Everyday I ask life coaches and business coaches alike this question: what’s the most pressing problem (or issue) in your coaching practice right now?
Most of the time the coaches give me answers that have to do with getting more traffic to my website, getting more people on my list or getting enough coaching clients. The interesting thing is even my other clients – healers, therapists, authors and other service providers – give me similar answers.
While it true that as a life coach you may need more traffic to your coaching website or you need more coaching clients in your practice, it may not be the most pressing problem in your coaching practice. And often, getting more traffic to your coaching website isn’t.
But for most of my coaching clients, the most pressing problem can be elusive. This is because usually the most pressing problem in your business has nothing to do with your marketing or generating traffic to your coaching website. Rather it usually has to do with how you actually DO your business.
Think about it for a moment.
Let’s say I could triple the number of contacts you get from your coaching website in the next month (which is possible, by the way). What would happen? Could you actually manage having that many more potential coaching clients contacting you about your coaching services? How effectively would you be at converting these potential clients into actual coaching clients? Or would you end up dropping the ball on a whole bunch of your potential clients?
If you’re like most life coaches I’ve spoken with, you likely believe that more people contacting you means more coaching clients paying you.
Yet, that’s not always the case. More often than not, you need to prepare yourself, your business, your business processes and your coaching practice for this sort of growth. So you need to know how to deal with such a large influx of potentially new coaching clients. Which means to continue to have a successful coaching practice you must have solid systems in place to manage these sorts of situations.
Now how these systems get created is neither difficult nor overly complex. It’s simply a matter of knowing what your business problems are and what you need to do about them in order to grow your coaching practice. After that, you simply figure out how to adjust your already existing business practices to support the growth. But if you don’t make adjustments to how you do things, the growth you experience will likely not be significant and will almost certainly not be sustainable. So if you want to get more clients in your coaching practice, you must consider how you’ll handle not only the coaching sessions, but all the things that happen to gain that coaching client.
So as a life coach, how do figure out what your most pressing business problems are?
The easiest way is through reverse engineering. Start with the end result. Consider what challenges you’d face if you had double, or even triple, the number of people contacting you about your coaching services, for instance.
Another way to find your most pressing problems is think about the task in your coaching business that you least enjoy doing. It’s pretty likely that you’ll find some issues there. For instance, there was a timein my own business when invoicing my clients was a pain for me. Of course, it presented a huge problem for me that I dreaded doing the thing that got me paid. So I had to look at this and find a new way to invoice my clients – a way that would be easier and much less time-consuming. I found my invoicing solution and now I can invoice clients so quickly and easily that I rarely even think about it, let alone dread it.
So you want to look for the things that aren’t working in doing your business. Find the holes in your coaching practice and fill them. To fill those holes, start thinking in reverse and consider what you’re doing well, don’t enjoy or simply don’t know how to do. Start there. Consider all the steps along the way. Write it all down, turn it upside down and now you’ve got the outline for a plan. Focus on the issue closest to where you are now, and you likely have, at least one of, your most pressing business problem.
Plan your coaching practice for success
We so often tell our coaching clients to plan for success. Why couldn’t that mean imagine the success you want and work backward to where you are today? It’s a little secret – and it works!
What is the most pressing problem in your coaching practice? In your business? And what are you doing about it?
Let’s talk about it!
note: image from tashland on Flickr, 
some rights reserved)
You have some honest ideas here. It looks like you have done a research on the issue and discovered.Anyway thanks a lot.I think most peoples will agree with your blog.Keep it up.
i think business coach is a great job and you can help many people that needs..
Thanks for the post. I do agree that at times increasing your client base may jeopardize the quality of your work.
To be successful, you should consider the outcome from the current clients that you have, and not the number of people calling you for your services. Cheers
I think you raised an important point in your article.
usually the most pressing problem in your business has nothing to do with your marketing
– a good point.
Sometimes you are so close to something its difficult to see the forest for the trees. A coach sometimes helps bring a new perspective.
Very interesting article Dawud.
While I admit I’ve never been a life-coach or a ‘coach’ in any business capacity, I have coached a football team, and the challenges I faced along the way are much the same.
In my case, I had to figure out how to relate to my quarterback (kid had a golden arm) in such a way that he would follow my instructions, even when he didn’t understand the “why” part of the equation.
Since the team was in the semi-finals at the time, it all boiled down to trust. I told him, “Look, we’re one game away from the championship. You’ve had a lot of success this year, but you’ve had a lot of success doing exactly what I told you to do. Now is not the time to question that formula.”
It resonated with him, and he played two outstanding games after that conversation including a blowout win in the semis and a gritty performance in the championship game (which we won 16-12) against a team that had beaten us 26-0 in our only other meeting that season.
I guess my point is that the principles you espouse in this article are true in an even broader concept than discussed here.
Great article, by the way.
Thanks for the post, it makes me think of how to get prepared for more business.
great article. Im really inspired by what you have done here and I hope I can apply it on myself
I’ll bookmark this one, the content is interesting.
I somehow agree to Parking Solutions that most pressing problem in coaching practice has nothing to do with marketing.
It all boiled down to trust. I told him, “Look, we’re one match not here from the title fight. You’ve had a lot of victory this year, but you’ve had a lot of victory doing closely.
This is an interesting article and thanks for this business tips.
Reverse engineering, an interesting way to look at problems and business growth together.
Thanks
if you want to get more clients in your coaching practice, you must consider how you’ll handle not only the coaching sessions, but all the things that happen to gain that coaching client.
nice post. Since the team was in the semi-finals at the time, it all boiled down to trust. I told him, “Look, we’re one game away from the championship. You’ve had a lot of success this year, but you’ve had a lot of success doing exactly what I told you to do. Now is not the time to question that formula.”
nice to read ,,, its really give point before i start any work and step for my business
i agree with the second point you make.. i didn’t knew that ” nice post” has another meaning in it…
“Consider what challenges you’d face if you had double, or even triple, the number of people contacting you about your coaching services, for instance.”
We did that a lot when we were starting up – trying to pinpoint the problems before we scaled up.
Thanks for the reminder to keep on doing that.
OK, I am not a coach of any sort. I just got a promotion and was goggling about how to teach and coach employees. So far I have read a few posts. And even though it is a different genre the fundamentals are still the same. Thank you very much you have given me a lot of useful tools to use when deciding what to say.
Most people would consider too many clients to be a good sort of problem, but quality does suffer and it won’t be a problem for long when word spreads. An optimistic attitude and realistic goals is a great way to plan for future success.
The most pressing problem is consistency: delivering the same high level of quality to all your clients.
Think about it: having more clients is fine but if you cannot meet or exceed their expectations, this will only be a short-term benefit…
ITz really nice and helpful… Thank you so much…
Having too many clients and feeling you are losing the grip on things – that’s by far the most pressing problem.
Success doesn’t come with more clients – it comes with more happy clients!
Every successful business need a proper idea, batter analysis technique & require a good judgment about situation. You have share some batter ideas here & i agree with you.
Thanks for business tips.
As you all know, the site content is also increased with increasing number of your views. Effortless in a way that if a way to improve the site content is to take advantage of RSS feeds. Feedzilla the site name in different categories, gathered together from different sites that offer RSS feeds as a widget. By selecting the category you want your site titles and descriptions where put this widget. In this way the traffic is increasing because of the content of your site.
I guess after reading your post, which I find honest and excellent. I’ll be starting my own blog very soon and this is an excellent topic that can be added.
I will be back to follow this thread and in meantime bookmark it.. thanks again
I think this topic can help us all. No matter who you are and what you do, we all need a coach… the greatest at anything always had a mentor.
Thanks for the topic.
The issue with business growth is that most individuals are not able to visualize what’s needed if they’ve never experienced it before. Perhaps you could develop a short online coaching course that showcases the common challenges, opportunities and solutions.
I totally agree with you. We first need to evaluate our problems and targets and then start for work. I have seen many businessmen and even bloggers, they just want to earn money like every one but they want it in a minute. Thats not the way nature follows. Since, the Slow and the steady wins the race 🙂
Any business require a proper control & for proper control require a good coach. I always try to find some helpful technique which is used by a establish businessman. Which technique they use in different situation. I like one of the point in your post is first need to find problem & targets and then start for work. This is true sentence in business world without finding your target & problems you can’t grow.
Excellent insight and I concur with your topic. Thanks again I will be back more often to see your updates.
Absolutely brilliant addition, Dawud!
You have raised realistic points and challenges and shown a way how to overcome them.
Thanks for sharing.
You write something different with your blog…Very good and solid points. Life coaches are more popular nowadays than ever, and for some people, they can be extremely effective.
Its really nice and helpful. I’ll be starting my own blog very soon and this is an excellent topic that can be added.
I think you make some interesting points here. It’s always been my view that a business is most stable when it gains customers and grows at a steady rate by offering good service. I have seen companies grow too quickly and gain customers at a dramatic rate but they have certainly suffered (sometimes terminally) from the problems that this can bring.
Very interesting. Thumbs up for you man. Its a great idea to talk about coaching stuff in order to assist your blogger clients.
Moreover I was amazed see the votes that majority of the bloggers have the same problem, they don’t earn that much money, what is the basic prob behind it u think of?
You have mentioned something which today’s blogger do not even consider to think about and they really need it. Because the bloggers just start posting on and on without evaluating their quality and starts counting for money.
I love this post of yours, sheds light to the problems we encounter everyday. It is not an easy business.patience and guts plays a big part and also constantly educating yourself on the ways and practices helps a ton.
There is some good insight into coaching programs and business. The ultimate goal should be common sense in business with the best practices. If you have a business with a market need, then time and will prevail.
The biggest problem I face is to get clients to convince coaching can improve their business.
The business of life coaching is kind of unusual, in that if you’re basically doing it solo, you can’t really take on too many clients at once. My older sister is a life coach and is involved in the community of motivational speakers. Individual clients that she mentors take up so much of her time and energy that she can only focus on a couple people at a time!
I started a blog a couple of times and just left it after some time. YOu certainly have to know what you are aiming at and be consistent and pacient. Not always an easy task.
Yeah, you bring up a lot of good points about coaching issues. I’ve never actually had to deal with it since I’m always the student, but this shed some light on what my coach has to deal with.
Much of my work is more or less “coaching” although it relates to coaching individual seeking to improve their speech and pronunciation. You brought up a lot of valid points I confront in my practice. Identifying what is really holding you back is a huge factor and it is easy to focus on the wrong things. I appreciated your insight on this topic.
Self analysis is profoundly difficult. It’s so often the case that a businesses analysis of itself can be profoundly misleading and misguided. We all need external professional advice no matter what industry you sit in.
I love this post. It is so thought provoking and will help new entrepreneurs as well as established entrepreneurs in continuous improvement of their product. Great.
Hi Dawud,
Great post – there’s certainly a lot to learn here. I’ve just finished building my new website (it’s certainly better than the old one but not finished yet) and your site is giving me a lot to think about.
We’re in business development for marketing agencies so have to look the part whilst increasing our own revenue. It’s a long hard slog but reading sites like your gives us guidance and inspiration!
Well, really this post makes me think for a while as everyone deals and face problems with out business. Maybe a list of the things that you think might help you would be great rather than not prepared at all.
If you want a reliable way to consistently attract new potential clients – and I mean real prospects with real problems, desire to solve them, ability to make the decision and the money to buy your solution now ? this may be the most important message you will read this year.
am very enjoyed for this blog. Its an informative topic. It help me very much to solve some problems.
Its opportunity are so fantastic and working style so speedy. I think it may be help all of you. Thanks a lot for enjoying this beauty blog with me. I am appreciating it very much! Looking forward to another great blog. Good luck to the author! all the best!
There is some good insight into coaching programs and business. The ultimate goal should be common sense in business with the best practices. If you have a business with a market need, then time and will prevail. i like this thanks for this post
wow, very informative, i think for your couching abilities, one should understand the process, of how many traffic that they need to have or even doing some systematic planning and we must not limit any possibilities for extensions.
Very interesting article Dawud. I know myself you need to let your business grow staedaily and suddenly having to many clients could be quite daunting. What advice could you give me if I wanted to be a life coach?
Reverse engineering is an intriguing concept! Good thinking.
I think business coach is great job It is very interesting post view to coaching practice,one of my nearest good coaching center is giving an offer of combined mock tests of cbse class 12 and aieee/aipmt/wbjee. my prep for any of them is not satisfactory at all though am taking these tests.Thanks
Thank you really a lot for the fantastic details. There?s definately alot to understand and as I appear about I maintain hearing diverse points of view. Some that are very wise and other folks that are quite unbelievable. I?ll return with some far better feedback and an belief of my individual soon after I feel assured plenty of to kind an view value stating.
So, you imagine yourself at the goal point and think about how you would have to be doing things differently, then just start doing those things to allow for that growth? Brilliant!
I started a few blogs back in the times and just left it after some time. But certainly you have to know what you are aiming at and be consistent and pacient. Not always an easy task. And you got to focus on brandning aswell.
Very good articles worth reading. Yes, a coach can sometimes even help when you’re in a tricky position. But it also often helps to even a little distance to allow the forces to return with new business to start with.
No big issues as such but some regular low level problems are like frustration with the clients and there problems.
Im always looking for more ways and better ways to increase my exposure to the net … sometimes its a challenge but its always fun
this is informative details.
Really it true that as a life coach we may need more traffic to your coaching website or you need more coaching clients in your practice, it may not be the most pressing problem in your coaching business.
Nice article….
I am sure that you have been give here not only your though . I would say that these are really Long time research and experience also. nice sharing . thanks a lot.
Fantastic post! In a very serendipitous event, I had just logged on to look up this exact subject. You have saved me hours, possibly days, of research. Thank you for approach and good luck with your blog.
Awesome. I enjoyed reading your articles. This is truly a great read for me. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work! thanks a lot Mr Dawud
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Thank you really a lot for the fantastic details. There?s definately alot to understand and as I appear about I maintain hearing diverse points of view. Some that are very wise and other folks that are quite unbelievable. I?ll return with some far better feedback and an belief of my individual soon after I feel assured plenty of to kind an view value stating.
ME and my fellow parents of kids with special needs are planning to put up a therapy center. I guess, all the items in your survey are our concerns right now. I find your site very helpful and I’m planning to read all the articles which I guess will be truly useful in our future venture. Keep it up. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
I see what you’re saying, it is certainly advantageous to find little modes and methods of improving those areas you dislike, but on the first rung of the ladder it sure can be difficult. I appreciate the informative words however.
I am effective at my job because I have not decided the best job for me so I do no attempt to modify something.
Excellent article, I especially liked the passage about reverse engineering and will definitely consider this moving forward.
Very interesting point about the common “we need more clients” statement, I here it all the time too from clients, contacts and friends. Also a good point about how you would cope with a sudden influx of new clients. I have often thought about what would be my personal limit to the number of clients I could service effectively as a life coach and it’s a difficult question to answer because no client is the same and requirements vary. I would be interested to know from other life coaches what they think their limits are in regards to client numbers.