Coaching is an age-old practice, but today’s digital tools mean that you don’t have to be physically present to make it work – which is a huge help, given the current situation of “social distancing.”
Remote business coaches are in high demand today among entrepreneurs, executives, and businesses, with one survey finding that one out of every six entrepreneurs turns to a business coach for help achieving his or her potential.
But there’s also a great deal of competition in the market. Sometimes it seems like every former executive and psychology graduate is trying to be a business coach, so it’s important to take the right steps to set up your remote executive coaching business for success.
The first choice you’ll need to make is whether you use video or an audio call to talk to your clients from afar. Ideally, you should leave it up to your client to choose the medium that they prefer, so you need to provide both options.
In some situations, you might need to be able to observe your client through video in a business setting, so that you can give them feedback on e.g. their meeting management capabilities or personal style when disciplining an employee. You’re particularly likely to need to “visit” the business via video if you’ve been consulted to meet company-wide needs. It’s best to use a platform like ClickMeeting that lets you easily switch between audio and video.
As well as audio and video connections, you also want to be able to share media in other formats. Your client might need to send you documents or recordings so that you can gain a 360-degree view of the company. Video is especially helpful in this context if, for example, you’ve been asked to help transform an unhealthy corporate dynamic or deal with issues that pervade the business.
With video, you can also send recordings, information, and guidance that includes relaxation exercises or visualizations for growth, that your clients can use. ClickMeeting makes it easy to show your client live whiteboard sketches, send short videos, share your screen, and include many other media formats smoothly as part of your consultation sessions.
A bad workman blames his tools, but a good workman invests in ones that will never let him down.
When you go remote with your coaching business, you should never cut costs on hardware and a great internet connection. At a minimum, you’ll need:
In addition, it’s a good idea to invest in a strong internet connection with solid upload speeds, so that your camera can stream smoothly over the web. Hopefully, you live in an area with a few different ISPs available, so that they feel the need to offer competitive service levels.
A dependable VPN is also key in this regard. In addition to offering better data security, VPNs have been known to improve internet speeds in situations where direct connections to your ISP are throttled.
You could be the best business coach in the universe, but your business won’t grow unless people know about you. Marketing tools are vital to help build your reputation, attract new clients, and set you up as a leader in the coaching world.
Email is one of the most effective marketing tools, so make sure to leverage it for your coaching business. It’s a good idea to send regular email newsletters to both potential and existing clients. The vcita platform offers integrated SMS and email marketing tools so that you can begin building relationships with people who haven’t yet used your services, and keep the door open to former clients to come back to you in the future when they need your assistance again.
You can use vcita to set up a client portal for sharing all transactional details, correspondence history and dowloadable materials. The relationship management tools here also make it easy to reach out to people with triggered messaging, if, for example, they haven’t booked a session with you for several weeks. When people click through, they can schedule an appointment and pay vcita-powered invoices with their credit cards. You can even set up one-on-one video conferences through vcita’s integrations.
In addition to triggered messaging, it’s a good idea to market yourself with content that showcases your expertise. As an executive coach, your marketing efforts should also include sharing your expertise through tips and advice in emails, social media posts, and offering webinars that serve as group coaching sessions. These help establish your trustworthiness and create a reputation for helpfulness and advice.
Any kind of coaching requires a place where your clients can talk freely, without worrying about getting interrupted, distracted or having anyone overhear them. The importance of a “safe space” applies to virtual coaching just as much as it does to coaching in person.
Choose your location carefully. Find a quiet room that doesn’t have people walking past it – or worse, through it – during your consultation. Your clients need to feel good about opening up about their feelings, anxieties, frustrations and hopes. Equally, you need to be able to focus solely on your client so that you can develop a trust relationship and catch every subtlety of expression.
Confidentiality goes beyond a secure location for consultations. You also need to securely store recordings of your conversations, your notes, and any other communications between you and your client, to meet both data confidentiality and client confidentiality requirements.
As a result, not every VoIP communication platform is a good fit. You need to use a secure video conferencing service like ClickMeeting which complies with GDPR, CCPA, and other international privacy regulations; provides control over your clients’ personal data; and has a high level of security, protecting your interactions from hackers.
Choosing the right setting, software and hardware is what makes it possible for you to build a thriving remote business coaching business.
Making sure that you have high-quality equipment, selecting the best medium for your client’s needs, ensuring that you can keep your relationship private and build trust, and using the right marketing tools for nurturing current and future clients will create the environment you need for your business to succeed.
Zac Johnson has more than 20 years of experience in the world of online marketing and branding. Be sure to follow his latest activities and business ventures through his blog at zacjohnson.com.