The mathematical formula for the “expected value” of any investment is the potential gain x the probability of success. So if there’s a 50/50 chance of earning £100k for 10 years then it’s worth 50% x £1million = 500k. And if you were prepared to pay 10% of that to a coach, and keep the remaining 90%, you’d pay up to 50k to a coach.
Another way to look at the question of investing in a coach is – can they get you there quicker? If you can start earning 10k a month say two months sooner, that’s worth 20k. I suspect that the extra motivation from a coach, and the time saved not reinventing the wheel, could easily save you a few months.
Or: Can they get you to a higher level, maybe they can get you to 105k instead of the 95k that you would have reached without them? I actually think advice on pricing could easily make a 10% difference to your income, and help with selling could also add 10% to your turnover. In fact, if you’re doing training, just ONE customer will be worth 10k over a year or two.
Avoiding rookie mistakes: I didn’t have a coach as I built my training business, and I made some really stupid mistakes. Three that spring to mind are
- Avoiding being videoed (we all hate being filmed!) which lost me some potential conference gigs for sure. And this means videos of me talking to the camera and videos I could have got when talking to some large audiences, which would have been great for my showreel. I really regret missing those chances.
- Not charging enough – it’s only recently when \iv’e been trying to cut back on days worked that I’ve put my price up – and most people have been happy to pay it, and I’m thinking I could / should have done it YEARS ago. Aargh!
- Not planning for follow-up days. For example, I put everything into my one day Time Management course, and then when people ask what’s next I don’t have anything. A bit of planning and I could have had a follow-up day and sold it nearly every time I did a TM course, and it would have been great for my customers as well as for me. Basics!
Coach vs Franchise: people often buy a product, like an out-of-the-box ready training course which gives them material but no customers. Or they buy a franchise which promises a geographical area, a brand, and ‘walk-in sales’ but the reality is you still have to find your customers. For your 30k or whatever you get an instruction book and a product, but no help after that to run the business. Sometimes there’s a support programme that you have to pay for as well. So I’m thinking that instead of putting 30k into the franchise why not put all of that (or less than that!) into a really great coach.
What’s a really great coach?
- Someone you like and trust
- Someone who has coached other people before you
- Someone who has DONE what you are wanting to do
- Some who is REALLY GOOD at what you are wanting to do.
- Someone with a back up organisation behind them as well.
What’s the alternative to getting a coach, with the expense that that involves? I would suggest that you’ll never do it on your own – you won’t have the motivation, you’ll put it off, you’ll get stuck on something somewhere and fizzle out, and all your effort will be wasted. It’s incredibly hard to start a new business on your own without any help, which is why most people fail.
It’s a bit like joining a gym and getting an expensive gym instructor. Now you HAVE to do the work, you have expert advice and you have to do it, so you WILL end up with the perfect body. It moves from almost impossible to achieve to almost impossible to fail.
Get a coach!
PS how much do trainers earn, how much more would you earn if you could be 10% more successful with a coach – play around with this calculator here: https://www.chriscroft.co.uk/how-much-would-you-earn-as-a-trainer/
For information on becoming a trainer, and getting help with that: www.successfultrainers.com.
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