When To Transition Out Of 1-1 Coaching To A Membership Business Model

In this Off the Charts episode, I’m spending some time talking about when (and why) to transition out of 1-1 coaching to a membership business model.

The original question I received was this: When and how did you decide it was time to transition from a one-one coaching model to a membership/online model and what system did you put in place to make it possible?

In my business, there was a time where I did both 1-1 coaching and consulting, and offered online courses. The first few online courses I created were priced affordably, below $100, so it wasn’t bringing in enough money to replace my services.

I realized that I could offer a higher end online group coaching and training program when I started repeating the same advice to my consulting clients. In essence, I had created a repeatable system or process that I could teach.

That’s when I designed the Launch It and Profit program, which was born out of working with clients on their launch strategies behind the scenes. I priced it high enough that I knew if I filled it, I could surpass how much I was earning from 1-1 clients.

This helped me justify the time investment it would take to work on this project (it’s always longer than you think!) and I also knew that the people who signed up for program might still want to work with me 1-1. So I didn’t phase out my 1-1 services completely, I just added products to my business model.

After running this course successfully a few times, I phased out the one-off consulting projects, and moved to a 9-month commitment for 1-1 clients at a higher price point. This stability gave me the space to do my best work with fewer clients, and also gave me the time to focus on list building.

Once I got the list building “ball” rolling, I was able to sell more of my products and I eventually phased out the more 1-1 offerings in my business. It took several years to get there, and I still love working with people 1-1 occasionally because I love seeing the results people get, but it’s not the main revenue generator in my business.

Essentially, the membership business model allows me to reach more people than I could possibly have done through the original 1-1 coaching model…and while every business is going to be different, it’s definitely an option that’s available for a lot of entrepreneurs.