I was sitting at a nearby coffee shop this past week writing some content for my business when I overheard a snippet of a conversation between two women sitting at the table behind me.

It sounded like one of the gals owned her own business and was venting to the other about all the frustrations she was having and how exhausted she felt.

And listening to her was bringing me back to when I first started my business and how I felt the exact same way.

Frustration. Exhaustion. Thoughts of quitting. Thoughts like “maybe I’m not supposed to own my own business” and “maybe I should get a job.”

Suddenly I realized how far I’ve come. How glad I am that I didn’t quit. And how I now have thoughts like “Of course, I’m suppose to own my own business. I find it incredibly difficult to work for someone else.”

And as I’ve been reflecting on this overheard conversation and my own journey, I thought I’d share some observations on what I think it takes to move from frustration and exhaustion to a thriving coaching practice.

With the hopes you’ll find them useful in your own business.

Here goes…

1: The belief that you have what it takes to make it happen.

Everything stems from this. If you don’t believe you can build a successful coaching business, it’s just not going to happen.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have self-doubt on occasion. Occasional self-doubt comes from being human. A bout of self-doubt hits even the most confident of people.

Think of it this way…

Ideally, we live in confidence and vacation in self-doubt. Not the other way around.

That’s what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the kind of belief that understands that you can face and overcome anything that comes your way. This type of belief is not optional.

In the early days, I didn’t have the confidence that I could own a successful business. What I did have was confidence in my perseverance and my ability to figure things out. And that eventually led to confidence in the rest.

What do you need to do to make yourself believe you can do it?

2: Taking 100% responsibility for your business and your life.

There are many outside “reasons” why businesses seemingly fail. But ultimately it comes down to something the business owner did or didn’t do. It might have been a lack of knowledge, a lack of cash reserves to make it through the hard times, or something else.

There’s no place in business to blame a lack of success on something outside yourself. It doesn’t do you any good and worse, it takes your power away.

By taking 100% responsibility for your business, instead of blaming something or someone else, you can start looking for solutions.

What do you need to do differently to turn things around?

3: Understanding that building a business requires time, effort, knowledge, and skills.

I’ve seen a lot of coaches who think that because they’re certified in coaching, it should be easy to get clients. They think they can put up a couple of social media posts, or make a few comments in a Facebook group, or just put up a website and get clients from that.

To have a thriving coaching practice, you need to understand your niche in an intimate way, you need to know how to market your business, and you need to know how to sell.

What do you still need to learn and develop to grow your business?

4: Taking consistent, strategic action.

Bringing in a steady stream of clients requires you to figure out what works for you and your market (being strategic) and doing that week in and week out (being consistent).

You may have noticed that you get an email from me at least once per week, and often more than that. That’s because it works for me and my business. In fact, it has been the number one way I’ve built my business. I’ve figured out what works for me and my market and I do it consistently.

What do you need to be doing week in and week out to grow your business?

And if you’re serious about building a thriving coaching practice, I invite you to hop on a call to see how ongoing coaching with me can help you build it much, much faster than what you’re currently doing.

Schedule your discovery call