching business you are operating. · Detail your direct competitors.
A coaching business plan is really about clarity and focus for you, your partners, your investors, and your executive team. This plan will help you build a
Life coaches help their clients to succeed with their personal goals through coaching, support, and creating action plans. Life coaching can be an alternative
What your business does; What you sell (your coaching services); Your business goals, what your market looks like; Who your clients are; How your coaching
A coach business plan is a comprehensive document that tells you what you plan to do as per your vision and mission. It tells you what
Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a coaching company and referencing a sample business plan for life coaching throughout your
A coach business plan is a detailed written document that describes how a coach business startup will achieve its goals and corporate goals. It outlines all of
A coaching business plan gives you immunity. It protects you from having to chase one good idea after the next because you already know what your business needs