When I started my business 32 years ago, I sent out a postcard in the mail and people called – and I had a business.  I just kept telling people what I had that they wanted.  They would then tell their friends about my business and it was like a giant snow ball.  We grew and grew and business was good.

When we start out as health coaches, it is a little slower...and we are in a different situation than I was then.  We are really doing a trade – our hours for their money.  So, how much money can you make starting out?  Well, if you work with clients 4 hours a day and spend the other 4 hours preparing, working on getting new clients and doing general business tasks…and charge $50 an hour starting out …and you fill all your time up (without a vacation), the maximum amount you can earn (gross) is $52,000 annually.  You will then need to subtract the costs of doing business.  This will reduce it and prevent you from being able to expand by hiring assistants.

That is why we set up supplemental streams of income.  You see all those health coaches out there selling supplements, gardening supplies, essential oils, affiliating for other health coaches.  They have decided that they do not want to only trade their time for money.  The other income streams frees them up to take the clients they want and gradually and organically grow their business.

Some of you are not in it for the money.  The following still applies to you.  You are just lucky enough not to have the added pressure of producing an income.

So, what, you ask, is the big mistake you are supposed to avoid?  Simply put, it is expecting your business to grow in a month, or six months or a year.  Unless you are very lucky, your business is going to grow slowly.  You must not let this stop you.  Don’t give up. 

The secret to succeeding as a health coach is to:

1. make sure you have enough income coming from somewhere to keep working on your business (sometimes that means getting a job)
2. make a business plan (try Business Plans for Health Coaches)
3. create a system to bring in new business
4. create a system to grow new business from your existing business
5. follow through
6. join an organization where you support each other
7. don’t give up

Business Principles really aren’t any different than they were 32 years ago, you just have to keep working at it…even when it feels like nothing is happening.

This business was a lot different.  First I started blogging, because I wanted to share health information.  I did this, even before I went to IIN.  I wanted to document and share the nutrition information I was accumulating.  Then, I went to IIN.  I blogged and blogged…no one ever read them, but I knew I would do something with the blogs someday.  I had a business plan.  It was a good business plan.  Everyone I showed it to was very impressed.

I started working toward my goal and in the direction my business plans pointed me.

I worked and worked and worked and worked.

I would walk through the living room – where my husband was watching hockey, football or golf, depending on the season.  He would say “I sure wish you were getting something for all this work you are putting in.”  I just kept on working.  I had already put in so much time that I couldn’t stop now.

I was working 2 businesses at a time.  I worked from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.  (I know there are many of you in the same shoes now.)  The thing is I loved what I was doing.  I liked my other business…but I wanted a business that made a difference in the world.  I want to help to change the lives of others.

I liked my old business too.  I flip flopped a little….knowing that I could make good, easy money in my old established business.  I still kept working.  I wanted to be an instrument in health change….I also wanted to help other people to create their own businesses in the health coaching industry – plus, I wanted to be location independent.  My son is in England and my Mom is in Florida…and my old business tied me to my corner in the world.  So, besides loving what I did, I was highly motivated.

So I kept working.  I made minor adjustments here and there.  I made very slow and incremental moves forward.  I gathered a team…and it was no longer just me, it was we.  We are still working hard.  My old business is still there.  I haven’t taken the time to sell it…but, I am ready.  We surpassed the original monetary goals that I set for the business.  We have shifted gears a few times.  We were fluid and went with the flow and I am very pleased with the way it has turned out.  We ended up being able to make large contributions in many ways.  That was the plan.

I have learned a lot and I am changing the world.  I get to wake up in the morning and decide what I am going to do today.  Because I endured, there are other people on my team who get to do the same thing.  No one else decides for me and I am still working hard because, that is what I want to do.

So this is what I want to say, it is going to take a while to build your business.  If you keep at it, it will grow.  Get up every day and work toward building your practice.  Build your income streams.  Clarify your niche.  Build your tribes.

Then it happens, the thing you were starting to think…might never come to be.  Your business is a thriving entity.  It is bound to happen.  With a plan and follow through…and E-N-D-U-R-A-N-C-E.    It WILL happen.