Housekeeping for your coaching business

Two years ago, I was midway through writing the book “The Coaching Solopreneur TM” when it dawned on me that the use of a house metaphor would help pull all the thoughts together. For those of you who have seen the ‘Coaching House model’ that shares all the items to pay attention to in building and maintaining a coaching business, I hope that you have found it a useful way to pull your thinking together.

This summer as well as taking a break away from my business I am now using the same model to use the time between coaching sessions to do some housekeeping. More specifically I am looking to the wider landscape of the coaching profession to check in with the model to see what needs my specific attention. This thinking contributed to a recent webinar, and I want to share the topics with you here as well to hear what you think!

To do such a diagnostic review, I typically turn to the PESTLE model that is widely used in team coaching for strategic thinking and is a way of processing what I have noticed, read or been taught by others in the various webinars, newsletters or press articles that are my sources of market research. What would you add to this list and how will the thinking affect your business model?

Political Insights

• Over 65 nations globally have had an election year and in all the biggest coaching markets the slowdown of work was inevitable until new governments settle - particularly if you work with global HR sponsors.

• New governments bring new Working and Employment policies to HR’s door and in the UK, this is affecting budget allocations for coaching – clarity will come in the autumn for many programmes which are on hold until then.

Economic Insights

• The cost-of-living crisis is continuing to affect private paying clients and their ability to fund development through coaching. Pricing/delivery models may need to still consider the client’s personal situation and the cost of other helping professions on offer.

• Watching the big people consultancies go through restructuring and redundancies is also a sign that the corporate people development/training/learning offers for coaching associate contracts are under profitability pressure.

• Wellbeing investment shifts and savings in learning budgets and learning

management systems means coaching programmes need to manage the clear objectives and expectations of value requested by the client.

Societal Insights

• There has been a noticeable increase in face-to-face or hybrid delivery requests to build client relationships as clients seek a connection to their coach for a least the initial sessions before busy diary management typically means virtual sessions return to the delivery schedule.

• Supervision is being increasingly sought in group formats to enable coaches to connect to other coaches and there has been a strong return to accreditation body events and networking opportunities to get away from desks at home.

• Therapeutic boundaries are being rethought by many coaches as the world brings more work to our door where clients are looking to share more of their story in psychological safety with their coaches. More coaches are exploring what is needed for them to work in this space with training and ethical clarity.

• Neurodiversity needs for coaching agreements are being more actively sought and voiced by clients and coaches alike in chemistry meetings. An awareness of what is required of the partnership is essential to maintain the coaching agreement.

Technology Insights

• AI competence is here to stay with coaches needing to be clear on its application in their coaching and business models. A full review of what is being requested by clients, associate contracts and your use of AI tools in your business delivery should build an awareness of your business polices and guide your future intentions.

• A noticeable increase in platform options for coaches to run their operations and all their administration and client management in one place brings efficiency opportunities. Whilst trend and client data that platforms can provide could win work the individual client data protection polices warrant reviews if your business is at this scale of investment.

• A noticeable increase in third party licenses for assessment tools and feedback reviews such as 360 have been sought by clients with new versions/brands appearing frequently warranting a review of the ROI for the gain of new contracts.

Legal Insights

• Legal changes mean a review of contracts and associated privacy policies. In particular, new clauses for both AI European Law changes due in December 2024!

• Insurance renewals have re-highlighted that working with American contracts may require a different level of Personal Indemnity increasing the premium four-fold.

• As a provider of services our coaching contracts need to be changed for each contact to be clear on what the service agreement is and what rights to refunds the client can/cannot expect. What does this mean to your proposals/pitches?

Environmental Insights

• Sustainability/ESG work is still a business requirement for corporate clients and is a rewarding line of enquiry in chemistry meetings and team coaching diagnostics despite geopolitical events meaning challenges to corporate agendas.

• Climate coaching techniques and knowledge of D&I and other topics that enter the coaching space remain useful to build awareness of how to work on these topics if a revenue or purpose ambition for your workstreams.

An awareness of these insights helps me to review what my business model needs to adapt towards and starts the annual planning process early. I can apply the thinking to each room of the house model and this housekeeping list means that I can use the space of the summer to get ahead of the autumn. The ambition is to be ready for what I hope is a more buoyant coaching market filled with coaching assignments for all of us as Coaching Solopreneurs.

Our thanks to coach and AoEC faculty Kate for allowing us to share this blog.

If you would like to know more about setting up your own coaching practice, you will find more resources in Kate’s Solopreneur Coaching Community on her website. And you can purchase her first book - The Coaching Solopreneur from Amazon.