The digital transformation has come with a
whole array of changes and
has affected all the major industries of the global economy. One of
which happens
to be the private coaching industry. This industry has
evolved significantly over the years transitioning from
in-person to
digital or remote coaching. One of its prominent benefits is that
technology has expanded the
ability to provide and receive coaching.
This has resulted in a rapid increase in the emergence of online
coaching platforms all across the globe.
Most Lucrative Private Coaching Niches
Once you've decided to start your own private coaching business, it
is essential to
choose a niche as it helps you filter and attract a
specific group of people who are interested in your
services. Below
mentioned are some of the popular niches to set up an online coaching
business.
- Business Coaching: A business coaching platform
assists business owners in clarifying
business goals. The coaches on
this platform help formulate plans and strategies for business owners to
achieve overall greater business growth and maximize earning potential.
- Academic
Coaching: In academic coaching, coaches examine student's 3 -academic concerns
and major
barriers to success. They also assess students' strengths and
help them in areas such as time management and
test preparation.
- Career Coaching: On
a career coaching website/platform, a
career coach helps individuals on
different career-related challenges such as orienting career
transition, finding the ideal job, or even getting a raise/promotion,
etc.
- Financial Coaching: On a financial
coaching website people can get help from financial
experts on
using/investing their money, creating more avenues for income towards
financial well-being.
- Fitness Coaching: A
fitness coaching platform helps fitness enthusiasts reach
their fitness
goals by getting expert advice and coaching from professional fitness
coaching.
- Life Coaching: A life coaching platform is
dedicated to helping people struggling with
everyday challenges in their
lives by connecting them with professional life coaches who are adept
at
helping individuals tackle problems with a positive mindset.
Emerging Trends In
Private Coaching
Staying informed about the prevailing trends in the
private coaching
sphere can help business owners anticipate the changes and adjust their
strategies in due
course. Below mentioned are some of the rising trends
of this industry:
- Increased
Accountability: As private coaching
is becoming more mainstream every day, barriers to entry in
this
business are bound to rise. Quality assurance will become a priority for
the clients who hire
coaches and they will demand qualified coaches to
assert their expert knowledge. Qualification and
experience will become
the popular measures to select the coaches.
- Preference to
Niche-Specific Coaching: Niche-specific coaches will be preferred instead of those who know
different subjects but in bits and pieces. Having a specified niche
allows the coaches to focus on the
specific client requirements,
understand their pain points and connect with them easily.
- Coaching - A Necessity: The need for private coaching has truly gone mainstream in the
past few
years. People have started realizing that the hard challenges in their
business, life, or any
other sphere, can be easily dealt with if proper
coaching and advice is sought from professional experts.
From a luxury
afforded by a few, it has become a life-altering means which is
accessible to everyone.
Business Model of an Online Private Coaching Platform
There are several business models in practice in the online private
coaching market. Knowing which one
will suit your business and offer the
best value to your target audience is important. In this post, we'll
be
talking about the popular marketplace model. It consists of three user
types.
- The coach creates a profile on the platform and a request is sent to the
admin for the approval of the profile.
- The client then browses the coaches on the platform as per
the
required criteria like specialization, total experience, price,
language, and so on.
- The client can then select a coach as per their requirement and check his/her availability for booking a
session.
- The client then makes the payment and books the session with the coach. The session can be
a one-to-one or group session.
- After the successful completion of the session, the client provides
the feedback of the coach.
- Once the session is marked completed by the client as well as the coach,
the payment is released to the coach's account.
Revenue Channels of an Online
Private Coaching Platform
While the main source of revenue is the
commission from coaches'
earnings, business owners should look to integrate several other revenue
streams
into their coaching platform.
- Subscription
- Premium listings
- Google AdSense
- Merchandise
- Cancellation fee
Must-Have Features In an Online
Private Coaching Platform
Let's look at some of the essential features
of an online private
coaching platform that will drive user engagement and help you
effortlessly manage your
platform.
- Video Conferencing: Clients who require one-to-one
interaction with the coach will prefer a coaching platform with a video
conferencing feature. While
emails and chats can cover most of the
learning needs, collaborating visually can actually help in retaining
information and learn at a higher level. A study confirms that 90% of people find it easier to get their point across
when they
are seen. Other interactive tools during video conferencing
like a whiteboard, text chat, file/screen
sharing add up to the
interaction and engagement among the clients and coaches.
- Time-Zone Friendly: Online coaching platforms have
users from across the globe, interacting
with each other in different
time zones. Allowing users to set and explore the platform in their
local
time zone has become quite crucial. Pushing reminders and alerts
for upcoming sessions in the user's local
time zone can help occurrences
of no-shows.
- Multilingual: Online coaching
platforms have users
from all over the world which makes multi-language support a necessary
tool to
achieve their eLearning goals. Coaching platforms that support
multiple languages for their users become
highly engaging as they help
optimize user experience by localizing the process and putting end to
geographical barriers.
- Review/Rating: Review/rating on the coaching
platform is a great way to build trust and transparency on the platform.
Reviews, be they positive or
negative, help people get a sense of what
to expect before selecting a coach. That's why it's almost a
prerequisite for coaching marketplaces now to provide some sort of
review/feedback about the coaches
listed on the platform.
- GDPR Compliant: In order to help business owners
deliver private coaching seamlessly, online coaching platforms should
comply with the GDPR regulations.
Being mindful about how to collect and
store personal and sensitive information about the coaches and
clients
helps to mitigate any legal and financial exposure.
- Multi-Device
Usage: Clients these days use devices
of all sizes ranging from mobile phones, tablets,
laptops, desktops, to
smart TVs. They switch from laptops to computers as per their
convenience, which
makes it essential to offer online coaching
accessible on multiple devices. Offering multi-device support
enhances
interactivity among users and a surge in your platform's engagement
stats.
- Multiple Payment Methods: Facilitating the users with multiple payment methods makes it
convenient for them to make and receive
payments increasing the
conversion and sales. Basic payment methods like credit/debit cards, net
banking, online wallets, etc. should be integrated into the online
coaching platforms.
- PWA Powered: As the mobile
users are more than 60%, it becomes essential to provide
an optimum learning experience on the mobile.
PWA-powered web platforms
are now available as web applications on mobile devices which are also
responsive to adapt to the screen size of the devices.
Building an
Online Private Coaching Platform
Moving on from the key features, one
of the dilemmas for many
business owners before building the platform is whether to choose
between a
ready-made solution or go for custom development. Undoubtedly,
a custom-developed platform will have the
features and functionality
customized as per the business requirements, it will take a huge amount
of time
and manpower to build it from scratch.
In contrast, the ready-made solutions in the market available these
days are integrated with the latest and popular features which can
easily accommodate the requirements of
the users. One such readymade
solution is IndiaStudent that comes with lifetime ownership. This
off-the-shelf
solution meets the diverse requirements of the online
coaching marketplaces and empowers entrepreneurs to run a
successful
coaching business. The solution is extensively customizable and can
perfectly fit the constantly
evolving needs of the users.
Final Thoughts
Building an
online coaching marketplace can be a huge undertaking,
however, a white-label solution like Yo!Coach can help
you launch it in
no time. The ability of this remarkable solution to support your unique
values and
differentiate your offering makes you stand out from the
competition in the market. If you are interested in
building a coaching
platform, schedule a free demo of
IndiaStudent and we will help you explore the role this solution can play in your business.
