If you’ve made the decision to become a life coach, yay, congratulations! Now, you are ready to rock it as a business owner, so that you can start attracting clients that you love, making money and working toward that life of freedom. In this episode, I’m going to help you get focused by breaking down the six steps that you’ll need to take to turn this passion into a money-making business. 

STEP ONE: Get clear on what you do, what you sell and who you serve. 

It is really important to get super, super, super clear on your focus, your niche and your one thing. This clarity is going to help you hone your message and keep you focused in your business (aka this will eliminate the whole, “throwing spaghetti at the wall” approach). 

The idea of niching down usually scares the hell out of people because they’re like, “What if I niche down too much? What if I get too specific? What if I don’t love it? What if I niche down so much that I can’t attract clients and I can’t make money?”

I promise you, you cannot niche down too much. I’ve been working with business owners for a really long time and niching down a lot at the beginning is the best thing you can do for your business! It’s going to speed up the process of attracting your ideal clients to you, which means, you’ll be profiting sooner rather than later! 

Think about the stores you shop at—Home Goods, for instance. Home goods doesn’t want people coming in their store looking for sporting goods. They want people coming in, looking for home decor because that’s what they sell. 

If you get a ton of people coming into your store (aka your online world) who don’t want or need what you sell, you’ll just end up wasting your time and energy serving people for free. That’s awfully nice and charitable of you, but that doesn’t pay the bills. You’ve to create a situation that’s a win-win—where you give great value and you also get paid. 

Therefore, it’s important to focus your efforts on attracting people that are looking for the exact thing that you sell. And you do that by getting really clear on what your niche is, what do you sell and who you want to sell it to. 

STEP TWO – Legitimize Your Business. 

Now that you’re clear on what your niche is, what you sell and who you sell it to, the next step is to do all the legal stuff—Register your business legally as a DBA or an LLC, open a business checking account, open your merchant accounts—Stripe and PayPal—legitimize your business so that you can start earning money for the services and the work that you do in the world.

STEP THREE – Brand Yourself. 

With that out of the way, you are now a legit business and it’s time to start going pro, which means creating a professional presence and brand look for your business. This is the fun stuff. I have a background in interior design, which is why I nerd over this part. I love this part because it’s what makes your business really feel like “you”! 

Branding is all about creating a vibe, or emotion, that you want people to feel when they interact with your brand online. How do you want people to feel when they work with you? Do you want them to feel calm and tranquil? Do you want them to feel like badasses? Do you want them to feel nurtured, loved and understood? 

Your colors, fonts, logo and the images you use to represent your business should reflect the vibe you want to create. They should give people a sense of what it will feel like when they work with you. And by doing the work to create a professional brand, you will ensure that everything you put “out there” on social media, your website, printed materials, etc. is consistent. That way when people see your stuff, they’ll recognize it as yours. This builds trust in your brand and creates a feeling of safety—very important in business. When people feel safe, they spend money. When they’re skeptical, they don’t. 

STEP FOUR – Create a Professional Website.  

Now that you’ve got the branding nailed, it’s time to build a website. This is where your business lives online. It’s the equivalent of having a local storefront. It’s where people will go to learn about you and learn about your services. It’s where they go when they are pondering the decision, “Should I hire her or not?” 

When most people are looking for somebody to hire, they Google them. When they Google you, they  want to see that they’re legit. People that don’t have a website tend to give us the illusion that they are not going to be sticking around for a long time. And we kind of wonder, “Are you new? Are they not sure if you’re going to be in business very long? Are they going to take my money and run?”

We want to work with people we trust. We want to know that they’re going to be there for us in three months, six months, two years when we need them, that they’re not going anywhere. We want to know that they’ve got security in their business so that we can relax and trust the journey with them. And a website helps you to do that. 

Now, can you do business without a website? Sure. But I wouldn’t recommend it. Do you don’t have to invest tens of thousands of dollars into doing a website? Absolutely not! You can create one yourself. It could be one page, it could be a couple of pages. You can use a done-for-you website template like these ones that makes it super easy! 

All you need is something that says, “Hey, I’m legit and I am professional.” Something that tells your potential clients about you, your services, your story, what they can expect when they work with you. And a place where you can add value and publish content that is going to help build that know, like, and trust factor. And this is also a place where you’re going to pull them into your funnel and onto your email list so that you can take them on a journey of getting to know you, feel safe with you and eventually buy from you. 

STEP FIVE – Put Yourself Out There! 

After you’ve created a website, it’s time to start getting out there and getting visible so that you can send people to your hub so that they can learn about working with you and the options that they have.

Getting out there on social media is one of the easiest ways to do this. I highly recommend getting comfortable with doing video, as it’s the fastest way to build trust and attract clients online!

If you’re not a social media person, there are lots of ways you can market your business without being a slave to the socials. (I am personally not into hustling on social media. I like to do things the easy way. I like to record one video, repurpose it and be at all the places without actually being in all the places. Yes, I’m sneaky like that. 😉) 

I also like to do in-person type of networking and I love teaching. So, I do a lot of in-person events and workshops and things like that. So, if that’s your jam, do that! 

Visibility is visibility. It doesn’t matter how you get it as long as you’re getting in front of people, teaching what you know, and sharing really valuable content so that they can learn firsthand how much knowledge you have, and they can experience what it’s like to work with you so that they can decide if they want to continue the journey with you, which would involve paying you.

STEP SIX: Sell your Services!

Once you start getting out there and start showing the world how valuable you are by sharing content and teaching on what you know, it’s time to let them know about all the ways they can work with you!  

Which means, you’re going to want to have your prices and your packages all bundled up and ready to talk about, and you’re going to want to make sure that you feel really super confident doing that. That way, when the person comes to you and asks, “How can we work together?” You are ready with a confident answer. You’re ready to have a conversation, and you’re ready to sign them on as a client.

Or, when you are out there talking about what you do on social media or at an event, or after you’ve given a presentation, or when you meet somebody at the grocery store — and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I need you in my life. How do I get started?” You want to be ready with your answer so that you can start onboarding clients and making money doing what you do.

I have a playbook that walks you through the exact steps to making money as a life coach online in 90 days!! 

Or. . . 

If you’re ready to jump right in and get started, and you think we might be a good fit to work together, let’s talk about what it’s going to take to build your badass business! 

I have a coaching program that you are going to love where you and I are going to work together and build your entire business in just three months. You can check that out at lifecoachmba.com.

And if you have any questions whatsoever, leave a comment below or reach out to me on the socials—I’m @tonyarineer everywhere. I’m happy to help you in any way that I can! xo