Top 12 Ways to Get More Leverage In Your Business

Posted on | June 4, 2010 |

If you could cut your work hours in half, and at the same time double your coaching income, would that make you excited? Here are some of my favorite strategies that have built-in leverage – use them to take your coaching business to the next level!

1. Create Group Programs

A group program is an excellent way to make more money without putting in any more effort. Rather than working with clients one-on-one, which is time-consuming and exhaustive, you can teach the same material to many individuals. The way you do this is by taking maximum advantage of today’s technology.

A group coaching session is somewhat like online learning. You as the leader determine the number of sessions your “course” will consist of, the length of time each session will be, and then you put together an agenda or an outline of each session. That way, all those who plan to participate know ahead of time when to meet, for how long they will meet and what will be discussed during those meetings.

For example, you might decide that you will hold a total of eight 90-minute sessions, and the sessions will be every Tuesday evening from 6:30 – 9:00 pm EST. During each session, you’ll cover the materials outlined on your agenda. And best of all, the coaching doesn’t have to be one-way. It can be totally interactive, with participants able to ask questions during the appointed “question and answer” period. If you want, you can even assign work that is to be completed before the next session.

Go ahead and start imagining the possibilities. Then start thinking how much more income you can earn by switching from teaching individuals to teaching groups of individuals.

2. Look For Joint-Venture Opportunities

Joint ventures are excellent opportunities to partner up with one or more industry-aligned partners in order to share resources, expenses and client lists.

The goal is to establish a working relationship with other professionals who offer services that do not compete with yours yet would be of interest to your clients.

The type of joint venture that you arrange will vary widely depending upon your goals. You might do something as simple as having all parties agree to send out a personal endorsement of the other partner’s services to each other’s mailing lists, or you may want to go as far as planning a jointly-sponsored event.

Regardless of the type of joint venture you’re planning, always keep these rules in mind:

· Create a Confidentiality Agreement

There is a good chance that you’ll be sharing sensitive or proprietary information with your partners, even if it’s your mailing list. Not all joint ventures work out and you may not part as friends if things go terribly wrong. That’s just one reason why it’s important to draw up a reciprocal confidentiality agreement. Better yet, share the costs and have an attorney do it.

· Get It In Writing

Create a written agreement setting out each party’s responsibilities for work and expense sharing. If there are deliverables required, establish who will produce them and what the deadlines are.

· Know Your Partner

When you create a joint venture you are placing some of your reputation into the hands of someone else. Make sure to perform your due diligence regarding all partners’ reputations for honesty and integrity, their business standing in the community, and their financial ability to participate, if appropriate.

3. Consider Licensing Your Program or Workshop

You can leverage your high-quality materials by licensing the content to other coaches. Since it’s your content, you can set the rules. You might not want to offer a license to coaches in your immediate market in order to avoid helping your competition, but you certainly could consider making your materials available to coaches outside of your immediate market.

There are copyright, royalty and other issues involved in licensing, and you don’t want to pursue this option on your own. Your best bet is to hire a Copyright Attorney to get you started.

4. Do Public Speaking

Other than writing a book, or appearing on TV, nothing sets you apart from your competition like being a guest speaker. If you’ve got something to say, then you need to get yourself in front of a group who will listen.

If you’ve not had much experience speaking publicly, start by speaking in front of familiar faces. If you’re a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club or other similar type of organization, find out the person you need to speak with to get your name on an upcoming agenda.

When you’re ready to branch out from there, consider appearing as a guest speaker on a local talk radio station. Contacting the show’s producer is the approach you want to take here. Before making contact, be sure you’ve got your pitch all figured out. Make is strong and compelling because producers are busy people. It might take a few rounds of telephone tag before you actually get to speak directly with the show’s producer, but persistence will pay off.

The nice thing about appearing on the radio is that you don’t necessarily have to appear in person. You might be able to arrange a call in during which you are interviewed right over the telephone. If you do land a spot as a guest speaker, make sure you write down the details – the date and time you’re scheduled to speak and most important of all how long you’ll be expected to speak.

Anytime you do get an opportunity to speak before an audience, always find out if you are allowed to make a “plug” at the end of your speaking session. If you can, be sure to take advantage of this type of free publicity. After all, you never know who is listening.

5. Create A Coaching Club Or Coaching “Gym”

A coaching club is a membership-based business that you set up to offer specific types of coaching support. You simply take your current coaching material and rework it to appeal to a highly-targeted market.

Once you have your materials available, you can sell membership in your club on-line, where all materials are delivered via the Internet on a monthly basis, or you can conduct the sessions in a group format over a telephone bridgeline.

The benefits of the club include the ability of your members to interact with other members to share ideas and strategies with each other as well as with you.

A coaching gym is a highly-specialized form of coaching where you are laser-focused on obtaining one particular result such as teaching health professionals how to improve their referral network.

Because you are offering highly-specialized information, your coaching sessions can be shorter and you can charge more! Gym services can even be delivered over the phone or via e-mail.

6. Get A Virtual Assistant

As a coach, your billable time is your most valuable asset. But if you’re tied down in the “business of managing your business”, you’re burning hours that could be sold.

Also, if you have a lot of great ideas like building a web site or writing a marketing letter, but you lack the skills to get it done, you’re a perfect candidate for a “virtual assistant.”

They’re called “virtual” because they work in their home or office and not yours. You can outsource as much or as little of your work as you want to, and you can even hire different assistants to perform different tasks.

Not only will you instantly free up more time that you can bill to customer, but you’ll be more relaxed and stress-free to boot!

7. Start A Coaching Team

The concept of a coaching team is a lot like the way law firms are set up. There are typically one or more senior attorneys and a lot of junior attorneys. The firm provides the business infrastructure, such as accounting and administrative support, marketing and advertising, etc. The senior attorneys provide their name and reputation to the business and the junior attorneys do all of the grunt work.

Now, simply substitute the word “coaches” for the word “attorneys” and you’ve got the picture!

8. Create Your Own Affiliate Program

An affiliate program is used to pay people for providing you with leads that turn into sales. At its simplest level you can just hand out your business cards to your network of friends and contacts who, in turn, distribute them to their friends and contacts. Mark each set of cards that you give out with a code, or the referrer’s name, so you’ll know who to pay the commission to.

If you have a web site, you can install affiliate management software that will handed the process for you. What? You don’t have any idea where to find or how to install affiliate software? See Item # 6.

9. Re-Use And Re-Package Content

If you’ve spent time developing content that you’ve used once and then forgotten about, then in a sense you’re missing out on an opportunity to earn royalties on your own work! If you’ve spoken at a seminar, and your speech was recorded, then hire someone to transcribe your work. The transcription is something you probably can sell on your website. Those who attended the seminar in person were willing to pay to hear what you had to say and others will be too! Think about everything you’ve written and then think what you might be able to sell or use as an incentive for some other promotion you are running.

10. Create Your Own Annual Event (Conference, Seminar, Mastermind, Or Other Gathering In Your Industry)

Seminars are big business and they’re a great way to raise your visibility and make a lot of money in the process. If you can put together a seminar on a topic that you know others are interested in learning more about, then all you’ve got to do is attract attendees.

With all of the technology available today, arranging a seminar has gotten a lot easier and a lot less expensive. For example, a teleseminar offers an excellent opportunity to start promoting yourself as an “expert” in your field. Such an arrangement is not going to cost nearly as much as it would if you held a seminar at a conference center and you had to coordinate travel, meals and lodging for your attendees and special guest speakers.

The key to marketing your seminar is to establish yourself as an expert. Give yourself a title, elaborate on your pertinent experience, and offer a few incentives to entice people to sign up.

Plan on making your seminar an annual event and if your first one goes off well, you can be assured that your attendees will want to come back for more next time around!

11. Run A Retreat

Retreats are another segment of the coaching business that’s on fire these days. They operate a lot like group coaching that was mentioned in Item # 1, and a coaching seminar like was discussed in item #10.

The difference is that these sessions are usually held over a weekend at some relaxing location that provides an opportunity for recreation and fun as well as learning.

The best results are usually had when the recreation takes the form of team-building events like whitewater rafting where everyone has to work together or they end up getting wet. However, golf or tennis-based retreats, or any other kind, can work just as well depending upon your clientele.

A lot of the planning will be similar to the planning required for an event, so you might want to hire an event coordinator to handle the details.

12. Record Everything You Do Then Sell It As Audio/Video Programs And Products (Teleclasses, Live Events)

If you conduct teleclasses and events and you don’t record them, then now is the time to start. If you do record these sessions, then it’s time you do something with them so that they can start adding to your bottom line. If you make your sessions available on a CD or via a download on your website after the fact, you will have another chance to get money out of every person who did not or could not attend your teleclass or seminar. Don’t miss this money-making opportunity!

13. BONUS! Hire A Cleaning Service

As with a Virtual Assistant, the time you save by having someone else clean your home or office can be spent on building your business and generating more income. Where’s the break-even? Just compare how much you pay the cleaning service to how much you charge per hour or how much you make on a sale of your content or licensable material. I’ll bet the ROI is a lot quicker than you think.

Hey, even if you spend the time you save doing nothing but chilling on the couch, you’ll be happier and more relaxed – so just do it!