15 Mistakes Starting Life Coaches Make

1. Assuming clients will come to you by simply putting a website online, putting the word out with friends and family. Gaining clients requires active networking, attending events where potential clients hang out, advertising, marketing, cold calling, offering key figures 1 hour of free coaching etc.

2. Hiring office space too early in the game.  Though office space can be extremely important to the success of your business, initially it may also be your biggest expense. Ideally hire the space right before you gain your first clients, and can soon afford the rent. Many coaches have started their business meeting clients at their place of work, or doing phone coaching.

3. Not taking the legal side too seriously. This includes having clients sign a coaching agreement, prevent from getting sued, to legally establishing your small company in the right way, to properly paying taxes (you'd be surprised how many clients will try to make coaching tax deductible.)

4. Assuming that life experience, having a way with relating to others, and a passion to help people is enough. Nor is having read a a lot of personal development books. Coaching is a profession that requires training, preferably in a coaching methodology that has specific techniques that can produce results. Like for instance NLP.

5. Getting stuck in "practicing"  and "studying" coaching skills. And students whom have taken training, many of them get stuck in wanting to read more books. At some point a life coach needs to jump in to the deep end of the pool, and just do it!

6. Getting emotionally involved with clients. Clients are not your friends, your clients already have friends and they have been proven not to be able to coach them.

7. Being too nice to clients. Not that you should treat them badly. Make sure you properly agree with your client what commitment you want from them. If your client doesn't keep up with their end of the bargain, you fire them. If they show up late for an appointment, you bill them. Your client is your business card, when they talk about your services to others, you want them to be a success story.

8. Beware of business partners. This is often the number 1 reason why small businesses fail, if you do business with a partner make sure it is someone you can work with, and whom will not cheat you out of your hard earned cash. Sometimes the best friends, make the worst business partners.

9. Promising clients things you can not deliver. Keep it real.

10. Quitting your day job too early in the game. With no money, no network, and no plan, it is not wise to quit your day job. You need to maintain a source of income, depending on the size of your network and expertise it can take 6 months of very hard work to build a proper client base.

11. Create a business plan. Like any starting business should, a plan needs to be created covering vision, mission, financials, return of investment etc. This is an excellent way to wrap your brain around the viability of a small business, and help you think about things you otherwise may overlook. There are many software programs available.

12. Advertising too long in the wrong places. The people whom sell advertisement often give very crafty reasons why you should keep advertising with them. Though it is true that an advertisement starts getting recognized after placing it in 3 issues, if no calls came from the first issue you may have to re-think the place of your advertisement, or the advertisement itself.

13. Not coming across like a professional. A professional has the right clothes, the right office, the right business card, the right attitude, the right demeanor, the right documentation. You are confident, you are in control!

14. Let the client spend too much time in the problem state venting their issues. You are not a therapist. You need to move your client to talking about the solution, instead of the problem. Again this is something you learn in a good coaching techniques training.

15. Taking on cases that are out of your league. Start with stuff you can handle, and build on out from there. You only want to take on cases where you can be successful. Refer on. Particularly when things are clearly to be solved by another professional.

To find out more about becoming a successful life coach and enrolling in NLP training and courses, contact us at Global NLP Training today.