Today . . . I'm thinking about how coaches often struggle to make ends meet on what they're coaching business brings in.
Three Costly Mistakes Coaches Make
1. Charge too little.
I know, I know. When you first start out, you're told to price your services low to attract clients. In theory, this sounds good. In practice, however, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
Here's why: When you charge next to nothing for something, your market perceives the value of your product or service as being too low. That translates into your value as a coach being viewed as low, too. The same with giving something of value away, without asking anything in return. The likelihood of it being appreciated or used is low.
Why is that? There's an energy of lack associated with charging too little for your services. Often potential clients who seek out the lowest priced coaching services aren't looking for the highest return on their investment. They are coming from a place of lack and looking for the cheapest price.
And here's the rub. Those very same clients who pat themselves on the back for shopping around and finding the lowest-paying coaching services are the same ones who will turn around and demand the most from you. They will repeatedly cancel appointments, have a thousand-and-one excuses for not completing their homework, call in-between appointments with crises, and inundate your in-box with questions.
2. Provide only coaching services.
One of the biggest mistakes coaches make right out of coaching school is to focus exclusively on setting up their coaching packages. The problem with this is that coaching packages are typically the highest priced services in a coach's arsenal.
So what happens if you are a new, inexperienced coach and you start promoting your coaching at the $300 - $400 per month price range? Do you think people will happily plop down their hard-earned money just for the opportunity to work with you? Of course they won't.
People don't trust what they don't know. If you are an unknown entity fresh out of coaching school, you will have to create multiple price-point options for your potential clients to choose from, in order to make a living as a coach.
What that means is that you will have to create services AND products that are lower on the price-point scale. This will give your potential clients the opportunity to try you out and get to know you through your lower-priced products and services, before they sign up for one of your higher-end coaching packages.
3. Create passive revenue income.
Yikes, what is she saying? Creating passive income is a detriment? How can she be saying that? Passive income is all the rage! You're right, it is. However, it's not for you, at this time. Here's why.
When you're first starting out as a coach, you want to create leveraged, not passive revenue income. Passive revenue means: create once; sell once.
Leverage revenue, on the other hand, means that you put in a certain amount of hours and you get a very, good return on your investment over time. Leveraged money can increase the amount of money and the amount of profit you can make from your product. Leveraged revenue means: create once; re-purpose multiple times.
That's why it's so important to create both services and products at multiple price-points that you can leverage multiple times in multiple ways.
What do you think of this list? Are there other costly mistakes you as a coach make? Or, if you are a client, do you see some costly mistakes that your coach is making? Let us know.
Susan L. Reid
The original Accidental Pren-her™
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success
As you know from last month's issue, the announcement of Steve Jobs’ passing has me on fire and more determined than ever to help you start up your business. 
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