A health coach, like everyone else, has limited time in the day. And as such, there are only so many clients a coach can meet with in-person, one-on-one. Fortunately, there are tools and technologies that exist that can help you grow your business without sacrificing the quality of your work. Imagine having hundreds of clients instead of dozens or just a few. Here we will discuss five ways to accomplish this.
1. Group Coaching
Group coaching is a fantastic way to personally connect with clients on a larger scale and has the potential to generate income growth without committing to additional work hours. Group sessions can be run either in-person or over the phone or Skype, and can promote strong bonds and a sense of community amongst participants. Group sessions can sometimes help a client with their own accountability as they feel a sense of “being in it together.” Group classes will generally cover broader health concepts compared to those discussed in one-on-one sessions, and you may find that a group session participant may request a one-on-one session after attending a group class.
2. Newsletter Automation
Email is one of the most effective methods of communication. We all have an email account and most of us can access our emails on multiple devices including our smart phones and tablets. As your client list expands, the number of emails you’ll find yourself sending will exponentially grow. Gmail and Outlook work well when sending one-off emails to a handful of people. However, for larger groups and scheduled emails, using a newsletter automation tool makes the task of sending an email to 500+ people as simple as sending an email to a single individual.
Newsletter automation allows you to:
- Organize your contacts into lists
- Add new contacts easily via a signup form or integration with other apps such as Facebook, WordPress and Paypal
- Send bulk emails with ease to your clients and subscribers
Newsletter automation is an excellent way of sharing your health and fitness advice en masse, it keeps your clients feeling connected to you in between appointments, and encourages loyalty. It is also time efficient and inexpensive to manage.
To learn more about how to start your own email newsletter, refer to these resources:
- Starting an Email Newsletter: Why to Do It and Which Service to Use
- The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Newsletter and Email List
- A Beginner’s Guide to Starting an Email Newsletter & Building a Mailing List
3. Working with Corporations
Good employers are always looking at new ways to increase employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention. As a health coach you have the knowledge and expertise to offer suggestions and improvements on how to make a work environment more enriched for employees, which in turn, has the potential to increase employee productivity. As a health coach you are not qualified to give any occupational health advice, however you can give suggestions as to how to improve the workplace environment and examples on how to do this include:
- Assessing the workstations used by employees. This may include suggesting alternatives to the standard desk and chair set up that you find in most workstations, such as a standing desk.
- Assessing food options within a workplace. A progressive employer may be willing to take advice on healthier meal and snack options for employees.
- Assessing the policy on taking regular breaks. Taking regular breaks throughout the day is essential to productivity. The primal health coach recommends breaking for 2 minutes every 20 minutes and at least 10 minutes every 2 hours with a major break of at least 30 minutes during your workday for optimal productivity.
- Assessing fitness and leisure activities offered to employees during work hours. Progressive employers may be happy to provide enrichment services to their employees throughout the workday. Instead of having a game console or TV, why not suggest promoting a fun outdoor activity like Ultimate Frisbee that’ll get employees moving and having some outdoor fun.
- Hosting group health coaching workshops within a workplace as part of an employee enrichment service or a team building exercise is another great way you can offer your health coaching services within a corporate environment.
If you’re new to corporate wellness programs, get your foot in the door with a small company and then leverage that experience to work with larger and larger corporations.
4. Developing a Smart Phone App
There is an app for pretty much any task these days from checking the weather to counting the number of steps you’ve walked in a day. Apps are everywhere, but what exactly is an app? The term app can be used to describe applications that run on smart phones, websites, desktop,s and web browsers, just to name a few. Here, we will focus on smart phone apps and how you can use them to expand your reach and to generate further business without eating into your already hectic schedule.
An app has the power to build your client list and/or bring in money through advertising and downloads or membership fees. In order for your app to have the greatest impact, it’s preferable that your health coaching business already has an established web presence in the form of a website or blog, as well as an established social media presence, through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. So what aspects of your health coaching business can be incorporated into an app? The list is endless, but here are a few suggestions:
- Your blog
- Your podcast
- A series of frequently asked questions
- A lifestyle tracker or diary
- A recipe repository with macronutrient breakdown and an automatically generated shopping list
- A platform for your clients to share their experiences
How do you go about developing an app? There are freely available web applications that you can use to build smart phone apps. Depending on exactly what you want your app to do will determine how long it will take to develop, but a simple smart phone version of your health coaching blog or website could take as little as one day to create. Even better, some companies, like Vimify, allow you to use their existing app technology in exchange for a fee. No coding required. Just plug in your content, and you’re up and running.
Can you make any money with an app? The answer is yes, and here are some examples of how to do it:
- Charge a download fee
- Charge a membership fee (Vimify, mentioned above, allows for this)
- Charge an “in-app” optional fee that will unlock extra features
- Include advertising such as Google ads, Apple ads or other third-party ads
Once your app is ready to go, spread the word and start promoting it through all possible avenues including:
- Your current clients
- Friends and family
- On your website
- On social media
- Get your app listed on as many app stores as possible, including Amazon, iTunes and the Android marketplace
There are so many reasons to develop an app for your health coaching business. An app can be used to compliment and assist existing clients, it can function to attract future clients for your business, and it may attract clients that only want coaching through the app that you have developed. Either way, integrating an app into your business strategy has the potential to build your online presence and to generate additional income with minimal on-going input.
5. Webinars
A webinar is a seminar conducted over the internet. Webinars are an excellent way to deliver your business brand and vision to a large audience, and they are inexpensive to run. Here are some examples of how you can use webinars to reach more clients:
- Webinars allow for real-time interaction between you and your audience, and is a more effective method of engaging with your audience than posting a recorded video.
- Hosting your very own webinar positions you as an expert in the field of ancestral health. Everyone attending your webinar has registered for your event and has dedicated time out of their day to hear what you have to say.
- Webinars give you a window of time with a dedicated audience, and with the right content you’ll be able to showcase your health coaching brand and your services.
- Hosting a webinar puts you on the world stage and enables you to interact with an almost limitless number of people from anywhere in the world, from the comfort of your own home.
- You can also leverage your credibility with your audience by inviting a guest speaker to your webinar. Bringing in a health coaching expert or special guest can help build excitement, and increase attendance rates and social media sharing. This in turn can help generate more leads for your business.
- Webinars can create leads for potential new clients. You’ve had their undivided attention for 1-3 hours and it’s likely that your webinar audience provided their contact details as part of their webinar registration. Strike while the iron is hot and make contact with your webinar audience members over the phone within a day or so after your webinar.
As you can see from the handful of examples provided here, they are so many possible avenues for scaling your health coaching business without expanding your work hours; from group coaching to hosting webinars. The possibilities are endless and ultimately lie with your passion to help others and your vision for your health coaching business.
