AMC Waiting for the phone to ring - 20 may 2013

By: Luis Moniz, FrontRunner Career Advisors

20 May 2013

Waiting for the phone to ring?

FrontRunner Blog-Site: http://frontrunnercareers.wordpress.com/


100% commitment:

● Are you really serious & committed about coaching?

● There’s a lot to learn and figure out, which takes time & commitment

● Almost everyone gets lousy results in the first year - in any start up

● More often than not, the path is slow, plodding & gradual – be prepared for it

Clarify Your Desires:

● Disliking your job or wanting to make more money is not sufficient motivation in the long run

● Dig deeper and get clear why you want to live without a job

● The answers are often variations on freedom – both “freedom from” and “freedom to”


Managing your cash-flow:

● Fill your financial oxygen tank – have sufficient savings for at least 24 months

● You don’t need to be certified in everything on day one - don’t spend precious start-up cash unless it’s absolutely necessary

● You need to invest to create your presence in the market - don’t be too stingy with your cash. Don’t let frugality get in the way of efficiency

● It takes time to develop the wisdom to know when you’re being too tight or too loose with your cash – get a second opinion.

● An ideal situation, both from a cash flow & productivity angle, is where one launches with an anchor client – but is very difficult to achieve if one is switching into something new

● Consider an alternative business line that could generate revenues faster than your start-up coaching practice




Create a niche that you can “own”

“When I was growing up I always wanted to be someone. Now I realize I should have been more specific” ― Lily Tomlin


Key ingredient for success and one cannot emphasize the importance of this exercise enough

Think through carefully what it is about your background that would be attractive to clients and is very different from what others can offer them

Remember that it is not about what you would like to offer your clients but about creating the pull to attract clients to you

Sit in your client’s shoes and talk to a few potential clients among your circle of friends to get their feedback on your specialty area

Size of potential market & statistics about market share are irrelevant. You just need to have enough clients to stay fully productive


Positioning:

● Probably best to stay as high-end as possible so that you get best trade-in for your most precious commodity – your time

● Natural tendency to pitch pricing too low initially to get in your first clients but many clients will not appreciate the value of what you’re giving them if they are getting it cheap

● Pro-bono work is ok, especially if it allows you to create success stories

● By staying at high-end, chances are that there will be better recognition of value you’re providing and in the process you’re creating a brand for your business also

● However, clients do expect differentiation from cheaper alternatives & so you need to be able to demonstrate this to your clients constantly

● Clients pay highest price they can afford & they do not go for cheapest alternative available and this principle applies to any service offering


How did you figure out the appropriate fee level when you started out?

Were you able to increase your fee level later? Was it easy to do?


Visibility:

● Being visible is not about cold-calling or creating a public persona, both of which may be very contrary to your personal style

● Visibility is about being seen among potential clients and this can be done through a variety of means which best suit your personal style.

● Choose the ones that best suit your personality & approach:

‒ Actively participate in various LinkedIn networking groups – give generously

‒ Publish a blog or a thought leadership piece in the press

‒ Create a website

‒ Speak at or attend conferences which your clients attend,

‒ Join industry associations relevant to your target client market

‒ Sharing very useful and topical information with your potential clients

‒ Informal socializing with potential clients or their influencers


Visibility:

● Once you have created right amount of visibility, chances of clients remembering to call you when they have a need will be very high

● Being invited to pitch means that the client has decided to hire you (subject to commercial terms being acceptable) or is very close to deciding to hire you and is only evaluating what you have to offer against a handful of other choices

● Never lose any opportunity to evangelize

● Don’t be shy to ask for recommendations and referrals


What has been your most effective channel to create visibility?

Any innovative channels that have been used?


Niche - Create a niche that you can “own”

Positioning – Always best to be positioned at the highest end

Visibility – Become visible in places where you can interact with potential clients


Focus on delivering an outstanding coaching experience to your clients

Aspire to achieve trusted advisor status

Remain flexible – new opportunities come from places you least expect

Engage a mentor coach

Have a support group

Have fun coaching – relax, learn from every session but don’t mull on post-mortems


Everyone has a super power or specialty area. What is yours?

What is the value of that specialty area to others?

How do you communicate that value so that people take notice of it?

How can you use it to become one of THE go-to professionals in your market place?

As coaches we are passionate about developing leadership abilities of our clients. There’s no reason not to focus on

achieving leadership in our own coaching practices


Business

AMC Waiting for the phone to ring - 20 may 2013