Author Topic: Three-Month Testing Experiment with Entrepreneur Consulting & Coaching  (Read 1257 times)

moneytaichi

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Want to share my experiment after I quit my job last April and took my sabbatical. It's my first big break after working for Big corporations for 18 years. We are 80 to 90% FIRE. While I enjoyed my sabbatical for 8 months, I got restless last Dec. so I wanted to check out one of my dreams: life coach. After some research, I decided to try out to help entrepreneurs/small business owners with their business strategy and coaching by systematically reducing their risks.

I enlisted some of my entrepreneur friends and tried to coach them. While I enjoy consulting/coaching part, I realized it's a hard business:
  • My ideal clients have to be proactive enough to want my services (80% of entrepreneurs & small business owners are not, which contributed to 90% of startup failures). Even from a quick read on this forum, I get a sense that people don't want to hear "wait-a-minute" message if they are struck by entrepreneur bugs.
  • Even they do want some help, there are SCORE and Small Business Admin that offer free consulting services. Therefore, I'd be competing with them.
  • Their businesses need to be interesting enough for me to work with them, otherwise I would not be motivated to do that work.
  • I have to continually prove myself and sell my services, while doing that in a retail model (meaning one person at a time)... This is exhausting, especially since I am an introvert!

I'd love to hear your thoughts, including alternative interpretation, on my testing experiments. Thank you for your opinions!

Smokystache

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I suspect it is a tough business. I'm not a life coach (but am a mental health professional) who happens to offer consulting. There is a slice of people who are motivated to learn and get better, but also open to wanting assistance (as opposed to bootstrapping everything and just learning it on their own (whether they are successful or not).

I think a huge challenge is that people will want to know that you can solve their specific problem(s). My guess is that the easiest way to market your services would be to pick a niche and focus there. Share some results, get some testimonials, and show prospective clients that you really understand their business/field. For example, if I recently opened my own dental practice and want help with marketing my services I'm going to want to know that you at least have expertise in marketing (perhaps you've helped someone create a social media campaign, etc.) and it would be a bonus if you have an understanding of the challenges of a new medical-related business.

Most life coaches (websites that I've seen) focus more on general coaching, motivation, time-management, and mindset stuff. I'm not saying that is unimportant. But it is so much easier to find clients when you can say, "I solve X & Y. If your problem is X and/or Y, then I know I can solve it and make you more money and/or save you time."

moneytaichi

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@Smokystache, thank you for your thoughtful feedback! It validates my thinking. I have earned a good reputation in the Tech world with my 2 decade experience. I think I will go an easier route for a lifestyle balance. Maybe try some consulting and executive coaching with the tech companies I already knew. My past experience focuses more on B2B too. Going to entrepreneurs (B2C) feel like starting from ground zero in terms of reputation and connections. Sign...

Smokystache

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I believe that would be a much easier and more prosperous path ... and it helps out in all sorts of ways:
- makes marketing so much more targeted and specific (which is cheaper and easier)
- allows you to leverage connections and reputation you already have
- you already "talk the talk" of that field - so you're immediately perceived to be more valuable, etc. etc

Good luck!

oldtoyota

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You can "fix" the part about selling 1-1 by selling one to many through Facebook advertising and/or webinars.

I'm transitioning away from 1-1 for the reasons you mentioned.