How To Create A Concise Life Coach Business Plan

There is an ever-growing demand for coaching services and the estimated market size is expected to reach $20 billion by 2022.

Oof, that’s huge potential!

It represents a fantastic opportunity if you’re planning to start your very own life coaching business. 

You’re inspired and motivated to coach and transform lives but before getting started, you may be asking:

How do I even begin to map out a life coach business plan for myself?

How do I get clarity about my life coach business strategy?

These questions can be daunting for anyone who’s just starting out in their own business. A well-thought-out business plan is a key step towards helping you get clarity on starting and running your business venture. 

Why do you even need a life coach business plan, to begin with?

The words ‘business plan’ often strikes fear in the heart of small business owners but it really doesn’t have to! A business plan is essentially a document that contains the ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘how’, and ‘where’ of your business.

Don’t fall into a mind trap thinking that a business plan is only for corporations or large enterprises. The truth is, a business plan is necessary even if you are a small or solo business owner.

It sounds like a big word but it’s really a document that captures the essence of your business. It helps you to be clear about who you’re serving and your business objectives.

It helps you to crystallize your thoughts and pen them down. Keeping thoughts in your head is only an ‘idea’.

When you document your ideas by penning them down, it becomes a committed plan. The business plan serves as your business charter and guiding principles. It tells your clients and stakeholders (if any) of your business, why you exist, what you do and who you serve.

This Forbes article describes a business plan succinctly: “A written business plan takes your vision and creates a clear path for making it a reality.”

Essential elements of an effective life coach business plan

In this article, we’ll guide you towards creating a concise yet effective business plan that’s relevant for a life coaching business. 

Note: This article assumes that you’ve already done your market research about your target audience and who you will be serving (your niche), your offer, and pricing.

There are many business plan variations and there isn’t a standard format that must be adhered to. A business plan can therefore be customized and specific for your needs, as long as it contains the expected components to serve its purpose.

Here, we will talk about the essential elements that should be included in a business plan for life coaches. 

The key to creating an effective plan is to be clear about what it needs to contain, at a minimum, for it to be useful to yourself and anyone reading it.

This is also known as a 'lean' business plan. 

How can the lean business plan benefit you?

• It’s concise so you can have an overview of your business in a gist. 

• It’s easy to create. Unlike a traditional business plan, there’s not a lot to write or any complex formatting. 

• It’s clear. It’s your customized elevator pitch to let people know what you do in one sentence. Your lean business plan should include:

1. Executive summary

A summary of your business mission statement, your target market, what you offer, costs, and competitive position. 

2. Problem You Solve

Succinctly describe the problem you are aiming to solve with your coaching services. If you’re an ADHD coach, this could be an example description of the problem you solve: “I help adults with ADHD who struggle with time management and self-confidence to focus on completing daily goals, ultimately leading to bigger achievements and high self-esteem.”

3. Target Audience

This is important as it assists you to define your ideal client or your “Ideal Customer Profile”. Do include demographics, location, fears, motivations, typical financial situation, etc. . Describe your potential clients to the best of your ability and with thorough research. 

4. Products & Services

This section features the product and/or services that you offer to help solve the problem you described above. You should be specific about your value proposition. What is it that you offer that will be of value to your clients? How do you help them? Why should they buy from you? For example, as an ADHD coach, your offer could be: 1) Individual coaching program over a 3-month duration where we will meet once a week; 2) An e-book that guides people with ADHD to achieve time-management mastery.

5. Competition

Who are your competitors? What alternative services may your clients need and seek? For example, online course providers who sell drip-feed self-learning modules

6. Marketing Strategy and Channels

How and where will you sell and market your services to your target audience? Will you market your services on social channels? What about advertising on third-party websites or online magazines that are relevant to your ideal customer profile? 

7. Cost 

How much will it cost to start your business? How will you fund this? Typically, as a solo business operation, you function as a one-person band. Your own time makes up the lion’s share of the cost incurred. Other costs such as marketing, advertising and promotions, hiring a VA, running your website, etc, should also be considered. 

8. Revenues 

How much will you charge for your products and services? What is your targeted revenue goal per annum?  

With the concise coaching business plan provided above, it should help you get clear about your business offering and client acquisition strategies. 

To help with your life coaching business marketing and operations, we created CoachVantage. It’s an all-in-one coaching software that helps coaches market, sell coaching services, and manage client engagements. 

To try CoachVantage for free, just click the button below.