The Coaching Solopreneur

By Kate Freedman

Are you losing sleep over how to make your efforts pay off?

Is your confidence in your coaching ability ebbing away along with your paid coaching work?

Does the idea of telling your family that your solopreneur dream will need more time and money fill you with dread?

We understand, and so do

• Language: English
• Publisher: Known Publishing
• Release date: Feb 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9781915850089

Book preview

PART 1

The central metaphor of this book is such a gift for coaches building solo practices outside the safety of an employment setting. No such thing existed when I trained a decade ago. The Solopreneur Coach Book can serve as your way to navigate the nuts and bolts of starting up. I picture coach wariness and weariness melting away thanks to the practical wisdom Kate so generously shares.

Kate Hammer, PCC Coach

This is the go-to book for setting up a coaching business. This is rocket fuel, practical, accessible and confidence building. I wish this book existed when I was starting out.

Jackie Sanders, PCC Coach

Chapter 1

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM

Meet Doubtful, Disappointed, Down-on-Coaching Danielle.

Danielle discovered coaching by having experience of being coached in her corporate marketing role and loved the impact on her work and self-belief in her impact at work. She knew how effective her coaching skills were in making a difference to her leadership role and in supporting her team and wanted to do more coaching.

Danielle had invested her time in researching coaching qualifications, as she was tired of corporate life and had heard of other professionals in her industry leaving their roles to be a ‘coach’. She was envious towards what she saw as a lifestyle where people were raving about how they had found meaning and success in making coaching their new source of income. She thought about how satisfying it would be to be coaching every day. She craved the idea of leaving office politics and task-oriented delivery behind; she might also have more time to focus on her family and juggling her out-of-work commitments that were mounting up in middle age.

Danielle knew how to coach as a line manager but loved the idea of coaching more people like her who were struggling with work and life commitments. She also knew that getting a qualification as a coach would matter, allowing her to feel that she was coaching well. In fact, she still felt nervous that her skills needed to be tested to see if she was able to start coaching more often.

Danielle had plucked up the courage to ask her partner if they could afford for her to take a professional qualification in coaching, even though money was tight and there was no chance of her company paying. This felt wrong anyway, as she was considering the idea of leaving soon. Her partner was glad that she had discovered some belief in her skills, having listened to her work worries for long enough, and was prepared to support the trips to London for the course. Danielle immersed herself in the learning journey and went through a rollercoaster of emotions during the qualification, throwing herself into the discovery of herself, doing the inner work and seeing her skills grow and passing the rigour of the final assessment. She loved her time in the training so much she took every opportunity to coach and get coaching on what was an emerging passion for leaving her role and making a life for herself as a coach.

Shortly after qualification, she resigns and tells the universe she is setting up a coaching business to coach every day. She is nervous and excited in equal measure, and she can’t wait to earn money helping people, as it is her true calling. She has been in a corporate role and knows she understands business and is ready to be her own boss. Danielle has reassured her partner that she will pay her share of the bills, as she has heard what other coaches earn for a coaching session and knows that she will make it happen.

Three months on from resigning, Danielle’s working days are not as she had hoped and expected. At breakfast each morning she supports everyone else as they get ready for their day and leave the house, but she remains unsure how to dress for the day ahead.

Danielle misses the structure and certainty of what is expected of her each day. Being self-employed has been the largest learning curve she has had to face. She is still learning what it might take, and that is taking up energy, time and money she did not expect. She has some idea of what to do next to market her services, but an empty diary is not something she is used to and she knows the days are ticking by without any earnings. She feels doubtful about her decision to be a coach and disappointed that her practice clients have still not referred her to what she hoped would be new opportunities. Danielle starts to doubt she is as good a coach as she thought.

Danielle decides to pull herself together and coach herself on her next steps. She starts to look up other coaches who she knows and her fellow course connections to see what they have done in their marketing and websites. It makes her feel worse as they look so professional and so experienced. What was she going to say if she had a website? How would she get herself noticed? It suddenly seems like her qualification might not be enough when she compares herself to other coaches who just look so damn… amazing.

At lunch, Danielle walks away from her home office as she is feeling undeserving of her set-up. She is wishing she had asked more ‘How’ questions during her course – then she might know how to build a business that could work – and she is beginning to feel disgusted at the number of adverts appearing in her LinkedIn messages promising her clients if she signed up to spend more money. Danielle feels guilty for taking a lunch break when she has achieved so little today, and she is worried about preparing for the question that her partner will ask tonight about how her day has