Every beginning involves mistakes. Some of them are inevitable, but very important because we can use them to learn and improve. Then there are the mistakes almost everybody makes. The best way to learn from these mistakes is to not to make them at all. Today we are going to focus on mistakes you should avoid when you decide to start your own business and make a living as a coach. The following reminders were published by Amanda Alexander, a leading British expert on life coaching, on the International Coach Federation (ICF) blog. She focuses primarily on helping women looking for ways to combine their coaching careers with being mothers. What should you avoid?
Lack of confidence
Doubts about your abilities at the beginning of your career are normal. There is only one way to start believing in yourself - start coaching. Gain self-confidence through experience. You have to convince yourself that you can do it. The more experience you get, the better.
No specialization
Do not think you can coach everyone in any one way. There is no such thing as a universal coach or client. You must know clearly who you are offering your services to and how you will provide them. Choose your target group of clients and focus on it.
Insufficient entrepreneurial approach
You cannot just take a coaching course, create a website and expect clients to come. If you want to build your coaching practice, you must approach it as a business. Start with your business plan. Identify the purpose of your business, your target group of customers and marketing strategy. Then begin to fulfill the plan.
Too many projects at once
If you are lucky, and many opportunities arise at the very beginning of your practice, you will automatically tend to accept them all. You might be afraid of saying no, but this is something you should learn. Working on ten projects at once is unrealistic, and you will mostly end up unable to finish any of them as well as you should. Always consider how much time you have, and make sure that you have enough time to work on all the projects you have accepted.
Not walking the talk
Successful coaches live what they talk about and what they teach others. Other people will respect you only if you respect yourself. That means you should constantly develop yourself as a coach and as a person. Investing in yourself will give you big returns.
Giving up too soon
According to the ICF founder Thomas Leonard, it takes 18 to 24 months to build a coaching practice if you work on it full time. Many coaches, however, proceed slowly because they have another job and a family. Coaching is a business like any other, so you can't expect results right away. You need to persevere.
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