You’re good at what you do. You consistently generate results for your clients — and you’ve created a successful business doing it. You have this amazing proven process that works, that brings value and changes lives. BUT there is only one you. There are only so many hours in the day. You can take on only so many clients on your own. As a result, you can only generate so much revenue and create so much impact.
We want to maximize our impact, create more freedom, make more money and bring greater meaning in our lives — isn’t that what you wanted when you decided to start your coaching business? Are you able to get there with your current business model? Or are you struggling to gain enough leverage? Are you realizing there’s just not enough of you to go around?
Because of how competitive most markets are, prospects aren’t just looking for differentiation in your years of experience, your education, your client success stories, your personality or perspective. They’re looking beyond that.
You need more leverage in your business to take it to the next level, but without working more hours. It’s time to expand your reach and impact by training other people to do what you do. This is your opportunity to scale, to grow, to stop playing for small stakes! It’s time to elevate yourself and your business. Start being recognized for your proven process and be recognized as a true thought leader in your field.
So if you can’t get there from where you are right now, how do you reach the goal?
Maybe you’re at a place in your life where you can work more hours, continuing to do what works, burning the proverbial midnight oil — all while keeping your clients happy, moving forward and continuing to take on more. But sticking with the 1:1 model won’t create a 7-figure business with the freedom you could enjoy and the impact you know you can make on the world.
You could hire an assistant, maybe an employee or two. You can do some on-the-job training or shadowing to bring everyone up to speed with your clients, help them understand the procedures you have in place. This will take some time initially, but could decrease your overall workload as things progress. It’s important to understand, though, that the next level opportunity doesn’t just come from the onesie twosie adds. The next level comes by creating an army of trained, competent, and amazing people to take your work, your system out into the world. It comes from formalizing your proven process and teaching others why it’s so good. It’s elevating yourself to be the guide, the mentor, instead of only being the doer. to step up and finally take on the role you’ve created for yourself with all of the hard work you’ve done up to this point.
Yes, it’s time to train other coaches to do what you do. Time to teach them your framework, your tools, even your trade secrets. You’re ready to open the doors and teach others what you know to serve the world…oh, and you’ll get paid handsomely to do it.
How? By creating a certification program. This allows you to share your life’s work so that it continues in perpetuity. It’s also an opportunity to grow your income exponentially. Certification programs, depending on their professional focus and duration, can cost $5,000 or more. Your methods and trade secrets are valuable. Building these assets into a certification program lets you help more people while improving your own life. That’s a win for everyone.
Creating a certification program can dramatically free up more of your time, grow your business and enable you to enjoy a substantial increase in your own compensation.
No matter what specialization you’re in or the focus of your coaching, creating a certification program around it represents a solid business opportunity worth your consideration. Professionals seek certification within their field to expand their knowledge, increase their marketable skills and improve their salary prospects. You already possess the knowledge and experience that will take most people years to acquire on their own. Now you can capitalize on your many strengths by creating a certification program that leverages your career into a new and lucrative avenue for sharing your skills…
Training someone to use your process can bring up a lot of questions and emotions. How can I teach other people to do what I do? Do I really want to do this? What would it look like? Am I ready? The more you think about creating a certification program, the more questions may arise. You might wonder, am I qualified to create a certification program? What’s involved? How can I protect my brand? All important questions that you should talk about and plan for!
The bottom line, though, is that you won’t get where you want to be by doing it alone. Creating a certification program can be a massive opportunity for growth, impact, influence, brand awareness, increased status, authority — a proven path for scaling a service-based business. It will allow you to extract yourself from the one-on-one delivery you’re doing today and elevate your work, whether you choose to change the type of client you serve or evolve your role from delivery and fulfillment to guide and mentor, now teaching others to take your body of work out into the world and serve more people. You’ve put in the work, you’ve developed a successful process with trial, error and experience. Why not reap the fruits of your hard work by using your knowledge to create leverage in your business?
A quality certification program teaches other people to do what you do, the way you do it, and with the care and quality you demand of your brand. This allows you to reach a much larger audience through certified coaches carrying your work forward into the world. You’re going to get paid to do the work for a single client, but why not get paid to train other amazing people to do this, creating an opportunity for them, results for those end-clients and more leverage and freedom for you to take the next step in your own journey? You don’t have to do it all. You can train others and get paid to elevate yourself, your brand, and your business.
Personal touch and investing in your clients isn’t going anywhere. In fact, I’d argue that the client connection will only become more important as the amount of digital noise increases and it becomes more difficult for consumers to know who they can trust. You’ve done the work. Now it’s time to take the next step in your business and be rewarded for it.
Whether you plan to bring in certified coaches as part of your extended team, or give them the opportunity to use your intellectual property, your process, assets, and tools — as part of their own business, under their own brand — you still want to ensure they know what they’re doing. You want to set them up for success while protecting your brand, the legacy of your work and the impact it has already had (and will have) on the world.