How to Get Your First Coaching Client

As you start any coaching business, one of the hardest questions to answer is how you are going to get your first coaching client. It takes those first few coaching clients to grow your business and see it really take off. Once you have these first coaching clients, word of mouth should take care of a good part of your future business. Here are a few ways that you can go about getting your first coaching client to get your business off the ground.

Option One

You can offer a big discount off your services during the first month of your business launch. In exchange for this discount, you will ask these clients for testimonials. The discount that you offer will attract many people to your coaching business who would not have thought about it before. A limited time discount will help build scarcity in your prospects' eyes – they’ll want to get in quick before they lose the discount.

Option Two

You can advertise your business on forums that attract your target market. You will need to carefully read the rules of the forum to make sure that you do not break any of the rules about promotion. There will be many people on the forum asking questions and this will be a good opportunity for you to show off your coaching skills.

Option Three

Purchase ad space available on web sites that target your chosen market. It is best to start off slowly with your advertising and build it up over time. Find a web site with a lot of traffic that targets the same people that you are going to target for your coaching business. Place an ad on the site and see how much traffic it creates for your online business. Keep in mind a catchy, punchy ad that offers a great incentive to the reader - this will always be a winner over a boring ad that simply talks about your qualifications or services.

Option Four

To get your first client in coaching, sometimes you need to do some things out of the ordinary. You may even want to offer several free trial sessions to build up your credibility as a coach – make sure you ask for well-written testimonials from your trial members.

To build your expertise further, you may want to write several well-researched, well-written articles which you can submit to both online and offline publications. A well-written press release with a punchy angle may also get you some much wanted publicity.

When starting any business, progress always seems slow, but hang in there and persevere. Once you get a few first clients, your coaching skills will speak for themselves and you’ll eventually start to receive word-of-mouth referrals.