Congratulations! You’ve just qualified from your wellness course.
You’d love to make this into a business, maybe even walk away from a corporate job you’re sick of and turn your qualification into an income stream doing what you love.
But… where do you begin?
Here are the five steps you need to follow to start a thriving wellness business:
1. You need clarity
Before diving into anything business set-up related it’s really important to get clear on two things:
Firstly, what do you want? That might sound like a simple question, but have you ever written it down and been really specific?
You’d love to use your wellness qualification to make money, but… what does that look like? How do you want to work? What would your average week look like? How much money do you want to earn? Do you have a vision for where you’re trying to get to?
Without some clarity on what you’re trying to achieve it’s very likely that you’ll be haphazard with your actions, jump from one ‘shiny object’ to the next or try to mimic what other people in the industry are doing, without a full awareness of your own priorities and strengths. Which can leave you feeling really burned out and frustrated.
The second important thing to get clear on is: who do you want to help?
It’s impossible to put together offers, write compelling content or market yourself effectively if you don’t know who you are trying to work with. You might also have heard of this as ‘niching’ – getting specific about your ideal customers and the unique and distinctive way you help them.
Knowing the sort of person you’d love to help, their problems and struggles and the solutions and outcomes they’re looking for, will enable you to stand out and connect with ideal customers.
If you aren’t clear on this, then you’ll be trying to market yourself to everyone which will result in you getting lost in the crowd and not getting booked.
Action: Write out a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve in your wellness business and be as specific as possible. In addition write out a description of the ideal customer you’d love to help split into two columns: where they’re at right now and struggling with, and where they’d love things to be instead with their health and what that would enable for them. You can use these lists to create offers and marketing content.
2. You need clear packages
In order to turn your amazing knowledge into an income in wellness you need to have clear offers and services. When people can see what they’re investing in, when it is well explained and clear who it’s for and what the outcome will be of signing up, then they’re more likely to say ‘yes.’
If the way you work is a jumble of drop-in sessions, one-offs, products that don’t lead anywhere or answer particular problems or an unspecified mysterious offer that isn’t fathomable to the normal person on the street, prospective buyers are going to be apprehensive and confused.
When you have clear offers and packages you can also do your maths and ensure that you’re going to earn what you want from your wellness work. Otherwise you can end up working very hard, seeing clients and delivering for them all week long, but find your bank balance isn’t reflecting the energy and time you’re putting in.
Action: Put together specific packages and programmes you want to sell that serve your ideal clients and help them achieve the outcomes they want. Make sure to do the maths when you price them to ensure your time will equal the income you are aiming for.
3. You need to get comfortable with selling
Something to really focus on when you start your wellness business is the art of selling. Which is a word that for most of us sends shivers down our spines!
No-one wants to feel like a greasy, second-hand car salesman pushing and convincing people into buying their wellness service. That is not good selling and not what I think your focus should be on.
Instead finding ways to embrace and enjoy talking with people about what you do, based in great conversations and curiosity is the way to realise that selling can be fun and easy, rather than sleazy and awkward.
A lot of the work around getting comfortable with selling is mindset: it’s in cultivating self-belief and confidence in what you are offering and the desire and need for it from your ideal customers (yes they do want to invest in your services and they do have the money!).
Action: Observe how other people sell and what helps you make buying decisions – who do you trust and what helps you move towards investing? Think about ways you can repeat this for yourself if it feels good. Catch when you’re talking yourself out of promoting what you do and spot the stories or beliefs that get in your way so you can reframe them.
4. You need to have your own way of getting found
In the digital age there are many ways to find the services you need and your ideal clients are using one in particular (even more than social media!): Google and search engines.
If you don’t have your own website, then you are cutting off a huge number of people who are actively searching for someone exactly like you who offers what they need and are keeping your light and abilities hidden.
Focusing on a website that clearly communicates who you help, what your offers are and shares content that answers their questions and reassures them that you’re the perfect person to help them, is a must.
It’s important however not to get stuck on this step. Many people will go down the rabbit hole of designing the most perfect and beautiful website, constantly fiddling and changing the words and the layout on a site that never gets launched or which completely detracts their attention from being visible in other ways.
A website can play an integral part in helping you get found and booked when you start your wellness business. But it’s not the only way and so getting a site launched that you can build on is more important than trying to make it perfect from day 1.
Action: Find a platform to create a basic website for your business. I recommend Squarespace which has beautiful easy to use templates.
5. You need to find a way to connect with the people that need you
As lovely as it would be to sit back now you have your qualification and be flooded with unending bookings and enquiries, this simply won’t happen by itself just because you now have a certificate on your wall.
You need to get seen and known as a trusted expert before people will invest in you.
There are lots of ways to connect and get noticed by your ideal customers. Creating a marketing strategy that suits your strengths and makes you feel excited to commit to and show up for is crucial – rather than trying to do things that you’re afraid of or hide from which will mean you stay unknown and unbooked.
- Connecting with others can look like:
- Creating content consistently on social media, a podcast or video channel
- Getting featured in the press
- Networking and attending events
- Being featured as a guest expert with other people’s audiences and groups
- Leaflets and posters
- Hosting your own events
- Getting referrals from other practitioners or experts serving the same audience
Please note that when it comes to where to focus your energy, you do not have to become an influencer spending hours of your life pumping out content in order to create a consistent client base for your wellness business. There are lots of ways to be visible and you can choose whether this does or doesn’t include creating content for social media. It’s your choice.
Action: Decide how you want to market yourself in the first year of your wellness business. Pick 1-2 things to focus on rather than trying to do everything from the list at once and commit to mastering and taking action every week and month to get seen by new people.
To summarise, the five things to focus on when you start your wellness business are:
- Clarity – on your goals and your ideal client
- Packages – putting together clear offers
- Selling – getting comfortable with telling people about what you do
- A website – launching a basic site that can get you found
- Connecting – committing to 1-2 ways to market yourself
Blog Post by Vicky Shilling (guest lecturer at IINH for Nutrition & Health Coaching and Nutritional Therapy)
Vicky Shilling is the Wellness Business Mentor, helping health practitioners turn their expertise into income. She is dedicated to making well-being solopreneurship as simple and supported as possible in a world of advice overwhelm. She shares tips and straight-talking action steps through her Just Start Now book and award nominated podcast, community and 1:1 mentoring.
If want free training on how to begin with some of the elements on this list, take Vicky’s quiz to find out what’s blocking you and where to get started: https://vickyshilling.com/quiz
Vicky’s Just Start Now course and community is where she helps wellness professionals just like you start and grow their business, with lifetime access to resources, monthly group calls and a supportive community covering all of these foundations combined with self-belief coaching to help you take action. Sign up here.
