How to become a Virtual Assistant for Coaches

Online Coaches are one of the biggest clients of Virtual Assistants. That’s why today, I want to talk about how you can become a virtual assistant for coaches and niche down into this type of target client!

There are countless types of business owners that utilize Virtual Assistants, but one of the most notable are online coaches.

I find that a lot of VA’s love working with coaches because they are usually really great to work with.

They all generally have similar administrative needs, they are super appreciative of our support, and have business structures that compliment really well with the partnership of Virtual Assistants.

That’s why I want to shed some light on the what, how and why of working with Online Coaches as a Virtual Assistant!

What is a Coach?

I personally define an online coach as anyone who is supporting someone through a journey that they’ve been through themselves.

This is because generally, people hire coaches because they desire the same end result the coach has had and wants their guidance on how to get there. They are paying that coach so they don’t have to figure it all out on their own and hopefully make more progress faster with their support.

Although every coach runs their program in their own unique way, most meet with their clients on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to discuss their client’s challenges and provide feedback, guidance and ideas for moving forward. Then they also provide email support in between sessions.

Every experienced coach has a specific niche and focuses on one area. Some of the most common can include:

• Fitness Coach
• Life Coach
• Career Coach
• Business Coach
• Specialty Coaches (MS, Mental Health, Trauma Recovery, Shame Loss, Self-Care, Empathic, Homeschooling, sleep training, etc….)

There’s truly a coach for everything.

They can even niche down within those primary categories. For instance, within just the “Fitness Coaches” realm – There are coaches that focus on women in postpartum, individuals with physical injuries, people with eating disorders, and more.

So the sky really is the limit!

Why do Coaches hire Virtual Assistants?

Coaches often have small teams of just 1-3 people total and generally don’t have the need for a full-time employee because they don’t have enough work to fill such a role. So it’s easier for them to have one or two Virtual Assistants to support them instead!

They also often feel overwhelmed managing it all themselves.

Since they have such small (or non-existent!) teams, it’s easy for them to get really bogged down in the administrative tasks of running their business. Because of this, it can make a huge difference for them to have a VA that takes even just 5 hours of their work day off their plate every week!

Not to mention the fact that they just don’t want to waste their time on administrative tasks in the first place when they can focus on serving and supporting their clients more!

They also aren’t experts in understanding how to run their business well. So they generally don’t understand how to setup automations, systems or processes for making their business run more smoothly.

They just want to worry about their clients! So they often hire specialty VA’s who can help them establish their client workflows for them, rather than them struggling to do it on their own.

Last but not least, they can only take on so many clients before they run out of time in their day. That means that the only way they can take on more clients and make more money is to delegate tasks to someone else. That’s where we come in!

Common Tasks of Virtual Assistants for Coaches

So what types of tasks do virtual assistants for coaches do? I’m happy you asked, my friend.

This obviously isn’t an an exhaustive list as every business owner’s needs are a little different.

But here’s a list of some of the most common support tasks that coaches need from their VAs:

• Email Inbox Management
• Sending Proposals
• Sending + Following up on Invoices
• Instagram Management
• Pinterest Management
• Email Newsletters
• CRM / Workflow Setups

As you can see, these aren’t wildly technical tasks. But they are the things that usually get pushed down a Coaches’s to-do list when things get busy.

When that happens, they’re loosing out on the long-term growth opportunities that these marketing and customer service tasks give them. That’s why they’re happy and willing to invest in someone else to take them off their plate and help them grow.

How to know if you’ll enjoy working as a Coach’s Virtual Assistant

The million dollar question!

The beauty of becoming a Virtual Assistant is that you have the power to customize your business to what works for you and what you enjoy doing. That’s why it’s important to recognize how partnering with Online Coaches will impact your daily work life.

If you find yourself resonating with the following, you’ll more than likely love being a Virtual Assistant for Coaches of any kind:

You love simple, repetitive tasks

Online coaches generally follow the same framework or signature process for all of their clients. This means that there’s a lot of tasks that get repeated over and over again every time the coach books a new client. So you have to be comfortable with doing the same things on a recurring basis – every week or even day!

You love systems + customer service

When you become a Virtual Assistant for coaches, you usually become the main point of contact for their clients for anything business-related. This means invoices, contract follow ups, access to their courses or portals, etc! So it’s important that you enjoy supporting people through these issues and get satisfaction out of it rather than it being a bother to you.

You get your socks off on a fabulous client experience

One of the best and easiest ways that coaches can increase their prices is by improving their client experience. So if find joy out of looking at your client’s processes and figuring out ways to improve it, you’ll be an incredible asset to their team. This can look like creating a beautiful, branded welcome packet that gets sent to their clients when they sign their contract or setting up a booking calendar link that makes it easier for them to schedule calls. These things up-level the experience of your client’s services and make them worth more money over time.

You love learning new tech

The core process of how online coaches run their businesses are essentially the same. However, there are at least 5 different platforms that you can use to do each one of the things that needs done. This includes sending contracts, building a website, accepting payments, and more. So you have to be willing and excited to learn about how your coach client runs their business and what tech they personally use. Because even if you have 5 different coaches you work with, they may all use different platforms just to do the same single task.

You value the mission behind your client’s messaging

I have to be honest: Not all coaches are created equal. There are a lot of people that give experienced coaches a bad reputation when they create these big, expensive service packages, people hire them, and then don’t deliver on their promises. So you have to be aware of the mission behind your client’s goals to ensure they align with your own.

You also have to consider whether you align with your client’s messaging. For example, I’m not an extremely “woo” person. So I wouldn’t be able to intimately work with someone who was really into things of that nature. But, that might be just your thing! That’s what you have to take time to consider so that you can feel as excited about what your client is doing as they are.

How to find Coaches who will hire you

There are a ton of different ways to connect with coaches who need your support!

Facebook groups

There are hundreds of facebook groups dedicated specifically to online coaches. I encourage you to join those groups and network with the coaches there to start building genuine connections with people in those communities. Offer tips, suggestions and help when people ask without an ask in return and you’ll be surprised at how many potential clients you can find!

Follow Relevant hashtags on instagram

Coaches love instagram (but then again, what online business pro doesn’t?! ha!). So take some time to brainstorm some of the top hashtags you think your ideal online coach client would use on a regular basis and follow them! When you see someone come through your feed that you’d be excited to work with, interact with them in an authentic way and start building connections with them. Eventually when it feels right, maybe you can pitch your services to them!

Offer beta services

Beta services are when you complete a service for a client in exchange for something other than money to gain experience. This can be arranged in a lot of different ways, but typically you do something like design a website for a coach and they write you a testimonial or give you a shout out on their instagram.

When you’re just starting out and find a client you’re really excited about working with and you really want to get them interested in hiring you. Consider offering them a beta service! It gives them a free opportunity to learn how much they love working with you and will be that much more motivated to hire you (for real money!) after that first project.

That’s a wrap! Online coaches make incredible clients for new or experienced Virtual Assistants. Do you think online coaches could be your new target client? Let me know!