How to Start Your Own Business Coaching Franchise

Starting a franchise can be extremely exciting and rewarding, particularly in a sector as popular as business coaching. As a franchisee with a business coaching company, you’ll help other individuals and businesses to grow and develop, seeing impressive profits along the way.

Running a business coaching franchise is a fun and dynamic way to meet new people on a regular basis and take advantage of lucrative coaching opportunities. If you’d like to start a franchise in this area, read on, and discover everything you need to know.

What is a business coaching franchise?

A business coaching franchise is a B2B franchise that offers professionally-focused coaching and development support to companies across a wide range of sectors, sizes and experience levels. Often, you can start and run a business coaching franchise from the comfort of your own home, and business coaches are popular in 2021 for many reasons. They can:

• Help companies to become more robust and increase their revenue
  
  
• Elevate and improve marketing strategies
  
  
• Encourage personal development 
  
  
• Motivate and support
  
  
• Help companies to achieve a better work-life balance for everyone
  
  
• Assist with planning and goal-setting
  
  
• Improve management, leadership and communication skills in the workplace

Should you start a business coaching franchise?

If you’re wondering whether or not you should start a business coaching franchise, the answer is most likely: Yes! There’s plenty of room for profit and growth in the world of business coaching, with 61% of workers admitting that business coaching increased their job satisfaction [Evercoach], while 42% of businesses are yet to benefit from the services of a business coach [Street Directory]. This means there’s ample opportunity to attract new clients.

Beyond the chance to capitalise on demand, there are several other advantages to starting a business coaching franchise, including: The ongoing opportunity to accelerate your own personal and professional development, the chance to embark on a rewarding career and the access you’ll have to all the training and support you need. Franchising will make a career change into coaching as smooth and easy as possible.

How to start a business coaching franchise

1. Find a financial match

The first step to successfully starting a business coaching franchise is finding an investment that’s financially suited to you. The cost of a franchise investment differs from industry to industry, and from franchise to franchise, but in 2018, the average cost was £42,200 [British Franchise Association]. To show you what you can expect to put into a coaching franchise, here are some examples that are thriving in the industry right now:

• ActionCOACH - ActionCOACH is the world’s number one business coaching franchise, and requires franchisees to make a minimum initial investment of £69,000, with a total investment cost of £90,000. 

• Business Doctors - To become a Business Doctors franchisee, providing coaching services to SMEs across the UK, you’ll need to make a minimum initial investment of £44,500.

• Chrysalis Partners - Chrysalis Partners offers expert coaching and consulting services to clients all over and beyond the UK, and you can invest with the franchise for an initial minimum of £19,950, with a total investment cost of £39,950.

• Business Partnership - This business brokerage advises clients on sales and acquisitions, and you can franchise with Business Partnership for a minimum initial investment of £25,000.

• Entrepreneurs Circle Coaching License - Gain a license with Entrepreneurs Circle and become a highly successful marketing coach for a minimum initial investment of £4,999.

2. Find a match to your transferable skills and existing professional experience

Franchising is a great industry for many reasons, not least the fact that in many cases, anyone can succeed in any industry with enough training and hard work. Essentially, you don’t need coaching experience to become a good business coach in a franchise network. Still, even if the franchise opportunity that you’re looking at with interest doesn’t require past experience, there are certain transferable skills that all good coaches should possess:

• Effective communication
  
  
• Active listening
  
  
• Patience
  
  
• Organisation
  
  
• Regular, ambitious goal setting
  
  
• Empathy
  
  
• Openness and honesty
  
  
• Friendliness and good customer service
  
  
• Business acumen
  
  
• Personal confidence
  

These kinds of skills are either innate to a person or learned over the course of a career (regardless of which industry that career was based in), and with them under your belt, you’ll find you’re able to be successful as a business coaching company franchisee soon enough.

3. Narrow down a pool of opportunities, and do your due diligence

When you’ve found a financial match and a match to your particular skills, you’ll have a narrowed-down pool of franchise opportunities to work from, and before you commit to any single one of them, you’ll need to do your research and be completely diligent. Don’t tie yourself down before you know what you’re tying yourself to. There’s a LOT of different questions to ask yourself before signing a franchise agreement, including:

• What am I looking for, and does this franchise have it?
  
  
• Is this franchise reputable? Financially solid? In any professional associations?
  
  
• How long is the franchise term that I’ll be agreeing to, and does that work for me?
  
  
• What do current franchisees think of the company?
  
  
• What will a typical day in my life look like, and does that sound good to me?

4. Coach confidently and make your mark

Once you’re up and running, make sure that you keep learning as you go. Never stop developing and seizing training opportunities, and you’ll never stop growing as a coach. Forge your own path, but try to remain on the same page as your franchisor. If you have questions about what you are and aren’t able to do, consult them directly, or look to your franchise agreement for guidance. 

If you really want to make your mark in the coaching industry, don’t let your research stop where the development opportunities offered by your franchisor do. Conduct your own research on coaching philosophies, programmes and methods, taking into account the needs of each business you work with, from employee demographic to budget to operational sector. Have passion for what you do, and above all, listen to your clients.

A great coach is a fantastic listener who knows what questions to ask and when, helping you clearly see the path of success, advancement and personal development. In other words, a business coach should be able to paint a custom picture of excellence based on your talents, goals and values, and then provide you with tools to achieve this life.
 — Robin Waite

Running your own business with a B2B franchise could be exactly the career change you’re looking for

There’s plenty of opportunities out there, particularly in the world of coaching and B2B services, and if you’d like to be a business coach, you should now see a clear path towards that dream. Deepen your research with Point Franchise’s help. Discover four tips for running a business coaching franchise, or find out how to start a consulting business.