This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Most successful coaches have more than one source of income. But if you're just starting out, you need to pick only one, which should you pursue? It's a great question, comes to us from our listener. She's looking around the landscape as she prepares to start her coaching business. She makes some observations about how coaches make money.
And she's like, well, do I, you know, do I do all these things at once? Do I pick just one? If so, you know, how do I do that? So this new coach is eager to jump in. She's looking for direction.
Let's see if we can help. And by the way, welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, I'm so glad you're here. It is a daily podcast about making extra money without quitting your job. Listener supported an amazing community out there.
Here is a quick message from our sponsor. And then we'll jump into the question and my answer. [Music]
Hey there, Chris. This is Cara, and I've been following your work for a couple of years. I don't know if you know this, but most successful coaches have more than one source of income.
They sell private coaching, of course, but also group coaching. Then they usually have programs or other one-off educational resources for sale. Some of them also earn affiliate income and maybe some other things too. When you're getting started though, is it best to focus strictly on a single business model or is it wiser to diversify and build multiple programs at once? I don't just mean different business ideas.
I mean within the same framework of coaching. Thanks for your help. - Cara, thanks so much for listening. Thanks for the call. You're absolutely right that over time, in particular, most successful coaches or consultants, anybody providing a service business, it's not just coaches, but any service business tends to develop multiple sources of income.
Keyword successful, not everyone does, but it's often a very obvious fit to diversify in those different revenue models. However, they don't usually start that way. They usually begin with a core service, and I think that's actually the way to go. I tend to agree that you should start with this one core service because if you don't get the core service right, like almost everything else in your business is going to be a struggle. There won't be that obvious and natural fit to expand, but if you do nail the core service, adding the additional options just tends to be natural and easy, totally organic.
So I use that phrase core service a lot there. I think that's what you focus on much more than the one-off educational resources or the affiliate income or anything else. So to do that, to focus on that core service, think about your answers to these questions. What is the main benefit you'll offer your clients? Like how will they be different after a session with you?
Like what are you really hoping to do for them? And then how will you go from coaching idea to coaching offer? An offer has a price tag. It has some kind of call to action. It is as clutter-free and simplified as possible.
So basically that's what I would do. I would start with one thing. I would make it the core service. I would focus on creating the best possible core service that I could, and then also the best possible offer. Not just an idea, but the offer.
The offer has the price. It's got the call to action. It is simple, it is clutter-free. I probably wouldn't expand from there until I got that part right. So that's what I would do.
Good luck, Gara. Let us know what happens. Listeners, if you've got a question or a situation you're trying to address, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you for tuning in today. I've got more coming up.
New episode every single day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
