Having a strategy can be helpful when you are first starting out in your business. Honestly, having a strategy can help at any and all stages of your business. Always evaluating where you are in your health coaching business and what areas need addressing, sets up a good foundation for your success as a health coach. Here are 5 tips for a successful health coaching business!
Building my health coaching business was not easy. The reality is that I wouldn’t be helping you in any way by telling you it is simple or that if you follow some secret sauce strategy that you will be successful in a month.
I put in long hours, did the health courses, offered freebie sessions to get valuable testimonies, and researched constantly.
I’m proud of what I have built and even more proud of the fact that I don’t sell success… Becoming successful in anything you do requires passion and commitment from you and only you. Hiring a coach can be a huge benefit but even the best coaches cannot help you if you don’t do the work.
5 tips for a Successful Health Coaching Business
My desire to build my own successful health coaching business was coupled with years of teaching medical experience in College’s, years of helping others with their struggles, passion to learn and little fear of failure.
I spent years teaching my College students, that we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. I taught that a bad mark was not a failure. My focus was that failing, albeit disappointing, doesn’t define.
Routinely, I practiced the needed mindset for an entrepreneur on a daily basis by teaching it to others.
When I set out building my own successful health coaching business I knew that I may have to try various strategies, fail several attempts, and be ok with things not working.
5 tip for starting a successful health coaching business:
Set Up Your Website
Figure Out The Legal Aspects
Set Up A Facebook Page and Group
Set Up Your Programs
Establish An Online Presence with Content
I will share with you my top 5 tips for starting and building your own health coaching business BUThaving the right mindset is what really matters.
Honestly, you will not succeed if you are not ok; not succeeding.
Becoming familiar with disappointment and changing your view will be your BEST strategy in becoming an online entrepreneur.
Tip #1: Set Up Your Health Coaching Website
I recommend that you use WordPress for your website. It is known for SEO optimization, you can do so much more with it and once you become familiar with the platform you won’t want to use anything else.
When I first started out, I will be honest, I tried WordPress and within a couple of days was so overwhelmed that I switched to a simple website builder BUT after an entire year I realized that I needed a lot more functions and WordPress was where I had to go to get them.
Again, I admit, I felt way in over my head but this time I was dedicated and came at it with a better mindset. I rebuilt my entire website from scratch, learned about SEO, marketing and everything in between.
It was good timing because I had enough online presence on Facebook and I was working with enough clients that I could focus my efforts on my site on my downtime. That was when I become obsessed with learning everything about how I could optimize my site to gain the most organic traffic.
Another thing to consider, if you decide to switch over to WordPress after being with another platform, it is a huge pain.
To set your website up, start with your domain and hosting platforms so that you can begin building your own WordPress site.
Where Do I Find a Domain Name?
I recommend that you use Namecheapfor your domain. There are other options, however, I find that they are affordable and the customer service is amazing!
Your domain will be your URL, you want to use your business name for this.
For hosting, I recommend that you use Siteground.Siteground is affordable, the customer service is great and the set up is super simple. The instructions are all very well laid out and I find their platform easy to use. If not then go with Bluehosting as another option. There are others but I am pretty picky when it comes to choosing where I want my hosting and having a reputable platform is extremely important to me.
Once you have your domain and hosting set up you need to connect the two. This is called pointing, once you do that, you are ready to start building your WordPress site!
It is a lot easier than you think to get your website up and going and once you get used to WordPress, you will find it has so much to offer. I see lots of people commenting on how overwhelming WordPress is but do not let that discourage you. It is by far the best when it comes to building your website and the options that it gives you are endless.
If you are looking for really detailed step by step tutorials, I walk through all of this in my course The Health Coach Creator!
Tip # 2: Legal Aspects for Health Coaches
There are a few legal factors that you need to think about when becoming a health coach. If you are unsure, you want to consult with a lawyer. Depending on where you live you will have different regulations so that is something that you will need clarification on.
Do I Need Insurance As a Health Coach
Yes! You want to make sure that you have consulted with an insurance company and ask all the questions that you have before you start to work with clients.
Do NOT work with anyone before you have insurance set up. If you are working with people online than you most likely need additional coverage for that as well. If you are working with people from a home office, you will likely need additional coverage for that.
Members of CANNP, you will find loads of great information on their website as well as geat rates for coverage.
It is wise to chat with a couple of different companies to check on fees as well as coverage.
What Legal Forms Do I Need On My Health Coaching Website
You also want to make sure that if you are working with people online, you have the proper forms in place on your website.
The three base forms that you want to have on your site are:
Privacy Policy
Disclosure Policy
Disclaimer Policy.
I recommend where you can purchase various forms for your website and talk more in-depth in this article about the legal aspects of working online.
It is always best to speak with a lawyer to make sure that you have everything correctly in place to protect yourself and your business.
Set Up A Facebook Page and Group
Since you are working in the online space the first platform that I suggest you start on is Facebook. Start by building a Business Page. You want to make sure that this looks professional and you can do that without hiring anyone.
Consider starting your Facebook page just the beginning. Part of being successful as a health coach and as an entrepreneur is diversity. Having various areas where you can connect with your audience is important.
I see too many coaches advising clients to stick to only one platform. The thing is that algorithms change, life happens and systems fail.
The same goes for revenue as a health coach. You want to have a few forms of revenue because if you are working solely with one-on-one clients your revenue can drastically change throughout the month.
Make sure to fill out all the areas with detailed information about who you are and what you do when setting up your Facebook page. Make sure it is a business page.
TIP: Clear out anything on your personal page that you wouldn’t want potential viewers seeing. This seems self-explanatory, however, we live in an online world and the first thing that a potential client is going to do is look you up and see what they can find about you to learn more.
Facebook Group
The next thing to do is set up a Facebook group. I have a video here that can help you with that. Lately, groups are doing better than pages are and that is why it is recommended to get this going right away.
You can join my Facebook Group to see the layout that I recommend and learn as you go!
Next, start posting on your Facebook page and your Google My Business Account. You want to come up with a schedule.
Something like this for a 7 day week:
Blog post, share your expertise.
Personal tidbit post so your audience can get to know you better.
Motivational or relative post.
Recipe.
Client success story.
Open question post, asking a specific question. Take time and give thought out answers to these questions.
Piece of researched information.
Set Up Your Health Coaching Programs
Knowing what you are offering as a health coach before clients see you online and want to connect with you. You will feel very overwhelmed if you get someone on the phone wanting to know about what you can do for them, only to be unclear yourself how you plan to work with them.
If you don’t know who your ideal client is or what specific niche you want to focus on, then that is the first thing that you need to do.
Actually, I switched my ideal client and niche a total of 4 times… Seriously, sometimes you need to work with who you thinkis your ideal client only to realize that it not your passion. What I thought I wanted ended up not being at all what worked for me and made me feel excited about waking up in the morning.
Feeling happy with your work as an entrepreneur is critical. As is knowing when you don’t feel that drive when things are failing, that it is ok to change direction.
I recommend Practice Betterfor your health coaching clients programs and protocols. Practice Better is an amazing platform and the customer service is fantastic!
You can do pretty well everything you need with your clients within Practice Better, including:
I tried a few different platforms before I found Practice Better. Aside from all of the features, it is very affordable! Bonus!
Establish An Online Presence By Writing Content
This requires more than just posting on social media. A big mistake that people make is not giving enough information. Health Coaches don’t want to give away their good stuff in fear they will have nothing left to offer their potential client.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
This is the online space and people need to see you, know you, like you and trust that you know what you are talking about.
For me, that was my biggest setback. I felt like I was working for free. Posting all the time, writing content, answering the various questions.
I felt bitter in the beginning that I was wasting hours and not making money. What I didn’t realize was that people were watching my videos, reading my posts and after a few months, I had so many people asking me questions and wanting to work with me.
That took time, commitment and dedication. To be honest, the most powerful tool that made a difference for me in my health coaching business was video.
I started doing the odd video here and there and trust me, I felt awkward. In all honesty, I hated doing videos, which was strange because I was used to speaking in front of students on a daily basis. Then, I decided I would do 1 video a week and within 4 weeks I noticed more and more people viewing.
Basically, I went from once a week to some times as much as 3 times a day. That skyrocketed my business.
Tip: If you don’t know what to talk about, ask your audience. They will likely ask a question or comment and from there you can create a great video full of great information that they can learn from.
Write Content
Start writing content. One technique that I found helpful was to write down my ideal client’s top 10 pain points or questions and answer them. Turn the answers into posts and in no time you will have 10 posts to upload to your new Website.
Consistency is key when it comes to posting. To gain authority with Google, Google needs to see that you are in fact an expert in your field and that your site is updated and added to on a regular basis with content.
Your content should answer the client’s questions and pain points within your niche. Give them a reason to make your site their go-to site!
Conclusion:
Running an online business can feel overwhelming and there is no set way that you have to follow. Some tips for a successful health coaching business include:
Building your website
Learning what you require legally
Creating a Facebook Page
Setting up your programs
Writing content
I hope these tips were helpful! I’d love for you to leave a comment and to let me know if you found them useful. Do you have a tip that would help others? Fell free to comment and share!
Your domain name will be your Website/blog name, therefore the first thing that you need to do is choose what your Website name will be. Setting up your domain and hosting is not difficult and you can do it yourself in a few steps.
Domain name = Business name = URL
For example, mine looks like this:
tammyseedhealth = Tammy Seed Health = www.tammyseedhealth.com
Your business name matters for a few reasons:
It is a representation of you!
If you decide later on to sell your business and you use your name as your business name, it makes it more difficult.
SEO ranking.
Registration — Depending on where you are located, if you use your name, you do not have to register your business name.
Do you want your name all over social media?
These are a few questions that you will want to answer when you are thinking about what you want your business name to be.
How to Choose A Website name?
You may have the perfect name in mind BUT it may not make any business sense.
It is easy to want to go with a cute name but remember that if the client cannot find you, it doesn’t matter how great your content is.
There are a few basics that you want to think about. If you put your location in your business name, then the potential client may think that you only serve that area and move on in their scroll. On the other hand, if you work locally, that could be beneficial.
Your business name is your URL
Tammy Seed Health = tammyseedhealth.com
Don’t make it cute
Not too long or too short
Has to be easy to read as a url
Don’t put 2 of the same letters together buildinggirl (the 2 g’s make it hard to read)
Don’t put b and d beside each other buildbytammy (this one trips people up as well)
Which Domain and Hosting Site to Use?
I highly recommend that you keep the place you purchase your domain from and the place you get your hosting from, in 2 separate platforms. Some will say to keep them together for ease but most of the online world agrees that having everything in one spot can be a dangerous idea.
The online world comes with all sorts of bumps and glitches and things crash…
I use Namecheap for my domain and I am extremely happy with them. They have incredible customer services, are knowledgeable and fast to respond.
I will show you exactly how to get set up with them.
Type the DOMAIN NAME (include .com) that you would like here:
If the name is taken, you will see this big X beside it. In the picture below, you can see how mine is taken (obviously, since you are on my site), however, they have listed several other options.
I suggest that you keep thinking and find a domain that ends in .com since that is the most common and recognized.
They will offer you options with .net/.healthcare/.inc Try various options that you feel suit you and fit your style until you find one available with .com
*** .com is the most recognizable and what you are looking for.
Unfortunately, people buy domain names all the time just to sell them to people who really want them. It really sucks when you are set on one name. Be willing to look at several options.
Check out this example. Mindovermatter.com is taken BUT you can purchase mindovermatter.net for $1,189.53. Yikes…
RELATED: If you would like more step by step instructions, I provide a guided video tutorial in my course, The Health Coach Creator.
Look… tammyisawesome.com is free! Once you find a name that you like and are happy with as a url go ahead and purchase it. You will have to renew this each year so make sure you account for that expense.
PRO TIP: There are a few expenses that need to be covered yearly and some you may choose monthly but you want to make sure that you know when they are coming due to track your finances.
Remember, you want to have your domain and hosting separately. It is a pain in that it is an extra step however, you only have to do it once and then if something happens on one platform you won’t be completely stuck. The chances of anything happening are slim, but things happen.
Once you select ADD TO CART beside the domain name that you would like, you will be offered various options that you can add on to your order. You do NOT need these. You will need to add an SSL, however once Siteground offers that addition for free.
How to Set Up Hosting
I recommend that you start with Siteground. Once you really start to grow you can think about moving your hosting over to a larger hosting option, such as Bluehost.
It is not difficult to do and worth starting with Siteground first. Siteground is cheaper and the customer service cannot be better!
Enter the domain name that you purchased at Namecheap
PRO TIP: If you have or plan on having more than one site, you can go ahead and click GROWBIG. I have a 2nd website tammybuilds.com so I upgraded to the GrowBig plan, however, they did not apply a discount for already having the StartUp plan.
I had to speak with a manager and they did honor it after but it is better to just go ahead with the GrowBig if you think that you will have 2 sites. If not keep it simple and go with the StartUp.
Enter your domain name as seen in the following image:
Now, click on PROCEED. Siteground will then ask for your personal details to create your account. Remember to select the 12-month package to get the best rate!
How to Connect Domain and Hosting
Domain = Namecheap: This is your site’s address or your URL
Host = Siteground: This is where the details of your site will be. It is like the foundation of your home.
Now you need to connect the two, it is called Pointing. It can seem overwhelming but it is so easy and I will show you exactly how to do this.
Remember, both platforms have incredible customer service and can help you at any point.
Inside Namecheap and Siteground, you will see something called Nameservers. Nameservers are where you can enter a URL and that site will then know that it is to point your URL to another area/site/platform automatically.
You can connect the 2 in a few simple steps:
Log in to Siteground
Select the WEBSITE option in the top bar
Now, choose SITE TOOLS
Scroll down the next page until you see 2 nameservers
Copy the 2 nameservers
You need to add these 2 nameservers to your Namecheap account
Log in to your Namecheap account
Select MANAGE beside the appropriate domain, in case you have 2
Scroll down until you see NAMESERVERS
In the menus bar, click CUSTOM DNS
Add your 2 nameservers, 1 per line
THAT’S IT!
Below you will see the SITE TOOLS option across from the domain name:
You will see 2 nameservers with IP addresses that look like this:
Copy those into your clipboard or you can come back and copy and paste them one at a time. You now need to add those 2 nameservers to your Namecheap account so that your domain points to your website.
Next, log in to your Namecheap account. Leave your Siteground open while you do this if you need to go back and copy the nameservers.
Select CUSTOM DNS in the scroll down menu, then add your 2 nameservers, 1 per line.
It can take up to 24 hours for the process to be complete now on their end. You can still go into your WordPress dashboard and work on your site but the domain will not point to the host for up to 24 hours. Until then, if you type your domain name into the search bar you will likely see, site not found.
Conclusion:
You are ready to start your own business and it can feel overwhelming. You do not need to hire expensive help to get started right away. I was able to set everything up for my own business on my own and was extremely successful; you can be as well!
There are a few things that you need to get started and that includes choosing your domain and hosting. Those 2 small things can feel huge when you don’t know what you are doing though. That is why I did up this tutorial and I hope that you found it helpful!
I would love your feedback! Was this article helpful for you? What else would you like me to cover for you here?
Alright, you have your domain and hosting set up. Now what? The next thing you want to do is get your site connected to Google. After all, Google is the captain of the online space. In this post, I will share how you can set up Google Analytics & Search Console to your health coaching website.
A few other things that you need to do once you have your WordPress site include:
Choosing your theme (paid or free).
Install Yoast (I will show you Yoast below) and the other plugins that you will help your site run properly.
Learn about SEO and how to get recognized by Google.
After that, make sure that you know some of the key terms.
Write your first post.
Get your main pages set up.
Before you do those, however, take a few minutes and set up Google Analytics & Search Console to your health coaching website. Let me explain in detail here so that you can fully understand.
What is Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free resource that gathers information on your website. This information shows you how your site is working for you. For instance, Where people finding your website. Analytics can show if you are gaining more traffic from one platform over another. It can gather from anywhere you have your website located such as Facebook or Pinterest ect.
What is the Difference Between Google Analytics and Google Search Console?
Both analytics and console are free tools. Google Analytics shows you data on the people that are using your site. Google Console shows you data on how Google is using and seeing your site so that you can optimize it to get the best results.
What Does Google Analytics Show Me?
After you set up a Google Analytics account, you will be given a Javascript code that you will add to your website. I will show you a plugin that you add which gives you the right place to add the code to. If you have already installed your theme, check and see if there is a header section and if so you can add the code there. If you have the header section option then you do not need to use a plugin but not all themes come with one.
Once people visit your site, the code will activate the tracking process that will then provide you with the data you can use to optimize your site.
Once you have this data, you can decide what you need to do to make your website perform even better.
Google Analytics shows you:
How many people are on your site in real-time.
How people, known as “traffic” get to your site.
What devices people are using to connect with your website.
Where the people that are using your site are located.
Which social platform is driving the most traffic to your site.
You can see where the user started and which page they went to next.
See your most popular pages.
Determines how fast your site is loading.
What the bounce rate is.
Integrate with Ads accounts.
That is a few of the things that you will see shown to you once you connect your website to Google.
What Does Google Console Show Me?
Google Console tells you how Google is seeing and using your website. It can help you monitor your site and make needed changes.
You can still be found on Google Search even if you have not connected to Console, however, the search console is the best tool to show you how your site is doing and how you can make your site better. Plus, it is free!
Search Console shows you:
Google can see your site.
Shows indexing issues.
Shows that Google is crawling your site.
You can see what people are typing in to see your site.
Google will let you know if something if off on your site.
You can see what other sites are linking to your site.
Those are some of the neat features that you can see once you are all set up!
How Do I Connect Google Analytics to My Health Coaching Website?
Let’s get you set up!
You want to add this the long way versus the simple idea of using a plugin. Although that is the simplest solution, it has lead to many issues for online business sites. That type of plugin would be one that connects the Javascript snippet to your website and that can break, fail or be hacked.
You will need a plugin IF your theme does not have a header section. Some themes come with this but not all.
If you have the header section, great! Simply copy and paste the code that you are provided from Google Analytics there. I will show you how to do that.
If you do not, I will show you the plugin that I use and have had no issues with.
You will be asked several questions and once you have answered all of them, you will have an account set and ready to use. When you are asked for your e-mail address, be sure to connect your g-mail account that you plan to use as your primary e-mail. This will keep things organized and seamless for you.
You will then be prompted to log in to your account. Once you log in you will see the main menu on the left-hand side of the page.
The first thing that you need to do is add your site. In Google Analytics it is known as adding your “property”.
Click on ADMIN at the very bottom of the main menu on the left-hand side.
The next screen will show 3 columns. If you do not see your website already under Property in the 2nd column, then click on the + Create Property button.
You will see on the next screen, 3 options. Select the first option, WEB.
Next, simply type in your information. Do make sure that you change http:// to https://
Once you click on create, the next screen will provide a snippet of Javascript code. This is the code that you want to copy and paste into the header section of your WordPress site.
How Do I Add Footers & Headers to My WordPress Site?
If your theme does not have a header section, don’t worry. You can simply add this plug into your site and then paste the Javascript snippet into it. Once you do that, you will have connected your website to Google Analytics.
To add the plugin, go to your main menu bar on the left side of your WordPress Site. Click on Plugins.
Click on the blue Add New button.
Type in Insert Headers and Footers into the search bar on the right side.
Click on the Insert Header and Footer plugin and then click on ACTIVATE on then next screen that shows after that.
All you need to do now is grab the Javascript code (the tracking code) and paste it into the header on your website.
In case you closed Google Analytics, I will show you where you can find your tracking code for when you need to find it.
In the 2nd column, Property, scroll down until you see Tracking Info
Click on Tracking Info
Click on Tracking Code
Highlight the entire code and copy.
If you are using a Chromebook, you can copy using ctrl and C.
Once you have the code copied, head back over to your WordPress site.
On the left sidebar scroll down to Settings.
You will now see the Insert Header and Footer plugin.
Once that is done, the next screen will show you a header and a footer box. Paste the entire code into the header box.
Click SAVE
If using a Chromebook, you can use ctrl and V to paste.
How Do I Set Up Google Search Console?
This is another fairly simple series of steps.
You will be asked to add a property.
Enter your Domain on the provider line and select continue. Note, that you are asked for just your sitename.com
Next, you are asked to add the provider snippet code to your DNS.
Your DNS is found where you bought your domain name. For me that is Namecheap. However, because I have my domain and hosting in separate spots that means that I redirected my DNS to Siteground (my hosting site). So, instead of adding to your domain (which I did try and do when I first set everything up) you head over to your host, which is Siteground or Bluehost for example).
Open a new tab and log in to Siteground. You want to leave the current screen open because once you paste your code, you need to come back and click verify. That will allow everything to connect!
Click on Website.
Select DOMAIN on the left sidebar.
Pick TXT option.
Paste your snippet code in the box as seen below.
Leave the name empty since that will be your root.
Click CREATE!
Remember, you left your Search Console tab open. Head back and CLICK VERIFY. That is it, everything will now be connected!
How Do I Add A Sitemap?
A Sitemap is like a roadmap to your site. It ensures that Google can find the pages that you want to be found. Yoasthas a great resource that explains more about Sitemap.
Yoast is easy to add to your site and only takes a moment. There are many benefits of having Yoast and you want it for SEO so let’s do that if you haven’t already done it.
The first few steps are the exact same as how the Insert Header and Footer plugin was added.
Head to the left sidebar of your WordPress site.
Click on Plugins.
After that, click Add New.
Enter Yoast in the Keyword Search bar on the right.
Click Install Now and then Activate.
That is it for that part. You now have Yoast on your website!
Now, you need to set it up but Yoast makes that really easy. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click on SEO in the left sidebar.
From there, click on General. In the picture below you will see that mine is already configured, however, yours will have a blue Configure Wizard option that you want to click on.
Yoast will then walk you through some questions to help get everything set up for you.
Next, you need to add your sitemap to your Google Search Console. Your Sitemap is easy to find.
In your WordPress dashboard, click on SEO (that is Yoast).
Select the Feature tab.
Scroll down until you see XML Sitemaps.
Click on the ? in the small circle.
Select SEE XML SITEMAP that appears in blue.
Copy the 1st URL that you see. (the entire URL)
How to Validate Sitemap?
You need to Validate your Sitemap so that you know for sure it is properly set up and configured. Luckily, there is a free tool that you can use for that! XML SItemaps.com
Paste your Sitemap in the Your Sitemap URL section and click VALIDATE SITEMAP.
You should now see a lovely GREEN bar that indicates that your is valid and that no issues were found.
Now, that you know your Sitemap is valid, you can go ahead and add it to Google Search Console that you set up!
How to Add My Sitemap In Google Search Console?
Again, this is only a few simple steps that you follow and you will be all done!
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!
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!
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
