Let go of the money fears related to starting up a business…it’s 2025! Long gone are the times when profitable business start-ups require upfront investments.

Coaches are running 6 figure businesses from home, with no physical office.

The massive demand for coaches has given millions of moms a way out of their 9-5 employee positions, to work from home while gaining more financial freedom.

“The coaching business is expected to grow from a $2.8 billion to a $5.5 billion industry by 2028”, according to business coach, mentor, and author Robin Waite.

In this blog post I’ll be sharing how I started a coaching business without any experience.

When you decide to start a business after working as an employee there’s a process that you must go through to heal from an “employee mindset”. 

Employee mindset is “I need to make 3K this month to pay all of my bills and do the same things next month. If I bring in money every month then I know I’m secure”.

The way business owners feel secure in their business is by records which have PROVEN that they have the solution to their ideal customer’s problem.

When you have the solution to your customers problem you’re product or service becomes priceless.

But starting a business is layered and must be broken down into small parts…

STEP ONE: Take your mind off of how will I make the same amount of money every month.

This is a HUGE mindset shift. You must focus on the task and not the results.

Mindset shifts aren’t something that happens over night. It can months and in most cases years, before a person feels fully confident in their abilities to earn a full-time income as an entrepreneur. 

Try to take your focus OFF of how to “sell something” or bring in money.

Instead your main focus must be on “how to gain experience that will help me figure out what potential clients all have in common”. That’s one part. The second part is how to I get people to spread word about my product/service. 

STEP TWO: Understand this; when you first start up a business you need recommendations and reviews to build trust for what you’re doing. Those will go on your social media or website. This is especially necessary if you don’t have “an audience”.

The quickest way to get a few is by working with friends or family.

Unfortunately, friends and family are usually the ones who gain the most benefit from what you have to offer, but they’re the same ones who don’t want to pay you (because you’re family).

That is normal and it’s important to understand you’re not trying to build clientele through friends and family, you want to gain both experience through helping them and few written reviews of their outcome. 

When I got certified as a personal trainer, my first “client” was one of my siblings who absolutely HATED exercise at the time. They were the perfect candidate. I got to put my coaching expertise to practice.

I got experience of what it would feel like to have a client who wanted exercise results, but didn’t exactly want to do the work. I had to figure out how to be persuasive to encourage sticking to the in home training program.

In the end they ended up loving their exercise routine and the strength gained after initially struggling through the painful burning of lifting weights.

My second client was another family member who LOVED exercise, but she also LOVED sugar. She was my volunteer client and my first nutrition client as a certified health coach. What I seen her struggle with I also ended up seeing in the majority of the clients I ended up working with.

Gaining the experience with family was a great way to have a few success stories. I gained experience with teaching how to eat sugar and still lose weight, so it gave me CONFIDENCE in my abilities to teach the same to others.

After all, this post is to build confidence…

Confidence comes AFTER you prove yourself capable, not normally before you’re sure you know what you’re doing.

STEP THREE: Post it!

Another thing is that posting online in the beginning is dreadful.

Working with my family members is what gave me the confidence to post online. Had I not gotten at least a little experience in what to expect I never would’ve felt qualified, even with having certifications.

The “practice clients” didn’t stop there. My first post inviting clients to sign up for my in home personal training sessions I advertised to my Facebook friends.

I made a post for those who wanted a FREE customized in home exercise program. I prompted for them to text a code “FREE” to my phone. That was how I got my first 20 clients.

They didn’t know they were my “practice clients” and there is no need to tell a client when they are your first. Just do your best, be professional. And they will give you a great review. 

For me, what happened was that I got a lot of word of mouth for my coaching program, it’s the best return back for your time investments.

Word of mouth grows every type of business and a bad reputation will kill any business. So when you work, focus on customer satisfaction FIRST!

My 20 free clients raved about their customized workout plans and it brought me my “ideal paying clients”. 

When I first started taking on paid clients I would only work with 3-5 clients at a time. This was to be able to focus on what they all had in common. That’s when I was able to customize a program that would bring all clients similar results.

My program was to lose weight naturally without dieting and every client lost 10-15 pounds and 20 inches in my 90 day program.

What they all wanted was to learn how to lose the weight in a way that they could still eat bread, sugar, and pizza on the weekends.

They didn’t care about how many clients I worked with in the past nor did they care about where I got my training from.

I’ve been a personal trainer and health coach for 6 years now and not 1 client has asked about my credentials. They want results and that’s their only concern.

After my first year of meeting clients in person for coaching sessions I transitioned my business to being 100% online.

From there I learned online video and became an online course creator by compiling my coaching into courses. They were all pre-recorded, not live. It put me in the position to have students in over 30 different countries (as an online course creator).

It’s when I first seen proof of earning a passive income by waking up on some mornings to find that my course was purchased while I was asleep at night…

The results drove me to work harder at building businesses online!

Today I’ve been an online coach for 6 years and have recently began a new career in international relocation coaching in my work from home business abroad (in West Africa).

You can obtain a certification to coach or you can coach without one.

Check into the city/state regulations where you live to find out what services you can offer without a certification (if you don’t wish to obtain one).

Gain the coaching experience in a any way you can. The money can’t come without the experience.

Can you promise your clients they will receive the results they came to you for?

(Whether that be to lose weight, heal a sugar addiction, or learn how to be consistent with sticking to goals)

When your answer to the question is yes, ( you can guarantee results), then you are equipped to start a business.

Solving problems attracts money offer opportunities. But the money motivation must be put on the back burner in the beginning. 

Desperation to make money will cause you to miss out on valuable opportunities to learn your ideal client’s needs.

You must know their needs, problems, fears, and goals in order to attract paying clients.

Post your business, no matter how new it is.

Post what you do, what you want to do, and how you’re healing while helping others.

You must have a healing journey of your own, because if not you won’t understand what your clients are going through.

More than anything they need to feel understood and you must be relatable for clients to trust you.

Posting to your social media will draw attention from people who will become loyal followers and eventually potential customers.

Reflection:

What skills do you have from your current job? (customer service, sales, management, teaching, coaching)

What is something you help others do that you could charge $99 for in a 1 hour coaching call?

Where can you find a few people you can use as “practice clients”?

Tip: Your practice clients must have the same problem that your paying clients will have.

Until next time, happy coaching!