Why Online Coaches Must Use Systems In Their Business (And 6 Amazing Examples)

If you are looking to grow your online coaching business, or perhaps you want to simplify your work freeing up more time then you need to utilise systems.

Systems are the single most effective way to scale your business while reducing your work load and stress load.

Having the right tools and procedures in place can be the difference between coaching 10 clients and coaching 100, or even 1,000 clients.

With the right systems in place, the sky really is the limit.

Maybe you want to bring on more clients while keeping the same standard of care you offer your current clients.

Maybe you want to cut back on repetitive tasks that don't add value to your clients.

Or maybe you simply want to be able to disconnect for a few days and know that your clients are going to be OK without you. 

Systems can help you achieve all of these dreams and much much more. Read on to find out the what, why and how!

What Do I Mean By 'Systems'?

I was going to quote the wikipedia or oxford dictionary definition of systems here, but all of the definitions were far too complex!

So I'm going to try and define it myself, at least in the context of an online coach.

Systems are tools, protocols or plans that are used to help streamline a task or process.

I'm sure i'm going to get called out for my definition, but the key point of this article is not defining a word, instead it's to help you run (and grow) your business. 

How do they apply to our world? Let's think about what happens when someone signs up to work with you. What are all of the steps involved in this process?

1. They contact you for more information, asking for your prices, program duration, and clarification on a few other things.
2. They decide to join, and want to make the payment
3. They pay you, you then check to receive the funds have gone through.
4. You then send them documents - maybe a questionnaire form, and an information sheet about how things are going to work.
5. You then send them their first diet booklet.
6. When the official start date rolls around, you send them their first training program
7. The client comes back with a few questions about the plans & programs
8. You put together answers for all of these questions and send them through
9. 4 weeks later you need to send out another invoice for their next 28 days on their plan

As you can see, there are a lot of things to do when someone new signs up to your course.

This could be a lot of work for you, anything from 2 hours to 20 hours (depending on how you do the programs and plans).

If you're only charging $20 a month per client, then your pay rate may only be a $1 per hour.

But heres where systems come in.

Using tools, developing plans, and having procedures in place can not only simplify this process for yourself - freeing up time - but also make it more streamlined for the new client.

A User Example: How To Systemise New Client Signups So It Can Work Whilst You Sleep

Let's take the example from above, and systemise it. The goal is to remove you from the process.

We're going to incorporate tools and protocols to streamline the process:

1. First we have a website with all our pricing info and common FAQs on it - reducing the amount of emails and phones you have to answer.
2. Second we use an automated payment system such as Paypal or stripe that securely charges the clients card and can establish recurring payments without any manual input from yourself
3. Then we use an email automation software like Mailchimp or Kajabi to send out questionnaires and documents as soon as the client has registered.
4. On the launch date, a training program is sent to them - either a PDF via the email sequence, or through a tool like Trainerize
5. Add the new client to your Hey Coach group so they can learn and interact with other clients - helping them 'learn from the crowd'.
6. Continue to educate clients through your automated Kajabi ecourse - minimising incoming questions

Can you see how systemising a process using tools and automation can lessen your work load?

With systems, you can remove yourself from mundane processes, freeing up time to work on more important projects... or relax!

Imagine the practical applications of this - now you have more time work on your value add (creating content, building better plans, researching nutrition, supporting clients in need) and you know that clients can sign up while you're asleep, sick or on holiday - and everything will be taken care of!

This is the power of using systems in your business.

The Importance of Thinking Big, Even If You Want To Stay Small

Here's a tip for you, whenever you do a task in your online coaching business, imagine that you have do this 100x a year.

Now knowing that you have to do this task another 99 times, ask yourself:

What can I do today to help me the next 99 times I have to do this?

This is a great way to identify and start incorporating systems into your business.

Even if you don't expect to have to redo the task again, having this thought process can pay dividends in the long run.

Heres a few reasons why:

1. Let's say you get a question from a client asking 'what protein powder should I use?'

Now you could write the response 'Hi client, I really like ABC protein from XYZ company. Vanilla is my favourite. They have grassfed, organic whey and don't have any junk fillers. If you can't tolerate whey, then go for this vegan powder'.

But if you use the 100x concept, you will know that having to re-write this question 100x is going to suck up a lot of time.

So what can you do?

A) Save this email as a canned/template email - whenever it comes through from another client, just copy paste it.

B) Incorporate this information in your diet booklets/PDFs so that clients shouldn't need to answer this question.

C) Create a youtube video or a blog post answering this question and providing all the links - so that whenever someone asks you this question you can simply send them to that resource and know everything will be answered.

2. What about building a training program for a fat loss client?

Sure you could whip something up in a word document, create a nice table for them to fill out, and draw a stick figure diagram of the exercise.

But stop and think 'if I knew I had to do this again 100x, what would I do differently?'

Here are a few ideas:

A) Prepare a detailed workout document, including notes on each exercise, links to youtube videos of you doing the exercise, and an attached 'commonly asked questions' booklet to the document.

B) Record yourself doing the workout. Explaining each lift. Edit it to shorten it down to 5-10 minutes, upload it to youtube. And share this link to future fat loss clients who need a workout plan.

C) Use a platform link Trainerize where you go in and build out a workout, with all your notes, videos and set information. Now you can simply copy paste this into future clients programs.

Do you see how this concept can help you in the future?
Sure you may not have 100 clients ask you about protein powders. And you might not work with 100 fat loss clients in your lifetime...

But just imagine you did. Just imagine you typed up a blog to answer a clients question, and then over the next few weeks or months more clients asked that same question. How neat would it be to simply send them to a blog that has all the information they need?

You literally spend 3 seconds copy pasting the link and you're done. 

Likewise with the program. Imagine you build a fat loss program for your friends mother as a favour - even though you focus on strength athletes. Instead of rushing something in a word document, you build it out with videos and detailed explanations.

Then a few weeks later you get requests for fat loss programs. You know you have already done the work and can send out these programs with little fuss (while bringing in extra revenue!)

You may not want to grow into different markets. You may not want to work with 100 clients. And you may be content doing everything manually.

But if you run your coaching business with the concept that you are going to grow 10x or 100x bigger, then it will change the way you do things and change your working life!

Short Term Pain, Long Term Gain

You may be thinking 'this all sounds good on paper, but I can't write a blog post for every question I get, it will take too long'.

My answer is simple - it may require extra time today, but think about how much time it saves you tomorrow.

You can invest 5 minutes to type up an email response that gets the message across without too much fanfare. Or you could take that same email, add some images, and links to the products you mention. Add a headline and save it as a blog on your website.

This may require an extra 10 minutes.

But once it's done, it's done forever.

You only need 2 more people to ask that same question to justify that extra time you took to create the blog. Think of it as an investment.

And you know what, there will be a lot of extra benefits that arise from this approach:

• It's content you can share on your social media channels (more content = more traffic)
• It can include affiliate links to your favourite supplements (passive income).
• It can help you build your brand as an expert in the industry (producers are seen as experts)

Take the time to do it properly and it will save you time in the future.

Examples of Systems That Every Online Coach Should Utilise

Hopefully by now you have ideas popping into your head about how you too can systemise your business.

To help you take the next step, I have listed some of my favourite tools I use to streamline and automate things in my Hormone Reset Coaching Program:

• Knowledge Base software to answer repetitive questions and provide client support (read more about this in my article Why Every Online Coach Must Use Knowledge Base Software)
• Trainerize for workout delivery - here I build detailed workout programs and can automatically load them into clients profiles. No more word documents or remembering to update training programs.
• Hey Coach for diet tracking, community accountability and reporting - this is my hub for client contact, client tracking and client reporting. You can read a case study on How I Use Hey Coach To Scale My Business
• Blog Articles for explaining diet & supplement protocols. You can see my blog at https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/  for examples
• Weekly Group Calls for Support - Have one time a week where clients can ask you questions or come to you for support
• Kajabi for my Education Courses & Email Automation - I give my clients access to ecourses that I have built to to supplement their training and diet programs. Here I can empower clients and schedule emails to support, motivate and advise.

Thats just a few ideas of what I use. You may have many more.

Be sure to read the article How Alex Fergus Utilises Hey Coach To Scale His Online Health Program for even more ways to systemise and automate your business.

Remember, utilise the power of technology to your advantage.

And always remember your value add as a coach - if most of your time is taken up sending out invoices, or answering the same questions over and over again, you're not coaching, you're working as customer support!