The following is taken from David’s interview with Judy Feld in 10 Super Coaches.
What did you spend money on in the first 6-12 months? Could it be done for less?
Had the computer. Developed the website myself. Increased phone bill – that’s about it. Office supplies. Also… business cards and stationary. I don’t think it could have been done for less. My time and attention were the valuable commodities.
What did you charge your initial clients?
I think I began at $250 USD per month (in 1995) for three 30-minute telephone sessions. I always have offered a menu of options.
When did you first increase your fee, to what did you increase it, and why?
I have increased my fees about once a year. Supply and demand and expertise.
What advice would you give coaches about charging clients?
Offer a menu of options. People usually opt for the choice in the middle. Be consistent in your pricing. Don’t raise your fees on existing clients. Loyalty and longevity counts. I have clients I have been working with since 1996. We are partners.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Michael O. Cooper in 10 Super Coaches.
What training, experience and qualifications did you have when you started coaching?
None! My first client told me they wanted to hire me before I even knew what coaching was. She gave me an article about coaching, told me I would be perfect for it, and wanted to hire me on the spot. I spent about four weeks reading all I could, enrolling in Coach U and hiring my own coach before our first session.
I subsequently discovered that I had been using a coach approach in managing teams, working with clients and developing strategy in my role as a management consultant.
What were the biggest doubts you had in your early months?
The need to be an expert! My own coach helped me see that I was rarely an expert in my role as a management consultant, but that I had a methodology, framework and best practices to help clients improve their businesses and systems – it was an easy shift to apply this same approach to my coaching business.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Bob Davies in 10 Super Coaches.
What top three methods, in order, did you use to get your clients in the first 2 years?
My belief is that it is vital that coaches become public speakers. Find your passion in the field and book yourself to speak as the “expert” in the field. Coaching clients will seek you out.
You could also align yourself with other speakers, like myself, who are not looking for more coaching clients, but want the speaking engagement. Leverage your client relationships to bring in “speakers” who will create “buy-in” for coaching and position you as the ongoing follow up live coach.
Did you coach your friends and colleagues?
My fees are too high to coach my friends, plus my friends would not listen to me as their coach. Many clients have become friends as well although I do maintain the professional relationship first. I won’t sacrifice my impact with the client in the name of friendship.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Ginger Cockerham in 10 Super Coaches.
What if a client brings up a serious life problem – and I don’t have a clue about how to help her/him?
I learned to distinguish between coaching and therapy and referred clients quickly who needed therapy. With the rest of my clients, I recognized that it was not my job to solve my client’s problems – it was my job to be their coach and support and encourage them as they discovered their own solutions.
How can I possibly convince a company that coaching will impact the culture and the bottom line with no established research to substantiate that?
I did pilot programs that would provide results substantiated by their internal records.
The following is taken from David’s interview with Mike Turner in 10 Super Coaches.
What was the most disheartening for you while building your practice?
What was most disheartening was not getting enough clients – and wondering if I should persevere or go back to being a consultant. I coped with this by working my fairly small network more and by seeking out a couple of organizations which were active in the coaching field and trying to develop affiliate relationships with them.
Although my early attempts to develop such relationships didn’t lead to any work, spending time developing the relationships did mean I was around people who were active as coaches and this sustained my confidence that my work would eventually expand – as it eventually did.
What was the most interesting or exciting thing for you about building your practice?
The point at which I realized that my practice was self-sustaining and that I no longer felt a day to day anxiety about whether I would be able to pay the bills that month!
The following is taken from David’s interview with Jim Earley in 10 Super Coaches.
What training, experience and qualifications did you have when you started coaching?
Well, firstly I had some solid academic qualifications. Aside from those – although I had no specific coaching training – by the time I came to coaching professionally, I had:
- Taken one college class and one honors program on interviewing.
- Taken classes on interpersonal communication and non-verbal communication.
- Read every book David McClelland had written on motivation as well as others.
- Taken one year-long program devoted to the nature of listening.
- Spent five years developing an internal style of coaching as a swimming coach.
- Developed an approach to problem solving.
