Every start up goes through a growing period and mine was no different. I researched, followed gurus, listened to podcasts and everything that I was supposed to be doing I was doing… I made many mistakes but here are 3 mistakes to avoid when starting an online business.
1st Mistake To Avoid When Starting An Online Business
Don’t follow everyone else’s business plan. In the beginning, I was following everyone’s advice. In so many groups that my head was spinning. I was asking all the questions to all different people that I thought were successful and implementing all of their suggestions.
I learnt that every business model is successful for different reasons and they all follow a slightly different strategy.
The thing that I learnt was failing because I had no business strategy of my own. I had no consistency in my own business because I was so busy following bits and pieces of other people’s advice. Nothing was wrong with what I was doing, but because non of it was consistent, I was getting no where.
Something that I found useful was to write down all the different strategies that I was learning along the way and then creating a plan that I could follow.
In the beginning, I recommend that you keep your job if you have one. That was one thing that I did right. You spend a ton of hours building your business in the beginning while not making any money, so it is important that you have your finances in place.
I hate to see when coaches or guru’s suggest that if you want it enough or manifest it, it will come… While that sounds lovely, it is often the reason why so many fail.
The thing to realize is that building an online business takes time. It is not like going to a job and getting paid for those specific hours. Some do build up their business faster than others but I feel that for most it takes time. Building and starting a business also comes with lots of ups and downs and that is something to consider as well. Are you ok knowing that finances are not consistent in the beginning and tend to ebb and flow.
The benefits out way the cons in my opinion BUT it certainly is not for everyone.
2nd Mistake To Avoid When Starting An Online Business
Not narrowing down your ideal client and niche.In the beginning I wanted to work with everyone. I was so driven and passionate that I truly thought that I could be successful with this.
My bubble was burst quickly. I spent far too much time researching, customizing and figuring out how to make regimes for clients and I was also trying to figure our how to market what I was doing.
You need to be visible on line so that you can gain consistent clients and that requires a clear message. I had no clear message because I was trying to work in too many areas at the same time. No one was seeing me as an expert in anything.
Your pitch becomes the essence of your business. It represents you! Truthfully, I couldn’t create a solid “pitch” for my business in the beginning. By pitch, I mean who you work with and what you help them with.
When it came to writing my pitch on paper or on my site for that matter, I had these incredibly long and complicated paragraphs trying to explain what I do.
Clarity was indeed missing and that is not good in the online space. No one is sitting at Google search bar ready to type a long winded paragraph.
Plus, Google didn’t see me as an expert in anything in particular. I had countless posts on my blog but non of them had a greater connection. They were well written and informative but they didn’t target an audience and that is important to rank.
Figuring out who is on the other side of the laptop and what they are typing in the search bar makes a massive difference. I also saw a big difference in who I was working with. I was also more excited to work everyday because I knew exactly who I was aiming to speak to when I wrote my posts.
3rd Mistake To Avoid When Starting An Online Business
All Research And Little Action. When it came to marketing my business I was so consumed with research and figuring what everyone else was doing that I wasn’t taking any action. I spent countless hours reading and bouncing from one thing to the next.
I finally realized that I needed to implement the strategies. Create a list of the actionable steps that you will take to move your business forward. Here is what mine looked like in the beginning:
Get your website up and going
Post a new blog post once a week
Answer all comments on your posts (delete all spam)
Choose 2-3 fonts that you will consistently use
Create templates that can be re purposed
Chose the platforms that you will post to and how often you will post
Create a schedule
Do one thing every single day to continue moving your business forward. Dedicate a period on time for research, an hour a day or one day a week. I started to listen to SEO podcasts and motivational podcasts while I was working out a the gym. This was awesome, I would fit in my work out, not feel guilty about not working and was learning so much!
This can seem overwhelming but it is not that bad once you give yourself 2-4 weeks to get to know the WordPress platform. To get your domain and hosting set up and even learn about WordPress, you can follow my step-step instruction at The Health Coach Creator Course.
Once your site is up and running, start posting right away. Publish your site as soon as you have one post written. It takes Google a long time to recognize you so publish right away to build your domain authority. Aim to write one new post a week. Some people write 2 posts a week and honestly, I think the more important thing is quality over quantity and consistency.
Conclusion
No matter where you are at in your business, you will always find there is trial and error. One of the best pieces of advice that I can give you is to become ok with failing.
See it as winning or learning, rather than failing. With business, you must be willing to ride out the ebbs and flows and knowing that many business’s take 2-5 years to see real development.
Write out a list of what task you feel will develop your specific business that most and then focus on implementing at least one of those things every single day.
Listen to podcasts or Youtube video on how you can add new ideas or build on what you are doing while you are driving or cooking dinner. Keep your learning light and enjoyable!
Your turn! What advice can you give to someone on something that you feel could be avoided?
Are you in school on your way to becoming a health coach?
Have you been in the health coaching field for a long time
Have you been thinking about slowing down as a health coach?
This read is for you if you relate to any of the above.
Becoming a health coach involves a great deal of emotional commitment. I didn’t realize just how much until I had taken on too many clients at a time. I knew that I wanted to work with difficult cases in the sense that the client had tried many things to get well already but I didn’t know in the beginning exactly what my programs would look like or what I would be offering.
As I started working with clients, my passion grew. I wanted to give them more and more guidance and support. With that came my own exhaustion BUT that is for another post.
What I realized is that I needed additional streams of income to financially be where I wanted. Even when I was fully booked and charging a high level for my services, I wanted to be financially secure.
Meaning, when I didn’t have a booked schedule that I still had money coming in.
The key in my opinion is to have different streams of income.
Why?
You are now working in the online space and with that comes reliance on platforms. You don’t own any social media platforms which means if something goes belly up, well, your business may too…
Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest ect cannot be your only source of revenue that drives clients to your website and therefor to you.
Check out this video where I show you how to create a Facebook group and WHY Facebook groups are important! Health Coach Creator Course!
There are many guru’s that will tell you to learn one platform only. That absolutely works and I say, do what works for you BUT not every strategy works for everyone or every business model.
To be honest, this is what I did after listening to various podcasts and countless reading posts but it wasn’t until I started being present on various platforms that I saw a real difference in my business growth.
Again, not all strategies work for everyone or every business. Often we spend way more time researching what we should be doing to be successful rather than actually doing the work needed to be successful.
Money Making Options:
One on One sessions
Group programs
Memberships
Courses
Website ads
Amazon links on your content/posts
One one One sessions
This is my favorite way to work with clients and make money. Working as a coach you get the opportunity to make your own hours. Even if you are still working a 9-5 type job, you can decide how much/often you work.
Working one on one is where I felt the most reward. Depending on how you decide to set up your programs, you get the opportunity to really get to know someone and watch their transformation.
You set goals with them, strategize and guide them on their journey. It can be an emotional journey and that is always my favorite part of working with clients. Being able to say, I get it. I have been there or I know exactly what you mean right when someone really needs to hear it is such a blessing.
Group Programs
Group programs are fun! They have an ease to them in my opinion. The key is the clients that sign up. They have to be willing to do the work and not just like the sound of the work. That goes for everything that you offer though.
I tried out several online health platforms and switched everything over to Practice Better. It is easy to use, intuitive, has invoicing, templates and is HIPPA certified. It has many more features and everything that I need to run a fluid health coaching business. I also like that I can integrate Full Scriptwith it and create customized supplement regimes for my clients.
Memberships
Memberships are great for once you are more established. I ran my first membership after about one year in business. I had enough of a following that it was an easy option to put into place.
You want a following or have enough finances to run Ads if you don’t have a following because the whole concept of a membership to have members participate.
You can run all sorts of memberships:
Meal plans
6 day detox
3 month lifestyle challenge
Health and a positive mindset
Specific to your niche such as Women’s health or balancing the gut
The best part of having a membership is that you have monthly income coming in. I set up my membership in Kartrabut you can use Practice Better for that as well. I recommend that you have both Kartra and Practice Better but I will get into that more in another post.
Courses
I taught medical for a decade at College level so the opportunity to teach again was exciting for me. Content creation was my specialty so I was in my zone when it came to creating courses.
Creating a course is only half on the challenge when it comes to courses. Marketing is the other half. If no one is looking at your course, it doesn’t matter how fantastic the content in the course is…
Again, having a following here is helpful but not necessary. There are many platforms that you can use to create a course, I tried a few but my favorite and the one that I currently use is called Kartra. The fact that I can do so many different things in Kartra is what made me decide to cancel several other platforms so I could do everything on this one.
You can also set up an affiliate section with Kartra if you use it and that will allow others to recommend and market your course. Typically, you offer a 30% commission for the sale. It can seem like a huge loss in the beginning but think about the money heading to your account that you did nothing to market.
Website Ads
This is where posting and SEO come in big time. In order to get ads that actually are worth having, as in pay well, you need to have so many page views monthly.
Depending on the ad company, it varies but the ones that pay more expect more eyes on their ads which make sense.
As a general rule, you want to wait until you have enough monthly page views before applying.
Remember that ads can be an eye sore and many people may not stay on your site if it is full of ads. Especially if the ads have no relation to your site topic…
If you have a following and return visitors to your site then they will often look past the ads since they know that your information is really good!
Amazon
I love Amazon but again you need a following in my opinion before applying. The reason is that you have to have 3 sales from your links within a certain period of time and if you are just starting and not getting eyes on your site then no one is clicking on links to order anything.
That said, you can re apply if they remove your account. Amazon also has something called one-link where you can link more than one account. That means if you know that your readers are mostly US, you can have a Canadian and a US account so that when the reader clicks on the Amazon link, it will automatically take them to the US Amazon site.
I also like how easy Amazon is to use and the rules are well laid out for you to follow. They do have certain criteria that you must follow but it is easy to implement.
I know many bloggers that have replaced their monthly income through only Amazon. I have not got there yet but that is another goal as it is great passive income.
A few bloggers I have chatted with have mention a huge decline in income once they started doing really well as Amazon lowered their rates. Again, why I suggest using multiple platforms and having various income streams.
If one of the platforms changes algorithm or shuts down for whatever reason, you won’t be scrambling to pay your mortgage…
Conclusion
There are multiple ways that you can earn an income as a health coach. It does take some time to get enough content on your site and to get recognized by Google as an expert. Once that happens, more readers will see your site and you will have revenue coming in automatically through your multiple streams. That way, if you love one on one work, you can do that while still making money.
If you are not only based online than you have additional sources of gaining income as well. You can head to local libraries or schools and provide educational talks. You can be a guest at conferences. Work one on one in an office or from your home (make sure that you have proper insurance, read this post to learn more about the legal aspects of being an on-line health coach).
You can set up workshops where you are also an affiliate for products that you earn a commission from. Remember that you should always have something to offer in exchange for e-mail information. That way you grow your e-mail list full of potential clients that what to learn from you. You can grab my FREE e-mail templates HERE
Your turn! I would love to hear from you, what you are doing to grow your business? What areas are you focusing on that are working for you? Leave me a comment!
It feels amazing to finally pass all those courses and ready to get working with clients! Only… you realize that you have all this new knowledge and determination and so much to still figure out… hopefully these simple steps to choosing a niche will help you work through some of the overwhelm.
One question that every health coach has in the beginning and sometimes more often then they would like to admit is; do you need a niche?
The short answer is YES, you absolutely need to have a niche. Lets explore this a bit further and hopefully help you gain some clarity!
What Is A Niche and simple steps to choosing a niche?
Essentially, a niche is your area of expertise that you specialize in. Think about your potential client. When they sit at the computer to research what exactly they are looking for and/or struggling with; what are they typing in the Google search bar?
To figure this out you need to know who your ideal client is…
Who Is Your Ideal Client?
You will hear the term ideal client tossed around a lot in the online world and that is because it matters.
Your ideal client is the exact person that you hope to work with and help. That can look very different for every health coach and there is no right or wrong. The key is to know your ideal client and then you can use these simple steps to choosing a niche to help you refine your work further. Some questions to ask yourself when trying to figure this out:
Women, men or children
Age range
Experience
Symptoms and struggles
Knowledge base
Lets look a little but at each point listed above.
This is a critical step in my opinion. You cannot help everyone and there is a huge difference in what you may recommend for a 60 year old man versus a 12 year old girl. This matters in the online space in particular because Google will see you as an expert and show your website to more people if you appear to know a lot in one area.
If you are posting to every person and issue, Google will not likely see you as an expert in anything and therefor not put your website on the 1st page.
What I mean by show your site on page one of Google search is that when a person types in a certain topic/issue/place online in the Google search bar. Google then shows pages and on each page is what they refer to as SERP. Statistically, most people don’t scroll past page one of what Google shows as the results to there search and so the idea is to get onto page 1.
In the perfect world, you would do this organically and that means that you pay nothing to get on page 1. To do that, you need to be familiar with SEO.
SEO means that you have a good idea of how Google search engine works and have optimized your website, pages and posts to give you the absolutes best chance.
Let’s get back to the list of ideals that make up your ideal client.
Age
Your recommendations can vary greatly based on the age of your client. If you work mostly with women post par tum, you will likely not be an expert in autism in children for example. Again, think about what you are posting on your website and how people that read your site will view your expertise.
How they view you is also how Google likely does. If you are writing about everything and anything, then you likely are not showing up in the search results for anything. Google is smart and the goal is to show the best content to the person searching for information or answers.
If they don’t think that is you and your website; well, nobody is going to see that you even exist…
Experience
This one I feel is more specific to you and what you aim to provide and level of skill set/knowledge your potential client has.
What I mean by experience is how much your ideal client has already gone through as far as seeking answers. Who have they already worked with, what have they already done, what lifestyle changes have they already made?
You may be very new and lack the knowledge to help someone that has already been through a lot and done a pile of research over the years. If you are more advanced and confident in your skills, they you may dive deep into autism or Lyme for example and how you can potentially offer guidance.
Symptoms and Struggles
This is important. Know what you know. Meaning, do not try and be the expert of all things, people can see through that and they will not want to work with you.
You cannot know everything nor can you help everyone. Looking at your own experience or passion is there an area that you would love to help others with. If there a specific struggle that you have gone through that you know you can provide solid and beneficial guidance in to help others?
Knowledge
Simply put, you need to know more than your ideal client. Many people that are looking for nutritional or lifestyle help have already been through many regimes and they are looking for answers.
If you find yourself doing a consult with someone and they appear to be well versed to the extent of stretching your own knowledge base, you are best to be open and honest and help them find someone more suitable to their needs.
You will not help them if you continue or think you can just research information after the fact and you will not help yourself as they will not refer anyone to you.
Many of my clients have come to me via word of mouth so you do not want to burn this bridge. You will gain respect by knowing your own limitations.
Once you know who your ideal client is and have a good sense of where they are at already, you need to know your niche and show yourself as the expert in that area.
How to pick a niche?
Choosing a niche can be tough. Most health coaches have to try out a few areas before truly feeling confident in one and deciding to stick with it.
You may feel like you are cutting yourself short by narrowing down your area of expertise but it is the exact opposite, as I said earlier. If you decide to help everyone because, holistic means all connected, you will loose out and will be seen as the expert of nothing.
I suggest that you look deeply at your own life. Your journey and experience. What you have gone through, how it changed you, what you learnt.
Think about how it all made you feel and how you could make someone else feel even just a little better if you shared what you did, how you overcame and what you changed.
People relate to experience and if you share even a small piece of your own journey that they can relate to it can show them that you do in fact
TIP: Narrowing down your niche and becoming clear on what exactly you have to offer does NOT mean you have to turn away clients.
Clients will search for what exactly is bothering them BUT you know they could use help in a few different areas and that will all come up as you start working with them.
They do need to be able to find you and that is what matters in the online space.
Conclusion:
You do not need to have loads and years of experience to work with clients. There are clients out there that need your guidance and knowledge.
Once you become clear on who you work with and what you can share the most knowledge about, you can start writing content. Adding content to your website will rank you hiring within Google and give you a better chance of having your ideal find you!
Your turn! Tell me what niche you have chosen and why!
There are a few things that you need to have in place once you are officially a health coach. Many of these steps you can start while in school or taking your courses! I put together an ultimate guide to starting a health coaching business in 2020, showing you how to start a health coaching business. I am sharing what I learnt along the way and I hope you will find it helpful.
In this Ultimate Guide To Starting A Health Coaching Business in 2020 you will find information on the following:
Your Why
Legal Aspects
Strategize
Equipment
Be seen – online presence
Marketing Strategy
Mindset
Not a health coach yet but wondering how you can become one? Check out this article that covers more.
Staying current is something that can feel will never actually be achievable because new discoveries are made daily and one can simply never know everything. I remember feeling this way many times but once I sat down and really figured out WHY I wanted to be a health coach, I started to feel more joy in my business.
I highly suggest that you look at your own balance weekly. Your own homework… Write down your ideal client. This is a good recount for you to make sure that your desires as you build your business stay in alignment and that you are still in tune with your passion and strengths.
Most of the time it is something that you have personally gone through or someone close to you has gone though that has put you on this journey and that can be your WHY. This matters for when things seem too hard and you feel like you want to quit.
What forms do you need to make your website legal
Every business has a legal aspect. The on-line space is no different. You need to be aware of what you need on your website to make it legal.
How do you know what your need to make your website legal?
Disclosure: I am NOT an attorney. Always seek legal guidance if you are unclear or uncertain of any area regarding your business. This post will provide information only and is not legal advice.
The three pages that you want to make sure are on every page of your website are a disclosure policy, terms and conditions and privacy policy. You can purchase templates that allow you to customize them to your specific needs.
Strategize
Set aside time to evaluate and re-evaluate how you are working; do this every single week. Keep focus on your ideal client and how you can best serve them. Only work with a select number of clients at a time and focus 100% on them and their healing and holding space for them.
At first it may seem hard to get clients but once you do, it can feel overwhelming unless you have a strategy in place. If you take on too many clients, you loose research time and sacrifice your abilities. It is so tempting to take on every client that reaches out, it is so tempting to take on too many/too much.
The desire to help can run high, the desire to make more financially is obvious and yet if you do this, if you loose sight of what your limits and boundaries are or your true vision and passion than you sacrifice yourself. When that happens, all of that temptation means nothing because you will not help anyone and you will suffer as well.
What makes you unique?
Write out your journey and the reason why your want to help others. Share your story, that tells people that you really do understand. Don’t be afraid to feel confident in your area of expertise. That is why you narrow down who you want to work with and what you want to help them with; known as your niche.
What is your offer?
Put into words exactly what you have to offer. Not just your package but how you will deliver it and why it will help them. There are a lot of programs available so why should someone buy from you versus the other hundreds of people in the same industry. What about you makes someone feel comfortable sharing their health story with you?
Draw up a rough idea of what you would like to offer as packages? Do you offer a 90 day challenge, a 3 month intense series, do you do live video with your clients.
Make sure that your clients know exactly what you do, what you offer, how they will work with you and why they should work with you.
How much do you charge?
This is a tricky one but truthfully we make more it difficult on ourselves then needed. Your fee doesn’t matter as much as what you are giving the person. If you can figure out the one supplement or 6 foods they need to help them, they would likely pay anything… I don’t believe in ripping people off but you have to account for your time and energy as much as what the problem is you are helping them with.
I suggest starting with a slightly lower fee until you have a few testimonies. Then with each growth period that you have you can increase your fee as you feel fair.
Equipment that you will need to build an online business
The basic piece of equipment that you will need is a laptop. The rest you can purchase later.
Laptop or Computer
Quality microphone
Quality camera
Quality head phones
Professional photos
USB stick
Back up function
Best platforms for building a health coaching business
Practice Better is an online platform that gives you everything you need to create customized forms, meal plans, supplement suggestions, lifestyle recommendations. I have tried a few platforms and this one is by far my favorite. It is also HIPPA compliant which for me was a really big deal.
Fullscript is a great supplement dispensary that you can use and it sinks with Practice Better so that you can have the most of both and create great protocols for your clients.
Get Seen — Online Presence
WordPress Site
I recommend that you set up a WordPress site. I personally tried others in the beginning only to be led back to WordPress. It may seem overwhelming in the beginning but after you get the hang of it, it really is easy. You don’t need to hire someone to set this up for you. I have a course that walks you through the stepshere.
HARO
Once you have your website established you can register with HARO, help a reporter out. Once you apply, you will receive a couple e-mails a day. You can send in your best answer to a suitable query and if they use your answer, they will link your website which can help get you back links for your website.
Blog Posting
Blog posting is a great way to build like/know/trust with your audience. Provide as much helpful information as you can, this leads to a following and potential clients that can’t wait to work with you. Make sure that you write about relevant information, don’t have a post about puppies if your niche is women’s hormones. You also want to make sure that you optimize each post as this will help Google find it and put it in front of your audience. I walk you through SEO in Health Coach Creator.
Guest Blog Posting
Guest posting can help you get in front of a larger audience as well as build back links. Blog posting can be intimidating but after you do one or two it will become more comfortable. Search for fellow coaches and reach out to them to see if they would be interested in having a guest post on their site and what topic that you feel you can provide a great post on. Avoid trading guest posts as Google is smart and will know; you will not get back links for doing this.
Social Platforms
Working on line is an amazing opportunity to in front of a large audience but you need to have a presence on these platforms for them to see you. I suggest that you focus on one platform at first until you are consistent posting on it a couple times a day. The biggest thing is consistency, if you post once a week then make sure you post once a week. If you post 3 times a day, then post 3 times a day.
Depending on your niche you may find one platform more beneficial. Where is your audience? If you focus on recipes for weight loss, specifically Keto or GAPS, then you may choose Pinterest. If you are zoning in on men’s health, you may look at Facebook or Instagram.
Marketing
You can have the best offer, the best course or the best service BUT if no one sees it; it won’t sell. If you don’t sell to anyone then you make no money and then you have an expensive hobby…
To avoid that, we look at marketing to get as much eyes on your website as possible. A great way to do that is through list building, public speaking and library or school visits.
E-mail
Many talk about the all important list. It truly does matter and the reason is because if anything ever happens to social platforms you won’t be out of business. The idea is to have people on your list that truly want to be and will at some point hopefully become a client.
Provide quality content to your list only. Many talk about over sharing of themselves as a sales tactic but I am strongly against this. Like/know and trust has always been important but I personally do not need to know what someone did on the weekend or a picture of their cat in order to purchase a quality course or product.
You also do not want to spam your list. They do not need an e-mail from you daily nor do they want to only hear from you when you are trying to sell something. Provide content that will help them and then you can introduce them to a new product/service that you may have.
Public Speaking
If you are comfortable than this can be an incredible way to grow your business. You can pass out a form for those that want on your monthly newsletter can sign up. They may love what you had to share and connect with you at a later date or sign up to be a client in one of your programs on the spot.
School/Library Talks
Schools and library’s are amazing ways to reach school age children if your niche is children. You can provide education of healthy foods and recipes. You can also send home a flyer with your contact information for parents to set up a session with you if they feel beneficial.
Mindset
This step should be mentioned before and after every single step because without it nothing matters. As a health coach your desire is or should be to help others and to do that involves a great deal of energy. When you release this kind of energy on a daily basis it can and likely will at some point make you feel like stopping.
Keeping on top of your mindset is crucial in any job but especially as a health coach. You will hear many stories and journey’s and with that the pain and suffering that accompanied.
Let go of any clients that you feel are not a good fit, maybe they aren’t following the protocol and yet “say/think/want” to get better but will not look at their blocks, maybe they aren’t making their payments, maybe they simply are not ready or doing any of the homework or perhaps they are not truly a good fit and you can point them in a better direction for them.
I used to truly dread this reflection. I felt fear, was I failing them, was I not enough, did I do something wrong…. I had to do a lot of mindset work to learn that some women would say they believed and felt that my work/protocol was what they truly needed and yet they deeply inwardly just wanted a quick fix and thought maybe I had it. I had to learn that it was ok to say no, that it was ok to fire a client when they weren’t doing the work or paying for their protocol. I learnt that every time I let go, I attracted and left space for the right client.
Conclusion
Narrow down your niche and ideal client
Have forms in place to protect your website
Have a strategy
Establish an on line presence
Marketing
Mindset
I would be interested in hearing how your business is going. Feel free to drop me a comment and share how things are going!
Every business has a legal aspect. The on-line space is no different. You need to be aware of what you need on your website to make it legal.
How do you know what your need to make your website legal?
Disclosure: I am NOT an attorney. Always seek legal guidance if you are unclear or uncertain of any area regarding your business. This post will provide information only and is not legal advice.
Put aside the idea that you get to work from your local coffee shop, spend more time with your family and make your own hours. Until you have these legal pieces in place, you should not run an on-line business.
I created a quick list of those of you that love to be organized. This list will help you make sure that you are on the right track and have everything in place!
The other thing to have in place is your insurance coverage as a health provider, you absolutely want liability insurance in place.
PAGES YOU NEED TO MAKE YOU WEBSITE LEGAL
A few pages that you want to consider to make your website legal are:
Privacy Policy
Disclosure Policy
Terms and Conditions
Cookie
There are other legal forms that you may need depending on what you offer and your website. If you plan on working with a VA (Virtual assistant for example you will want a contract agreement. You may want to have sponsored posts (great way to make some extra cash), in which case you will need a sponsored post contract.
If you decide to guest post which is a fantastic way to gain back links, then you will need a guest posting agreement.
You cannot set up LLC in Canada but if in States or anywhere else you may require a document for that as well and can access that from a lawyer and even purchase a template on-line. The key is making sure you are getting templates from a reputable lawyer that knows what they are doing.
Before you publish your website, you should have the 3 most important pages set up. The three are Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions and Disclaimer. You cannot copy and paste someone else’s pages as that would be copyright and end you up in trouble.
I don’t recommend that you write your own either. There are free places where you can download templates but unless you are a lawyer, you really cannot be sure that you have included everything needed or even written it properly.
If you cannot afford to pay for a lawyer, which to be honest most start up business’s can’t, you can find lawyers on-line that sell templates and that can be a good starting point for you.
I did a pile of research trying to find the right on-line templates to recommend to my students at Health Coach Creator. I finally found Mariam Tsaturyan and you can see her available templates on her site.. Mariam is a lawyer but also a blogger so she understand the on-line space. She also has knowledge of the health aspects required for health coaches and wording needed.
If you do purchase from Mariam, you will receive an e-mail from her with the key language that you need to add to make it effective for your exact needs. If you still need more you can work with her to customize even further!
HOW TO COMMUNICATE POLICIES TO YOUR READER
You show your reader your various policies and procedure via pages that attach to each page of your site.
You can do this by having hidden pages on your site with your policies written on them. Then linking your policies in the footer of each page on your site. You will see some website add these page links to the top of there pages but I recommend the footer.
The idea for each legal page is to inform your reader of your intent, what you share, how you share it and how your site works etc
PRIVACY POLICY
Basically, a privacy policy tells the reader how you use the information that you obtain from them. If they fill out a form or opt-in for example, the policy will let them know where that info goes and what you do with it. You legally have to let the person reading the information on your site what you will use their information for; make sure you have this. Do you plan on sending them e-mails with offers and information etc?
The policy will also share what platforms that you will use their information on, such as Kartra or Mailerlite etc. If you purchase templates from a reputable lawyer than you will know that they are also in compliance with CAN-SPAM ACT and also GDPR compliant.
DISCLAIMER POLICY
A disclaimer essentially says that you wrote with good intent and can help reduce legal liability of your content. The privacy policy should include a few things: affiliate links such as Amazon and any wording that Amazon requires (make sure you check for any specific wording that needs to be added as your affiliate agreement and add that here).
If your post for example has affiliate links then you must legally state that at the beginning of your post so that they reader can see it before reading the content. Being an affiliate means that you make money when someone buys something that you have recommended. If you create a blog post and wish to share it on social media you must post it on the social media platform as well.
If you are sponsored to write a post than you must state that as well. Even if you are given a product in exchange, you must still indicate that it is a sponsored post.
The disclaimer also shares that you are not a doctor or regulated professional (unless of course you are but if you are not, you want to state that). You want to make sure that you are fully open and state you are not providing any legal advice, diagnosis, financial advice etc
Your disclaimer helps protect your blog regarding any products and/or services.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The rules that you have around your sire/blog. The terms and conditions explain to the reader what you allow and don’t allow within your own site. Basically, when a reader comes on your site they are agreeing to your terms and conditions.
Within your terms and conditions you can list your refund policies, how you handle legal issues should they come about, copyright infringement etc.
Again, best to use done for you templates that can be customized to your needs by a reputable lawyer or meet with a lawyer to have these drawn up for you.
COOKIE LAW
Cookies law, although a funny name is for your UK visitors. You will see this pop up and the bottom or top of websites asking the reader to agree. You can use a plug in to add the cookie law to your WordPress site.
You can purchase these template at Mariam’s shop, customize them, add them to the footer of your website and feel assured that you have the right policies in place.
Make sure you have your policies in place before you start working with clients!
HOW TO ADD POLICIES TO YOUR WEBSITE
If you are using WordPress and I highly recommend that you do. I wasted a ton of time with other platforms. WordPress can feel overwhelming at first but it gets easy!
All you have to do is go to the left sidebar on your WordPress site.
Click on Appearance.
Then click on Manage Location.
CONCLUSION
You need to have liability insurance to protect yourself as well as have the proper policies on your website before you can begin working with clients or your are putting yourself and your business at risk.
Then, make sure that you have the 3 most important policies in place on each page of your website. Speak to a lawyer if you aren’t sure.
If you found this article helpful, please drop me a comment and let me know!
The first thing that you need to be an online health coach is passion! Really, to be an entrepreneur you need passion and to be an online entrepreneur you need to be passionate and determination.
It is not easy to build something from scratch. The saying “if it was easy, everyone would be doing it” comes to mind…
You need to want it. The idea of working from home, basking in the sun while you sip margarita’s while laying pool side is just a technique that business coaches do to lure you into the idea that being an entrepreneur is this glorious vision that anyone can achieve.
I mean don’t get me wrong, I day dreamt about the idea and fell victim to it many times while listening to podcasts filling my mind with the concept that if I just believe or manifest; it will come. Reminds me of the movie “build it and they will come” except they don’t mention the having to build the flipping thing before “they” come and that it will take blood, sweat and tears…. lol
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WHO SHOULD START AN ONLINE BUSINESS AS A HEALTH COACH?
Someone who is passionate, we covered that.
Someone that is ok failing or maybe it is not ok failing…. You WILL fail and you have to believe enough in yourself that you can get up and try again and again until you discover what works for you.
Someone who is ok not having consistent money. This is fairly standard for any entrepreneur, especially in the beginning.
Someone who enjoys being on a computer. You may be able to hire out many tasks but there are still things that you need to do and they revolve around a computer. It is an online business we are talking about after all…
Someone who enjoys to teach. That is really what health coaches do. Teach others various skills, techniques, strategies etc
Someone who is organized, You cannot mess around with paperwork and you will have paperwork to do (even if on line) you have to be diligent in getting it done and having it organized. People are sharing personal facts about themselves and those need to be handled accordingly.
Someone who enjoys working with other people. Many people do not like working with others daily and so you want to look at that when starting out and act accordingly. Maybe you don’t run group programs for example.
WHY WOULD SOMEONE BECOME A HEALTH COACH?
The number one reason to become a health coach is to help others. That makes sense but there are other reasons as well. We get lost in the help others to the point that we can loose ourselves. I remember the first time I had someone write to me saying “how dare I charge people for health and say that I want to help people.
I was crushed… honestly, I was devastated and thought about it for a long time. I thought I should quite, that they were right. I was so emotionally torn about it and it took me far too long to remember that I have bills to pay too.
To that point, a reason to become a health coach should be money. In my opinion, it is not a bad thing to make or to want to make money and we spend an awful lot of time worried we don’t have enough or feeling bad for charging it.
You need to eat, pay your mortgage, kids activities, bills and so much more so it is ok to put that guilt away.
Another reason to become a health coach would be that you are truly interested in health. That seems redundant however, loads of people work as hippo crates. I am not talking about you having health issues or working on getting fit. I am talking about running 5 day food challenges while you chow down pizza every night while off line. People will see through it.
One other reason that I feel some do really well as health coaches is personal experience. They have either gone through a health challenge or had a loved one go through a difficult health challenge.
WHAT SCHOOLING DO YOU NEED TO BECOME A HEALTH COACH?
You have a few options. You need to obtain the proper level of Nutritional knowledge. Seeing as now a days there are many different diets, health concerns and weight struggles you want to be extremely well versed in all of the areas of health.
You also need to learn how to teach seeing as that is what coaches do.
Having been a College Health Instructor for a decade myself, when I did do mu Nutritional schooling I found it hard to find a school that could teach me something that I didn’t already know. I am trying to boast, that was simple the issue that I had when researching.
RELATED POST: Not sleeping? Read THIS – To work with others you need to take care of yourself!
I recommend that you reach out to others and see how they felt about the curriculum. If you look at Facebook groups you can find Health Coach groups and jump in and ask around to get input.
The school that I went with is Nutraphoria and I can honestly say that I loved it!
Coming from someone who already knew an awful lot in this field coupled with being in charge of creating curriculum that is a big deal for me to say.
I still visit there site to see what they have up and coming as far as courses.
They have a blog post dedicated to what to look for in an online school and I think they hit some nails on the head.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN AN ONLINE SCHOOL?
For me flexibility was key. I was teaching full time, had 2 kids, husband that still wanted to be able to go out from time to time and a house to manage.
The second factor was the curriculum and did the courses in fact cover the vast information that I was wanting and at the level that I was seeking. A sales page can be awfully deceiving so I recommend that you call the school up and have a long chat making sure to ask your specific questions.
Is the program accredited, this will mean that they have to maintain and reach certain guidelines governed by an overriding body.
Next, I look at the cost and truthfully although this is important, it should be your deciding factor. Rather, you want to look at the value that the course gives you. The more you learn, the more that you know and the more that you make in the long run. The school will pay itself off eventually.
You need to narrow down your niche and ideal client first before you can get anywhere online. If you don’t know who you are speaking to, how can they find you?
Setting up a domain, host and then creating your WordPress site are the next steps in getting up and going. You want your site up as soon as you can to build your domain authority. That is really a thing, I had no idea until a couple years in business that I had not set my site up to even rank with Google and so no one was even finding it in a search…. ouch…
I cover domain/host and even how to set up your own site in my course, The Health Coach Creator as well. I think it is so important to know your own business and so I think building it yourself is critical. Do not let anyone tell you that you can’t… It is not hard, it takes steps and a couple days and that is it… I walk you through the whole thing HERE.
It can feel so overwhelming in the beginning… Honesty, it can feel overwhelming in the middle too and that is ok. It is also ok to ask for help, fire out or take a course to help guide you and save you some time. There is no absolute way to work in this business and don’t be fooled by guru syndrome. Just because it works for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you and there is trial and error that will happen.
You got this!
I would love to hear from you and where you are at. Feel free to leave a comment and I will definitely get back to you!
Nice to meet you! I am Tammy. I am passionate about helping health coaches/practitioners build there online business so that they can work with clients and earn the money they desire!
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