by Jennifer
Croft
Have you been so busy with the day-to-day
operations of your business that you haven’t
looked at the “big picture”
in a while…or ever? If so, take a
quick peek at how the different areas of
your coaching business are performing.
Marketing
A successful marketing plan for your business
should include:
- A clear understanding of what you’re
selling and how your services and products
can benefit clients. - A narrow definition of your target market,
which, simply put, represents the clients
who are the most likely to buy from you.
- Ongoing strategies for how you’ll
reach prospects in your target market,
such as through networking, publicity,
or Internet marketing. - A marketing “message” that
conveys a consistent image and tone.
Think of the four-step marketing process
as:
- what you’re selling,
- who will buy it,
- how you’ll bump into them and
- what you’ll say when you do cross
paths.
Money
To make more money in your coaching business,
you need to bring in more revenue or cut
back on expenses.
To increase revenue, you can either raise
prices on your services or products, increase
your volume, or both. If you haven’t
evaluated your pricing structure recently,
now’s the time. If you’re too
busy (booked weeks or months in advance),
it’s probably time for a price increase.
You could raise prices by 20% and if you
lost one-fifth of your business, you’d
still bring in the same amount of income.
But with 20% less work! On the flip side,
if you’re too slow, you might consider
lowering prices or including value-added
services or products to boost your volume.
To tackle the other side of the money equation,
see if you can reduce expenses by trying
this simple exercise.
Go back through your business check register
for the past three months and circle every
entry you could have reduced or eliminated.
Calculate the total of these savings, multiply
it times four and that’s how much
you could potentially save in a year.
Bring in more. Spend less. Every cent you
earn or save will drop straight to your
bottom line.
Recordkeeping
Accurate, timely recordkeeping is one of
the cornerstones of any business. To ensure
that you can build and maintain a healthy
company:
- Keep track of all of your income and
expenses, even if your system is as rudimentary
as a shoebox for receipts. - Each month, set aside aside enough money
to cover your taxes. In the US that might
be 40% of your income (after expenses).
And while it might seem like a whopping
figure, on average, it’s what’s
required to cover federal and state income
taxes, as well as Social Security and
Medicare. - Pay all of your bills on time or arrange
more lenient payment terms with your contractors
or vendors. - Prepare invoices on a timely basis and
send collections letters to any accounts
that are more than thirty days past due. - File all of your taxes on time.
- Produce a profit and loss statement
at least once a quarter and use it to
track and react to changes in your business.
If you need help with any or all of these
recordkeeping tasks, delegate them to a
virtual assistant or bookkeeper, but be
sure to do them.
Marketing, money and recordkeeping—tune up all three at least twice a year
and your coaching business will run more
smoothly.
About the author:
Jennifer Croft has 25 years experience in
marketing and is the co-author of Search
Engine Optimization For Coaches: 101 Tips.
She specializes in writing website content
that can attract search engine referrals.
Visit her website at www.searchenginecoaching.com.
