Why is Business Coaching So F@$%&*g Expensive?!
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Hey! My name is Janelle Lara and I am the Part-Time CEO®. I help women build a six-figure company while working part-time. I have created a system where I can take women from the startup phase to multiple six figures in gross revenue within about three years, and the reason I am making these videos is because the most important thing that I can do as a business coach in this industry is to earn and gain your trust. So let's go ahead and get started. I’m going to start by answering the question and then elaborating on a few other noteworthy points.
Why is business coaching so expensive? This is a really valid and important question so I'm really excited to address it. The fact of the matter is business coaching and coaching in general is an unregulated industry, which means that it is an opportunity for scam artists. So I just want to commend you for even asking this question, I want to commend you for doing this research because when you are making an investment like this it is really important to feel very secure in that investment. And the truth of the matter is, and this is something that a lot of other people might not tell you, the truth is that investing in a business coach may not be the correct investment for you at the moment and so I really hope that this video helps you not only make that decision, but also to feel really good about that decision.
Okay, so why is business coaching so expensive? There are a few reasons, the first is if you are running a business, you are probably a specialist. So you are a specialist, an expert, and maybe even a genius at the thing that you offer in your business. So you are a genius at mindset, or you're a genius at being an energy worker, or you're a genius at writing books or publishing books or getting them to bestseller status, right? You are a genius at accounting and bookkeeping, you are a genius as a Healer, doctor or teacher.
You are a genius for the client that you support and whatever way you support them. However, you are probably not a specialist at business in and of itself. But here's the thing: in order to have unlimited income you need to build a business that can, in essence, run without you because if you are always a technician you will never get out of the weeds of your business and your income will always be capped by your time. Even someone who may say, “but Janelle, I don’t do 1:1, I have a pre-recorded course or download, so my income is already unlimited because I can sell that on repeat”… which is a fantastic business model! But how do you get people to purchase that download or course? Marketing and traffic… are you an expert in marketing, lead generation, and sales automation? I think you see my point ;)
So as a specialist, what you need is to learn how to become an expert in business. There are two ways to do that- by studying, testing, iterating, and learning everything on your own, OR by hiring and partnering with someone who is a genius and expert in business, who can teach you everything that you need to know to get your business to that level and ‘that level’ depends entirely on what your goals are. Like I said before, I help women get to multiple six figures ( that typically means $250k.) annually. If you are already doing $250,000 in business annually, and you are already taking $100,000 home as a salary from your business, then I’m probably not the coach for you and I have referrals who can get you to the next level. Now, conversely if you heard me say “you have to learn how to do this and eventually step away from being a technician in your business” and that makes you sad because you don’t want to run a business, be a marketer and focus on the big picture, then don’t hire a business coach! Find a position where you can be a specialist in someone else's business. You can make an amazing salary as a technician and there is nothing wrong with that.
BUT if you love being an entrepreneur and you want to get your business to that level you need to partner with someone who can teach you how to do that.
The truth is that good business coaches increase accountability, reveal your blind spots, they act as a compass, they close your knowledge gaps and they give you unbiased insight into the holes in your business. They act very much like a coach in a sport. They give you real time feedback and ways you can improve your game by not only teaching you how to play the sport, but by also watching you play- which is something we cannot do ourselves, and even more importantly we cannot do it in an unbiased way.
Business coaching is so expensive because there is a direct potential ROI, and the fact of the matter is that the potential ROI is *truly* unlimited. I love this quote that I saw and has since been fact-checked. “If you earned $2,000/hour, and worked full-time, and saved every penny, since the day Jesus Christ was BORN, you would still have less money than Jeff Bezos”. It really is insane the amount of wealth you can create with a successful company. Obviously, most of us will not build Amazon and any business coach who says that’s easy to do or that everyone should want that is not telling the truth. I use that illustration to say that if you built a company that just did $100,000/ year, and you ran that company for 20 years, you would have built a 2 million dollar business. So in that context, is a one-time payment of $5,000, $10,000, or even $20,000 really that expensive? And that’s the low end of the potential of your business.
Another reason why business coaching is so expensive is because a business coach oftentimes is giving you their Trade Secrets, which is invaluable. What they have spent in terms of time and attention to learn what they know is absolutely invaluable because we are not just giving you the cake, we are giving you the recipe and we need to charge accordingly. In effect that's kind of like licensing, but business coaches typically don't charge in perpetuity for what they’re licensing, AKA their trade secrets, so that's why there is a hefty upfront fee.
Additionally, business coaches are oftentimes working with tons of different businesses at a time and so what they're giving you is all of their experiences, with all of these different businesses and all these different markets and all of these various niches. So they're bringing you best practices in real time and that's invaluable!
Again I have to reiterate this point: They're saving you time. I want you to think about this analogy. Recently I hosted a party at my home and we had the option of cooking the food ourselves or having the food catered. And the fact of the matter is I have a six week old daughter and I have a three-year-old. I knew that that morning I was not going to be able to cook for the amount of people that we were having, and clean the house, and get my daughters ready and be on time for the event. So I said you know what my time that morning was worth infinitely more than the money that we spent on food, and so we had it catered and it was delicious and easy.
The question you may be asking right now is, “can’t I figure this out myself?” And my response is “YES. Absolutely you can.” I firmly believe that you are a totally intelligent, totally capable person who could absolutely figure this out on your own, but that might take months or years of your time, that would take time away from your specialty, and it would take time away from the current clients that you have that are paying your bills. So you need to ask yourself, “is the next 6 or 12 months or the next 3 years worth figuring it out on my own and spending all that extra time and learning and essentially kind of piecemealing your own curriculum together worth that amount of time to figure it out, or should I just have someone just walk me through it”.
I have two kids under 3 years old and I know I will never get these moments back with them. Time is so fleeting and for myself, and for my clients, time with them is infinitely more valuable than any amount of money, so I’ll always err on the side of a good investment rather than trying to DIY the process.
Now, note what I did NOT tell you. I didn’t use the tired phrase “you get what you pay for”, and use that as an excuse of why business coaching is so expensive... because the truth of the matter is that some people pay a lot for really poor coaching and some really bad or inexperienced coaches charge a lot of money. So I just want to say right off the bat this is not a situation where you necessarily get what you pay for... however this is a situation where you really need to weigh the pros and cons and determine how much support you need and what type of support you need, and invest accordingly.
BUT, with that being said, it is very dangerous to make the business coaching decision based on price and just going with the cheapest option because the truth of the matter is the less experience a business coach has, the less case studies and testimonials they have, typically the cheaper they are. And what happens when you go with the cheapest coach, who isn’t the coach that you actually need (meaning, again that they don't have the experience, testimonials, etc) could mean a few consequences which I want to discuss more in detail.
The first and most important consequence of hiring a poor-fit coach is that you lose time. Time is your absolute most valuable and precious asset, and so when you invest in a 3, 6, or 12 month program - you will never get that time back. Secondly, you lose confidence in your decision to make a good investment, when really it wasn’t a poor investment in and of itself (hiring a coach)- this particular coach or program just was not a good fit. I have actually had a client tell me that they invested in one of my cheaper programs, a group coaching program rather than 1:1 that they knew they needed, but they invested in less support because they wanted to save money, and then they actually come back and shared that it was a waste of time and money because what they really needed was the 1:1, and proceeded to invest in 1:1 with me. (that story is linked here). Not only did she waste a few thousand dollars, but also 2 months.
And Finally, the worst possible consequence in my opinion is if you're working with a business coach who gives you poor advice, you can actually lose the trust of your audience. The trust and the attention of your audience is the absolute most valuable asset that you have. We live in an attention economy and if you have to go back and do damage control because your coach gave you poor advice and maybe gave you a bad marketing plan or these spammy, scammy techniques... That could be the absolute worst thing because you might not be able to recover from that. So do not make this decision solely based on price.
Eddy Hood, the CEO of Ignite Spot Accounting and an accounting professional who has spent over 17 years in the industry said it best. He said, “every successful person has a good coach in their corner” and that is absolutely true. If you study any successful person, any successful business owner... even those business owners who are operating companies in the millions and billions... they each have a coach, a mentor, and oftentimes both in their corners.
(Side note: coaching and mentoring is absolutely not the same thing. Here’s a link to a podcast that discusses the difference. Listen to the podcast, or watch the video)
And that is why business coaching is so expensive, but also, why it’s so important. I hope it was valuable for you! Again my name is Janelle Lara, I help women go from a startup business to multiple six figures in about three years working part-time. That is the most important thing to me- that's why I’m the Part-Time CEO®, because I'm a full-time mom. I have tons of case studies, which you can find linked down below. I hope this was valuable for you and I really hope this helps you not only gain trust in me but in the business coaching industry as a whole, because there are so many fantastic coaches out there who can help you achieve incredible things.
(You can also watch this video on my YouTube channel)
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