​​How to start an online coaching business in 2024

Are you wondering how to start an online coaching business from scratch in 2024? Good news, you have landed on the right page!

Online coaching has grown drastically during the pandemic and even opened up new growth opportunities.

Online coaching can help you:

• Free up your time
• Work from home 
• Produce better experience and results for your students 
• Sell your online coaching services and courses worldwide

According to MarketResearch.com coaching market’s value is to reach $1.34 billion by 2022 — or a 6.7% average yearly growth rate from 2016 to 2022.

Ready to start your online coaching business? 

So, let’s get started. 

What is Online Coaching?

Online coaching is a way of coaching using the power of the internet and technology. For example, if you are a life coach, you can create your online course using a WordPress website and a learning management plugin, which you can deliver through the internet. For more advanced online courses, consider exploring dedicated platforms such as Kajabi, Thinkific and other similar platforms.

Your students can attend their coaching courses according to their convenience and from the comfort of their homes. Moreover, it has become increasingly popular in recent years. A lot of coaches run multiple 7-figure businesses online. 

Also, IBISWorld estimates the business coaching industry revenue will increase to $11.2 billion in 2022 at an annualized rate of 1.7%.

The benefits of online coaching are:

• Cost-effective: Online training is efficient; you need no money to start an online coaching business. Likewise, it’s easy to manage the training materials, no money is necessary to maintain training facilities, and it has a faster turnaround. 
• Flexibility and freedom: Online coaching allows tremendous flexibility, especially for those who travel. Moreover, You can train your clients anywhere, and your travel doesn’t need to hinder your progress.
• Communication: Communication channels are always open with online coaching, i-e: Email, calls, texts, or instant messaging. Your clients can contact you whenever they wish with social media platforms like Facebook and Skype; communication is endless.
• Global presence: You will have worldwide clients. This is actually a great benefit for coaches who specialize in specific niches. Moreover, being an online coach makes it easier for niche-focused coaches to market to their ideal clients.
• Individual or group coaching: It’s all your choice whether you need individual or group coaching. Especially for people who can’t afford 1-1 time coaching. Through group coaching, you can help more people in less time.

Case Study

According to executive coaching 2022 – future trends, team coaching will increase by 83% in 2022. Further, online coaching allows you to overcome obstacles and achieve a successful outcome in ways that are more accessible to people. Do you know that 67% of global coach practitioners are women, with the highest concentrations in North America, Eastern Europe, and Oceania?

Mimi G is a successful online course creator, and an award-winning fashion, lifestyle, and blogger. She’s also a social media titan, with hundreds of thousands of followers across several social platforms. She is also the creator of The Sew It Academy. In 2012, Mimi started a blog as a hobby. Further, she needed an outlet and always loved to sew. So, starting a blog gave her the ability to share her passion for sewing and design with others.

Mimi’s online course business wasn’t built overnight, but now she is thriving and famous because of her passion and talent, which she invested in her coaching business. Building an audience by publishing free videos online was an essential step in Mimi’s journey as an online course creator.

Mimi shared 3 tips for first-time course creators: Have patience and grow your audience first, don’t let other people deter you, stop planning, and just do it.

Should You Start Online Coaching

According to a study, online coaching is becoming a popular career choice for many people. Moreover, online coaching is something that most of us can do. Also, you can find coaches in any industry, like health, career, relationships, sports, life, etc. 

But you might be thinking about whether you should start online coaching or not.

Internet marketing has increased rapidly during the last few years. It helps you to expand your business without sacrificing your freedom. Above all, the coaching business is a model that gives you maximum flexibility and the option to scale at a pace and in big numbers.

Likewise, building your own online coaching business is a tremendous help in working with more people and expanding your market around the world.

Here are some common reasons why you should start your online coaching business:

• You can scale it using technology as you grow 
• Have a low start-up cost 
• You can easily promote it to you target market and audience
• It is flexible; you can choose your working hours 
• Your prospects will not feel overwhelmed

Remember, having any technical skills is unnecessary for building a professional online coaching business. Also, you should focus on – what you do best and seek help with technical matters. 

Social media can also be a great help to spread the word about your coaching business.

Case Study

Sabrina Philipp– is a 23-year-old lady who has figured out how to make a six-figure income in less than a year, all while working less than 15 hours a week and entirely remotely. She was able to build multiple six-figure businesses in less than a year while still making time to enjoy her life.

According to Sabrina Philipp, a business needs to be profitable if it’s going to survive. In addition, she said – you should find ways to incorporate multiple streams of income and serve clients at different price points. Now, Sabrina Philipp is working as a consultant, too and focuses on helping entrepreneurs build their own businesses in an intentional, manageable, and profitable way.

Sabrina Philipp shared some tips for having a successful coaching business, i-e: you have to be very intentional about what you want from your life and build your business around that. Take the time to gain clarity on what you love doing, who you want to serve, how you want to spend your time, and how you want your business to feel.

How to Start Online Coaching Business with WordPress 

WordPress is an excellent solution to build your online coaching business home base. It is easy to install and use, has multiple theme options with responsive design, and, most importantly, is SEO friendly. 

If you don’t know about WordPress, you can check out this detailed post about what is WordPress before you start creating your website.

Step 1: Find Domain Name

A domain name is your address on the internet. So choose it wisely as it will be difficult to change it later.

Here are some tips which can help you to decide on your online coaching name:

• Use your name like yourname.com
• Explore keyword-rich names like learnwordpress.com
• You can consider including coaching within your domain like coachingname.com or coachingwithyourname.com

Don’t forget that the domain name reflects your coaching business brand. So make sure it should be generic, unique, and eye-catchy. 

Step 2: Register your Domain

Once you have selected the domain name, all you need is to register it.

Follow this how to register a domain name blog post and get your domain registered.

If you have already registered the domain name and want to change it then simply follow this how-to transfer domain name blog post.

Step 3: Buy Hosting for WordPress

There are hundreds of thousands of web hosts out there but you have to choose the right one for you.

Your coaching website needs to be on the server so that users can access it from anywhere at any time. Every website out there has a hosting provider.

WordPress hosting companies give you space on their servers to store your entire website’s data.

Moreover, you can check out this how-to to decide the best hosting for WordPress posts and buy the hosting for your website.

Step 4: Build Your WordPress Website

WordPress is a universal platform. It’s a simple and free content management system having numerous features and customization possibilities. And it can prove to be a great online coaching platform.

Building a coaching website requires much more than just figuring out a domain name & buying hosting. 

Moreover, you can check out how to build a website and create your WordPress website. You can also have a look at the best life coaching websites we found on the internet for your own website inspiration.

Step 5: Install the LearnDash Plugin and Create Your Course

LearnDash is a well-established Learning Management System (LMS).

It enables you to create and host online coaching courses using your WordPress website. 

Benefits of Using the LearnDash Plugin:

• The new course builder
• Quizzing and assignments
• Course forums
• Variety of addons
• Custom post types and taxonomies
• New widgets and shortcodes
• New database tables
• Group leader user role
• Learndash zoom integration

LearnDash directly connects to your WordPress website, and you can offer online coaching using your WordPress website.

You can check out how to teach online classes blog post and create your online coaching course.

Step 6: Start Adding Content

Have you managed to create the course? – Good!

Do you know that quality content can increase blog traffic by 2,000%? Above that, video content drives 157 times more organic traffic.

Now it’s time to add content to your website related to your online coaching course. Add all the things which are necessary for your online coaching course, like:

• Course material
• About us page
• Instruction pages
• Pricing 
• Details about course etc.

Here are some important things which an online coaching website should have:

• Schedule details 
• Data monitoring and analysis 
• Content delivery 
• Details of contracts, if any 
• Payment details, if any 
• Remote communication
• Messaging capabilities 
• Data collection 
• Notifications

Adding these functionalities will definitely help you to create a great coaching website.

All done!

In addition, people build their own coaching businesses for different purposes like building a personal brand, earning money, etc. One of the most common reasons is to inspire people. Elizabeth Rider is one of those people.

Elizabeth Rider – leading nutritionist, is known for her fun and accessible approach to food and healthy living. Elizabeth’s blog where she shares healthy recipes and straightforward nutrition advice draw over 2 million readers per year. Moreover, she is best known for her fun and accessible approach to food and healthy living. Elizabeth has been a health coach for over 5 years, but her passion for health and wellness began before that. 

In the beginning, Elizabeth’s goal wasn’t necessarily to build a business from her blog, but as her articles began to attract more and more readers, she started to look for ways to monetize that exposure. She built a seven-figure online business from scratch using an iPhone and a laptop and is bound to have learned some valuable lessons along the way.

She also shared some tips for other online entrepreneurs i-e: know who your target audience is, build your email list, and build a business you’re passionate about.

Best Online Course Platform

Learning management system (LMS) plugins help you to create, manage, and sell online courses easily. Above all, you can easily turn your WordPress site into an online learning platform using the LMS plugin and even without writing a single line of code.

Also, by using WordPress LMS plugins, you will be able to handle the multiple functions within your WordPress dashboards like tracking, reporting, administration, documentation, and many more. 

Further, LearnDash is one of the best WordPress LMS plugins for your WordPress website. Do you know, that LearnDash has ranked one of the top 10 most popular LMS plugins?

Key features of the LearnDash plugin are:

• Administration: Being an admin, you can control everything related to learners and their courses like grouping them, revoking access, and many more. LearnDash plugin also allows for user profiles and group management.
• Monetize: You can market your courses with several monetization tools like shopping carts, memberships, subscriptions, course bundles, course licenses, and many more. You can also set the course price and choose a payment schedule.
• Courses: LearnDash plugin is dynamic, appealing, and has the latest industry trends. Above all, it shows the grade book of your students along with course points and their details. It also pairs nicely with the certificates and badges.
• Tech: This plugin supports the latest tech tools, which include tools for drip-feeding. In other words, you can add lesson timers to ensure that everyone spends a certain amount of time on each lesson.

LearnDash has support for almost all media types i-e: videos, audio, images, Adobe Captivate files, and Google Docs. It also has automated email notifications and detailed reporting.

Likewise, LearnDash is a well-supported plugin having exciting features it which make it simple to create and launch your coaching course.

Other than these exciting features, you also have some LearnDash Add-Ons. 

So, let’s explore the LearnDash Add-Ons!

LearnDash Add-Ons 

You need a valid LearnDash license key if you want support for official LearnDash add-ons.

After entering the license key, you will see an add-ons menu in your admin dashboard. Navigate to WP Admin Dashboard > LEARNDASH LMS > ADD-ONS

So, Let’s get started!

BuddyPress

BuddyPress updates your simple online coaching website into a social education platform.

Basic steps required after BuddyPress integration are :

• Learners get added as members of a group
• A group becomes private from public
• Relevant course lessons and activities become visible
• Forum gets added, if needed
• Course featured image becomes the group avatar

Also, the BuddyPress members on your website can:

• View their active and completed courses 
• Respective leaders and learners get added to the Members directory.
• All LearnDash user links redirect to member profiles

Integrating BuddyPress and LearnDash is the best way to build a community. If you have already integrated BuddyPress then it will create more value for your members.

BadgeOS

BadgeOS add-on for LearnDash allows you to earn a badge from the online course. Also, you can earn achievements from the course, its lessons, activities, and quizzes in LearnDash.

All you need is to set required rules or steps for learners and they will achieve badges automatically once they met the conditions.

BadgeOS Add-on allows you to achieve the badges based on these triggers:

• LearnDash quiz points
• Purchase any course
• Enrol in LearnDash group
• Complete the course or any tag 
• Make as complete the lesson or any tag 
• Complete the topic or any tag
• Complete the quiz

Also, earned badges are compatible and shareable via Credly – the free web service for displaying, storing, and managing your achievements.

Basic steps required after BadgeOS integration are :

• Define “required steps” for a badge
• Define achievements on both BadgeOS required steps and LearnDash actions
• Link the triggers 
• Define actions in the conditions 
• Mark an achievement

BadgeOS turns your simple online coaching website into a badging system.
Moreover, it is designed like an operating system that behaves like an engagement management application on your WordPress website.

Infusionsoft(Keap)

Having an online coaching business is not all about the tracking of students, courses, lessons, activities, etc.

You need to handle admin matters, sales, marketing, and many more. Above all, to handle all these activities easily you need a single platform. 

Infusionsoft, which is known as Keep, helps you to manage all these kinds of activities on a single platform. All you need is to integrate LearnDash with Infusionsoft.

Before moving toward the next section, there are some keywords you should be familiar with:

• Tags – identify and shield contacts in your database like labels.
• Campaigns – A sequence of steps is triggered when the goal is achieved.
• Action Set – Sequence of steps that are initiated on a trigger. 

The best ways to connect LearnDash with Infusionsoft are:

• iMember360
• Memberium
• WPFusion
• Zapier

Here, iMember 360, Memberium, and WPFusion work as a link between LearnDash and Infusionsoft. Also, These will offer the strongest integration. 

Whereas, Zapier offers weak and basic integration.

Features of Infusionsoft are:

• Marketing automation
• E-Commerce
• Social sharing
• Built-in metadata 
• Track orders, sales totals, accounts receivables, etc
• Payment processing
• Email marketing
• Automated campaigns
• and many more

In short, Infusionsoft combines everything that your online coaching business needs, like sales reports, multimedia marketing, marketing report, etc., into an efficient online system. 

It’s the best and quickest way to grow a business and its’ sales in less time.

Memberium 

Memberium is actually a plugin that takes the website and connects it up with Infusionsoft (Keap).

It makes both Infusionsoft and LearnDash work well together and give a protected website with a managed learning process. You can say that Memberium is all about protection!

 Features of Memberium are:

• Includes active campaign
• Unlimited membership levels
• Advanced analytics
• WordPress integration
• Advanced shortcodes
• Social media integration
• Includes WordPress plugin integrations

Memberium also controls the visibility of the content. You should be enrolled in the course to view the course.

It analyzes whether the user is enrolled, a paying member, or just opted in to access some content. Then, it will allow WordPress to give that user permission to access the content.

BuddyBoss

Unlike the above-mentioned plugins, BuddyBoss is not a plugin – it’s a theme. The BuddyBoss theme updates your online coaching website into a fully functional social networking platform like Facebook or Instagram.

Moreover, it includes exciting features like open groups, private groups, private messaging, deep LearnDash integration, and many more.

Above all, make sure to enable the e-learning features after the integration of LearnDash and BuddyBoss to avail of these exciting features.

Likewise, the BuddyBoss platform adds functionalities to WordPress to make it easy to create an online community and make sure that everything looks nice and pretty. 

Benefits of having BuddyBoss theme are:

• LearnDash enhancements
• Everything is managed 
• Private messaging facility 
• Email notification facility
• Integrated social media platform
• Forum
• LearnDash integration

Moreover, the LearnDash BuddyBoss add-on helps you to make LearnDash courses more classroom-like.

Do you know, BuddyBoss is actually the replacement of BuddyPress because BuddyPress has a lot of limitations like the forum discussion facility was unavailable. 

In the BuddyBoss combo, you can create forum discussions and social groups without an additional plugin and host free and paid courses. 

WPElevation– a famous online coaching website that teaches WordPress professionals. This online coaching program for WordPress consultants was founded by Troy Dean. Further, the website features an online course that teaches WordPress freelancers how to attract better clients, create consistent income, and work smarter.

WPElevation generated over $1 Million in course revenue through their online coaching. They used the LearnDash, BuddyPress, BadgeOS, Memberium plugin, along with the BuddyBoss theme to achieve this success.

Tips shared by Troy Dean are: use drip-feed content to reduce overwhelm, build a sense of community, and identify opportunities to repurpose content.

Common Online Coaching Mistakes To Avoid 

Building your own online coaching business is not so easy. It’s a difficult, confusing, and time taking process.

According to the data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of operation, and roughly half of all businesses don’t survive past the fifth year.

So, here is the list of some mistakes to avoid for running a successful online coaching business:

1. Wrong Platform

The first thing to make sure of is that you choose the correct business coaching platform. Choosing the right platform for your online coaching business will give you a solid foundation for your future success. 

Above all, the platform you choose must be easy to use so you can invest your skills, talent, and passion in your business and succeed. 

2. No Strategic Plan

Not having a clear plan can cost you a lot of time and money. Having a long-term online coaching plan and vision matters and will help you whenever there will be any roadblock.

3. No Defined Goals

Before you begin to create content or design the layout, you need to have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve and should have a clear and well-defined goal.

SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) goals can help you grow your online coaching business.

4. Lack of Promotion

Building your online course is just half of the battle. Your website does not live in isolation, yet many coaches will have a website but little other online presence. Promoting your online coaching business is crucial to get coaching clients.

Moreover, learn how to create interesting content and use the power of social media to build your online business.

5. Wrong Team

Right people for the right role. I can’t emphasize more the importance of this. It is not easy to find people with the right skill set. However, it must be your top priority.

I hope now you have gotten a clear picture of your online coaching website and its transformation. As well as a roadmap to building a successful online coaching business.

Sunny Lenarduzzi is the creator of several online courses, the most recent one achieving a 90% conversion rate. Moreover, she used to build her audience and her process for creating and selling online courses using a video marketing strategy. Failure is the key to success. She didn’t have many clients when she created her first course and launched it. Then, before launching her next course, she built her clients using a video marketing strategy, and as a result, demand was greater than supply. 

Another wise approach Sunny Lenarduzzi followed is to focus on a topic because it is equally as important as choosing a topic you have expertise in. Sunny is a proven video marketing expert with millions of views on her YouTube channel.

Sunny Lenarduzzi shared some tips for other online entrepreneurs, i-e: Content quality trumps video production quality, including a short introduction to explain what your video is about, and always have a Call-To-Action (CTA) in your video.