Could the Secret to Coaching Success Be as Simple as “Add Water and Stir?”

Is the secret to launching a successful coaching business as easy as adding water and stirring? Some top coaches hope so—and they hope to prove it by providing new coaches with clients and business tools in a ready-made package.

“We know there are many successful coaches,” said Bobette Reeder, a past president of the ICF. “There are even more coaches who are struggling.”

“I’ve been mentoring coaches for over seven years and one thing never changes—the majority of coaches find starting a coaching business…a major challenge,” said Barbra Sundquist, a certified mentor coach and former editor of the IAC’s member publication, The Voice. “As many coaches have lamented, ‘I know how to coach, but I don’t know how to start a coaching business.’”

For Sundquist, the solution came in the form of—naturally—a question. “What if I could provide new coaches with a ready-made coaching business? One that is a hot niche (that I know has tons of paying clients eager to hire them), a website already populated with content, and a step-by-step plan for getting clients,” she asks on her blog in a discussion that’s launched a lively discussion.

While she hasn’t shared the specifics just yet, Sundquist is sharing the outlines of her bold idea:  ”I’m setting up an institute that will address a particular coaching niche…I have been coaching in that niche for years, and want to empower other coaches to do the same.  So I’ll provide coaches with everything they need to ‘hit the ground running’ as a coach in my institute.”

And she’s not alone.

Reeder, in recent brainstorming sessions with Donna Steinhorn and Guy Stickney (fellow organizers of the highly successful Conversation Among Masters (CAM) conference), took up the idea of launching promising new coaches as well. “Creating and ‘growing’ a successful coaching business is not for the faint of heart,” said Reeder. “It requires not only a strong desire to do so and a good coach training program, but a few components which are more difficult to obtain.”

So a soon-to-start CAM spinoff aims to make things a bit easier: “as Guy and Donna and I were discussing the possibility of creating something meaningful for newer coaches, the idea exploded among us…that we could take the concept of my one-on-one Instant Practice Project to a large scale and hopefully launch many successful coaching careers as a result,” said Reeder. “How fun would that be?”

Coaches who work through the inaugural Instant Practice Project (TIPP) “will walk in as hopeful coaching business owners on Thursday morning and leave on Sunday as Certified Print Coaches,” says Reeder.

Certified coaches—with clients. Reeder says TIPP will provide a pool of 300 “high quality” clients to the first group of coaches. “Real, living, breathing clients. Pro bono, of course, but real clients,” she says.

TIPP kicks off in November, and Reeder expects the process will be rough at first, but could grow into something unique and special. “(We) have just started putting the word out that we are ready for coaches to register…as with the inaugural CAM, we want it to be very small so we can make our mistakes and do our essential learning on a smaller stage.”

Some of CAM’s success will inevitably filter down to TIPP coaches, of course, in the form of shared wisdom. As Reeder says, she’s “heard directly from a few of the top coaches as to the secrets of how to be successful and what mistakes they must avoid.”

Less glamorous, but perhaps equally as important, the program will outfit coaches with merchant accounts that allow them to charge credit cards and mentor coaches to guide them.

“Now their attraction level goes sky high! They have a serious practice,” said Reeder. “They walk differently, they act differently, they exude success. They are coaches! Clients are drawn to successful coaches.”

Can instant coaching businesses be as good as slow-brewed? Is there a shortcut to coaching success? And if so, does it take bold, experienced coaches—rather than marketing gurus—to design a starter package that respects coaching as much as making money?

Would you be willing to add water and stir?