Hi there, wellness entrepreneur!
Today, we’re going to talk about The Five Steps To Starting A Wellness Business. I’m going to keep it simple, so you can actually start today.
If you have that dream, let’s say you’re working a job and you’ve been feeling the nudge to really fulfill a passion that you have, and maybe you’re going to transition completely from a totally different industry or a field, or maybe you’re working a job, and you want to stay in the same kind of field that you are in, but you just want to help people your way, the way that makes you feel fulfilled or the way you think that you can help people best get the results and the help that they truly need, or maybe you haven’t been working for some time, for whatever reason, you’ve been going through your own health journey, you’ve been caring for your children, but now you’re ready to get back into the workforce, these five steps will help you to start a wellness business today.
The First Step To Starting A Wellness Business – Check Your Bank Account
So number one, especially if you have a job, this does not mean that you have to leave your job right now. In fact, you want to make sure that you have either enough savings, plenty of savings, or enough income coming in, where you don’t have to put pressure on your business to perform a certain way. Meaning, you don’t want to put pressure on your business to have to provide a certain amount of income or revenue right now.
That doesn’t mean that you don’t set goals. That is different. So, setting goals is different than having no money in your bank account, not being able to care for yourself or your family, or put food on the table unless your business provides in a certain way. You see the difference?
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So you want to make sure that you can support your business and allow it to grow without that type of pressure. Because the mistake of trying to provide or having your business provide too early is that you get into a hustle cycle. And I know because I didn’t have a plan to start my own business. I was actually let go from a current employer. And both my parents were entrepreneurs. So I saw them work hard, work evenings, work weekends, miss a lot of time out with family, and all that comes with entrepreneurship in the 80s and 90s. And I didn’t want that for myself and my family. So I really didn’t want to become an entrepreneur. So I didn’t have the savings at the time for entrepreneurship. In fact, I had just returned from maternity leave. So I had used the majority of my savings for maternity leave with my daughter, and I had gone back to work and my boss at the time was pivoting in her own company and had moved abroad and was looking to sell her company, and the new buyer wanted to downsize the staff. And so I was let go of.
And during that time, when people started reaching out to me, to work with me, I had to make a decision to start my own business. And the truth is, at the time, I hadn’t been feeling fulfilled in that old role as an employee. There were certain things that I wanted to do differently, combining more of my massage skills and coaching skills, and other wellness skills with yoga and physical therapy. And I just felt like I couldn’t utilize them the way I really wanted to in that prior position. And there were other types of marketing that I wanted to do. I just wanted some more control over certain things.
So when I was let go, the opportunity arose in my mind, “Okay, well, maybe, maybe I can become an entrepreneur,” and I started to consider that option with my husband and eventually went down that road. But I started to overwork and hustle because my husband and I needed to pay the bills, and I didn’t have adequate savings at the time. The plus side is that hustle got me a bunch of patients and I was profitable in that first year. So my business grew very quickly. The downside is I established a pattern of hustle and overworking until I had my cancer and Lynch Syndrome diagnosis and I was realizing I was not as home with my daughter as much as I truly wanted to be.
And that opened my eyes to all the podcasts, all the workshops, you’ve seen me teach and present on ever since on how to grow a business profitably and sustainably so you can live the lifestyle that you want to live.
So you do want to make sure that you have income coming in or have adequate savings so you’re not going to be putting yourself in a pressure-filled society cycle and establishing a pattern that won’t serve the big picture of your business. That won’t be sustainable. It’s like having a baby, and this baby is three months old, and yet you’re putting it on the ground and saying, “Crawl, gosh, darn it, in fact, stand up and walk right now.”
And then on top of that, when the baby doesn’t perform crawling or walking for three months, then you beat it up, and you say, “Oh, baby, you’re not good enough,” or, “Baby, maybe you’re not cut out to be a baby, because you’re not doing these things fast,” right? That’s what we tell ourselves in our business when our business doesn’t perform quickly, or the way that we thought it might perform by having a certain number of clients or a certain revenue, we beat ourselves up saying, “Well, maybe I don’t have the skills for what it takes to be an entrepreneur, or maybe it’s my niche, or maybe it’s my program,” or we beat ourselves up and question and doubt so many things.
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And that doubt, and that shaming, and that beating yourself up, that actually slows you down, especially if you’re continuously switching your program, you’re continuously switching your niche, or you’re just doubting yourself so much that you’re freezing and indecision and not taking action, or you’re second-guessing your actions and having to redo a lot of your work. So all of that will slow you down.
Whereas, if you just realize that failure is the process of being an entrepreneur, sometimes there are periods where your business will grow quickly, and sometimes, especially in the beginning, you just take it a day at a time. It is like a Science experiment where you’re going to try one thing, and sometimes it works, and you see growth and you see results. And sometimes it won’t work, and you’re like, “Oh, well, that didn’t work and I got to try something new.” And obviously, when you’re trying something new, learning from mistakes, and hitting up on your own personal growth edges, it’s going to take a little bit longer to see the results of having more clients and bringing in more revenue. But it doesn’t mean that you’re failing. Slow growth is good growth in the business.
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And if you have adequate savings or income coming in from your job, while you’re growing your business, it gives you so much more buffer space, it takes so much more pressure off your business. So that’s why I have that as number one because cash does matter. And you want to make sure you have a roof over your head, you are taking care of your family, your bills are taken care of, so you can grow your business as slowly as it needs while you work your full-time, part-time job or utilize savings.
So that is tip number one, is to check your bank accounts. Make sure that you can adequately provide for yourself and pay your bills, maybe for the first year of starting a business. Now, if you want specific help on this, knowing how long to stay in your job or reduce down to part-time, or how much savings you want in your bank account, then you can jump into the Facebook group, the free Facebook group. You can check the Facebook group here – (Join Group)
And you can ask that question in the group. I personally answer a lot of the questions in that group. And also, you’ll get support from the community.
Or, of course, you can sign-up for a consultation call. These individualized answers are what I help my clients with, one-to-one and in the Awaken group container. So the help that you need and deciding the best steps for you, when to reduce your time as an employee, and more can be answered there.
The Second Step To Starting A Wellness Business – Getting The Tactical Things Needed
So number two is getting the tactical things that are needed to have a business, and that might be your necessary licensing.
For example, I have a physical therapy license. I have a coaching certification, yoga certification, making sure that you have the correct certifications for the work that you want to do. And then also I have Encinitas city licensing, if you’re going to be doing work in town, you want to make sure that you have a business checking and savings account.
Now, I have a whole list. I taught the Next Steps Workshop. And I am building out an e-mail funnel and sequence, actually, as we speak, where you can get this checklist of all the necessary tactical things that you can do in one day, or one week, if you don’t have a bunch of hours in one day, you can get that for free. Check out the list here: (Next Steps Workshop).
And in that sequence, make sure you open the e-mails because, in that sequence, you will come to find out that if you do sign-up for a free consultation, you can get access to the next steps workshops for free. And it’s two hours, which essentially breaks down this blog and a little bit more detail and gives you all that you need to get your wellness business up and running.
But just know that there are some tactical things that you need to start your wellness business, like the necessary taxes, knowing what to save for taxes, bank accounts, licensing your EIN, your DBA, doing business as deciding what your business entity status will be, are you going to be a sole proprietor, an LLC, S Corp, etc. Do you need insurance, liability insurance? Do you need any permits? And how are you going to get paid? What credit card processor do you need?
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Then you also need some operations and systems. This begins to set up your business in a streamlined way by having standard operating procedures, as they’re called, or systems or structures in place that are reproducible and repeatable, such as a payment policy, for example.
For me, I always accept payment before the start of any program. So if it’s one-to-one, my new client will have to pay prior to the first call, if it’s the Awaken Mastermind, the payment in full can be made prior to the first call, or the payment plan has to be started prior to that first call. What’s your scheduling policy, what’s your mailing address, documentation note system, your informed consent or contracts? All that, you want to have in place.
And truthfully, the mistake I see with a lot of wellness entrepreneurs here, and this is all of that is gone into a lot more detail in that Next Steps workshop, is that they get stuck here. They get stuck on choosing the perfect contract, they get stuck here on the entity, they get stuck on the informed consent waiver, they get stuck on the name of the business, then it spirals into getting the perfect website, getting the perfect business cards, getting the perfect logo and all of that truthfully, can hang you up for months, months and months and months and months, nine months, a year will pass by, and you haven’t signed one client.
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And then, if you wait that long, you start to doubt, “Okay, maybe I’m not cut out to be an entrepreneur, maybe this business won’t work, maybe I chose the wrong niche.” And it has nothing to do with all that. It just is because you spent time on the backend of your business, not out there in the real world, talking to people, letting them know that you can help them, establishing relationships, networking, which we’re going to get into in a moment, and just making offers.
So just know that all of these that I rambled off really quickly, you make a decision, contact the necessary professional, if you need them. It’s what I always recommend. Get a CPA right off the bat, and they’ll help you with taxes or help you decide on the best entity, whether you should go right into incorporation or stay with a sole proprietor for a little bit longer. They’ll help you with all that decision making. Because bottom line is that the faster you make decisions, the faster you go forward, versus getting stuck in indecision and spinning, then that’s what stalls you out and slows you down.
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So for each of those, just decide and go for it, decide and go for it. And yes, you may choose wrong, you may have to come back and make a different decision, but you’re not going to know if it’s the wrong decision if you never decide. So you will stay stuck.
So just decide and have a process to support yourself during failure, which there are a bunch of blogs on that. And I’ll go into m ore detail on that as well. Do not make failure mean anything that’s wrong with you and wrong with your ability to own and start a business. It’s just part of doing business.
So number two is getting all those tacticals underway. And again, if you’re dedicating one to two hours a day, or even 30 minutes to one hour a day, you should be able to get all that done in one week. So if it’s taking you several weeks to get all that done, that means you’re spinning, and you’re stuck somewhere. You’re indecisive about something, and that is a perfect time to reach out for coaching.
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The Third Step To Starting A Wellness Business – Setting Up Your Program, Package, And Pricing
Okay, now, number three, set up your program, your package, and pricing. This is another one where people can get really confused. And again, weeks can go by and no decision has been made.
So right now, just think to yourself, what is the length of time that you think you can get someone results in, in your area of expertise? So maybe you want, and maybe you’re a yoga teacher, you want to do more private sessions, and so you want to have a six-week program where you help people get more flexible and stronger, that’s a great place to start, it is pretty general.
So the messaging needs a little bit of work. But number four, that’s next. So, stick with me here. But we’re just setting up the package and the length of time. So, six weeks. People who’ve been doing yoga once or twice a week for six weeks, they’ll start to feel a change. Maybe you want to go longer. I have a program that is six months long because I find that people go through dips and plateaus, and to see bigger changes, that’s what’s really required. But you get to do you, what feels right for you.
And what is the price? I see this question about pricing in Facebook groups all the time. Pricing is not an independent decision. It’s a decision made within the ecosystem of your whole entire business, not just, “I’m going to compare my price to other people’s price and try to be the race to the cheapest price or the race to the bottom.” You never want to be in that race. But you don’t want to charge so low, that you feel resentment to your people, because now you’re not paying the bills and as you get busier, because you will, if you stick with this, you will get busier, you don’t want to have your price so low that when you do get busier, you’re working with all these people, but you’re still struggling to make ends meet, or you’re not seeing as much profit as you desire. That might mean your pricing is too low.
But if you’re just starting out, you don’t want to price yourself too high, that price is you out for your experience. Now you might say, “Well, I’ve been a practitioner for 15 years, I have a ton of experience.” Okay. If you have a strong following, maybe you’re building an Instagram following or an e-mail list, or you’re a teacher, and you have a lot of loyal students, yes, then you might be able to price on the mid to high-range, even though you’re a brand new entrepreneur.
But most people, that’s not the case. Even if you have 15 years of experience, you got to humble yourself a bit in the beginning. And remember, it’s temporary till you get momentum.
If you are really that experienced, then people will love you, they will trust you, they will tell their friends because they will get results. So you will grow quickly. And then you can raise your prices. But it’s so much easier to start lower on the price and get momentum, get people, get testimonials, get people talking about you, and then raise the price as you go.
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A lot of people sometimes price themselves too high, out of the gate, because they want to price based on your worth. That’s the other thing. You can’t just say, “I’m going to price myself so I’m a value,” without taking into your goals and the ecosystem of your business entity as a whole.
So that’s another great question to drop into my Facebook group to get some answers and feedback on because there are several different variables that come into play when deciding your pricing. And again, to set up your program, your package, and your pricing. That is what we work specifically on in either the Awaken Container, the one-to-one, and the mastermind.
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And, of course, we go over a lot about niche. What you want to be aware of is what your brain might try to offer you as what’s a great niche and what’s not a great niche. If a niche is too general, if it’s too small, all the things right now, if you’re just starting out, let go of the niche drama. Just decide on the results that you’re going to help people with or the struggles that you’re going to help people with and don’t even worry about it, you really do not need a niche, especially if you’re starting out. All of that will come in time.
So today, just decide on what you want to do and how you want to help people, and what you want to price it. And that way, you can go forward when you start working with clients. You’re going to get data from working with people, and you’ll find out, “Oh, maybe six weeks was too short,”or “Maybe that price I’m pretty booked, I’m getting busy now, I think I need to raise my price.” For the niche, for example, you’ll start attracting a pattern of a certain type of person that comes to you easily, says yes easily, and get his results easily, so then your niche will emerge.
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Or maybe it won’t, maybe you’ll still stay general, all of that is fine. But if you don’t decide on any of that, then again, you’re not going to go for it. Or if you’re constantly changing all of that, your people, your audience, they’ll get confused. And a confused mind leads to being a frozen mind, one that does not take action. So stick with it for a bit of time. In these variables, if you need my help, sign-up for a consult call and go for it.
The Fourth Step To Starting A Wellness Business – Your Marketing Plan
Okay, number four, what you need is a marketing plan, and where you’re going to market and how much and whatever the how much can vary from person to person, but you want to have it where you’re showing up consistently. And that does not need to mean multiple times a day or even every day. It might just mean showing up three to four times a week, that might be perfect on Instagram, for example.
Part of your marketing plan is also your messaging and your copy. So really honing in on the language and how you speak to people, it’s truly underestimated, the amount of time, work, and energy that should go into your marketing plan, showing up, and the messaging.
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And I use the word should here with caution, because I don’t want you to beat yourself up. But if you’re not getting the results that you want in your business, meaning you’re not getting people signing up for consultation calls, if you offer them, that’s step number five, so playing on there, but if you’re not getting people reaching out and inquiring to work with you, then it might just mean that you’re not spending enough time either showing up consistently and actually doing the marketing and making the offers.
Or it might come down to your messaging, where maybe your message doesn’t clearly say exactly what it is that you do, the value that you offer, the results that people get when working with you. And this is not a reason to beat yourself up. Because most wellness practitioners, I know yoga teachers, physical therapists, massage therapists, healers of the art, spiritual practitioners, Reiki Masters, we’re not taught anything about messaging, we’re not taught how to show up in the market, we just think that we can show up on Instagram, and maybe put a picture with some words, and people will flock towards us because we have this amazing program.
And we’re skilled practitioners, and unfortunately, is just not the truth. There is a lot of competition out there. Because so many people now are on the internet, the online world in a variety of ways. But the good news is with all these people out there, wellness practitioners, spreading all the messaging about the importance of health and well-being, that means that the greater society these days really understands the importance of spending time and money on health and wellness.
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So it does, in the big picture, make things easier for you to sell because you’re not having to educate as much as in the “older days” when health and wellness was considered more of a luxury. People understand now it’s more like a cartoon where maintenance is necessary to stay healthy and well, which is great. But it also means your messaging needs to differentiate yourself from everyone out there.
And your messaging needs to clearly describe to your audience how you specifically can help them and what that looks like. And what are the results when they do spend their money and time to work with you?
So when you’re just starting out, you don’t have to have all of that perfectly right now. Today, just decide, okay, where are you going to market, decide one or two places. It can be online or in person, maybe networking events once a month, and on Instagram. There you have it, two places. And you’re going to show up on Instagram three to four times a week. That’s a very doable marketing plan, with networking once a month.
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Okay, messaging. How you’re going to start right now is by just writing. You’re just going to show up, and you’re going to write, and you’re going to see if people engage. Do people like it? Are people inquiring about your work? And if not, you got to just keep tweaking and refining it.
That’s why I’m adding copy tips. I have a whole copy and marketing section in the Awaken portal that walks you through all of this step by step and specifically how to hone and refine your copy, and it’s a work in progress.
My copy needs work, still a lot of work. In fact, I feel that it still needs work, even if I work with a copywriter. After I’ve been in several copy programs, because I came from my physical therapy doctorate mindset where I would fire hose people with too much information, I still have a tendency to do that at times, or I just complicate things too much. Or I get into doctorate thesis mode and research language or practitioner language where people just don’t really understand how the work that I do can impact their day-to-day lives. They don’t see it, and they don’t get it.
So there are lots of ways to work on copy. And some of you will get it quite naturally. Maybe you’re just a writer, and you have the ability to break down your work into layman’s terms and into a step-by-step process where people can easily see how your work will help and impact their lives positively. That’s amazing. So you got a leg up there, if you can do that. And if not, it’s all right. If you’re like me, don’t worry, it will get better. And I can tell you that because now I get consults consistently. And it’s through my copy and my messaging.
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The Fifth Step To Starting A Wellness Business – Learn How To Run Consultations Or Discovery Calls
Okay. And number five is you need to learn how to run consultations or discovery calls. And I say need, I usually don’t say this, because there is no one right way to run a wellness business. But if you’re looking to have the most streamlined and simple way to start making money, start helping people, and start to be profitable, it is easiest just to work one-to-one and offer consultation calls.
So if you’re a yoga teacher, you don’t have to have that awkward conversation after a yoga class where a student comes up to you and is like, “You know, my, my lower back and the back of my right hip has really been bothering me. And I really love the pigeon pose. But sometimes I think it makes it worse. Are there any good stretches for that area?” And you know, you can help them, and you know, you need to do an assessment for us to figure out really what’s going on. And to avoid that awkward conversation out there in public with a bunch of people milling about, or noticing that that student wants to rush into the locker room and get changed because they have to go to the nine o’clock work meeting, then it’s easiest to just say, “Oh, yeah, I can totally help you with that. But I’d like to hear a little bit more details. And I don’t really think this is the place plus, I have to get ready for my next class. So I think the best solution is to just sign-up for a free consultation call. And it’ll be about 45 minutes long, we’ll just go over how long this has been going on all the details, you can tell me all the things, and then from there, we’ll make a plan. And if I have a program that can help you with this, specifically, I’ll let you know all the details about that how we can work together.”And then you just schedule them right there. It’s as simple as that.
And so if you know how to get people to consults, and then run those consultations so then you actually get paying clients off the back end of that, go through one of my workshops, and you can have your business set up in one week. And then you start telling students at the end of your yoga class or people that inquire and reach out via DM on your Instagram, and you can get them to consultation calls, and you know how to run those consultation calls, then you can start making money the week after, it’s really that simple. And again, that’s why I have the Consultation Conversation Framework in the Awaken portal that walks you through that very process.
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Conclusion
So if your business can, even though there are some moving parts, it really can be streamlined and simple, where you have a repeatable process that you’re just repeating over again till you get fully booked. And then, you can move on to the next phase, which may mean bringing in an online program, it may mean bringing in a group program, it may mean raising your prices. There are so many different things you can do.
But these five steps, if you do it this way, are the simplest way to bring in money and clients, and then when you have a stronger following, you can launch into more of the on-demand, in the group program. So I’m going just highlight those five steps once more.
One is make sure to have savings or income coming in so you don’t have to pressure your business and hustle right off the bat.
Number two is to make sure you get all the necessary tactical items done, like banking accounts, permits, licensing, insurance, etc. If you want, you can download that checklist to just check them off, and again it can be done in one week. If you have six hours in a day, you can get it all done in one day.
Number three is to make sure you’re clear on your program, your package, your pricing. Let go of the niche drama, just decide today and then move forward. You can always change it in the future, how to change it every other week, change at one time, let it run for three months, six months, get the data and then maybe change it.
Number four, get your marketing plan of where you’re going to show up to market and how much so you can do it consistently. And what’s your plan to work on your messaging and your messaging right now can be as simple as just sharing what’s in your heart, the whole reason of why you started a wellness business in there or want to start a wellness business in the first place. That can be your messaging to start, and you’ll learn and refine as you go.
And number five is know how to get people to discovery calls or consultations and how to run those consultations.
So if you want to learn more than again, the Awaken Program, whether it’s one-to-one or in the Mastermind format, we’ll walk you through all those steps. So you can get out there and start making money within the lifestyle, with the schedule that you truly desire to live so you can have a sustainable business for many years to come, which just lights me up because I know you’ll help a lot of people.
Okay, there you have it. I’ll see you next week. Bye for now!
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