You decide “I’m a coach!” and two seconds later decide you can’t possibly share this with anyone until you have one thing in place. The Website.
The Website is the unicorn, the answer, the metaphorical sign to the world “my business is open for business!” And because of this, the pressure to create The Website becomes huge.
And with it, the list of what this fabled website will do becomes daunting. You decide it needs to be able to book sessions for you, to bill your clients, to describe your coaching style, to showcase your services, to connect with your social media, to see recommendations…… Oh boy.
While each of those things can have a lot of value, they are also like the Bermuda Triangle. They trap you. Somewhere in between all of these features, you lose your focus. You get confused on what you are even trying to do or create, stop and get stressed about it. Then, the next thing you know you’re putting the website on the back-burner and your coaching business with it.
Framing I offer you
It’s important to remember that when you’re getting started, the features of a website are really distractions. Sure, they might be helpful at some point, but, not having one of those features isn’t stopping you from booking a client today.
Now, I get it: opening your own coaching business brings a lot of excitement and nesting. You want to create this business you’ve been dreaming of to feel like yours; to display a brand you’re proud of. I’m not suggesting you throw that away. I propose a route where you get the shop set up as elegantly and quickly as possible, that you start to grow your business and income asap, and then branch out from there.
The traps in the Bermuda Triangle of creating The Website include:
Paying thousands to an engineer or designer to create your site.
This will set you back a lot of money, and it won’t be the biggest “win” for your money at this time. There is a lot you can do on your own, and there are many benefits to creating your own site. There might be a time as your business grows where paying someone to upgrade your site makes sense. However, I suggest you to get started with a light touch version. Test and play around with your site before you pay the big bucks.
Putting the pressure on your website text to be perfect.
People pain over the text for the site and get stuck writing the perfect text. This can take forever, and you don’t really know if the text connects with your audience until it’s live and you can test it. No amount of wordsmithing before you hit “publish” will ever be final. All you need right now is to get some words there, and then you can mold them as you go.
Letting Weeks become Months
Weeks have a way of becoming months, and that is so true with projects like creating a website. Scope creep is a real thing. It can be so tempting to keep adding more barriers to launch, and postpone the date by weeks on end. This is a trap I see all the time with the coaches I mentor. Recognize when you want to hit publish, and do it. It’s just a version 1, there is time for changes in the months ahead.
Priorities in Version 1 of Your Coaching Business Website
When you are getting ready to launch your first website, consider what is important in this phase. It is absolutely crucial (and frankly smart) to recognize that what is needed today for your business is likely very different from what you might need down the road. It won’t serve you well to put all of your effort and money into building Rome today. Consider, what does this version of your website need to do to serve your business in this phase of your growth?
So take a second and take stock. Which of these types of sites is the level you need right now, for your current business?
Landing Page
The purpose of a landing page is to keep it simple, and convert site visitors to take some sort of action. They aren’t overcomplicated, and communicate just what is needed. A landing page can be a great way to test your concept early without having to put the time into building a bigger site.
Standard Website
The standard website has several pages of information about you, how you work, how to get in touch with you. It likely has more filled out sections, context and details about how it looks to work with you.
Advanced Features
A site with advanced features might use things like a blog, embeddable apps like scheduling and payments, an online shop, lead magnets, etc. It is built to speak to a niche, and uses various tools to connect with your ideal audience. It also is often connected to a few services integrated into the site (it might have a scheduling option embedded, for example).
Choosing What You Need
Each of these website types has a valid purpose. What I suggest to you, is to choose the level that is the easiest to launch first, and build from there. You can then use the information you are learning to inform what features to build as you grow, rather than building a whole robust site only to realize it wasn’t needed and you want to entirely pivot the whole concept. Hedge your bets and get started simple, and use that to inform what next steps are needed.
And look I get it. Crazy modern sites are sexy. It is tempting to pull out all the bells and whistles and create this amazing place from day one. I’m not trying to steal your thunder. But since those sites take time to build, I’d rather you have a published site this month that starts to build your business, client roster and income now, than wait several months to open your doors. Let’s get your business going.
Easy Website Builders to Consider
If you are just getting started in launching your coaching business, a key priority is having the ability to test and change things. You want to have the reins for your website so you can put some information up there, test the concepts, see what converts, learn from it, and adjust. Creating your own site with an approachable website building tool is a great way to keep that control, and be light on your feet with updates as you learn and grow in your business.
There are many website builders that offer a clean, intuitive website creation experience. A few of the top companies I’ve seen coaches and startups use well recently are Squarespace, Strikingly, and Wix.
All three of these options provide beautiful templates and great customer support. You can simply choose one of their pre-designed templates (complete with layouts and fonts all set for you), replace their filler text with your own text, and hit publish. You can also choose to use their templates as a starting point, and fully customize from there.
Long gone are the days of needing to suddenly become a design or web expert to create a site for your business. These tools truly are incredible, and make creating a site very easy even if you consider yourself to lack tech saviness.
My Recommendation: Strikingly
The platform I recommend to create your first site as a coach is Strikingly. I have recommended it to many coaches who have created their sites on it. I have also personally created 10+ sites on Strikingly for various projects and companies I’ve created. It is simply the best for getting a modern, functional site published and shared with the world, easily and with minimal costs.
I’ve found that it’s incredibly modern, and yet so intuitive to use. When I sit down to create a site in Strikingly I feel like I am on top of my game. I have zero experience in web design. But their templates make you look like you know what you’re doing. They make it so simple to launch a brand you are proud of.
I am in no way associated with Strikingly, although in reading my words here I realize I sound like I am. I mean look, if they wanted to sponsor me, I’m down. But truly the thing is, I just have high conviction that their site builder really meets the needs of coaches starting their businesses and I feel like it’s a message I need to share to save my colleagues time.
If you’re interested in checking out Strikingly, create a Strikingly account (free to sign up). The link I included is an affiliate link, support this blog by using this link if you plan to check it out.
I argue that Strikingly is a great spot to both display a brand you can be proud of, with a modern fresh website, and offers the speed and simplicity you need to get started. I’ll tell you why.
Why I recommend Strikingly
Agile and low cost.
Testing, keeping costs low, getting you out there asap. You can edit your site anytime and have control to be agile.
Plenty of pre-designed templates.
The site has a ton of website templates that you can choose from, that are designed specifically for different industries – “Store” “Business” “Startup” “Creative” “Personal” “Blog”. You can test out all of the templates and once you pick one, you aren’t committed to keeping it. You can change out your theme anytime you want. All of the templates are incredibly modern.
Very easy to use, no tech experience required.
They have all modern design elements, and give you a site that instantly feels like it was built in 2020. Things on the internet feel outdated so quickly, so why put yourself behind and use a site-builder that already looks old school. Just skip ahead and use a template designed with a modern aesthetic.
- Everything is drag and drop. You don’t need to be an engineer to figure out how to update your site. Just drag it where you want it to go.
- The customer support is premium. Strikingly support is my favorite customer support experience of any company. There is a “live chat” button at the bottom right of your page, and a super helpful customer support rep. is just a message away from supporting you. They are wizards and can answer any question you have and walk you through anything you’re stuck on in real time. Incredible.
The reason Strikingly so perfectly fits the needs of a new coach, is that it’s an easy, low-cost way to get set up and get you starting coaching. The other solutions out there all involve either more tech experience, paying someone, big design decisions upfront, or lots of time to do. And in going with Strikingly you can just move on and get your site live in an afternoon and tick off that to-do item.
What’s next for you?
It is wild to think that before you’ve even been coaching for too long, and testing out and learning what you like and don’t like about it and your clients, and how you want your brand to be, that you’d have to make expensive branding choices. It is rare that you’ll know with certainty the answers to those questions now, and that can be an expensive mistake.
If you apply the startup mentality of launching with a minimum viable product (MVP) to your coaching business, a lean simple website is the way to do that.
I once was coaching a client who had been dragging their feet about creating a website for their business. We were on the phone in our coaching session around noon, and I challenged him to go create his site and send me the link to his published site by 6pm that night. That’s right, six hours later. And you know what, he did it.
This really doesn’t need to be hard. The reason I recommend sites like Strikingly is they give you a training wheels experience of creating a site, and yet the end product looks incredibly high end and polished.
So, hey there coach. What is next for you in terms of your website? What type of site do you need now?
Have fun with it and let’s get you published and out in the world, connecting with your ideal clients. Enjoy!
I’m in no way sponsored by Strikingly, but hey if they wanted to reach out and sponsor me I would be onboard. My recommendation and strong endorsement of the platform is strictly based on my personal experiences, and on dozens of coaches I have mentored who have loved the platform.
That being said, Strikingly does offer an affiliate program, and to be transparent, I would that love if you end up deciding to check out the platform, if you use my link to create your account and in turn, support this blog with their referrals. Thank you.
