Running A Solo Coaching Business With A 85% Profit Margin
How Alexis decided to ditch the 9-5 grind and start a coaching business on her own.
Hello! Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your business?
Hi there, I am Alexis and I'm a time management and productivity coach who helps people do more and stress less through coaching, workshops, and online courses.
My pragmatic, yet fun, approach helps people easily integrate practical, realistic strategies into their lives so that they can do more of what they want and less of what they don't.
I've taught thousands of individuals to take control of their time and her clients include Google, Lyft, Workday, Capital One, Upwork and more.
I live in San Francisco and before I opened my business, I spent the first 15+ years of my career managing operations and HR at several early-stage start-ups, where there was way more to do than people to do it.
Burnout was rampant. While working in these high-stress environments (and having a couple of kids along the way), I started developing and implementing strategies for productivity at work, and in my personal life, to ensure that goals were met, balls were not dropped, and that, most importantly, stress didn't get the best of me.
Together, we'll identify strategies and techniques that work best for them, so they can feel more in control and accomplish more with less stress. I also offer group coaching using the same proprietary framework.
On the enterprise side, I conduct interactive workshops that help teams increase productivity and reduce burnout. Additionally, I offer several online courses for self-paced, low cost access.
How did you start this business? Take us through the process.
As mentioned above, before starting my business I worked in startups with roles like Director of Operations, Director of HR and Chief of Staff and I was also an outsourced HR Director for many start ups.
I actually never thought of myself as the risk-taking, entrepreneurial type, but when the last startup I worked for shut down (as most start ups do), I found the prospect of applying for jobs, interviewing and trying to rebuild all the trust an autonomy I'd had in my jobs working for the same CEO over the last 10 years so distasteful that I decided to start a company instead!
Over time, people started recognizing these skills and starting to come to me for help with streamlining processes, creating systems, prioritization and general time management. So when I decided to go out on my own, I realized that the most impactful thing I’d been doing was helping others with time management, productivity and stress reduction.
And luckily, that was also the aspect of my career that was the most fulfilling for me. At that point I decided to open my own time management and productivity coaching and consulting business so that I could help others kill it at work, and have fulfilling personal lives as well. I haven’t looked back.
Turns out, there are a lot of folks really struggling in this department so there was strong product-market fit. When I started, I had no idea what I was doing. But I knew I could help others with these skills. So I started by trying to codify everything I thought I knew and could teach. I started writing best practices docs on all these topics. Once I had a few dozen, I started grouping them together and a curriculum started to reveal itself. Then I got my first coaching client (who found me on LinkedIn) and I started building up my coaching program and curriculum 1 week at a time, basically a week ahead of actually delivering it. I didn't have to spend much at all to get started. I bought a domain name for $15, and I made my own website on Squarespace for $200/year, and I got a few tools (Calendly for $120/year, Gsuite for $6/month, Zoom for $15/month). Also, my first client was about an hour's drive from me, so I suggested that we do all our sessions over Zoom. And I stuck with that. So I've always been able to work from my home office. However, I do often fly to a client's location when I'm delivering a talk or workshop.
How did you get your initial customers?
The very first thing I did was email literally every single person whose email address I had access to. (Like, literally everyone; people I hadn't talked to from high school, the insurance agent from a job 10 year ago, etc.) It was VERY uncomfortable.
BUT, I figured that the only way for me to actually start getting clients was to tell as many people as possible about what I was doing.
I also went to conferences with a big stack of business cards and made it a point to engage as many people in conversation as possible. Not in a sleazy way, just to get comfortable talking about myself and my business.
My very first client found me on LinkedIn, but the next few came out of that initial email blast. And after that word of mouth really worked in my favor.
Today, I'm working with several people who are referrals of referrals of that very first client. I've also focused on content marketing. I write a blog post once a week and email it to my email list, repost on LinkedIn and Medium, create a Youtube video on the same topic, and create social content from those assets.
And I've focused on increasing SEO through backlinks by using services like HARO and Qwoted. I'm also a guest on a lot of podcasts, because it can't hurt to be introduced to other people's audiences.
How are you promoting your business now?
I've been trying out Tiktok! :)
But honestly, consistency is a strength of mine.
I've published an article every week for almost 6 years. I respond to HARO and Qwoted queries weekly. My assistant applies for me to be a guest on podcasts weekly.
And, for the first time ever, I'm about to start testing out ads.
How does your business make money?
Currently my business model is comprised of 4 verticals:
1:1 coaching
Group coaching cohorts
Corporate training/workshops/speaking
Online courses (I have 4 online courses on Udemy: all priced under $200)
In terms of expanding monetization options, I'm looking into creating a time management certification program for coaches and I'm considering replacing my cohort based group coaching program with a membership.
I'm not comfortable sharing exact numbers, but I can say this: I'm making more than 3x what I was making when I was a W2 employee and my profit margin is around 85%.
Where can we go to learn more?
You can find me here:
Free downloads: Distraction Action Plan
Instagram: @do.more.stress.less
Thank you for reading!
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