3 Crucial Skills You Need to Build an Extraordinarily Successful Coaching Practice

You can’t imagine not being a coach. 

You gain deep satisfaction knowing that you have a chance to create positive change in your client’s lives, and you’re constantly looking for ways to improve and upgrade your coaching skills so you can keep helping your clients achieve their goals and dreams. 

But here’s a question for you…

Are you aware of the skills and character traits that you must consciously cultivate to create a successful, sustainable coaching practice?

You may have heard it many times before and maybe you think it’s true, but I’m here to tell it to you straight…

Passion does NOT equal profit.

Passion is important, yes, but passion alone will not help you build a massively successful coaching practice. To do that, you’ll need a lot more than a deep desire to help others… 

Here are 3 crucial entrepreneurial skills and character traits that you need to cultivate if you want to become a successful 6-figure coach. 

Skill #1: Think Like An Entrepreneur, Act Like A Coach

You are a coach. You always will be.

But you’re also a business owner. An entrepreneur.

This means you must be able to switch between the two roles whenever you need to.

Put on your “coach hat” when you’re in session with a client. Bring on the skills that make you a passionate, committed coach. Listen, ask the right questions, and dedicate yourself entirely to the process.

But when you’re outside a session, you are an entrepreneur.

Understand that your coaching business is a business, and a business needs to make money. Make sure you’re always aware of your sales numbers, engagement numbers, likes on social media, comments on your blog posts… 

Look at your expenses, your profits and your losses and do it regularly. If you don’t, you will have no idea what’s working and what’s not working in your business.

Never forget that in order to help people as a coach, you need to stay in business…

And to stay in business, you need to think like an entrepreneur.

Skill #2: Learn to Love Selling

You can’t be a great coach if you can’t sell your services.

Many passionate and incredibly gifted coaches are on the brink of failure (or have already quit) because they refuse to learn how to sell.

While there’s no need to be pushy or come off as a “sleazy” car salesman, you do need to get a good grip on the art and craft of selling your coaching services, products and programs. 

Here’s the simple truth: you can’t help people if they don’t know how you can help them and a big part of selling is talking about the results you can help people achieve.

Think about it this way…

Selling is just a way to tell people how you can help them. No matter how much you want to avoid it, train yourself to make the client calls, write the social media posts and other content that will sell your services.

Read books, attend seminars and take courses that will give you the knowledge to sell with authentic confidence. It’s the only way you can stay in business and create a successful coaching practice. 

Skill #3: Do The Math

Are you aware of your income goals per year? Let’s imagine you want to create $100k per year, through your coaching practice.

Now think about how many hours you need to work, per week, to hit that number.

If you’re currently charging $100 an hour and you want to work 10 hours a week, you’re never going to get there (you’ll only make about $52,000 per year).

When the math doesn’t add up, it’s a sign that it’s time to adjust your prices or your hours — or both. Do your homework, check the prices in the marketplace and then choose prices based on your yearly income goals.

I can’t tell you how many coaches I know, who undercharge and end up working too hard and too long. This is the fastest route to lose your passion for coaching… and eventually your entire coaching practice.

So don’t be afraid to charge well. You are in this profession to help as many people as you can and you can only do that when you are financially stable and able to continue to improve and upgrade your coaching skills.

While it’s good to have deep passion for your work as a coach, never forget that burning passion is not enough to build and sustain a successful coaching practice. 

You can’t give your clients the attention that they deserve and that they have paid for, if you’re worried about how you’re going to pay the rent. 

So do yourself (and your clients) a favor, and cultivate the skills that you need to run a successful coaching practice.

When you do this, you’ll end up with an extraordinarily successful coaching so you can continue to do what you love…

Serve your clients, make a difference and do the work that you believe in.