If You're Making Under 5k Per Month As A Coach, Don't Build Funnels

Today I want to talk about why you shouldn’t start building complex systems — purchasing expensive technology, trying to build crazy funnels for your coaching business — if you’re making under 5k per month.

That 5k number is really important. Because after you get above 5k, it means you’re making a good full-time income as a coach and you either have a full client roster or enough clients to keep you busy. That’s when you want to start building systems or structures.

The mistake that most coaches make is that they are in the online world and they are seeing ads for webinar funnels and think they should be doing their own advertising and that they should have this complex website with this complex funnel they build on the backend.

And I totally get that. I understand some of the appeal. But you need to know when it’s time to do that in your business.

To explain when it’s time to use systems in your business, I want to use a metaphor...

Imagine that you have just a few seeds planted in a new garden. Maybe you have a few tomato plants, some kale plants. And all you need is some water right now.

You don’t need to build a complex waterway, like some Aztec water system through the fields, to water all your plants. You only have a few seeds. You’re just starting out.

Right now what you’ve got to do is go to where the water is. Go get some water, pick it up in a bucket, bring it back, put it on the plants.

As your garden grows, maybe you establish a hose, a way that water comes to you more easily. And then when you have this empire of plants, this field of plants, that’s when you build these complex systems to make it happen automatically so that you don’t have to worry about water coming in.

The water in this metaphor is the same thing as clients.

In the beginning of your business, before you’re even at 5k, you’ve got some time. What you’ve got to do is be proactive, get out, and find the place where your ideal clients are already hanging out.

(Note: I didn't mention this in the video, but another reason to hold off on building systems when you get started is because you might not be very clear on who your ideal client is yet. If you start building systems based on the wrong niche, then you'll end up having to change what you build later on.)

Once you’ve identified where your ideal clients are, that’s when you can go get them, scoop them up in a bucket. Offer them something compelling, have a conversation with them, and enroll them into your program.

You’ve got to do that for a little while. Once your client roster starts to get full and you’re at that 5k per month threshold, that’s when you can figure out “How can I automate this a bit? How can I build systems to make the leads come to me? How can I do more client attraction?”

At the beginning it’s more client creation. You’ve got to go out and create those clients yourself. And I want you to think about getting that bucket, going out there, scooping some clients up, bringing it back into your business. Not expecting to build these systems and have the clients come to you.

The reason this kills most coaches is because in the time it takes to build those complex systems and waterways, you’re losing money the whole time. So if you don’t have enough clients, if you’re not at 5k a month yet, you’ll eventually run out of water and the garden (your business) will die. You’ll run out of money before you can ever build those systems to get you clients in the first place.

So at the beginning, you’ve just got to kind of get creative, get proactive, hustle a bit, go out and go to the clients. Don’t worry about building complex systems.

So you may be asking, “Ok Greg, that’s great. But where do I actually find my ideal clients?"

I have a free guide for you called “The 21 Ways To Find Potential Clients”. It gives you a bunch of different ideas that you haven’t thought of already about where to find high-paying clients who you’ll love to work with.

Just click the button below, I’ll send it right along, and then you can check some of those out and see if there’s any you want to try this week. Go out, fill that bucket up, and bring some new clients into your business.