171 - Designing Your Business to Support Your Lifestyle
Is time holding you back? You might instinctively feel like there's barely a moment to spare for things you have to do, let alone things that you need to do. And as a coach, finding the balance becomes even more crucial as you grow your business. Are you ready to take control of your time and build your dream business?
In the final episode of our six-part Business Building Boutique series, we're diving into creating a boutique-style business that suits your ideal lifestyle. Gain insights into structuring coaching sessions, consultations, breaks, and even vacation time.
Listen in and be inspired to be more intentional in managing your time, so you can live the life of your dreams!
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Transcript
Preview: You are the designer of your lifestyle. You get to design your boutique business to have the hours that you want to be open, to take the holiday breaks that you want to take to close for snow days if you want to, to be sick and not be open, whatever it is for you. But the real intention here is for you to decide what your ultimate schedule will be and then honor the schedule that you set out for yourself.
Intro: Hello, I'm Debbie Shadid, the host of the Life Coach Business Building podcast. If you are ready to have more clients in your life coach business, then you're in the right spot. Each week I'm gonna teach you super simple strategies to grow your business without feeling overwhelmed and without spending money on paid ads. If that sounds interesting. Stick around and let's get started.
Well, hello. Here we are, Pillar 6 of the Business Building Boutique. Six pillars. This is the last in the series. I will quickly recap. Pillar number 1 is about personal branding and business branding to attract your ideal client. Pillar number 2 is creating that client converting message. Pillar number 3 is about creating your unique coaching offer. Pillar number 4 is about streamlining your business so it can be profitable. Pillar number 5, which we talked about last week, was about the technology that you need for your business.
Today in pillar number 6, we are going to talk about that boutique style business that is designed by you to support the lifestyle that you want. I know that I mentioned last week about time freedom. I know that's what everybody wants. They want to have flexibility. Look, so many of the women that I work with, myself included, we are at a stage in our lives where we are taking care of people that we love. We're taking care of family members. we're taking care of grandkids and maybe you've still got kids at home. We are required to do so much more than have a business. So flexibility in your schedule is so important, time freedom.
So today we're going to talk about setting up a business to support the lifestyle that you want to have. Now we talked about the profit of your business. And in pillar four, so two episodes ago, we covered that we talked about profitability. And so you want to price your coaching with the formula so that you can get to a place where you feel comfortable earning the desired income level that you want.
Now, when it comes to your schedule, the only way to figure out what your schedule should be is to first decide what you want. Now, I don't necessarily mean a goal, but what lifestyle do you want? How do you want your day to look? Day in and day out, how do you want your week to look? Maybe you've not actually even thought of this before. Maybe you haven't considered if I had the option to set up my ideal week. What would it look like? So I want you to take some time to think about that.
I can think of over the years, different clients that I've worked with who have said specifically, like, I want to go to orange theory, you know, three times a week. So I'm not going to start working until let's say 11 o'clock in the morning, because orange theory is important to me. If that is you, then you build your schedule around that.
I became a grandmother. Y'all know that. And I have changed my schedule to be off on Wednesdays and every other Friday morning. So that means my week shifted. And I will tell you when you start out right now in your business and you intentionally design your schedule, it'll be so much easier because when I decided I was going to start taking off on Wednesdays for Lucy, it literally took me a year, one full year to get my schedule free on Wednesdays because I had all kinds of private coaching clients. I had group programs that I had sold and they were meeting on Wednesdays. So I had to wait until I had gotten myself free, which also meant I had a very full schedule that other times needed to open up on other days to move the Wednesday dates to.
So it sounds like it would be simple to clear a day, but it's better for you to start intentionally today where you want to, so that you can figure out what it is you want. Maybe you want to sleep in, maybe morning's not your thing. I have recently decided that I want to be done earlier in the evening, instead of working till like 5:30, I would like to be done at about four. I started playing pickleball. Yes, I'm one of those crazy people now, and I want to be able to do that a couple of times a week. So I decided I was going to start working at 7: 30 in the morning. That's not a big deal for me. I'm already up. I love mornings. I'm very productive. So my day starts at 7: 30. What do you want for you?
Then I want you to think about the actual flow of your day. How do you want it to be? Do you want to have, you know, all of your consultations at one particular time during the week? Do you want to have private coaching sessions at one particular time? You have control over all of that. I know in the beginning, it seems like I'm just going to let them have a consultation anytime they want one.
But I will tell you that if you give them the schedule, they'll find a time on the schedule. And if they can't find the time on schedule, as I mentioned last week, you can put here's my cell number with your Google voice phone number. So it's not your personal cell, you know, text me if there's not a time available for you. And I'll open up a slot on my counter.
What you want to be thinking about is that. If there's not a slot on your calendar, they might not actually be the right customer for you. So if somebody can't find time for me on Saturday morning, it's because I don't work with clients on Saturday or Sunday. So I used to offer consultations on Saturdays, Sundays, and some in the evening because my schedule was so full, I wanted to make sure that I opened up time for clients. But the truth is, if somebody was meeting me on a Saturday, that probably meant that they worked full time and they actually needed to be coaching on a Saturday and I don't coach on a Saturday. So you want to have your calendar aligned with what it is that you want to create.
Then you want to think about your day. Are you giving yourself adequate time to get tasks done? This is another mistake that I was making so often. I was under scheduling the amount of time it would take for me to do something. So an email, I would say I read an email in 30 minutes. Well, you write an email in 10 minutes, but you are going to put it in Flowdesk. You're going to make it pretty. You're going to check it. You're going to send it to yourself and test it. You're going to get the links in there. It takes more than 30 minutes especially when you don't know what you're doing. I can do it very quickly now, but as you are learning and getting comfortable with that and rereading it and fixing things and sending it back and forth, it takes more time than that. So make sure that you're giving yourself adequate time to be able to get the tasks done.
I recommend that you make your coaching sessions 50 minutes long. Now I'm going to be completely transparent here. If there was any challenge that I had in my business, it's that I have not honored 50 minutes. Now I am now honoring that and that's because honestly, I got coached on it. What my coach told me was you're actually messing up other people's schedule. I saw me staying longer than 50 minutes as being extra value and y'all know I want to over deliver all the time. I want to give more than what somebody paid for, but she was right. What I was actually doing was making everybody that worked with me couldn't depend on the time I was going to end. And maybe it was a problem. Maybe it wasn't, but that was a new way to look at it. So I recommend your coaching sessions should probably be 50 minutes. You can do them however you want, but realistically, you want to be able to grab a fresh cup of coffee or go to the bathroom or whatever. You know, allow time if you do go a minute or two over so that you can gather yourself before the next appointment.
For the last several years up until recently, I was literally back to back sometimes eight hours a day. So, do not do that to yourself and I was telling myself, you know, I'm so good because I give that extra time and it was just ultimately really stressful for me because I was never stepping away from my desk.
So decide how long your sessions are going to be, decide how long your consults are going to be. Also, your calendar is yours. So if you need to rearrange a schedule, it happens, you guys. I hate to rearrange my clients too. I really do, because I know that they've got it on their calendar. We've all got our time blocked off, but sometimes life happens. So maybe you set aside time, you know, a half afternoon each week where you do not schedule any appointments so that you can schedule a doctor appointment or a hair appointment or whatever it is so that you don't have to rearrange, but sometimes you're going to have to rearrange your schedule. And all you do is, without explanation, email a client and say, Hey, I need to change our schedule for this week instead of Tuesday to Thursday. Please confirm. That's all you have to do. If they have a problem with it, they'll tell you they have a problem with it. And then it's like, all right, let's see what we can do to work this out.
So you get to decide what is best. Also, I had a conversation with a client today who has nine private clients and she happens to have 2 of the 9 that are a challenge. And those 2 were back to back. And so I've been there too, where it's like they're almost draining, you know, and there's nothing wrong with that. We can't decide how our clients are going to show up. We've offered to coach them no matter what they are. But if you need to have 2 clients in different spots, because it's like a lot in 1 day, then just move them. You just say, Hey, something's come up on my schedule. I'm going to need to move you to Thursday at noon. And don't worry about it.
If you worry about it, they'll worry about it. But this is just business. All right, you're running a company and sometimes you have to change schedules. When the doctor takes off or also can't see you for six months. They're not apologizing. They're like, Hey, you know, the first available he has is December 20th. And you're like, okay, that's six months from now. Whatever that is, you just let your client know what the schedule changes.
Vacation time. You need to plan for vacation time ahead of time. I take off six weeks a year. So I take off two weeks at Christmas. or I should say two weeks of winter break because I know not everybody celebrates Christmas, but two weeks of winter break. I also take off one week at Thanksgiving. And again, I know not everybody around the world celebrates that, but it's one week in November. I take off one week in the fall. So an additional week, not Thanksgiving week, but an additional week, one week in the summer and one in the spring. So you guys, it's really not that unreasonable. If you were working a corporate job, you would be off probably during the holidays. You'd be off Thanksgiving week, at least Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And the truth is, most of your clients do not wanna be coaching because they also have things going on during those three weeks.
And let me just tell you, you need a break to refresh yourself. So being off one week in the spring, one week in the summer, one week in the fall, actually benefits your clients. When you have time to step away and recharge yourself, it's good. And if you're working in a corporate job, you would negotiate how many weeks of vacation comes with this job. You're working a job and you're the boss. So give yourself vacation. Just mark it on your calendar, have a part of your client agreement and let them know.
So I think you have the overall idea of what I'm talking about. You are the designer of your lifestyle. You get to design your boutique business to have the hours that you want to be open, to take the holiday breaks that you want to take to close for snow days if you want to, to be sick and not be open, whatever it is for you. But the real intention here is for you to decide what your ultimate schedule will be and then honor the schedule that you set out for yourself.
All right. I hope this series has been helpful to you. These are the six pillars that are just really a high level picture of what we do inside of the business building boutique. We work through all of those details, all of the technology, all of the marketing, all of the messaging, all of the how-to things that you need to know to build your business, to grow your business, to gain clients, to work with clients, all of it. So if you are stuck in your business, then let's talk.
Let's not wait. Let's get it underway. I want to help you reach the goals that you have for yourself. And let me tell you what. I know that you're listening to this at the end of August. But let me tell you what, December and the first of the year will be here before you know it. And we know that coaching, the first of the year, people are ready for change. You get your business ready for the first of the year. And I would like to help you do that. Schedule a consult at debbieshadid.com/schedule. I will see y'all later. Thank you. Bye bye.
Outro: Okay, ladies, that is it for today. Before we go, I want to invite you to head over to debbieshadid.com. I have this incredible Canva training, specifically designed for life coaches where I'm gonna teach you how to use Canva to create beautiful graphics to market your life coaching. All right. Have an amazing week. I'll talk to you very soon. Bye bye.