Start up advice

paulac

Hi,

I want to start up a Life Coaching/Executive business working mainly with individuals as opposed to companies. The reason I want to do this is lifestyle based as opposed to financially based i.e I love coaching, I love the idea of being in control of my career and being my own boss, I want to have a very flexible lifestyle. My longer term goal is to be able to work part-time doing a job I love and I'm prepared to put full-time hours plus some into it for the first few years.

My background is as a consultant to over 100 companies in Ireland in HR, employment law and industrial relations however I didn't enjoy that work (didn't like the boss or company ethos!). A lot of people are saying that I should use the HR, Emp law experience to get into coaching within companies and therefore get the bigger fish.

So a few things I am currently pondering which I'd appreciate an outside viewpoint is:

1. Set up a business doing HR/employment law and coaching to increase chances of 'bigger fish'?
2. If I decide to set up a coaching business for private clients- how do you target them?
3. How do I find out who my clients are?
4. Sole trader or ltd company? I was thinking sole trader for coaching only and ltd company if hr and employment law are involved.
5. Financially I'm pretty good, no mortgage and no debt and start up for a coaching business for individuals is fairly minimal- is there any way I can use this to my advantage?
6. Should I use my own name for the business to increase my name being out there or should I register a business name? My initials are PC so I was thinking PC Coaching wouldn't be a great name!!
7. Facebook page or website?
8. How do I raise awareness of what coaching is/does?
9. Dress- If you were meeting a life coach as a private client - would you expect the coach to be in a suit or casual!
10. What would you pay?
11. I have been asked to work as a resident coach for a support group for a minority group which I fully intend to do however I have been warned by others that this may affect my reputation in a negative way and I may lose business from (my words, narrow minded) companies or individuals-

I've done a few of DCEB courses, a few I found useful however a lot of them are product based and what is being taught isn't easily transferable to my business. I was thinking of a mentor but my business isn't suitable for the mentoring programme.

I know I've a lot of questions so thank you for sticking with me!! I really appreciate your opinions, comments and advice. I know my own areas extremely well, I am an excellent coach and an excellent consultant however business start ups and the mechanics of owning and running a business is not an area I've ventured into before!

Again, any advice is most welcome! I'll take the good and the bad and filter accordingly!!

Thanks,

Paula

mari2222

offer a free session to a sample of your target market; see how many take it up (e.g. 10% or 50%); provide the free session; ask customers for evaluation/feedback; take it from there.

I wonder how many coaches have been trained, and how many are making a living at coaching. Can you find out?

paulac

paulac wrote: »

Hi,

I want to start up a Life Coaching/Executive business working mainly with individuals as opposed to companies. The reason I want to do this is lifestyle based as opposed to financially based i.e I love coaching, I love the idea of being in control of my career and being my own boss, I want to have a very flexible lifestyle. My longer term goal is to be able to work part-time doing a job I love and I'm prepared to put full-time hours plus some into it for the first few years.

My background is as a consultant to over 100 companies in Ireland in HR, employment law and industrial relations however I didn't enjoy that work (didn't like the boss or company ethos!). A lot of people are saying that I should use the HR, Emp law experience to get into coaching within companies and therefore get the bigger fish.

So a few things I am currently pondering which I'd appreciate an outside viewpoint is:

1. Set up a business doing HR/employment law and coaching to increase chances of 'bigger fish'?
2. If I decide to set up a coaching business for private clients- how do you target them?
3. How do I find out who my clients are?
4. Sole trader or ltd company? I was thinking sole trader for coaching only and ltd company if hr and employment law are involved.
5. Financially I'm pretty good, no mortgage and no debt and start up for a coaching business for individuals is fairly minimal- is there any way I can use this to my advantage?
6. Should I use my own name for the business to increase my name being out there or should I register a business name? My initials are PC so I was thinking PC Coaching wouldn't be a great name!!
7. Facebook page or website?
8. How do I raise awareness of what coaching is/does?
9. Dress- If you were meeting a life coach as a private client - would you expect the coach to be in a suit or casual!
10. What would you pay?
11. I have been asked to work as a resident coach for a support group for a minority group which I fully intend to do however I have been warned by others that this may affect my reputation in a negative way and I may lose business from (my words, narrow minded) companies or individuals-

I've done a few of DCEB courses, a few I found useful however a lot of them are product based and what is being taught isn't easily transferable to my business. I was thinking of a mentor but my business isn't suitable for the mentoring programme.

I know I've a lot of questions so thank you for sticking with me!! I really appreciate your opinions, comments and advice. I know my own areas extremely well, I am an excellent coach and an excellent consultant however business start ups and the mechanics of owning and running a business is not an area I've ventured into before!

Again, any advice is most welcome! I'll take the good and the bad and filter accordingly!!

Thanks,

Paula

Sounds like you have the experience to offer such expertise, but also sounds like your a bit clueless when it comes to running a company. Sales is going to be the key to your business.
Your question 'how do i find out who my clients are' is worrying. You should know the answer to that already, and you should know where to find them and how to get them on board. If you don't know those things then you have no chance at all of success.
As is often the advice here, get it down in a proper business plan, you'll see the flaws and be able to fix them.

Hope that wasnt too harsh but best to be realistic for these things. Business is hard enough without not having key knowledge on your customers.

paulac

haha, glad my message came across clearly! I've no idea how to run a business so that's what I need to learn! I want to be aware of all the pitfalls so I can be proactive in avoiding them!

In relation to marketing and clients- that's really an issue at the moment. I've been working with people on a pro-bono basis for the last three months and clients have ranged from small business owner to student to someone wanting to work on confidence to career change to long term unemployed to time management to work life balance! Ages have been from 19 to 55! The range is so vast that I don't know how or if I should narrow it down! If I don't narrow it down then is it possible to have a marketing strategy to target potentially everyone over 18 and of sound mind!!

mari2222

survey the customers you have dealt with pro-bono.
include in the survey the questions that will make a difference to what you do.

Chet Zar

paulac wrote: »

Hi,

I want to start up a Life Coaching/Executive business working mainly with individuals as opposed to companies. The reason I want to do this is lifestyle based as opposed to financially based i.e I love coaching, I love the idea of being in control of my career and being my own boss, I want to have a very flexible lifestyle. My longer term goal is to be able to work part-time doing a job I love and I'm prepared to put full-time hours plus some into it for the first few years.

My background is as a consultant to over 100 companies in Ireland in HR, employment law and industrial relations however I didn't enjoy that work (didn't like the boss or company ethos!). A lot of people are saying that I should use the HR, Emp law experience to get into coaching within companies and therefore get the bigger fish.

So a few things I am currently pondering which I'd appreciate an outside viewpoint is:

1. Set up a business doing HR/employment law and coaching to increase chances of 'bigger fish'?
2. If I decide to set up a coaching business for private clients- how do you target them?
3. How do I find out who my clients are?
4. Sole trader or ltd company? I was thinking sole trader for coaching only and ltd company if hr and employment law are involved.
5. Financially I'm pretty good, no mortgage and no debt and start up for a coaching business for individuals is fairly minimal- is there any way I can use this to my advantage?
6. Should I use my own name for the business to increase my name being out there or should I register a business name? My initials are PC so I was thinking PC Coaching wouldn't be a great name!!
7. Facebook page or website?
8. How do I raise awareness of what coaching is/does?
9. Dress- If you were meeting a life coach as a private client - would you expect the coach to be in a suit or casual!
10. What would you pay?
11. I have been asked to work as a resident coach for a support group for a minority group which I fully intend to do however I have been warned by others that this may affect my reputation in a negative way and I may lose business from (my words, narrow minded) companies or individuals-

I've done a few of DCEB courses, a few I found useful however a lot of them are product based and what is being taught isn't easily transferable to my business. I was thinking of a mentor but my business isn't suitable for the mentoring programme.

I know I've a lot of questions so thank you for sticking with me!! I really appreciate your opinions, comments and advice. I know my own areas extremely well, I am an excellent coach and an excellent consultant however business start ups and the mechanics of owning and running a business is not an area I've ventured into before!

Again, any advice is most welcome! I'll take the good and the bad and filter accordingly!!

Thanks,

Paula

You sound really passionate and really, really good at what you do - but right now what you are doing could only be called a hobby or voluntary work - not even remotely close to a business. As mentioned, to not have any idea of who your customers are or how to reach or target them suggests that you really need to think about what you are doing - taking a few steps back and learning about a bit about business/marketing/advertising would be a great start

It's fine to be doing this for mainly lifestyle reasons - but not 'as opposed' to financial reasons - you have to eat too! You also mention wanting to do this part-time in the long-term. Presumably you mean you want to earn enough money doing this to not have to do it full-time. How can you do that if you don't have a focus on generating income from it?

If you aren't making money and on top of knowing what to do to market your services then it's a hobby not a business - so I would say get some advice on the business side of things and read-read-read and soak up knowledge on defining what kind of business you want to set up!

paulac

paulac wrote: »

haha, glad my message came across clearly! I've no idea how to run a business so that's what I need to learn! I want to be aware of all the pitfalls so I can be proactive in avoiding them!

In relation to marketing and clients- that's really an issue at the moment. I've been working with people on a pro-bono basis for the last three months and clients have ranged from small business owner to student to someone wanting to work on confidence to career change to long term unemployed to time management to work life balance! Ages have been from 19 to 55! The range is so vast that I don't know how or if I should narrow it down! If I don't narrow it down then is it possible to have a marketing strategy to target potentially everyone over 18 and of sound mind!!

A few things I would say on the marketing. First you need to get your business model right, ie. something that makes money. My girlfriend through her medical studies had both a mentor and a life coach - but she didn't have to pay them so my understanding is if this business was aimed at young people, its going to be hard to make any money out of it.

Perhaps your market now is turning people around who have become unemployed or financial problems. However this in itself is not going to be much of a money spinner because how are they going to be able to afford you?!

The more I think about it the harder I see the potential to make money if your are going direct to the client. With your experience maybe you should be doing a deal with an organisation to provide your services to their members. Thats a far easier sell for you, if there is a demand for it.

Also be professional - Logo, bus card,proper website, facebook page is micky mouse (on its own). Dress in professional business attire. If you have to sell your own personal service you need to come across as a professional person, otherwise you'll find it hard to be taken seriously. You can be more relaxed when the money is coming in already!

EIREHotspur

HR, employment law and industrial relations.

Forget the Life Coaching route....you could make money based on your experience of these three.

A lot of people being treated badly out there by companies and could do with a representative who charges less than solicitors.

You could represent clients who have problems with their employers.
Network and have some solicitors/barristers that you can pass cases on to if they go further.

FreshThinking

Hi there, just wondering how your business is going and how the marketing and prospecting for new clients has gone?

Would be interested in knowing the accreditations you have for Life Coaching and the courses you would recommend. I am considering a move from FMCG marketing to Life Coaching after being made redundant. Could help on marketing side if you have any advice on training side.