Name:
Suzan Bond
Title:
Personal and professional coach
Location:
Chicago
Founded:
2001
Employees:
1
Web site:
Before becoming a business owner I spent nearly 10 years in marketing and project management in the corporate world. The financial rewards were great. I was very good at what I did, well-respected and I had a management position.
Yet I was desperately unhappy. I simply wasn’t fulfilled in my work, and I longed to be. I wanted to be so excited about what I was doing that I would leap out of bed in the morning. In 1999 I discovered the new field of coaching and took all of my training on the weekends to prepare to leave my full-time job.
Ultimately, I got my opportunity through the dot-com bust of 2001, when I was laid off. I was thrilled and scared about the chance to be my own boss.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. I didn’t know how to do a business plan so I didn’t do a formal one right away. That was a big mistake.
I spent a good deal of my time getting training and education on how to be a good coach. That was time very well spent. However, I also needed to spend more time learning how to run and market a business.
How did it affect me? I didn’t have a clear idea of who my target audience was. My marketing efforts were sort of here and there. Definitely not cohesive or targeted toward the kind of clients I really wanted. Did I get clients? Absolutely. Not always the kind of clients I wanted, though.
I took any clients I could get. Unfortunately, I took clients who were not in my target market or who weren’t committed to the coaching. Whenever I took clients in either of these situations, the coaching process became a struggle.
After a year, I realized that I was building my business the hard way. I realized that to be more successful I needed to learn more about how to run a business and how to market and sell myself. My first step was to educate myself on the practical matters of running a business.
I must have read dozens of books about marketing and running a business. I immersed myself in every program on business that exists for coaches.
Learning more about how to run a small business allowed me to see what I needed to know and what experts I might need to hire to help me.
I hired an accountant to help me with my taxes. I took a class at the Women’s Development Center to learn more about sales projections, cash-flow statements and income statements.
I learned how to create a business plan. I hired a marketing consultant to make sure that I was positioning my business right and had a strong marketing plan.
Identifying your target audience is an essential part of developing a strong business and marketing plan. Doing the work to create both of these documents helped me make sure I had given thought to who my target audience was and how I was going to reach them. It made building my business much easier.
In the beginning, I was so eager to be coaching that I was willing to take anybody. Having created a business plan I now have identified my target audience and have action steps to let them know about my services and how I can work with them.
Once I knew more about my target audience and their needs I made changes to serve my clients better. I started taking credit cards. I focused my newsletter on topics that would interest them. I’m also writing a book that not only allows me to serve more clients but also gives my clients a book of tools that will help them to achieve their goals.
My business has doubled every year since I implemented the plan. I was always a great coach, now I’m also a great business owner. Becoming a better owner has allowed me to serve more clients and have the kind of impact I dreamed of having.
