​This week’s post focuses on renewal. About ten days ago I got back from some glorious time away at March break. For the last few years we’ve tried to go somewhere warm during these breaks. While every year it’s the same mad rush to get things in place, and in line, it is so worth it!
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What are you doing to renew yourself on a regular basis? When you look back at the last few years, what are the breaks you have taken that have been important in creating memories, rather than just working?

As business owners shutting off for a short while may be difficult AND it’s important to know that we too need renewal!  If there’s nothing in the tank, there’s nothing in the tank!

What breaks do you have planned this year for renewal? And note, to renew, you may need longer than a long-weekend.

If you’ve joined me during the summer months, or read my Coaching Business Builder, you’ll know how important my time spent up north is every year. For all of July and most of August I work out of a 90-year-old cottage, river side. While my business is virtual, it’s really basic during these months as I downshift and focus more on time with family. My work days shorten so that most days I work from 6 am to noon, except for Mondays which is a full blown 12-hour day. The balanced between continued revenue and time off works well, and I actually find myself yearning towards these throughout the year.

Hopefully we are enjoying our work, and not just feeling like we always have to do!
What are you planning, and doing, around renewal right now? If it’s not in your spring schedule, schedule it in now, and add it as a tracker item in your Monthly Daily Tracker.

Best,
Jennifer

Last week’s post kicked off our focus this month (February) on relationships.

This week I’d like you to think about WHO is in your web of relationships. As solopreneurs, it’s very easy to think we are “solo”, or alone, when in fact, throughout the day we may be interfacing with a wide variety of others.
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For this week’s activity, consider these questions:

• What are the activities and tasks where you are in relationship with others?
• What are the new relationships you want to foster?

One of the activities I include in the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner is having you create your Top 20 list. Who do you have in your network right now?
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Once you capture people you have in your network, then ask:
Who else would you like to add to your network?
Consider:

• influencers,
• connectors (people who can connect you to others),
• associations you might join to grow your knowledge base, or to contribute to.

My second book was entitled “From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching”. This also means expanding the conversation to more. What are the hubs which can help you connect with, and be in dialogue with, more people at any given time?
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Enjoy your relationship mapping work!
Jennifer
PS – A reminder that this month’s 30 days focus in the 1BizStepaDay series is around Relationships. Download a copy of the 1BizStepaDay series here. What are the daily actions you are taking to build  your relationships during this month of February?

It’s almost the end of the year and time to do a systems check and review of your 2018. What have you been tracking this year?
If you have a copy of the Coaching Business Builder, pull it out and take a look back at the Content Trackers, and Monthly Trackers you have completed. For each month, or each one, highlight key themes on a separate post it (big ones work well – see photo). Make a cumulative list of all the things you notice about your data as it relates to marketing, clients, revenue, visibility or other items you are tracking.

“Systems help us to move forward, to go as far as we possibly can. They enable us to work faster, smarter, and more strategically. A good system eliminates waste, while it also anticipates and removes obstacles. To get the most out of systems, you have to make them a lifestyle not a one-off deal. They must become ingrained in your routine" (John Maxwell on Leadership).

It’s also time to do a systems check to see what is working well in your business. Here are the five areas I write about in some depth in the Coaching Business Builder Workbook:

1. Sales and marketing
2. Product and program services
3. Registration and client onboarding supports
4. Financial systems
5. Communication

 
As you think about each one, take note of:

1. What changes did you make during 2018 around this area? What impact did it have?
2. What changes are needed for 2019?
3. When are you gong to schedule a focus on these?
4. Is there an opportunity to focus on a different one each month? If so, note them down in the Annual Planner and give each system focus a dedicated month.
5. Add this to any monthly To-Do lists you have made for yourself

 
I hope that you may set a timer and get wrapping up your year end tasks. Enjoy!
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Best,
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), 
Potentials Realized - Supporting Coaches, Businesses, Leaders and Teams 
Is 2019 your year to take it ahead? Join me for one of our two annual groups - The Learning Lab and Design Studio (focusing on program design) or the Coaching Biz Growth Lab (focusing on coaching business development)
Phone: 416-996-8326
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​One area coaches may find themselves spending a lot of time around, especially if they work with groups or teams, is the area of program design. Whether it’s designing a webinar, delivering a workshop or facilitating a group coaching program, the elements of program design are all similar.
Design is a critical skill set to have, and since I’ve stated tracking this as part of my own work cycle using the monthly tracker in the Coaching Business Builder, I’ve been surprised in noticing how many days of each month has some level of design effort.
In the next month here at the blog,  I’ll be looking at different layers of the program design process, given that this is one time of the year where many of us are looking to launch a new initiative for the 2019.

For those interested in taking a deeper dive into these topics, I go more into it all of my books – refer to:
Chapter 5 – Designing Your Group Coaching -  in Effective Group Coaching (link on amazon)
Chapter 4 – Design Principles and Practices - in From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching.
Chapter 5: Creating the Container in Effective Virtual Conversations where I share the PEBBLLES model for considerations for virtual program design

You will also want to check out the November 2018 article I wrote for the Coaching Tools Company on Signature Programs. You can read it here.
Question to Consider:
What are your 2019 program design plans? 
Use the trackers and monthly planners in the Coaching Business Builder to schedule in time to work on your designs.

Best,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton
Author of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner
Potentials Realized
Phone: 416-996-8326
Check out the  November 2018 CBB Book Club Call entitled "2019 Planning. Already?". You can view it here.

The funnel is a marketing term which visually helps us consider what we are offering. It's also an important tool to see how we are engaging with our clients/customers in different ways and at different price points.
Imagine an inverted funnel in which the top is wide, scaling down to the bottom. If you have a copy of the Coaching Business Builder you can work through your own funnel on page 8.  I've also included one here at the blog.
Let’s look at it first from the perspective of what you are offering in terms of your products or services. Then we’ll look at it in terms of how you are building relationships.
At the top of the funnel we have those items which are free or no fee. This is the widest part of the funnel and it is geared to attract the most amount of people. At this level we might include things like

• A downloadable template to support our clients 
• A daily challenge (5 days, 7 days, 30 days) to support clients in taking action towards their goals
• Blog posts
• Facebook Live Community Calls where we bring discuss some of the more common questions received.

 
At the next level of the funnel, you will have low priced offerings. Again, the purpose may be to strengthen relationships and also generate money. These might include:

• A short e-book bringing together some of your blog posts in a compendium
• A short video based course highlighting some of the tips or latest research around the topic

 
At the next layer, we have mid priced programming. This is perhaps where your live offerings of retreats or group coaching might reside.

Finally, at the top end of the funnel (the smallest part) you may have individual one-on-one coaching, OR Intensive work with you through a Weekend Program OR a VIP Day.

As you consider your programming for the next year, what would you put in each of these layers. Which programs could benefit from some attention and/or need to be developed?
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Over the next month we will be focusing on the topic of Program Development, one of my favorites, here at the Coaching Business Builder blog. I’ll be taking you through some posts which include a step by step look at program design, as well as what’s important to consider from science as you go to develop your own programming.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Be
In my planning virtual retreats over the years, as well as at the Coaching Business Growth Lab, I speak regularly about the importance of taking regular action on our businesses. Whether we focus full time on coaching, or have it as a side gig, spending time to Plan, Get Things Done, and Track is critical.

This has led me this fall to launch the Plan.Do.Track(TM) series of programming (next Virtual Retreat coming up today at 1 pm ET!), and also to be releasing an adaptation of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner as the Plan.Do.Track Workbook and Planner for Remote and Virtual Professionals (coming out in December).
Taking consistent action is key, and allows us to manageably, and sustainably, build business. 

As we step into the month of November, what are your top 3-5 goals?
What are the regular steps that will take you towards achieving these goals?

For the last six months I've been walking around with a hand-written note in my planning journal. I finally was able to get it professionally laid out a few weeks ago but a trusted designer I use regularly. Even with all the design work I do as an author and instructional designer, I LOVE seeing my scrawls come to life. A big thank you to Jennifer of SecretaryZone in bringing this to life for me!

I'm pleased to offer up a free resource you can use to support you in  your work - The Weekly Booster For Your Business. You can download it here and try it out.

I'd love to see how you use it in action, so take a photo and tag it with #90DaysPlanDoTrack, the current Instagram series I have running over at my CoachingBizBuilder feed. 

If you enjoy this resource, perhaps you'll join me for an upcoming Plan.Do.Track Virtual Retreat. These are 4 hour virtual planning sessions to support you in taking action on your business. For the next 2 months I'll also be offering a special year-end planning focus during these blocks. Reserve your spot now in one of the upcoming Plan.Do.Track Virtual Retreats:
Today - November 1 - 1-5 pm ET
Saturday November 17 - 10 - 2 pm ET (yes - that's right - a Saturday program!)
Thursday November 28 - 1 - 5 pm ET
Wednesday December 5 - 1-5 pm ET
Thursday December 20 - 1- 5 pm ET
​Learn more and sign up now

Download a brochure on the Plan.Do.Track VRs.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Coaching Business Builder
Potentials Realized
Phone: 416-996-8326
Don't forget the November 2018 CBB Book Club Call is on Monday November 5 from 11 -11:30 am ET entitled "2019 Planning. Already?". Hope you'll join me in my main zoom room (zoom room #270-302-0415 - no that is not a phone # but a zoom room #).

In my last Coaching Business Builder Blog post I talked about how important content creation can be to coaches. In wearing our hat of coach, we are not content experts, yet it's often this content expertise that attracts a client to working with us. For example, a leader may want to work with a coach who understands the complexities of their industry or type of team, or a business owner may want a coach who has an understanding about key trends facing their work.
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In order to "stand out in the crowd" many coaches may opt to adopt a content marketing strategy, podcasting, blogging and/or writing articles around certain topics.  For those coaches who are involved in this, check out the Content Creation Section of the Planner (pages 243 - 272) as well as Section 3 - Marketing Essentials, where you are going to find monthly tracking tools to support you, as well as resources to help you consider repurposing.

One of the areas I continue to hear coaches enjoy the most out of the Planning Hacks I facilitate, is the space to get ideas on paper which they can go back later to execute.
This is especially true when trying to come up with some ideas around content, and blogging in particular. To give you a head start on your list, I share 9 different ideas on page 80. To expand on this list, here are 24 possible focus areas for possible fall posts around whatever your focus is (i.e. leadership, teamwork, business, relationships, parenting....)
1. What's on your bookshelf?
2. Infograph of key research findings
3. Common questions receive around your topic
4. Behind the scenes of how to...
5. Preparing for ____
6. Evaluating ______
7. In the spotlight - Case Study
8. Top 10 List
9. What we were exploring 3 years ago on this topic...
10. Where we are going around____
11. Other resources (TED Talks, Videos, Articles) around this topic
12 Podcasts to check out
13. Converting past blog posts to video (think Lumen 5 or AdobeSpark)
14. If you...
15. 60 second sound byte around this topic 
16. A- Z series
17. Guest Posts
18. Frequently Asked Questions
19. Here's where to go....
20. Here's how to....
21. Hands on activity people can do themselves
22. Question Prompts around your topic
23. Theme overview of what's been covered, or what is available
24. What else?

I hope that this gets your juices flowing. If you haven't done so, pick up a pen and  make your list of possible blog posts around your topic. Set a timer for 5 minutes and write everything down.

What content have you created already? You might already have articles in many of these topic areas which could be shortened down for a series of blog posts, OR perhaps you've given presentations on some of these topics. How could they become a blog post?  Repurposing content you have already created is often as important a strategy of content creation, as is generating new posts.

Keep in  mind that blogging is just one strategy in marketing, relationship building and business development.

What steps do you want to take in blogging?
Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Coach and Author of Effective Group Coaching and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching
Join us for an upcoming August planning hack - Dates include August 31 (Month End Reflection and September Planning Hack)

Interested in more on this topic? Join me for one of the complimentary Virtual Book Club Calls to go inside the book! Next call is scheduled for Thursday September 6th - Business Habits and  Mindsets. Download the upcoming book club call list here.

Content Creation – An Essential Step in Business Development
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For the better part of the last fifteen years I have been supporting coaches in developing and scaling their business. A large part of that has involved creating group and team coaching programs, webinars and also on-demand programs. Many coaches also use social media as a vehicle to get the word out about their programs. In doing this it can be useful to have a strategy around what and when you want to post.
One of planning sections I include in the Coaching Business Builder is a Content Planning Section. A great starting point to start generating different ideas is to start by thinking about who is your audience and what are the key topics of interest to them.

Using a Mindmap, or a series of post-it notes, you can capture your ideas in one place. To get you started, consider these questions about your ideal client:
·         What are the issues which are critical to their success?
·         What are the things that keep them up at night?
·         What are the things that are of interest to them?
·         What are the difficult vehicles they will use to explore information?

If you have a copy of the Coaching Business Builder, you can use page 244 to capture your thoughts with the Content Brainstorm Tool. From there, a next step is to step back and look at:

• What are the themes?
• From the themes, what are a number of different articles you can write or posts you can use?
• What content do you have already?
• What else would you like to create?
• What else is important to note for these?

 
I hope that you will grab a few minutes this week to capture your ideas on paper, either using the Content Brainstorm page, or your own journal. You don’t need oodles of time – 10 minutes is often enough for generating some great ideas!

Enjoy and more to come on content issues. Be sure to check out the 7 different content tools, including 12 sets of monthly content planning pages in the back of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner!
 
I'm in the process of planning for this new blog - what topics do you want to hear about? Let me know using the comments below.

Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Coach and Author of Effective Group Coaching and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching
Join us for an upcoming August planning hack - Dates include August 13 (Gearing up for fall - 45 minutes), August 20 (Fall Virtual Business Planning Retreat - 10-2:30 pm ET) and August 31 (Month End Reflection and September Planning Hack)

We are inching closer to the release of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner and I am super-excited to have this become available to you in support of your business.

Whether you have been in a full-time business, or you are looking to transition into a part-time coaching gig, we can all benefit from having space and a place to plan!
The Coaching Business Builder has been designed to be part workbook, part annual planner. The first part of the 280 plus pages takes you through a series of reflective activities on different areas of your business. It includes questions and writing to get  you thinking about topics including:

• Your Business Mix
• Business Fundamentals 
• Not reinventing the wheel - purpose, mastery and republish
• What your clients want
• Creating your vision
• 9 Different Promotional Vehicles you may use for building relationships and marketing your services
• Your own internal business ecosystem - your strengths, values and opportunities

The second part of the book includes an undated planner which will support you for a year. You can start using it at any time! In it you will find:

• Annual Planning Resources
• Quarterly Planning tools and trackers
• 12 Monthly Planning resources, including Calendars, Goal and Project Planners, Monthly Trackers, Monthly Reflections
• A Content Planner section with Brainstorming and Planning sheets, a monthly Content Tracker and a Monthly Content Journal
• Plus a few Creative Tools in The Back Pages to support you with capturing your new ideas and thoughts!

The Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner has grown out of the almost 15 years of coaching I have done individually and in groups with business owners, and coaches. The Planning section takes me back to my roots as a Project Manager in the global sector with the UN and other humanitarian organizations. We have always said "10 minutes of planning a day saves 1 hour of unfocused effort".
How important is it for you to carve out some space right now to do some planning and visioning about your business?
The workbook and planner is designed as an ANALOG paper based planner, so that it's portable and also supports you in some digital downtime. Research continues to show the importance of handwriting in the creation of new thinking. 
Ready to pick up a copy? You can pre-order now over at Amazon and it will ship to you early August. Use this link: 
For those that pre-order I will be hosting a couple of special calls! Send me your invoice once you order.
Enjoy!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton -  Potentials Realized
​GroupCoachingEssentials.com
Also author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013), Effective Group Coaching (2010)

Welcome to the Coaching Business Builder blog! This site is geared to support coaches who are growing their businesses - taking them to the next plateau or starting from scratch. Whether you are working on it as a SIDE GIG or full-time livelihood, business development is ongoing.

The inaugural blog post for this site is my annual summer project ideas post. Each summer I like to share a variety of summer projects you might want to consider as you move into the new season. This year I've done it in video form, and you can also download the related handout. Enjoy!

As I reference in the video, the Coaching Business Builder (CBB) Workbook and Planner evolved out of my own interest and need to a space to capture my project ideas and tasks. The CBB Workbook and Planner is available for pre-order on Amazon and should be released on August 1st, just in time for fall planning and back to work/school.

Keep posted for special pre-launch bonus offers I'll be announcing in the coming weeks.

Download a copy of the 20 different project ideas I share in this 20 minute video here.

Listen into this year's summer project ideas. What do you want to put your attention around?

What is your 2018 summer project? Share it with us below in the comments!

Enjoy your start to summer,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
GroupCoachingEssentials.com | CoachingBusinessBuilder.com
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations and the CBB Planner and Workbook