How do you build a successful coaching business: I share my story here to help inspire you if you’re considering starting.
My background
Back in the 1990s whilst studying for my BA in Psychology & Management Studies I heard the term “coaching”. We were studying about leadership styles and my interest was piqued. Over the years I heard more about it and had spent a lot of time imagining myself “coaching” in the future.
Fast forward to 2010 and I’d had some training in coaching skills and was using it in my role as a senior leader : I knew that it made a difference both personally and professionally and was seeing my teams performance go through the roof when I implemented a coaching approach rather than a more directive approach to leadership (which wasn’t working for many of them!)
My passion was ignited and I knew I wanted to coach in some way in the future.
Over the next few years I was part of a national fast track leadership program to become a Head Teacher and we got our own coach : this was transformational for me and gave me the confidence to lead in challenging environments. I stepped up my own coaching approach with my teams and started coaching in the leadership and business space alongside my work.
On my computer I had three coaching and mentoring courses saved which I looked at most days and after going on some taster days I finally committed to an accredited course as I knew I wanted to take my coaching seriously. In fact from 2013 onwards I’d spend most of my spare time reading, studying or learning, I looked at CBT, NLP, mindfulness, coaching and Psychology building on my BA and Masters qualifications.
The catalyst that meant I started my business
Fast forward to 2015 when I went back to my senior leadership role after my first daughter was born. I asked if I could go into work 30 minutes later than normal as I wanted to be there for her first day at nursery, I was told no. The day before was her first birthday and I hadn’t spent any time with her when she was awake: the recognition was that I couldn’t be the parent I wanted to be and do my job.
The thing is to continue to sustain our lifestyle and pay our mortgage I needed to be earning the same amount of money I was in my role.
I got my first paying client in 2016 as a coach : my initial way of finding clients was through my network by asking people to share what I was doing with their networks. Alongside this I started to be visible on social media this was pretty terrifying as I’d only ever used Facebook to organise parties and look at photos and didn’t really use social media at all!
Wondering where I fitted in
I started to get into the online coaching space and I felt so out of place: I was a pregnant mum of one who had never had a professional photo taken of me and owned a VW golf where as most of the people I saw were perfectly coiffed with stories about how they’d made millions.
I seemed to forget that I had a Business degree, had set up businesses in the past and taught business. I thought “I know nothing about this” cue investing a lot of money in a program. On reflection I was doubting what I knew and felt like I had to learn everything from scratch. In reality I had the skills that I needed and I had to build my confidence about doing things my way using decades of experience. I really needed to remember who I was.
I made a bet with myself that if I could earn the same amount in revenue a month as my monthly wage I’d be able to quit my job and go full time in my business… it was a seed that I planted and didn’t share with anyone else. In reality I thought it was pretty pie in the sky however in November 2016 I achieved this and I duly resigned.
My biggest lessons
The first few years of my business were part time: I worked alongside a young family which meant I as online early mornings and late evenings. I worked when my baby slept and had minimal childcare. Over the next 4 years there were many iterations and I learned to find a rhythm that suited me working around 20 hours a week seeing clients and doing the rest in the edges and with support.
During this time I faced a lot of criticism: I was told I shouldn’t be online in the evenings as I needed better boundaries (I choose to do this so I could be with my kids). I was spoken about at a networking event as apparently I had support so it was okay for me (by people who never knew me). I quickly realised I needed to grow a thicker skin : this is still a work in progress now although gone are the days that I cried for hours over the comments on social media.
One of the biggest lessons for me was to get the right support : this doesn’t only mean paying coaches and mentors. It also meant building a solid team. I’ve learned so many lessons here which can probably be summed up by use your intuition and have the difficult conversations earlier. I’ve worked with some people since right at the start which is brilliant as I know they know me inside out and have my back. Equally, I didn’t ditch my friends and only start hanging out with influencers: my core friends are still exactly the same which has made a huge difference to me when things haven’t been going well.
The quality that has kept me going when things haven’t been so good is my resilience : at times there were moments when I thought I should just go back to a day job or that I wasn’t good enough to do what I was doing. My ability to pick myself back up and keep going when things were hard is something I’m really proud of : I’m glad I’ve been able to model this to my daughters.
The six / seven figure dream and the reality
My business started making six figures back in 2017 and I’ve been at seven figures across my businesses since 2021. To be honest there have been many times where I would have made more money as a coach without a team (I now mainly run a training business). There is this obsession online with numbers and for me these are the headlines : it’s revenue not net profit! The reality is both businesses have been sustainably profitable over time and I earn more than I did in my senior leadership role and have done since 2017… I’ve also taken far more risks and I’ve grown as a leader and a business owner.
Some people are driven my money, for me my first driver was to earn the same as I did previously. Now it’s about leaving a legacy in the work I do and that ripple effect. I love what I do and am happy with my life and business so a continuation of this well into the future would make me very fulfilled.
I believe we all measure success in different ways : money does still seem to be a barometer and I share to say this is possible.
Your questions
If you’ve enjoyed hearing more about my story feel free to listen to my podcast episode here or ask me any questions https://www.optimuscoachacademy.com/the-coaching-hub-podcast