What are Summer Business Strategies for Life Coaches

Summer brings relaxing days spent with family and friends, yummy barbecues and trips to new or favorite places. It is a time when, for many people, work takes a back seat for a while to more playful and enjoyable pursuits, whether that includes, from gardening and yard work to lazing on the beach, and everything in between. We're definitely called to spend more time outdoors and less chained to our computer screens and telephones.

You may have found that summer can also mean a drop in coaching clients, as people in general turn to summer sunshine and activities for their motivation, gratification or solace. This might place a strain on your finances and leave pockets of empty hours in your work schedule.

Fortunately, with a little planning and preparation, the summer months can be particularly fruitful for the enterprising life or business coach. Here are some ways to either boost your flagging income or fill those empty hours with business-building activity:

* Have a summer sale. Do you have ebooks or products that you've been selling for a while? Why not offer them at a substantial summer discount? Better yet, run a different special every couple of weeks, so that you bring in income at a steadier pace. Or consider offering a summer group coaching program at a very attractive rate; perhaps you can lure clients with a six-, eight- or ten-week program that will help them make major strides or changes in some aspect of their lives by September.

* Go through your articles, blog entries and other written works to see if they can be recycled. Can you turn old blog entries you've written into a new book? Go deeper on topics you've covered in articles and turn them into short, inexpensive, downloadable reports? Record a book you've written in the past and now offer it as an audio program? The summer months can be an ideal time to mine your past work for future gold.

* Use the coaching downtime to create a new product or program. Sure, you have every right to enjoy your summertime, too, and free space in your coaching schedule can help you restore your own energy. But why not devote at least some of that downtime on a regular basis to creating a new high-end product or program that you'll release in the fall? There's no better time to get the creative juices flowing than when they are not being sapped by your coaching clients or a too-full, hectic schedule.

* Develop a six-month marketing plan to get your business back on track for the second half of the year. This is an excellent time to study new marketing strategies and tools, research the costs of using different media for your marketing efforts, and set up a marketing game plan that will bring you phenomenal results come late summer or autumn. If you create the plan now, you'll be ready, willing and able to promote your products and services consistently and effectively by the time September rolls around.

As you can see, you can continue to grow your business and still have time to enjoy picnics, travelling and poolside parties. If you use this time wisely, the "lazy" months of summer can end up being among your most productive of the year.