When I got into coaching initially, I was PASSIONATE about my work.

I started coaching one-on-one adult swim lessons.

Then I ran swim clinics.

Then I got a job at a gym working with their members on swimming.

Then I started coaching masters swimming.

Within a couple of years, my passion became...a lot of hard work! I don’t even know if I stopped enjoying it- I think I still did, but I was too exhausted to do much of anything else with my life.

I saw how unsustainable this life/career/business was.

What I needed was a way to make money that didn’t require me being present 100% of the time.

I could have started a live swim lesson business, expanding to all age groups and renting space at a pool, but then I’d be committed to building that for years- managing people and all the headaches that comes with, before I could see any more freedom.

So I took my business online instead, and I lived happily ever after. :)

Does this sound like an easy thing to you?

You’ve probably heard it before. Just take your passion online, and tap into the worldwide audience!

I’ll tell you: It’s not easy, in any way, whatsoever.

But the work you do to bring your coaching business online has a much, much bigger impact on your freedom levels than just about anything else you could do.

So you first have to decide- is it worth it? If you are happy working hourly and maxing out your profits to the level of energy you have to take on more coaching clients, then there’s no reason to build anything online.

But if you want to switch those clients into paying customers, and have a bigger impact worldwide, keep reading.

Health coaching is a great service to the world. It’s the only profession I know of that I feel like I can really help to change people’s lives.

But after you’ve been getting clients in your local area for a while, you see that the need for health coaches is huge- and goes way beyond just your city.

Moving from clients to customers is part mindset, and part just doing the work. The mindset part is the place to start.

Realize that you will burn out and only serve a tiny few people if you stay with just getting clients.

And as I mentioned, you will hit a ceiling with income. There’s nowhere else to grow after you’ve raised your rates to what the market can bare. You only have so much time in the day.

So what’s next?

A website is the first step, if you don’t already have one.

If you’re on a budget, you could spend $150 and have a functional site up in a few days. It won’t look amazing, but keep in mind, taking action is far more important than anything being amazing at this point.

Next, create 5 articles.

“But I’m not a writer!”

No worries. Note how I’ve written this article. It’s very easy to read, and not written at a high level. And there’s lots of spacing :)

But you are still learning something.

The best way to start is to do “listicles”. “The top 5 ways to…” or “The 5 deadly sins of eating” or “The 9 things you should never do when you exercise”

You get the idea. Make lists. Create articles out of those lists.

Post the first 3 articles on your blog. Then move out and find sites that need content. There are many, if you do some searching around in your niche.

Send those next 2 articles to sites that can link back to you.

Boom! You start getting traffic. A real business has begun!

In Part 2, I’ll get into how to take this traffic and start building a list, and ultimately, get your FIRST customer.