01 Jun Christian Coaching Business Launch checklist

Christian Coaching Business Launch checklist

Before you launch your Christian Coaching Business your house needs to be in order. What I’m saying is that you, your business systems and your relationship with God need to be in a place where you are prepared to pour out and give your client a great experience. Without having a coaching business startup checklist or process for clients to go through, not only is it unprofessional but your client may experience buyer’s remorse feeling like they are not well supported or unclear of what’s happening in the coaching program.

Now you don’t need everything on this list to start. I asked myself if I was going to restart my coaching business all over again what would I do to make sure to include in order to glorify God and serve the clients with absolute excellence. This list is how you launch your Christian coaching business on the rock with a strong foundation.

Christian Coaching Business Launch Checklist

Ok, so before we get into this big list I want to make sure it is NOT a barrier or obstacle to launching and coaching. The reality is that the shortcut to this entire list has only 3 things you need: a Paypal link to accept money, a Zoom account to meet virtually, and Holy Spirit as you coach your client, that’s it! Everything else below is a further degree of excellence that will help you launch your Christian coaching business online.

• Is God your CEO? – I encourage you to dedicate your business to the Lord and give it to him. Having God as CEO takes a lot of pressure and stress out of owning a business. If you’re not sure how to intentionally integrate your faith into your coaching business, I highly recommend the Glorify God in Business Workshop for people in business less than 5 years.
• Clear Coaching offer – I call these the 4P’s to have a clear and purposeful coaching offer.
  • Price – 1 Time fee or Monthly
  • Program length – How long will we coach and how often will we meet?
  • Program outline – Prepare a bullet point list of what areas you’ll cover. These can even be as simple as 3 bullet points or phases.
  • Promise – What result does the client want to get?
• New Client Welcome Guide – This can be an email, a PDF guide, a short video, or other instructional pieces of content that provides your client with everything they need to know and where everything is located. A new client welcome guide should include the 4P’s from above, communication details, FAQs, refund policy, support information, and all other necessary information for the coaching program. All of the information in this blog post should be in a client welcome guide. We can also create your own Custom Branded Client Welcome Guide Here
  
  (Hot Tip: Send them a gift and physical welcome guide in the mail!)
• Welcome Email – Once your client enrolls they should get a “New Client Welcome Email” and ideally a text that congratulates them, gives them all the info they need to know like a welcome guide, calendar link, and directs the client to their next steps.
• Notes Section – Need a place for your and your client’s notes. This can be a coaching platform/portal, a cloud storage tool like google drive or Dropbox, or it can be as simple as emailing your notes to the client after each session. This is where you’ll record the client’s progress, accountability, assignments, and whatever else needs to take place, this is where that information will live for simplicity’s sake. I recommend using Google Drive for coaching client notes.
• Meeting Space – Zoom, Google Meet, Phone calls, in-person meetings, and the list goes on. Pick a way to consistently meet your client. I prefer zoom because you easily create recurring meetings, it easily adds to your calendar, and sends notifications prior to your meeting to all parties; the recordings are also easy to share with your client.
• Calendar or Schedule Tool – Provide a way for your client to schedule coaching sessions with you that doesn’t require your time. Your client is responsible for booking sessions with you. I highly recommend Calendly.com as a scheduling tool because of its affordability and advanced features like automated reminder emails and texts. You can start Calendly for free and grow with the tool as your business grows.
• Designate Communication Tools – Pick specifically which contact methods you will use with your client. Without this, a client can potentially message you in a multitude of ways which is problematic. For most of our coaching programs, we use a communication tool called Voxer.com which is a mobile app that works similarly to a walkie-talkie on steroids. I suggest picking 2 communication tools for your Christian Coaching Business (email and 1 additional).
• Customer Hub – Your client needs a place where everything for coaching is going to live that’s simple and organized. Your notes section, email/text communication, and a welcome guide can be more than enough to serve as a customer Hub.
  
  Some additional options that are preferred for group programs are:
  • Private Clients Only Facebook Group
  • Online Member’s Area
  • Google Drive Folder – My personal favorite
  • Coach Portal or Platform
  • Dropbox or other Cloud Storage Device

Note: These are not required to start, and you don’t need all of them; don’t let it be a barrier. These are just options to pick from that produce fewer customer support questions. Use these tools to leverage yourself and time to clearly provide resources and clarity to your coaching clients.

• Coaching Agreement – A coaching agreement drastically improves the number of clients that complete your program, pays you entirely, provide clarity on what is and isn’t included, and if issues should arise you can always return back to your contract. I recommend using an online e-signature tool like Docusign.com
• Financial Management – I like to make this section as simple as possible as it is not most coaches’ strength. I suggest going with 1 tool that can manage all of your business’s financials. You’ll want an easy-to-use tool like Wave Financial which is free to use. Pick a booking keeping tool that does the following:
  • Book Keeping & Financial Documents – Something that will produce profit and loss statements, a balance sheet, and an income statement. Your accountant will need these come tax season.
  • Invoice Ability – Be able to send invoices that can be paid and stored online.
  • Recurring Payment Ability – A client on a payment plan should sign up once and then continually be billed monthly until graduation. Your payment plan billing should be automated so you don’t have to chase down your client for each month’s payment.
  • 1 Time Payment Ability – 1-time payment for a product, service, or coaching? Use Wave Financial to make some custom payment links on the spot.
  • (advanced) Payroll – Wave has the ability to pay vendors, contractors, and W2 Employees. I love this option because again as your business grows and you bring on team members, you can do everything in one simple place.

Paypal – How to Accept Coaching Payments Online – Merchant Account for Christian Coaches

Wave Financial – How to Accept Payments Online for a Coaching Business – Coaching Billing Software

Here’s how easy it is to create payment options for your Christian coaching clients using Wave Financial.

• A Legal Entity – Even if it is just you coaching I recommend becoming incorporated for multiple reasons.  An entity protects the owner’s assets against the company’s liabilities. It allows for easy transfer of ownership to another party. An entity often achieves a lower tax rate than on personal income. I recommend using LegalZoom.com to easily form an LLC online; they even do the state filing and fees online for you.
• Business Checking Account – Once you have created your legal entity you can take those documents to your local bank and open a business bank account. This is the account you will pay yourself out of and pay your expenses from. You usually need a starting minimum balance of ~ $300 but it depends on the bank.
• Business Savings Account – What I use business savings account for is to allocate money for taxes. A portion of every dollar that comes in gets put aside for quarterly taxes.
  
  Note: This savings account is optional but I highly recommend setting it up so you can be more intentional with your finances.

Now the temptation with a list like this is to get overwhelmed and use it as a barrier to starting or delay in pursuit of perfection and not excellence. When I started my coaching business the only thing I had was my cell phone, email, and a PayPal link for years. You may have already launched your Christian coaching business and this checklist adds a few more things to bring Glory to God and help your clients.

The one thing that is not on this list because it can be another training all on its own, is a marketing strategy for new coaching clients.

• Marketing Strategy – How will you acquire clients? Are you going to use funnels and online marketing? Network and prospect clients online? A coach needs a clear and defined marketing plan that they can consistently execute to produce new clients. Without an executed plan it doesn’t matter if you have the whole list above set up. The lifeblood of any business is lead flow and without a solid methodology to regularly produce clients a coach is going to struggle and unfortunately experience feast or famine income. IF you want some help generating new clients and forming a marketing plan check out 2 Proven Ways to Fill Your Calendar with Clients

So Coach, what’s your next move? One on this list do you need to move forward with next? Not sure what kind of Christian Coaching the Lord is calling you to? Check out my other blog post: 51 Ways to Start a Home-Based Christian Coaching Business

Did I miss something? Leave a comment below to add to the Christian Coaching Business Startup Checklist

Rev. Ron Gelok III, MBA

P.S.  Want to Enroll More Coaching Clients? Not sure what to say?  Click Here to Download My Christian Coach’s Script Book!