Every business woman goes through three phases as she builds her gloriously profitable business online.
Phases are not the same as steps.
Steps are more like, “do this, then do this.”
Phases are levels of growth that both you and your business experience. If you don’t follow the right steps, that growth will be stunted.
We tend to think that if we’re not making money, it’s because there’s something wrong with us. We start quietly blaming and shaming ourselves and comparing ourselves to “all the other successful coaches.”
“What do they have that I don’t have?” you ask.
There’s only one answer to that question: They have a strategy to follow.
The better the strategy, the more quickly you move through the phases.
Phase 1: Laying The Foundation
This is counterintuitive to what most coaches do, which is to WAIT to be READY to MAKE MONEY.
And then they spend all kinds of time and money on things that have nothing to do with laying a solid foundation. It’s a backwards strategy and you end up building a business on a bed of sand.
If you hear yourself say, “I’m not ready yet,” it’s because you don’t have a solid strategy that gives you confidence to put yourself and your business out there. I get it. That’s why I’m committed to teaching women the fundamentals of business building, and there are exactly 3 you need to follow to a T if you’re going to build a business on rock.
I call this the Gutsy Glorious Business Woman’s 3-Step Strategy for making money now. As in, today.
What I see so many people do is put the roof on the house before the foundation is laid. And by “roof” I mean, take a course on how to do a webinar, or how to run Facebook ads, or how to build a Facebook group, without a foundation of a PERFECT MESSAGE to build them on.
This is a backwards strategy that will keep you stuck in Phase 1 for a very long time.
You simply must put your head down and nail your messaging FIRST.
Next, create a simple but effect PERFECT PACKAGE to start selling right now. There is no reason whatsoever that you cannot be making money right now. But you must have something to sell. I created PERFECT PACKAGE so that all you have to do is put your name on the package and it’s ready to go. It’s even got all the emails for you to send to clients.
In other words, please stop giving away your products and services for free. Instead, conduct what I call PERFECT CONSULTS that convert potential clients into paying clients.
Everything you need for a profitable phase 1 is right HERE.
One more thing, if you’re choosing to do a lot of the work yourself, at the very least aim to hire a virtual assistant as soon as possible or your business will soon begin to feel like just another JOB.
Stage 2: Building A Platform + Growing Your List
While Phase 1 is all about getting super clear on your messaging and practicing the art of “selling without feeling like you’re selling” (so you can start getting paid right away), Phase 2 is about building your authority and credibility as a coach, which naturally leads to building your list.
I’m talking about more than a simple freebie here. People are much more sophisticated today when it comes to marketing. A simple freebie on the homepage of a website that’s not getting any traffic is a waste of your precious time.
Instead, you’ll want to choose a method that will get you attention fast. More attention = more paying clients.
Something I highly recommend is a book, but not just any ol’ book with hundreds of pages. Instead, I teach my clients how to write a MIGHTY TINY BOOK.
A Mighty Tiny Book is a 50-page tiny-but-mighty book that’s not dependent on you being a good writer. I’m talking about writing a book that is structured to be effective in delivering your message (which you nailed down in Phase 1) so that you can begin making a bigger impact.
Writing a book, even one that’s only 50 pages, is a very effective way to capture the attention of your ideal audience and turn readers into paying clients..
The objective in Phase 2 is to get your message out to a bigger audience and build your list. A book’s job is to do this for you, and a Mighty Tiny Book is more than capable of handling the job (not to mention how much easier it is to write a book that’s less than a hundred pages compared to a typical 200+ page non-fiction book).
My Mighty Tiny Book Academy is teaching women how to use the mighty platform of a tiny book to establish their expertise.
Can you see how much easier it is to follow a strategic marketing plan rather than a spaghetti marketing plan where you try “all the things” and nothing sticks?
It took me THREE YEARS to figure this out. Three years of spaghetti stains. And all I had to show for it was a business that was inconsistent at generating revenue and hit-and-miss when it came to list-building.
As a result, I nearly quit.
Stage 3: Scaling and Leveraging Your Products and Services (a.k.a. Spread Your Wings!)
This is where everything starts to come together and your business is running like a well-oiled machine and your focus now is to scale it: create programs that leverage your expertise in a way that leads to maximum IMPACT and PROFITS.
You’re definitely starting to build a team here because there’s just too much to do by yourself and if you want to scale your business, you have to figure out how to do what you do best and leave the rest to others who know what they’re doing and who are committed to the growth of your business: a tech expert, a virtual assistant, a graphic designer, a Facebook ads specialist, etc.
You see, there are two big investments you can make as you build your online business: time and money. If you do it right, you’ll experience the freedom you signed up for when you decided to become a coach.
Should you choose to scale your business online, be prepared to create a content strategy, a social media strategy, and a marketing strategy that’s built around driving traffic to your website, including paid traffic.
As you can see, Phase 3 is all about learning the fine art of delegating by expanding your team,
Bringing It all Home
The 3 Phases of building a coaching business outlined above are designed to provide you with a clear path to success.
Without a path to follow, we often end up in a place I call The Land of WTF. Trust me, you want to avoid The Land of WTF at all costs, although it’s inevitable you’ll find yourself in there at some point. It’s practically a rite of passage when building a business.
The reason for the detour into the Land of WTF is that coaches often start as if they’re in Phases 2 or 3 and then get lost in the weeds because they’re trying to do everything all at once (and usually out of order).
Is it any wonder so many women give up on their businesses before they even start to make money?
I teach women how to build businesses in step-by-step order, following a proven 3-Step Strategy that helps build confidence in themselves because they have clarity when it comes to what their businesses stand for. With such clarity it becomes so much easier to sell because it feels authentic and wholeheartedly genuine to offer their services to someone in need of help.
Freedom: The Ultimate Goal
Let’s not forget that the reason we want to start our own businesses is because of the freedom it promises. Please remember your endgame whenever you start feeling lost and overwhelmed and wondering whether you made a mistake in starting your own business. Let me assure you that it’s not you, it’s that you haven’t yet learned how to run a business in strategic order. Take a step back, re-asses, and go back to Phase 1.
This is how we Coach UP!
