The Coaching Practice Trap

By: Shaun OReilly
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:39:47
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If you have your own coaching practice you may have inadvertently fallen into the job trap. More accurately it's the multi-job trap...

The job trap is where the majority (or all) of your income come from your own activities. If you're not physically present in your coaching practice you're not generating any revenues at all. So when you're on holiday, not a lot else happens in your coaching practice when you're not there.

No activities by you = no money - i.e. not good :-(

The mulit-job trap is where you attempt to do everything in your coaching practice by yourself. Obviously you'll need to do a lot of the coaching of your clients but you may also find yourself doing tasks that don't suit your skills or the activities may be draining for you. For example, you find yourself involved in:

- doing your accounts

- trying to put up your own website

- creating your own leaflet or flyer

- etc

Notice that all of the activities above can be outsourced to other people who are usually more highly skilled than you and they can most likely produce better results as well. In addition they will most usually charge a lower hourly rate than you are currently charging as a coach. So why not utilise them and give yourself more time to focus on what you do best and enjoy?

Unfortunately too many coaches are simply creating a job for themselves rather than building a coaching practice that frees up their time and doesn't rely upon them always being present in their business.

Moving out of the Coaching Trap

Here are some points to ponder to help you to consider how you are currently approaching your coaching practice:

1. What are you best at? - What activities in your coaching practice do you find a breeze? What areas do you really enjoy? Are you utilising the very best of your talents?

Are you placing the majority of your time and focus on these enjoyable activities?

2. What can you outsource? - Think about the activities you are currently doing in your coaching practice that are a drain on your energy. Which activities do you find the most frustrating? Can these activities be outsourced to others so you can have more time doing what you do best?

Note that if you can find someone else to do activities for your coaching practice at a lower fee than you charge you gain more time too. In some instances the people you use may charge out at a higher hourly rate than but having the activity done by other people can still be well worth it - especially if you find it draining ;-)

3. Where are your systems? - What systems are you developing in your coaching practice so that it will run more reliably and some parts of it can run without you?

I hope that this article has been useful for you and has helped you to consider your approach to your coaching practice.

So, are you in the coaching practice trap?

Shaun O'Reilly is the founder of Authentic Practice and works exclusively with coaches to help them to build successful coaching practices.

He is also the author of The 5 Biggest Mistakes Coaches Make in Marketing and How You Can Avoid Them. To get your free copy just go to:

http://www.authenticpractice.com/