For some, a solo-coaching practice is the dream. Others set their sights on building out a team and creating a firm. If you’re in the latter group, what can you do from day 1 to make your venture successful?

Using your own coaching tools in conjunction with these five practical tips, your coaching company can be set up to grow, scale, and thrive for the future.

1) Get clients. As obvious as this sounds, early-stage founders spend energy on all sorts of seemingly useful things (gather lots of certifications, spend 3 months perfecting a business plan, etc.) that restrict them from actually getting out there and creating paid business.  Get busy, be relentless with business development, and let the market show you what it wants more of. Not sure where to start?  Devour the content available from Center for Executive Coaching [a link here would be great] on business development.  Business breeds business – make sure you’re tapping your existing happy customers as great places to find more future happy customers.

2) Collect good data, and use it to make good decisions. When our firm first got off the ground, we did what most do at first: we said “yes” to basically whatever business walked in the door. After a year of operating, we took a look back to see what we could learn. What we found? We were offering about 5 different types of services. Of those, one type accounted for 33% of our accounts by the raw number. But that 33% had made us 70% of our revenue. The implication: do more of that type of service. We could not have seen this vital lesson (or acted on it) if we weren’t collecting and analyzing data.

3) Memorialize your processes.  If you’re building a firm, it means other people will need to be able to recreate the things that you do that work.  This is different from having a practice where you can simply repeat it yourself because you’ve done it before.  As you work with clients, take time to notice the processes that work with most of them.  Write those down.  Make it easy to understand (we loved a good old google sheet checklist in our early days).  Remove any “noise” and focus on the tactical things that anyone in the brand would need to do to get a good outcome.

4) Hire good people for internal functions and treat them royally.  Once you have enough cash flow, think about what tasks take up your time and mind-share that could be most efficiently taken over by someone else.  Oftentimes this will start in the admin/marketing realm.  Worried about the spend?  Think about how much of your time is consumed with these tasks – not just the raw hours themselves, but the mental productivity burned by task switching.  What could you be earning for your business if you got that precious mind-share back?  What value could people who are way better than you at those functional areas produce for the business? Get clear on what you need, find awesome humans, then treat them royally.  Think about all the things you coach successful leaders to do with their people – do these things and more with your team.  Consider profit sharing or similar to align incentives and get everyone pumping for the same outcomes.

5) Get amazing coaches to take the work you have to offer.  A coaching firm means there are lots of people doing the actual client-facing work.   Unlike many businesses, this is not an industry where we can use the “find the cheapest labor that can do a sufficient job” type of approach.  To the contrary.  Client outcomes will drive whether or not your business is successful – you need absolute rock stars out there in the world getting top value to clients.  Network, build real and trusting relationships, develop a structure that allows you to repeatedly bring in the best talent as a part of your firm.  Practically speaking: write a solid subcontractor agreement (have your attorney review it), memorialize a process for hiring and on-boarding, source talent from existing trusted sources (Center for Executive Coaching alum, referrals from coaches you have already worked with successfully, etc.), design a fee split approach that is a true win/win for each party, and get going.  As your business grows, you may choose to bring in some as W2’s, but starting with 1099’s means your overhead is controlled and you can afford the quality of talent needed to build your brand.  As with your internal folks, treat these coaches royally.  Surprise and delight them like you would a client.  Be the trustworthy, quality partner that you hope they will be.  Reward their hard work with your words and your actions.

Finished with this list?  Go back.  Repeat.  Always “sharpen the saw” – as an entrepreneur the growth and improvement process is never over.  Keep learning, stay gritty, and best of luck building your firm!