In this article I will run through the systems and tools I wish I knew about months before I got stuck in the nitty gritty of growing my Business Coaching brand.
You can end up chasing your tail and wasting valuable time and energy when you're a newbie online business. There’s no shame in it, I’ve yet to meet someone who felt like they didn’t waste a whole bunch of time in the early days trying to run around and tick all the boxes of setting up and new business, delivering a killer service and scaling a booming business.
From creating your online course, having an amazing social media presence, creating your coaching system, creating funnels, email marketing, SOP’s learning SEO, Social Selling, getting on podcasts, figuring out what PR you need, outsourcing, getting a VA, finding a good VA… The list goes on.
So many people put things off because they don’t want to get burned with a bad move, or hiring the wrong contractor after a bad experience.
I had personally found it tricky finding the best tools to solve the issues I was facing, and most importantly, creating the best possible customer experience.
I have been on a fairly long road of trial and error, so I will be sharing the tools that I personally use for my business to hopefully save you the same extended journey!
1. First up, Social Media. How oh how, can we create consistent posts on social media, whilst having a presence everywhere that we need to have a presence? I have tried quite a few of the tools out there for scheduling content ahead of time, but my favourite is Planoly.
This allows you to schedule your posts for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and keep ahead of the game with your content. The great thing about it is that you can actually see visually how your IG feed will look, which I personally think is important when you are building your social media presence. It's easy to work with and move things around too.
2. Great so now I can see my content, but it doesn’t look as good as everyone else's. Why? Well, if you aren't a designer by trade, or are brand new to the online space, you may not realise that there are tools to help up-level your content game.
I have used different tools over the years but my favourite, easy to use content tool is canva. You can use templates, brand your content and get plenty of inspiration from their system.
You’ll feel like a designer and your content will look awesome. You can make it your own, which is advisable to keep your content interesting and unique.
3. Next up, your website. Not everyone NEEDS a website. BUT, a website can help A LOT with building your audience, establishing you and your business as an authority in your field. Not to mention, the potential to sell and promote products and services. If you are planning on selling products, like an online course for instance, the best solution I have found is Kajabi.
I have used Wordpress, Wix, Squarespace and a few others. Different options suit different needs, but for me as a Coach, Kajabi is an all-in-one solution meaning I don’t need to have 1000 logins, keep a million things up to date (hosting, plugins, integrations) and generally helps me through most processes as a non-techy. The email marketing options are pretty good with templates you can use to save time, help you through the process of setting up your webinars, courses and email nurturing.
So you essentially have a slick looking website, your online courses, email marketing and everything you need to showcase your products and services all in one place - with minimal effort to keep it all running.
It’s not the cheapest solution, but having used the other solutions, I noticed that prices racked up elsewhere - so if you are paying for quality hosting and a decent platform - even if the platform is free, you often have to pay someone to help with things on the site because there’s a lot of things that need to be working and optimised to keep it efficient and working optimally. So when you add it all up, plus the headaches, Kajabi pricing is pretty reasonable for no stress.
4. Next up, running your business day-to-day. I have used a lot of different systems over the years, and as a solopreneur, I want to minimise the amount of admin and have eyes and ears on the most important things that are going on.
Dubsado helps me do exactly that. It takes a bit of getting used to, take a while to set up if you want to try and figure that out on your own, but it’s a set and forget. Once it’s done it’s done. WAY less admin, the most important parts of your business are not overlooked or forgotten about.
I help people get set up with Dubsado, so feel free to reach out here for some further assistance.
5. Now you have your website, social media and business management all set, how will you get clients? Well, there’s a bunch of different methods available to you as a coach. Most courses say the best way is ads-webinar-call-close. That’s a great option, it’s a little expensive for some people especially if they are just starting out. I have seen great success with Facebook Messenger DM’s.
It takes some effort on your part, and some training, but once you get into the swing of it, a warm conversation is worth a lot of money to you if and when you close the deal. Whether you close now or later, you’re building an engaged audience of super fans - when you do it right. It’s also completely free, so that’s another major bonus to a newbie coach.
6. You are probably thinking wow, there’s a lot to do. You would be right. You can absolutely try and be an octopus juggling 8 things at a time, or, you can hire contractors to help you.
I recommend contractors, having tried the alternative and resisted against outsourcing for quite some time. I have tried a few different options, but I like Fiverr for my outsourcing. The reviews are pretty honest, if you are worried about quality you can opt for ‘rated sellers’ which means the contractor has maintained good reviews, response rates and completed a certain number of jobs and maintained a decent standard.
Level 1, Level 2 and Pro Sellers are usually a good bet. But, you can get lucky with a no-level seller who is highly skilled but cheap because they’ve just joined or took a bit too long to respond to someone (they lose their level badge).
So there you have it, my top 6 business coaching systems, well any coaching - it’s not isolated to business coaching systems, that’s just how I use them for my own business!
You can apply the principles to any coaching to save you time and scale your coaching business.
I like an admin-minimal, efficient work-life balance. A great customer experience is important to me as well so my recommendations are in-line with my own values and operations.
Need more support? Check out my Business Coaching options HERE
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