2012 - Inner Firewalking

Finding Your Web Wizard

The following is taken from Get Paid University.

Where do you find a Web Wizard? My friend Elza of www. elzamusic.com went to www.rentacoder.com, posted a request for bids, found a guy who was great, and paid just $15 an hour for a few hours to get her website and blog up and running. He turned out to be a high-school student who was working from home in another state, and he was so responsive that he would complete projects for Elza the same day she sent them. Let’s see if we can find someone like that for you!

Do You Need a Blog and a Newsletter?

The following is taken from Get Paid University.

One day I’ll come up with a really simple way to answer that and I do answer it in the book but we’ll see what comes out now. I think a blog is wonderful. I would never have a newsletter without a blog and the way I’m doing it these days is I want my blog to be my newsletter. I have a blog and then put your newsletters on your blog. That’s pretty simple. You just put the article on your blog. What I think you should have people do though is make sure they still subscribe to your newsletter or your blog so that you can send out an email saying, “Hey, check out the latest article.” I think that’s really important, the emails to alert people and bring them back.

Stay Focused

The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.

Don’t get sidetracked in the early stages by developing brochures, stationery, web sites, or other long-term marketing methods. Even business cards, registering a business and your welcome pack can wait. You want practice, practice, practice! And you know enough people already to get this practice, without using any fancy methods. Don’t distract yourself with long-term methods — they can be a way of avoiding coaching right now. Work through your confidence, and explore coaching with your current network.

If you would like more information on exactly how to have fifty people say yes to a coaching session with you, you’ll be glad to know this is covered in detail in my ICF Conference speech: ‘Getting the First Fifty Clients’. You can access this online (and on CD) at:

http://www.FirstFiftyClients.com

While the Manual you are reading covers many aspects of your coaching business, the above speech is focused solely on getting you those first fifty clients.

Ginger Cockerham on Telephone Coaching

The following is taken from David’s interview with Ginger Cockerham in 10 Super Coaches.

In the first year, what percentage of your coaching was face to face versus phone?

100% by phone. I started coaching by telephone and have only coached one client face to face since I began coaching. I coach all my individual clients and all my groups by telephone. My clients are scattered all over the country and the world – the telephone allows me to provide extraordinary flexibility and allows me to coach more people and groups.

Telephone bridge calls are a great way to stay connected regularly with many clients – and I feel people relax their guard and share more freely and openly on the phone.

Coach a LOT

The following is an excerpt from the CoachStart Manual.

So coach a LOT. It’s OK if you’re nervous, or even terrified of doing your initial sessions – coach anyway. And don’t worry, we’ll cover many tips in later chapters to help increase your confidence and make the whole process much easier for you.

In the extreme, if you had 20 pro-bono (i.e. non paying) clients, you would attract many more clients and feel very comfortable charging them your full fee. You would also be getting a lot of training and experience under your belt. However, it doesn’t have to be for free…

Once you have 10-20 clients, with the assistance of your mentor coach, your practice will naturally grow in number of clients, client retention (how long they stay), and income. Once you have say ten clients, you might begin to look at longer-term, sustainable marketing methods.

Mike Turner on Getting Clients

The following is taken from David’s interview with Mike Turner in 10 Super Coaches.

In order, what where the top three sources of your clients in the first 2 years?

From people who had been clients in the time before I was a self-employed coach. The work arose from on-going conversations with them about what I was doing and what the challenges facing them were. This was the main source.

From my website – this only brought a few clients but one at least has now been with me for 6 years off and on.

From a magazine article which mentioned me.

Archive

Yearly Archive for 2012

Finding Your Web Wizard

Stay Focused

Ginger Cockerham on Telephone Coaching

Coach a LOT

Mike Turner on Getting Clients