The Biggest Challenges Of Running A Coaching or Consulting Business (and How To Overcome Them)

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People with a nine to five job often dream of starting their own business and immediately picture working from their laptop on a tropical beach sipping a margarita.  Yet, if you're an entrepreneur, then you know that's not the reality. Although entrepreneurship is an incredible way of life and one that I'm committed to, there are a lot of challenges especially when it comes to running a service based business such as a coaching or consulting company. I always say that outside of parenthood, entrepreneurship is one of the biggest personal development journeys you can go on. There are so many things that are going to come up and challenge you as a business owner. It can be a roller coaster of a journey. In this month’s newsletter, I discuss some of the top challenges of a successful coaching or consulting business.  Hopefully by talking about some of these challenges and sharing practical advice on how to overcome them, it can make your journey a little bit easier.

Challenge #1: Fast Decision Making

One of the top challenges that a coach or consultant will face at any time is centered around decision making. You may not know which direction you should go, which strategy you should choose, which offer you should make, which tech you should use, or who you should hire or fire. 

Think About how many decisions you have to make as a business owner on a daily basis. What tends to happen is that there are multiple decisions put in front of you. You lack clarity on what to choose and then go into overwhelm with the amount of choices. Now add in some fear around making the wrong decision and then what happens?  Oftentimes nothing and that's a real problem.

Many coaches and Consultants stay stuck in the same place for years because they don't make decisions fast and stick with them.

I've worked with many clients over the years and hands down the most successful ones I've ever worked with are those that make decisions fast and follow through on them. If you want to be successful, stop sitting on the fence when it comes to making a decision. 

Remember that indecision actually is a decision. If you're stuck and not consciously making a decision to change your situation, you will stay the same or it could even get worse. In the words of late Napoleon Hill, “Successful people make decisions quickly and firmly. Unsuccessful people make decisions slowly and they change them often.” So make a decision quickly even if it seems scary and then commit fully to that decision and see it through if you want to realize success. 

Challenge #2: The People Problem

Another challenge of running a coaching or consulting business is solving the “People Problem.”  If you're running a service based business, you have a different approach to how your work with clients. You have your internal team to run the operations of the business and then you also have clients to serve. This is different from a product based business which still has customer support but is less client facing than a service-based business. 

Your job as the business owner is to make sure that you have great people in your organization to help you manage the day-to-day operations and also to ensure your clients are happy. One of the first things I do with my clients is look at their current workload along with who's on their team to figure out how they can delegate more tasks. This could mean adding things to an existing team members role but it could also mean adding new team members. 

It's really important that if you want to scale, that you have the right people  on your team to support you in growing the business. 

It's also important that your client delivery is dialed in. So many coaches and consultants really focus on lead generation without following through with great client delivery. If you want to be able to keep your existing clients, have them renew and have them refer others to you then you need to be excellent at client delivery. The better you get at client delivery, the greater the results, the greater demand there will be for your services. The “People Problem” is one of the most complex aspects of running a coaching or consulting business but it's one of the most essential challenges to overcome.

Challenge #3: Time Management

Another huge challenge of running a coaching and Consulting business is time management.  I can't tell you how many high six-figure earners come to me for my help and they have absolutely no control over their time. They're typically working a lot of hours, have very little free time, not taking vacations and often not taking care of themselves. They may be earning a good chunk of money but they know at this point they can't do more to make more. Their business often isn't scalable because they don't have any time to work on the business. They want to grow their bottom line and also get their time back. 

Time management is absolutely critical to being able to grow the business. 

This is everything from setting strong boundaries about when you work and when you see clients to creating some backend processes to offload some of your work to team members to no longer focusing on things that are not important to bottom line growth. If time management interests you, be sure to check out my in depth article on the Top 7 Effective Time Management Strategies for Coaches and Consultants here. 

Challenge #4: Systems & Tech Dilemma 

The systems and tech dilemma is also a huge challenge of running a coaching or consulting business. Oftentimes I come across entrepreneurs that have some systems but not necessarily the right systems to run their business. And many coaches and consultants that come to me don't have any systems at all. They're kind of fumbling their way through the dark in being a business owner. 

If you want to scale a business you need thorough and complete systems, everything from marketing to sales to client delivery systems. This is a pretty big undertaking and yet it’s also probably one of the most overlooked and underrated aspects of growing a coaching or consulting business.

Another big issue is technology. So many coaches and consultants don't have the right technology, and they're not sure which one to choose. When it comes to systems and technology, it really helps to have an outside expert that can help guide you with understanding exactly what you need to create to scale a successful business. 

I hired a lot of coaches and consultants in the past and most of them did not have their systems really dialed in. It was frustrating to experience as a client but it forced me  to meticulously create my own internal systems so that  the experience was very different for my clients. It took me a long time to build my systems to where they are now. Today, nearly every client that joins my program is blown away by the level of organization and detail that we've created. 

If you want your business to run like a well-oiled machine, you need systems. 

Like James Clear says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” The more that you can embrace systems and technology, the more efficient your business is going to run. 

Challenge #5: Lead Flow

Another big challenge coaches and consultants face is lead flow. Some have built a completely referral based business and they're  making good money. The problem is they don't know when the next referral is going to come through and so they have a lot of uncertainty in their business. 

Uncertainty when it comes to lead flow influences your ability to make decisions especially around growing the business. 

Other people may not have a stronger referral network and are using social media or networking for example to generate leads. The goal is to have a pipeline full of qualified prospects.  Many people turn towards lead generation agencies to help them. Unfortunately, agencies driven leads don’t always work and many often end up on the phone with unqualified prospects.

There's so many ways to market your services and to get clients. There are people that will tell you speaking from a stage is the best way. Others will say you need to have a webinar. Still others say you need to write a “best-selling book.”  It can be pretty overwhelming to determine what is the best strategy for your business. For my clients specifically that are focusing on high-end B2B deals, a lot of the strategies out there that are being taught are not relevant. For example, if you're trying to get a CEO to join a low-end membership site with the hopes of selling them high value needs eventually, that is probably not your best strategy. 

There are plenty of strategies for you to review and determine which is best for you but no matter which strategy you choose, what is absolutely essential to your success is your ability to influence others to buy from you. If you haven’t downloaded a copy of my guide to influence, I highly recommend getting that here. 

Challenge #6: Closing Sales

Finally, closing sales is another big challenge that many coaches and consultants will face. Now some people are natural born salesman, but most people are not. The good news is you can learn how to become better at sales.  If you are on the phone with people and you're not closing deals, know that there is hope. However, as a strategist it's really important to understand why you're not closing the sale. It could be your offer, or your pitch. It could be that the person isn't qualified, they don't have the money, they're truly not ready to invest, or any other number of reasons. However, if you have a great offer and a qualified person on the phone and you're not closing sales and this is happening a lot. then that is a sign that you have an issue with your sales conversation. 

Your prospects should come to the call pre-framed to buy. They should know who you are, understand the types of services that you provide, and view you as a credible expert. 

This is going to help position you better in that sales conversation to close. It's really important that you have solid marketing in place to help educate and nurture potential buyers. It's also really important that you know how to hold a sales conversation. There is certainly a flow to a sales conversation and things that you can learn about how to hold that call but then there's also the nuances to what you say, how you say it and even the energy of your voice when you say something that can make or break a deal. 

I've listened to many of my clients' sales conversations over the years and the feedback they got from me meant the difference between losing a six-figure deal and closing one. It's really important that if you're facing this challenge, that you have an outside expert to help you identify and solve these issues so you can take qualified prospects and turn them into paying clients. 

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• The most overlooked aspect of scaling up a high end consulting business

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How to Help Business Coaches Scale Up to $250k to 7 Figures

Want to overcome the biggest challenges when it comes to scaling a coaching or consulting business?

Then you will love my latest interview with Jesse McFarland of the Brands & Brews podcast as we dive into:

• Underselling and undervaluing your services
• Using LinkedIn to land big ticket clients
• Leveraging referrals and others people traffic
• Scaling up and so much more

About Jessica Yarbrough

Jessica is a genius at showing entrepreneurs how to build an expert platform, rapidly raise their value, build their credibility online and attract high paying clients. She travels the world teaching and inspiring entrepreneurs and helping them grow their influence and make the income and impact they desire.

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