Coaching Online - Do You Have What it Takes to Start Coaching Online?

Coaching online is something almost all entrepreneurs consider. If you have been successfully working an Internet Business, I am sure that it has crossed your mind a few times. If you have been online for any length of time you may have a little experience in this area. However, to go professional is going to take a little more then a little experience. Are you really ready for that responsibility? How do you know if you can be a successful mentor and coach?
First off coaching online, means that you will be training and offering resources to help others build successful businesses. In order for you to obtain success in this category you have to help make others successful. This takes time, devotion, and dedication. The dedication goes beyond your Internet Business, but has to be spread to others business as well. This is a big responsibility, that will take time and effort.
Before you jump into coaching online, below is a list of 10 critical things you must be prepared for.
1.) Time - We covered this a little before. But its worth repeating, this will take a lot of time to set up, and maintain. Consider if you have the time to take on the extra responsibility and still maintain your current business.
2.) Marketing Strategies - How have you built your business? When training others you can't simply provide one marketing strategy and expect everyone to master it. You have to have proven resources from free marketing strategies to paid strategies. Entrepreneurs are depending on you to give them direction, you need to have an arsenal of marketing strategies available to assist them in building a solid business. If you only know a few marketing techniques, its time to go learn some new techniques and test them out. You can not expect to be coaching others online if you only have one technique to to provide them
3.) Investments - If you are looking to be a professional online coaching expert, then you will have some financial investments to insure that you maintain that professionalism. Consider how much of a budget your willing to put forth into this endeavor?
4.) A General Like For People - You need to like people. When coaching online you are going to meet all sorts of different people. You must have general people skills, and learn to engage with all the different personalities. You may not like everyone the same, but you have to treat everyone with respect.
5.) Video Tutorial skills - Having Video tutorials will make your job easier. Offering step by step videos will elevate some of your time. If you don't have online video skills, now is the time to learn them.
6.) Public Speaking - Every good coach will have training they must conduct in a group setting. If your shy don't worry your not standing in front of a thousand people and making a presentation. However you will have to be good at holding live trainings and
presentations over the Internet, or on a conference line. If you get tongue tied talking to a group of people, then reevaluate this addition to your business.
7.) Customer Support - A good customer support systems is critical. Making sure that you offer it in an organized and efficient way is very important. Having a support ticket platform may alleviate a lot of outside phone calls as long as you reply clearly and promptly. However, it is suggested the best customer support remains to be one on one interaction.
8.) Learning and Education for you - You are training others, you have to stay on top of the market place. Its suggested that every six months you should be learning a new sales strategy. Then training your members on the latest cutting edge techniques.
9.) Professional Back office - Offering a secure and password protected back office gives authenticity to you. It should also be designed to educate and provide resources for your clients. This should limit the amount of calls you receive, or customer support tickets. If set up right this could be a one stop resource for your customers.
Coaching online is a rewarding, and will often be beneficial to you for branding yourself as a leader in the industry. If you take joy out of others success this may be the next step in your career. Some will take the ten steps above and realize they are not ready for the time, responsibility or the skills to become a success coach. Some will look at the ten above steps and know they are ready. Whatever category you fall under, take joy and pride out of what you are doing. If you take pride in coaching online, then you are ready to make the next move.