Like you, I have an online service-based business. Because it’s that time of year where I like to evaluate my business, and think about how I can best help the people I serve, I’ve been flying in my mental hot air balloon, looking at the business from afar, so I can get a better perspective.
As I look down at the ground far below, one fact stands out.
Many “Newbies” are attracted to Finish Agent and to The Online Group Success System (TOGSS), a flagship program where I train people to run online Get-It-Done or Habit-Building groups using Finish Agent accountability software.
This has caught me by surprise, because I designed Finish Agent for people who run groups. So you would expect that only people with some experience would be attracted to a group-based program.
On the other hand, I’ve found that newer coaches are not tied down by stodgy old notions about how coaching should be done, and are more open to learning new techniques.
Please note: I’m calling them Newbies, but rest assured that all of them are quite experienced in their field of expertise. So please don’t take offense!
I love the idea of helping people go from being coaches with a private practice, to business people who can take their expertise to a new level.
The advantage of working with Newbie coaches is this: Newer coaches are not tied down by stodgy old notions about how coaching should be done, and are more open to learning new techniques.
By beginning to grow their business with an eye towards running accountability groups, they’ll have a better idea of who to market to, and how to market to them.
The more I think about it, though, the more I feel that I want to help them learn the basics of business building.
Teaching business basics seems like an obvious next step, because I can use my Get-it-Done software not just to teach them, but to hold their hand while they take the steps needed to succeed.
I’ve landed my balloon, and now I need your help.
Could you answer one of these questions and post your answer below?
You will be entered into a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift certificate just for posting your answer in this blog post!
1. If you’re new to building an online service-based business, what one thing would you love to learn?
2. If you’ve been in the business a few years, what do you wish you had known when you were newer?
3. Bonus: What would you like help with now?
Here are some examples to get you started: how to build your list, how to create a freebie, how to create a website, sales page or landing page, what kind of emails to send, how to create your first webinar or class, social media, how to blog, etc.
No credit for saying “all of the above!” I want to learn what matters most to YOU.
Thank you so much for your help.
Post your answers below. It’s an easy way to get $50 and your chances of winning are quite high!
1 & 2: the best way to let my business beacon shine and catch the eyes of the clients who love what I do and are jumping at the chance to enlist me.
(I use both 1&2 because I’ve been in my business for a good while now, but still feel like a newbie when it comes to translating word of mouth to “word of web.”)
1. MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING and advertising (beyond email alone. I know you’re good at this) Nothing works unless an audience is gathered.
My class is ready to go and set to offer within Finish Agent in Feb. Now I need people to see what I have and sign up.
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I would like to learn more about building a database and more about all the in’s and out’s of starting an online business.
I’m learning how to blog so anything related to this – particularly SEO.
My goal is to have 10,000 subscribers by the end of 2019. I’m at 403 now, so it’s a big goal. I’d like to learn how to create a funnel that converts, how to increase my click thru rate, and what Social media platform I should focus on.
2. If you’ve been in the business a few years, what do you wish you had known when you were newer?
I wish I’d known how much time I would save and how much more money I could earn working personally with an experienced mentor in my niche. Group programs helped get me started on a budget. But ultimately, I wasting time and money not getting private coaching/advice from the right mentors.
That advice is worth at least $100K!
To really tap into what my clients are thinking and what they want using their language… something I seem to need lots of help with
1. If you’re new to building an online service-based business, what one thing would you love to learn?
Marketing and social media.
2. If you’ve been in the business a few years, what do you wish you had known when you were newer?
Setting up a business and how many hats an entrepreneur must wear. How difficult it’s to find clients and build their trust.
3. Bonus: What would you like help with now? How to increase my visibility using social media and building trust with possible clients.
I would need a complete step-by-step plan of how to initiate things online. My business is primarily a face-to-face service business, but I’m just starting to look into online tools to find new clients.
Reference to #1, how to get started online, is there a best social media platform to use or does it matter, what are upfront costs, and how to build a list, one that will purchase?
I would like support in running my spiritually based animal communication group. The info I have gotten so far only really serves a business based group, while I have an animal communication & healing business, the group info does not fully work.
What is considered reasonable contact with clients weekly/monthly, and is personal phone contact standard practice, or not recommended?
I want to learn how to get people to want to enroll in my programs.
In answer to question 1.
I would love ideas and guidelines how to find my ideal clients online when they are people who tend to hide. I’m fed up of promises that if I offer what they are looking for they will find me. The online space is too big for that! There’s got to be a way to find where or how to market to a market who are everywhere but nowhere.
I would like to be able to build a tribe/movement.
I’d like to know your what your schedule is for business operations like the admin task such as when you do email, when you do Social Media, when you focus on content creation?
How to create an effective webinar that reaches tons of my target market audience and get them to either sign up for small or larger ticket items.
I’m developing a virtual life coaching business. I want to learn the techniques and mindsets that I need to help clients achieve valuable transformations in their lives. My coaching will be focused on retirement planning for primarily non-financial challenges of retirement…essentially getting the most out of “the second half of life.”
Creating a webinar about coaching and the lesser ticket online group and marketing it.
I would love to get help with creating digital products! This would really increase my revenue for my business. Also, Facebook Ad Campaigns!
I would like a SENSIBLE system and sequence of what do to, when to do it and HOW to do it or DELEGATE it. I have, like some of the above people, wasted a lot of money on marketing gurus who sold systems that were not sensible to execute or maintain. I would like to build an ONLINE business based on the same integrity that my one-on-one coaching is based on – quality in service and care for my clients. I would like to reach more people and have a system that works for that and a peer group to help and support me to implement without overwhelm.
I’d like to know how to turn my email list of some 600 contacts into online purchasers and cash flow through my website.
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Building a list, SEO, and conversion from interested potential clients to having them actually commit to a program.
I am really in search of templates and formats to save time and establish a work flow. Fill in the blank or email flow examples I could use would save time which is the most important as a solo entrepreneur.
I really wish I would have known a lot of things in the beginning. I didn’t know to start a mailing list, or how to make my blogs SEO friendly. I didn’t even start using Pinterest until a few months ago.
2. What I am most interested is in creating consistent traffic for what I do from high paying clients who love my work.
Now I’d love some help on improving my freebies or creating new ones that attract much more attention for people to sign up for my programs. I’d like to be more effective with social media as well. The website below is my old one. I’m working on a new website.
1. If you’re new to building an online service-based business, what one thing would you love to learn? How to have consistent traffic and strategy sessions.
2. If you’ve been in the business a few years, what do you wish you had known when you were newer? How CONSISTENT you have to be in order to get results on-line.
3. Bonus: What would you like help with now? Increasing traffic with my ideal clients, ones who have the money to invest in what I am offering (distance concierge medicine).
Here are some examples to get you started: how to build your list, how to create a freebie, how to create a website, sales page or landing page, what kind of emails to send, how to create your first webinar or class, social media, how to blog, etc.
I’m not a coach and I have nothing I want to teach (I’m an artist) but I think the universal thing about selling anything, whether online or off, boils down to a step-by-step understanding of WHY (one’s motivation), WHAT (what makes your offer unique), WHO (target audience), WHERE (where that audience can be found in an open state of mind) and WHEN (timing of your message and CTA). All of those have such make-or-break aspects to them that feel so intangible…To the extent you can make them feel much more definable and reliable, it would be the gold you could offer. 😉
#3: I’d like to be able to use your group system individually for my clients with a possibility to occasionally unite them (those of them open to it) into a group. That would be a big plus in my business.
IOW: Have the tools you developped for groups, adapted for individual coaching/service, while still retaining the possibility of occasional group work with a group of willing indiivdual clients.
Hope this makes sense. 🙂
I want to attract my ideal customers who need what I have to offer, have the money to pay for it, and will work with me to reach their goals.
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How to find good people to do the things I don’t know how to do or don’t do well.
I am not a coach, but I want to offer group coaching and coaching exercises to online courses to increase the value and efficacy of the course. How do I show this value if I’m not a licensed coach?
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How to make your new business become a magnet for new customers and business.
I want to learn more about email lists and subscribers. Also, I want to learn more about using different social media platforms this next year.
2: That you have to repel the wrong clients as much as you attract the right ones. Bad match clients aren’t worth the $ they bring, because they also bring stress, endless class/emails and frustration
I am NEW. I totally get the tech side of setting up WordPress, but the Content and what pages to create are killing me. Its not that I don’t know what to right about, its the physical spaces on a page that are my bane right now
#1 As newbie, I need to know better about digital marketing mainly the Pinterest as I work with women.
#1 As newbie, I would know better about digital marketing mainly using the platform where my clients used to visit.
1. I would like to be able to find clients for my own future business.
I wish I knew where best to find my ideal client online. There’s no point spending money on ads to reach those who are not interested in what we have to offer.
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#2 that the fastest way to build a following is by getting seen offline as well as online.
FROM A NEWBIE
How to most efficiently and sanely access the ideal targeted eyeballs – people with both the money to purchase what I offer as well as the strong commitment to do the work to achieve the outcomes
If you’ve been in the business a few years, what do you wish you had known when you were newer?
How to set up sales funnels, landing pages, sales pages etc. They intimidate me lol
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1. If you’re new to building an online service-based business, what one thing would you love to learn?
How to write emails that convert and how to respond effectively to readers/prospects who reach out to make contact… and then don’t answer )-:
How to convey my message better to prospects so they can see the value of what I offer better. And, how to set up a membership properly. With an affiliate system in place.
Hm, tall order, huh?
how to share what i do with a graphics team so that actually create what i need in a way that fits my business.
1. If you’re new to building an online service-based business, what one thing would you love to learn?
I would like to learn how to attract my ideal clients and be visible for them online, how to find them and offer my services.
How to define your ideal client (avatar)
How to find out more about clients/customers, including where to find them, and to know what are their most pressing concerns.
1. If you’re new to building an online service-based business, what one thing would you love to learn?
The biggest challenge for me is to pinpoint what exactly I am most gifted at & how to create a program/package to not only create healing in others but to also provide financial security for myself…
Good luck to everyone!
Typo error:
My name should be spelled Sandra MartiN.
1. If you’re new to building an online service-based business, what one thing would you love to learn?
How to define my ideal reader and what problem to solve for him/her? Is this the first step or is there something else I need to do before this if I am starting from scratch?
Bonus: What would you like help with now?
A detailed roadmap with timelines for the next 3 to 6 months for coaches starting from scratch. Do this, then do this… Often we are confused by which step to do first and that can lead to analysis-paralysis.
1) I would like to learn how to create a powerful blog and membership site that helps people become more self reliant
The Best way to rebrand after 20 years online and losing both of my businesses this year.
How to maximize social media for list building and prospect generation (although I started pre-social media!)
Just a personal perspective – being a not at all newbie coach, I find the following somewhat derogatory (especially ‘stodgy old notions’) and wouldn’t use it in promotion:
“The advantage of working with Newbie coaches is this: Newer coaches are not tied down by stodgy old notions about how coaching should be done, and are more open to learning new techniques.”
I would love to learn how to create my first webinar.
How to build a list.
#2. I wish I would have NOT tried to believe and follow all the so called guru’s who honestly were very good at marketing to coaches and not good at executing and delivering on expensive programs. I wasted a lot of money spinning my wheels and believing the gurus knew better than I did. In addition, many of the things I paid thousands of dollars for where dated by the time they were sold to me. I do think keeping things simple and not trying to learn and do it all myself would have saved me a lot of time and money. I think now, I would like a peer group that I can work with and get trusted feedback and we can help each other to authentically grow.
in answer to 1. and 3. – I would love to learn how to! A step by step guide on how/what to do would be a great help and worth a million to me! If I have to be more specific though to qualify/count as credit for the raffle, I would say learn about/help with social media..thanks! 🙂
What I wish I would have known from the beginning is to keep it simple and keep it me. There is no need to over complicate things and chase the next big thing. It’s about how I feel and how confident I am in my work and services. From there, have fun in the packaging! Create group programs, and one time workshops. The more creative the better. And don’t be afraid to ask people what they need!
What I wish I would have learned when I was just starting out is how to simplify and stay away from information overload and understand the appropriate order of building business.
The parts or steps of a funnel – from optin to client.