Checklist: 5 mistakes you can’t afford if you want new clients – as a life coach

The ultimate checklist for all the service providers who want to generate revenue online.

Getting new clients and generating new ways of revenue online can be simple. It does, however, require that you’re strategically prepared and put in the work daily. 

Being ready with at least one solid offer (online package), communicating clearly and concisely about your work, and creating & regularly distributing valuable content for your potential clients are just the minimum.

Here’s a checklist of 5 non-negotiables if you want to grow your biz.

1. Your communication about your services is all over the place

People buy from you because they believe you can help them solve a problem & because they understand precisely how the process of working with you looks. That’s it!

Long descriptions full of jargon, vague “inspirational” quotes, long, complicated sentences full of adjectives, and a lack of clear call-to-actions are still sadly seen too many times in the industry. 

If your visitors don’t understand what exactly they can expect from working with you or interacting with your content, then all the attempts of flowery descriptions won’t keep them on your content long enough to learn more.

If you do not communicate what you do and what problems you are helping people with within a simple, crystal-clear manner, you’ll end up being ignored no matter the effort you put in.

Now here is the catch! (smh, there’s always a catch 😆)

If you want to communicate clearly & concisely about your work, you’ll have to go through these first:

-Know your niche (positioning!)

-Know your ideal client

-Be honest with yourself (about your strengths & weaknesses)

-Embrace the business mindset (leave ego and personal preferences on the other side of the door)

2. You are trading your hours for the money

Working for others or with others hourly is ok until you hit a glass ceiling. 

To create and secure a steady income stream, you’ll have to create offers or packages instead of trading your hours for money. 

Each day has only 24 hours, and if you don’t want to burn out, you’ll have to start thinking about different ways of monetization. Preferably the scalable ones.

Ideally, you want to work with people on a monthly retainer or create digital products from your services. 

The beauty of retainers is that you don’t need thousands of customers for such a business model to be profitable. A typical “productized” service only requires a handful of paying customers on a monthly retainer to be sustainable.

Examples:

If you are, in the broadest sense, a life coach, stop doing individual sessions and instead create:

1. Pre Recorded/Digital courses 
2. Group coaching sessions (ongoing monthly retainer)

Regardless of the services, remember always to offer something concrete and explain clearly: 

-who is it for

-why (clear reasons)

-describe the process (in a few bullets)

-price tag

-payment option(s)

3. You are not creating content consistently

I know gurus told you that all you have to do is record a masterclass, and the dollars will start falling from the sky under which you’ll sip margaritas. 

Sorry to break it to you, but this probably won’t happen soon. 

Everyone sipping margaritas off their passive income is lying, or they are not telling you about the hard work they’ve been consistently putting in for YEARS (cheers to the latter group of people!)

If you want to generate new clients online, you’ll have to put in a lot of effort, especially when it comes to content. Not going to lie – the road is going to be long. You’ll have to stay persistent. 

The chances that enough people will buy your services out of the blue to sustain your business are as high as those where you sip margaritas off your passive income.

Here is a quick list of “musts” when it comes to content creation:

-Quality comes before quantity

-Consistency is the key (especially for social media distribution)

-Have a content calendar and stick to it

-Recycle & repurpose content constantly

-Write valuable content for your perfect-fit audience (NOT your friends, peers, and family!)

4. Thinking of social media as something you have to do instead of the investment

Social media is a great place to start building your community. It’s also the best place to engage with people who might still need to learn about your business. 

The internet is full of people looking for help with their problems, and if your content resonates with them, they’ll find it!

Listen to me carefully; no one will wake up one morning, start reading your blog and watching your youtube channel and become your client. 

You already know that social media is a powerful tool. You’ve probably heard that it can be used to build your brand, increase awareness and reach new clients. 

But how do you move from knowing this to actually using social media in a practical way – the way it brings in results?

If you want to get more clients online by using social media, you have to distribute content – consistently and regularly.

I know that you wanted to avoid becoming a social media influencer by having your own business. :) 

Hence:

-Pick one or two social media platforms and do them excellent 

-Have social media planner and stick to it no matter what

-Try batching content for your sanity :)

-Engage with others, don’t just post 

-Recycle & repurpose content like crazy (especially one that resonates with your audience)

5. Counting number of followers instead of building the engaged community around your work

Let me tell you one of the biggest secrets of social media: the number of followers is nonexistent for business success.

Of course that more followers mean more potential and actual clients – that’s just a game of numbers, BUT engagement rate is a far superior metric for your business. 

That is why you must understand your niche and ideal clients very well. It’s far more essential to create a small but super-engaged audience than vice versa.

Ideally, you want people to share, repost, comment, and click on your page. A loyal audience interested in your content is more likely to buy something from you.