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1. Announcements/Offers

For Serious Players…

Ready to really BUMP your practice to the next level?

Ready for advanced training on creating long-term marketing engines?

Then listen in to this extensive collection of my most powerful mentoring sessions over the last three years, with your own copy of:

“EXPLODE YOUR COACHING PRACTICE™: Proven Practice Building Secrets to Give You More Clients Than You Can Handle.”

Get your copy now:

Explode Your Practice

2. FEATURE: Branding in 4 Simple Steps

You have a name for your business and have even determined your focus or niche. Great!

Now, how do you let others know about you? How do you market your products and services to your chosen audience in a way that they will understand and relate to?

It all comes down to something called branding. Here is a simple 4-step process for defining your brand from the audio Branding Basics which you can hear on disk #2 of the Explode Your Practice CD set.

So, what exactly is a brand? A brand can be thought of as a set of perceptions a prospective (or existing) client gets when they hear the name of your coaching practice or see the logo you will be designing to represent it.

The important thing to remember here is that it’s not the same as the actual products or services you sell. Instead, it’s a feeling a person has.

STEP #1: Solidifying Your Target Market

As you did when you launched your business, start by identifying your target market. Who are they specifically? What demographics can you identify about them? What’s their age? Gender? Race? Marital status? Income level? Where do they live? Work?

Then try and go one step further to see if you can identify some lifestyle characteristics for them as well. Where do these people hang out? What do they like to read? What movies do they enjoy? What restaurants do they eat at? What associations do they belong to?

All of these factors can tell you even more about your target audience such as what’s important enough to them that they will spend both time and money on it.

Can you use this information to sell your products and services in a unique or interesting way? Take some time to think about it.

If you are struggling with this exercise and just can t seem to come up with anything, try focusing on the individuals you have coached in the past or are coaching now. Are they your ideal client? If so, why? What characteristics are you drawn to that make them an ideal client for you? If they aren’t your ideal client, that s OK too. Thinking about why they might not be ideal can lead to some insights too.

STEP #2: What?

Once you have your target market defined as specifically as possible, consider the key message(s) you’d like them to remember when they hear the name of your business or see your logo. What word or words do you want them to instantly recall? When thinking about a company such as Harley-Davidson, it’s pretty easy to identify a couple of words that represent this brand, such as freedom or independence.

STEP #3: How?

Descriptive words (like the ones you may have come up with in step #2) typically have a feeling or emotion associated with them and these feelings or emotions can be captured through the use of symbols, images or even the colors you select.

Again, thinking back to Harley-Davidson, the colors they chose are black and orange. Black conveys a sense of power, strength and independence, and the orange is a unique color orange (some say the specific mix is a trade secret). Color is just one way that Harley-Davidson stirs up what they want its riders to feel when they are cruising down the highway on a motorcycle made by the company.

How do you want your prospective clients to feel when they see the name or logo associated with your business? Think about how symbols, images and colors can convey those emotions and feelings for you.

STEP #4: Put it all together

Now comes the fun part! Working with a graphic designer (try someplace like elance.com), pull everything together – the key message(s), symbols, images, colors, feelings and emotions – intoa logo for your business.

Once you have some ideas drawn up, test them out on your clients, friends, or R & D Team. What impressions do they get when they see your logo? How does it make them feel? Would they hire you based on what they see?

Depending on feedback you receive, make any necessary changes and keep testing until you are satisfied with the results.

Using this basic 4-step process, you can create a powerful brand that will be easy to recognize and remember, excites you when you are talking about it to prospective clients and will virtually sell itself as it conveys the feelings and emotions you want it to.

Tip: If it excites you, and excites your potential clients, you have a winner!

Good luck and I am looking forward to seeing your unique brand on the Internet soon!

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Action

1. Announcements/Offers

For Serious Players…

Ready to really BUMP your practice to the next level?

Ready for advanced training on creating long-term marketing engines?

Then listen in to this extensive collection of my most powerful mentoring sessions over the last three years, with your own copy of:-

“EXPLODE YOUR COACHING PRACTICE™: Proven Practice Building Secrets to Give You More Clients Than You Can Handle.”

Get your copy now:

http://www.ExplodeYourPractice.com

2. FEATURE: “I’ve Got a Client – Now What?”

So … you’ve done 50 or so trial sessions. You’re feeling a little more confident in your skills as a life coach. You’ve even signed up a couple of paying clients. Congratulations! You’ve mastered the first session.

Now you may be wondering what structures you will need to have in place to support an on-going coaching relationship with a client?

It might help to think of it this way: it’s their game, they are in charge of defining the goals (“calling the plays”), identifying key strategies to achieve those goals and completing the action items you assign them each week.

However, it’s your rules that they have to play by. You define when, how often and for how long each coaching session is. You hold them accountable for accomplishing any tasks they have agreed to. You celebrate their success with them as well as get them “unstuck” when they are struggling.

Until you have written down the rules – also known as your policies – you don’t really have a coaching practice. Answering these questions, and putting them into a document, really brings your practice into existence.

Here are a few suggestions for “rules” from the series “How To Set Up a Client” which you can hear on disk #1 of Explode Your Practice CD set.

Your Policies and Procedures

Decisions to make when you set up your coaching practice:

• How many times a month will you meet and how long is each coaching session?
• Will you only coach over the phone or in person as well? If both, will you have a different fee structure for each one?
• What if the client needs to cancel or reschedule? Do they lose that session or if they tell you 24 hours in advance will you look for a substitute time?
• What if you need to cancel or reschedule? Does the same 24 hour advance notice apply to you too?
• What basic information do you need to collect from the client?
• What if the client needs support in between sessions? Will you encourage them to email or call you?
• If so, will there be a limit on the number of emails or on the length of the phone calls?
• And who calls for a coaching session? Does that change if the call is international for one of you?

All of these rules can be written in your operations manual, and in the welcome packet forms so everyone is clear about expectations.

Train Your Client

It’s up to you to let the client know what you expect of them. Some expectations of the client might include:

• Be on time and ready for the call each week (and that goes for you too!).
• Complete their assigned homework for the week unless they have renegotiated a deadline with you beforehand.
• Be prepared with what they want to discuss during the coaching session.
• Pay their monthly coaching fees in full by the date you have agreed to with them.

Of course, a coaching relationship involves two people. Some expectations the client may have of you:

• Check in with them on previous homework assignments and question them when something hasn’t been completed – hold them accountable.
• Track the client’s progress towards a goal.
• Be on time for every session, no matter what.

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It’s worth repeating: It’s not until these policies and procedures are defined that you really have a coaching practice. Answering these questions, and putting them into a document, really brings your practice into existence.

Enjoy setting up your practice!

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Want more? This plus 100 other topics are covered in more detail in the full Explode Your Practice CD set, available now.

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Action

1. Start your “rules list.” Use the questions above as guidelines.
2. Put your rules (policies) in writing.
3. Share your own rules at the blog, and post again the results once the sessions are done!

Enjoy!

P.S. Got a comment on this article? Add it to the blog.