Life Coach Business Plan; Free Help
“You need a business plan” How many times have you seen that? Sounds great, but if you search for free life coach business plans they look completely intimidating and full of questions you have no idea how to answer.
Yet it’s true. One of the best ways to get a profitable business off the ground is by going through the steps to develop a business plan. A good plan is used for more than just getting funding. It’s a guiding star for your business.
A business plan for life coaching includes:
- Your ideas of who you will serve and how
- The ways you intend to make a profit
- Identify potential obstacles and strategies to overcome them
- Determine resources you’ll need
- Research on the viability of your ideas
How do you complete this vital document when you have no idea how to tackle it? With help of course. Even better, with free, professional help!
SCORE is a national organization of retired business people. They volunteer their time (that means for free!) to help new businesses get off the ground.
One of their specialties is helping new life coaches with a business plan!
SCORE maintains a huge library of free resources anyone can use. They are a non-profit association under the Small Business Administration so they get federal funding to provide these resources at no cost to you.
They have online webinars and courses. I loved their getting started course. It covers everything from preparing to start the journey toward your own business, defining your ideal market, doing a business plan, setting up a marketing plan, all the way to designing an exit strategy to eventually sell your business.
I really appreciated the section on creating a business plan. Creating a business plan for your life coaching business can seem daunting. It’s like a foreign language! If you’re not going to go appear on Shark Tank or try to get a loan, you don’t need a massive formal document however.
You do, however need some sense of where you are going and how you will get there. The SCORE business startup plan includes a chapter with step by step guidance to create a simple business plan.
A Mentor Coach
As an aspiring life coach, you understand the benefits of professional coaching. The volunteers at SCORE have been trained in a coach approach to mentoring.
I particularly appreciate their SLATE model of coaching. It stands for
- Stop and Suspend Judgment
- Listen and Learn
- Assess & Analyze
- Test Ideas & Teach with Tools
- Expectations Setting & Encouraging the Dream
This means the trained coaches at SCORE are invested in listening to YOUR needs, dreams and desires above all. They truly want to get to know you, your ideas, your plans and hopes. They don’t come in with a preconceived notion of what you should do in your business. The help you refine what you want to do to give you the best possible chance to succeed.
Your Score mentor will stick with you, this is more than a one-meeting consultation. You can meet with them as much as you need during your start up phase and they always remain available to answer questions when specific issues come up.
In my experience, the people who benefit the most from a SCORE mentor are those who are open minded and teachable. They will be honest with you, if your business idea has no identifiable market or no viable profit margin, they will tell you. If your business is viable, they will be your biggest cheerleader and supporter. This is extremely valuable if you don’t have someone else in your life to be that cheerleader.
The next step? Get a mentor who is already a successful life coach.
