Ep 248 - What It Takes To Get Your First $100K

Here’s a secret: building a smaller coaching business might actually bring you more freedom and fulfillment than chasing six or seven figures.

In today’s episode, I’m breaking down the truth about what it really takes to create a profitable coaching business—whether you’re aiming for $50K, $100K, or beyond. I’ll explain the difference between a boutique coaching business and scaling to multiple six figures, so you can decide what kind of business truly aligns with your lifestyle and goals.

We’ll dive into the essentials of growing a sustainable business, including how to structure your time, why marketing takes more effort than you might expect, and what to consider when setting your income goals. Plus, I’ll share why so many coaches underestimate the workload that comes with scaling—and why a smaller, well-run coaching business might be the sweet spot you’ve been looking for.

If you want to build a coaching business that supports your life without burning out, this episode is for you. Tune in now and start creating the business that works for you!

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Transcript

That idea of having a smaller business. Kind of this concept of owning that market and saying, this is exactly what my business is going to be because that type of business gives me actually what I truly wanted. It gives me the balance between doing what I'm passionate about, making a difference in the world, and also having a lifestyle that I truly desire.

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 going to teach you super simple strategies to grow your business without feeling overwhelmed and without spending money on paid ads.

Now, if that sounds interesting, stick around and let's get started.

Can I let you in on a secret? It actually might be more fun for you to build a smaller coaching business than it would for you to build a several hundred thousand or multi million dollar coaching business. I know it sounds crazy. Stick with me and I'm going to give you the rundown of why I think you actually might enjoy a smaller coaching business.

In today's podcast, I want to talk to you about what it would look like for you to have a smaller coaching business, and what it actually takes to have a bigger coaching business. Let's start with a smaller business. And when I say smaller, I mean a coaching business that's less than 100, 000 annual revenue.

And for some of you guys, you might be thinking like, Oh my gosh, if I had that big of a business, It would be amazing, but I know that there are so many people in the online space that are talking to you that you're listening to that are talking about how easy it is to get so many leads, how easy it is to bring on so many clients and everybody's using the word scale your business.

And I really want to dispel all of that and talk to you about what it really takes to have a business. So let's talk about that business. That might be where you build your business and it. produces between 50, 000 and 100, 000 a year. Now, first off, let's step back and first say, I said, build your business.

So there is going to be some time where you invest in the projects of getting your business set up, right? Deciding on your niche, getting your website done, creating your marketing message, doing your branding, deciding what your offers are going to be, learning how to sell. There's also the projects of learning how to do email marketing, learning how to do social media, right?

You guys, you've done all of that and it is a lot to learn. But the good news is, is that you only learn how to do that once and then you always know how to do it. So I want to paint a picture of what it looks like to have a business that is between the 50, 000 and 100, 000 a year kind of annual. Sales.

Okay. Now that's not in your pocket cash. That's how much you're selling. Okay, because there are expenses involved that you subtract from whatever the total amount of revenue is that comes into your business. So let's talk about what it takes to run And maintain and really to have a coaching business like that.

First, when I think about marketing, this is one of the things that takes the most amount of time in your business. And I know you don't want to hear that, but I'd like you to start thinking about like having a career, like having a job. And that doesn't sound very sexy. See, to have a job because you just want this dream business.

That's also why I want to talk to you about having a business that is this size, the 50 to a hundred thousand dollar size business, because I know that what's most important to you is freedom in your schedule, or you would not be working for yourself. I know that many of you ladies are at a place in your life where having time for kids or grandkids like me, or maybe taking care of parents is not only important, it's also necessary.

So how do you create a business that I think is kind of like the sweet spot of coaching businesses where you are able to. coach and really make a difference, earn a decent living, and also be able to do the job of marketing and consultation calls and management of your business to keep it consistently going.

So let's imagine that you have, I don't know, 30 hours a week to work on your business. And some of you guys might be saying, I don't have 30 hours to work on my business, but I'm going to bet that if you actually did a time study on your business, You're actually working more than that already. In fact, many of you guys are working seven days a week.

You're still in bed at night, scrolling on social media, looking for answers, you know, between 20 and 30 hours a week. That was your time to work on your business. And it was only during daytime hours so that you really did give yourself the freedom that you were. Wanting to have when he went into business for yourself.

So during that time frame, the smaller portion of that is actually the coaching time. So you might have private clients and at some point you're going to have probably some kind of group program. Now it is easier to sell private coaching. But for sure, if you have fewer hours, like if you work full time and let's say you have 10 hours to run your coaching business, you for sure want to have a group coaching program probably over private coaching, because probably three quarters of your time needs to be focused on the actual project completion in your business and also the marketing, the ongoing marketing for your business.

So let's assume that you have your business foundation set and you are all ready to go on that. And you also know what your offer is, and you're comfortable doing some of the marketing. What I would like for you to imagine is that on an ongoing basis, with a business that is 50, 000 to 100, 000 in sales, you know, coaching sales every year, what you're going to do in your marketing is probably something like this.

It's at least one email a week, maybe two. Let's say the first one is like a value packed email, where you are sharing resources and ideas and knowledge about. What it is that you coach around, where you're providing something that's interesting for people to read and engage with. And let's say the second email is more around inviting somebody to work with you, inviting somebody to have a conversation with you, inviting somebody to a workshop, something like that.

So two emails a week. And. The one thing that you should note is that after you write, let's say 12 emails, you know, 12 of these kind of educational emails, not the emails where you're inviting people to have a conversation with you, but 12 of these kind of what we might call regular weekly newsletters, those can actually be repurposed.

So whatever you wrote, you know, January 1st. could actually be resent again, March 1st. And you can recycle those or maybe duplicate them and slightly modify them. So it makes it easier for you to do your ongoing marketing. So two emails a week. I love education, right? I think everybody needs to understand coaching.

I've said it over and over. So let's imagine that you start out doing one workshop, one open coaching, one something like that, where you are giving people an opportunity to be with you. To learn from you, to get coached by you. Complimentary, right? You're not charging for it. I recommend that you do it at least once a month, if not two times a month.

So that's two times that you would be doing that. And again, I want to mention to you, once you do a handful of those, you're going to just do the same thing over and over. Then we want to talk about social media. Once you get comfortable on social media, and if you know your content categories, that's something that we do inside of the Life Coach Business Building School, is we help you figure out what are the things you're always going to talk about, like the buckets of ideas that you're going to talk about.

The topics, once you decide on those, it gets pretty easy to do your social media. Yes, there's this comfort level. And yes, I'm assuming that you know how to do it, but then it would be social media. So imagine having a business where on an ongoing basis, you were doing those couple of emails, you were doing a couple of workshops and you were on social media.

And then the last thing would be, you're kind of networking with people, whether it would be in Facebook groups, but also you're just talking about your coaching business. You just. Telling people about it. If you do all of those things consistently, and you're not kidding yourself about talking about your business, you really are out there talking about it, and if you know your message really well, you can effectively sell your coaching and it won't be that hard to create a business that is 50 to a hundred thousand dollars a year.

Once you get past the 100, 000 a year in sales, it does begin to get a little bit harder. And this is kind of the part that I want to dispel for you or tell you, it's not impossible, but I want you to know what it's really like to have a business that's bigger than that. You know, my business is multiple times bigger than that.

And I can tell you, I have multiple times the amount of work that I just kind of talked to you about. So the freedom that you might have with a business that's 50 to 100, 000, I don't have that same kind of freedom. You would think the opposite. And I know in the online space, it's presented the opposite.

And I'm certainly not in jail in my business, but I have more responsibilities. I mean, once you get to where you have a bigger business than that, it's highly likely that you're going to have a team. In fact, almost certain that you're going to have a team. And that's kind of presented as glamorous too.

And it is amazing. I mean, I love the ladies that work with me. But. There is time invested every single day working with the people who are working for you. So that's additional time in your business. You've got to create enough income, you know, sales in your business to be able to pay all those people. I mean, there's five of us total, and I'm the only person who produces the sales.

Now, those guys help me with emails and social media and all that, but ultimately everybody's pay comes down to me. So that's one thing to consider when you think about that scaling your business. The other thing to think about is the more that you scale your business and the more that you get yourself in front of people, the more consultation calls that you have, which is also pretty amazing, and I love that, but also consultation calls take time.

When you think about having more clients, we have more clients than I ever imagined. It takes time to make sure that every client feels really supported, particularly the way that we like to do it. We like to do it. To call it hand holding, you know, we want people to feel loved and supported. And if they are important to us, because every client is, all of that takes time.

So again, I kind of want to dispel the idea that if you grow your business to millions, like Now you finally get to relax. Well, no, you don't. You have now an engine that is bigger, that requires kind of more behind it. Right. More marketing to keep it all going at that level. It requires more. So I'm just curious.

Have you thought about that? It's kind of like, I want you to choose. Do you want to go all in? And do you want to get to that place where you really do have a serious business, where you really do make that big of an impact? And for me, I want that. I want to make a massive impact. I'm going to help thousands of women that are being misled online.

I want to help you guys learn how to finally have a coaching business. So for me, all of what comes with having that big of a business, the team and the expectations on me and me being the one who earns all the income to do all of, you know, paying people and me running ads. I mean, that's another thing that is part of having a bigger business is.

Daily ad spend, you know, it sounds easy and it sounds glamorous, but there's always more to it than what you are being presented. So I want that. And if you want that, fantastic. But just know that it doesn't mean that you work less. What it probably means is that you work more, which might be exactly what you want.

I actually love to work. I'm trying to learn how to work less as you guys know, but I love to work. This is what makes me excited and really thrills me. But a lot of you guys have worked very hard in your life and you want to have a meaningful business. You want to make a difference and you want to make some money, right?

You want to do your own thing, you know, so you might consider maybe now that I've presented that to you, maybe the smaller business is the way to go. I'm presenting that to you because it's sort of a mindset shift. Like what if you fell in love with the idea that like you were going to be the best coach in your niche, like in, in a niche that you own that category, but that your business was 80, 000.

Revenue a year. What if that really was the ultimate business where you could have the freedom that you wanted in your schedule, where you could take, you know, six weeks vacation, where you could really work three days a week, something like that. You know, I realized recently. To have the business that I want.

It's not realistic for me to work three days a week. It doesn't matter how many team members I have and how well structured my business is. I need to work more than that to have what it is that I want in my business to make the impact that I want. But for you, if you do want to have that time freedom, then just know that.

I'm kind of hoping that you're going to fall in love with that idea of having a smaller business. I think it's actually pretty amazing if you just own that. I don't know. What do you guys think? I would love to hear back from you and see what you think about this idea, kind of this concept. Um, Owning that market and saying, this is exactly what my business is going to be because that type of business gives me actually what I truly wanted.

It gives me the balance between doing what I'm passionate about, making a difference in the world, and also having a lifestyle that I truly desire, not being chained to your business. Because the marketing is actually a little bit more doable. It's easier to repurpose and repeat things. It's kind of easier to keep that engine going, right?

It's not an engine that requires lots of fuel. So that's it for today, you guys. I just wanted to open your eyes up to have you think about your business. You get to choose either way. I'm all for you either way, either direction that you go. But I just thought to myself, you know, I wonder if you guys are really thinking about what it takes to have a business that is big, because I know you're getting the DMs.

In fact, a new client told me that she's like, I get DMs from everybody all day long telling me, particularly business coaches, like, I'll get you this many consultations and I'll get you this many, this and this many clients. And like, you could have a membership site and you get have all these people. But all of that comes with a lot of extra work.

Even a membership site at a low cost, when you have 60 people in your membership, that's 60 humans that you are taking care of versus having three private clients that might actually equal the 60 people that you have in your membership. And to get 60 people in your membership again. Requires a lot of marketing requires that you have hundreds of people that you're talking to.

So it's an interesting dynamic. And that's what I wanted to do today is help you see kind of what the two types of businesses are. This beautiful boutique style coaching business that really hits the sweet spot of probably what it is that you are dreaming about having that is actually easy to run, easy to operate.

Everything that we do inside of LiveCoach Business Building School is ideal for a business like that. I for sure can help you get a business set up like that, that you can comfortably enjoy and really be able to operate and, and really just have fun with when you go beyond that. Like it's, it's like game on.

That's a different kind of business. So anyway, I'm going to wrap it up, you guys. Thanks so much for being here. I love to shed light on what's happening in the coaching world and sort of give you perspective. So hopefully I've given you some new perspective today. If you want. to find out how we can actually build your business for you.

Or if you are interested in working with us at any level, let's do it, you guys. Let's have a conversation. DebbieShadow. com. Let's see what it is that we offer that might actually be the best fit for you. And again, that's going to be dependent on what it is you actually want in your boutique lifestyle and in your boutique business.

Talk to you soon, guys. Have an amazing day. Bye bye.

Okay, ladies, that is it for today. Before we go, I want to invite you to head over to debbiesshadid.Com I have this incredible Canva training specifically designed for life coaches where I'm going to teach you how to use Canva to create beautiful graphics to market your life coaching business. Alright, have an amazing week.

I'll talk to you very soon. Bye bye.