Growing Your Coaching Business in Tough Economic Times

“I’m afraid people won’t pay for coaching now. They can’t afford it, and unemployment is too high.”
I’ve heard these words repeatedly over the past couple of years, and based on what I see in the news, I understand why. It’s conventional wisdom. “Everybody knows it.”
The problem is this: It is simply, and absolutely, not true.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s true that we’re in a recession, perhaps even a depression. It is true that the current national unemployment rate is around 7.4 percent. And it’s also true that people are cutting back on discretionary spending, that businesses are closing their doors, and that the federal government is altering the marketplace beyond recognition and implementing budget sequestration across the board.
But it’s not true that people won’t pay for coaches now.
These are mindsets, mental rehearsals, which if unchallenged, become their own self-fulfilling prophecies.
They are not truth.

The Truth about Coaching in Challenging Times

So, what is the truth about coaching in challenging economic times?
As Christians, we are called to live in truth — all truth — and never in fear. And the truth is simply this:
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• Coaching is one of the fastest growing professions in the world – the 2012 International Coach Federation (ICF) Global Coaching Study estimated 47,500 professional coaches worldwide.
• That same study estimated global revenue from coaching at nearly $2 billion.
• The median family income in the U.S. is currently $61,455. People can afford a coach.
• A 7.4 percent unemployment rate means that 92.6 percent of people hold regular employment. That is well over 150 million people.
• In tough times, people are more keenly aware of the need to be intentional with their time, money, careers, relationships, and lives — the very things coaches address.

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Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” In other words, our mindsets determine a great deal about who we are and the lives we lead. We coach our clients around mindset all the time. Perhaps we could use some coaching of our own around business and marketing mindsets in the current economy.
Whenever you hear those internal voices saying, “People won’t pay for coaching now,” “They can’t afford it,” “Unemployment is too high, ‘The economy is too bad,” know that you’ve lost perspective. You’re rehearsing perceptions rather than truth.
Take a step back. Stop working in your business for a while and begin working on it again.
After all, coaching is really what you want to do instead of some kind of outside work, right?
What about you? How has coaching helped you in tough, economic times?