More and more people are looking for a holistic coach; someone that offers a well-rounded health and fitness program that’s going to help them look and feel great.
Whilst many health coaches are passionate and confident when it comes to their knowledge and understanding of what is required to help their clients reach their goals, many coaches are less confident with the business side of coaching.
In order to run a successful health coaching business, it’s essential that you know how turn your health coaching knowledge into a thriving business venture.
The Primal Health Coach course covers all the essential concepts that a successful health coach needs, including ancestral health education and business and sales components.
In this post we’re going to explore five proven business models that will help you turn your health coaching passion into a profitable health coaching practice.
1. One-on-One Coaching (Individual Coaching)
Individual coaching has a proven track record of achieving client satisfaction and success.
It’s also a well-suited coaching model for first time coaches, as it allows you focus on one client at a time, while you gain experience and build confidence.
One of the main reasons why individual coaching works so effectively is the fact that you can personalize your program for each individual client; thus maximizing your clients’ chance of achieving their health goals.
For example, if you have a client wanting to gain body weight and improve their nutrient absorption, their health coaching strategy is going to differ to that of someone trying to combat comfort eating and poor lifestyle habits.
Given that individual coaching is a premium service, you can charge more for this service than the other coaching models.
However, the one-on-one coaching model cannot be scaled in the same way as the other coaching strategies.
2. Group Coaching
Group health coaching [PDF] is a relatively new wellness strategy that appears to target a slightly different demographic to individual coaching.
Firstly, it provides a more cost effective wellness program for your clients that may not be able to afford individual coaching.
Group coaching is most effective with a small number of participants (4-20 people), as your clients are able to form the individual connections with each other and still feel like they are getting enough individual attention from you.
Group coaching also creates a sense of community amongst participants, which can help with accountability for many people.
From a business perspective, group coaching is highly scalable and has the potential to bring in large profits.
3. Run a Workshop
A great way to promote your health coaching business is to run a pay-for-service workshop at a community event.
It’s like group coaching, but on a much larger scale. If you’re interested in running a workshop, make sure you feel comfortable with public speaking. The best way to become more comfortable with public speaking is to practice doing it!
Running a pay-for-service workshop will bring in profits at the time of the event. It’s also a brilliant way to attract new clients to your other coaching services.
4. Partner with a Gym
Many gyms, CrossFit boxes and fitness centers are looking to provide nutrition coaching for their clients. A great way to gain new clients and to increase profits is to partner with a gym.
There are many different ways the health/fitness partnership could work including:
- The gym owner could take a percentage of your health coaching earnings
- You could pay rent for the space used within the gym
- You could split the health coaching earnings with the gym owner
- The gym owner could pay you a set amount of money to offer the health coaching sessions
Which coaching model would work best when partnering with a gym?
The answer to this depends on the gym, your coaching preference and space availability. Theoretically, you could offer any model from individual coaching, group coaching or even running a workshop.
5. Corporate Coaching
Employers are seeing the value in offering well-being services to employees. It boosts morale, increases productivity, and employees are less likely to take sick leave. In the long term, it can save on health care costs.
Corporate health coaching is likely to involve working with larger groups, much like running a workshop, so it’s important to feel comfortable with your public speaking.
One of the best aspects of corporate health coaching is that it gives you an opportunity to make a difference to the lives of an entire work community.
Whether the business is a small firm or a large corporation, you can scale your coaching strategy to suit the size of the business.
Corporate coaching can be highly profitable when performed well.
Bonus Model! Online Coaching
Online coaching has the potential to reach a greater number of people than other coaching formats. It’s also a cost effective health coaching program for clients that can’t afford one-on-one or group coaching.
Besides the initial set up, online coaching takes very little time to manage. It’s a clever way to coach more clients when you’ve reached capacity with your face-to-face coaching schedule, or when you’re time restricted for other reasons, such as working another job or tending to family commitments.
Online coaching can take the form of a weekly or biweekly email, which can be automated to save time. You can share video modules with your clients online, as well as surveys and food journals, to help keep your online clients accountable.
Create a sense of community amongst your online clients by forming a Facebook group. This is also a great way to make contact with your online clients.
Online coaching can also act as a stepping stone for your clients looking to sign up to your more comprehensive health coaching services.
To Summarize
Here we’ve listed several different coaching formats including:
- One-on-one coaching
- Group coaching
- Running a workshop
- Partner with a gym
- Corporate coaching
- Online coaching
When choosing which health coaching business model or models to work with, decide which approaches will best suit you, your coaching style and your business vision.
