Recently Seth Godin wrote about digital coaching, and how there seemed to be a shortage of people operating in this manner online. Here’s how he framed the opportunity:

1. Digital technology, especially computers and cell phones, can dramatically increase productivity.
2. More and more users of digital technology are small firms or individuals.
3. The vast majority of users of digital technology are totally lame in getting the most out of the investment of their time and money.

Seth is talking specifically about helping people get the most out of new and existing digital technologies. And there’s no doubt that this is a huge growth area for training and coaching concepts.

As big as that opportunity is, the basic idea of digital coaching extends well beyond helping people with technology. And there’s also a way to structure an entire systematized business model around digital coaching that builds your authority, creates multiple revenue streams, and leads to higher quality leads and better client relationships.

How do I know? Because it’s one of the seven business models we’ve already explored inside Teaching Sells.

Build Your Authority and Revenue at the Same Time

This business model focuses in part on the enhanced authority that is created for a service provider by publishing paid expert content, which in turn generates leads for lucrative fee-based work. Consultants, coaches, and pundits know the value of becoming a published author, and they promote their books as a way to not only obtain new business, but also to charge much higher fees than their peers.

Taking the same approach with an interactive learning environment is much more dynamic, because your relationship with the prospect is direct. There is no publishing intermediary to siphon off membership revenue, and the medium itself allows for natural business development opportunities that could not occur in the dead-tree environment of a book.

While this model would seem to lend itself to well-established experts, newer practitioners can also launch lucrative coaching and consulting careers with this strategy. After all, many a career has been launched seemingly out of nowhere with the publication of a business book, so there’s no reason why a quality membership site can’t do that and more thanks to the interactivity and immediacy of the environment.

More Time and More Money Thanks to Tiered Access

When you take a look at many successful online ventures these days, more and more are taking a hybrid approach to business. It’s no longer only information sales or only consulting, but rather a tiered approach that charges successively higher fees for greater access to the expert.

Tier 1—Membership Fees: To justify a solid membership fee, the information provided must be “how to” as opposed to just “what” or “why” level information. I’ve seen too many experts shoot themselves in the foot by holding back the “how to” because they’re afraid to reveal too much.

To the contrary, telling people “how to” increases your authority and your value to the prospect. We live in a highly specialized world, and even when you tell people how to do everything from a general standpoint, they still often struggle with application to their specific situation. Plus, your experience and talent often makes it much more attractive for them to hire you than do it themselves.

Tier 2—Group Coaching: The next tier of access can be a group coaching program. The price is higher and the individual attention is increased, but the program can still be systematic and much less time-intensive than one-on-one consulting.

Tier3—Workshops: In-person group coaching and advice can be the next tier, especially if the business is local. A one, two, or three-day intensive session at a fee that makes it well worth your time to hold the event can really boost your bottom line without juggling a heavy client load.

Tier 4—One-on-One Consulting: By offering several tiers of group advice, you can select only the most interesting and lucrative projects to work on personally, or to spearhead as the head of a team of associates.

Tier 5—Mentoring: Mentoring programs may only be viable for certain types of businesses, but they can be extremely lucrative to you and valuable to your star students who get it, but want you to help them take it to a whole new level.

Product Sales: Because you’re operating out of a virtual environment, you can easily offer software, related training materials, and other items on a direct, reseller, or affiliate basis. The environment facilitates additional revenue that would likely never happen with a book-based authority-building plan.

Run Your Business Instead of it Running You

Building your consulting or coaching business model around interactive training is a smart move that can scale nicely. Simply put, you can run the business instead of having it run you.

For example:

• With a membership-first concept, you can completely eliminate all marketing and lead generation costs with smart joint ventures and advertising that provides a positive return on investment in membership fees earned.
• Membership revenue can also defer or eliminate the cost of hiring associates who handle routine consulting and coaching tasks and become profit centers.
• You become the CEO and “rainmaker” who brings in additional business, while others handle all administrative and profit-producing tasks. It’s a perfect “leverage” model.

In other words, this model allows you to build a real business that properly rewards the person who brings in the business and creates the systems. This helps overworked freelancers and solo professionals escape the treadmill of having a “self-employed” J-O-B and build a business with independent value beyond the hours spent by the founder.

Check out Teaching Sells risk free thanks to our no-hassle money-back guarantee. Jump in with both feet and get started today.