How to Create a Scorecard for Your Coaching Business

November 8, 2023

Lumia

Building a Business Scorecard: A Guide for Coaches

Many new life coaches enter the coaching profession with a strong desire to help others and make a difference in the world. But, for those who want to start their own coaching businesses, there’s often a rocky start with launching a viable business.

While there are many components to a successful coaching business, there’s one simple tool that can give you insight into your business from the start. Enter the business scorecard! Using a weekly or monthly scorecard can act as your own personal compass to ensure you're on the right path in both coaching and business management.

The best part is, you get to pick the metrics that matter most to you. You’re the only one who needs to see your scorecard – it’s a measuring stick for you alone to use to help guide, motivate and improve your coaching business.

What Is A Business Scorecard?

A business scorecard is a strategic tool used to assess the performance of a business.

This is a lot of fields, but helpful to see week over week the important stats tracked visually.

As the business owner, it can give you a simple way to view your business from multiple perspectives, from financial stability to marketing efforts and more.

Using a scorecard means you’ll focus on more than just the monetary aspect of your practice – and begin to see which efforts make the most impact on your business.

For example, when you put time into outreach and marketing efforts, you may see an uptick in new clients. Having this information displayed visually will give you the ability to decide where to put your efforts and see what impact it has on your business.

Why Use a Scorecard?

Clarity and Focus: A scorecard provides a snapshot of where you stand compared to your objectives. It ensures you keep what’s most important front and center. From week to week, it keeps you focused on what you’ve already identified as your biggest goals.

Accountability: Just as you hold your clients accountable, a scorecard is a tool that keeps you responsible for achieving your business goals. ‍

Actionable Insights: By reviewing performance metrics regularly, you can identify areas that require attention or re-evaluation. When you get close to a particular goal but keep missing it, it gives you an opportunity to look deeper into why that might be.‍

Motivation: Visualizing your achievements can be a powerful motivator. On challenging days, seeing your progress can be the push you need to keep going. Knowing you’ll need to mark down a number on your scorecard can push you further.

Creating Your Scorecard:

Step 1: Identify The Metrics that Matter to You

Think of a metric as a yardstick or gauge. Just as a measuring tape measures length, a metric quantifies specific aspects of your business, helping you understand how things are going.

You’re going to first separate your metrics into two main categories. Remember, these are just examples of possible metrics you could select to chart. You need to select the metrics that matter most for YOUR coaching business.

Coaching Metrics:

Client satisfaction scores or ratings
Number of sessions per client
Client milestone achievements or goals met
How many clients continue working with you over time
Pre- and post-coaching assessment scores
Referrals from existing clients
Client progress tracking
Number of coaching tools or techniques employed per session

Business Metrics:

Total revenue and revenue growth
Operating expenses and net profit
Number of new prospective clients per month
How many leads become paying clients
Marketing campaign outcomes
Website traffic and most visited pages
How much it costs to acquire a new client
Client lifetime value – total revenue generated from a client over time
Social media metrics
Testimonials and reviews received
Average time taken to respond to inquiries or client requests
Percentage of repeat clients or long-term contracts
Revenue streams (One-on-one coaching, group sessions, online courses, workshops…)

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Remember, the metrics you choose should align with your overarching goals. Keep it simple to start with! Select metrics that are easy for you to track as you get started, and add more as you see more success with your scorecard.

Step 2: Set Clear, Measurable Goals

For each metric, define what success looks like to you. Whether it's onboarding a certain number of clients or achieving a specific revenue figure, make it precise. Set a numerical goal that you can measure against.

For example, if you know you need to have five intro calls per month to land one new client – put five intro calls on your scorecard, and break it down into a weekly goal. Figure out how you’ll get those calls booked so you can be on track to hit your goal.

Step 3: Choose a Timeframe

Decide whether you'll track metrics weekly, monthly, or both. Weekly evaluations can offer quicker feedback, while monthly reviews provide a broader perspective.

Step 4: Design Your Scorecard

It doesn’t need to be fancy - you can use tools like Excel or Google Sheets.

Keep the design simple, and put it in your bookmark bar, or in your personal task tracking software to check up on weekly. Make sure it has columns for each week (or month) so you can quickly add your numbers to see growth week over week. Make the boxes where you hit your goal green, and the ones where you miss the goal red – this way you can see your progress at a glance.

Using Your Scorecard Effectively:

Consistent Check-ins: Set aside time at the start and end of each week or month to review and update your scorecard.

Stay Flexible: As your coaching business evolves, your goals and metrics will change. Update your scorecard as necessary once you see what actually makes an impact on your business!

Celebrate Wins: No achievement is too small. Celebrate milestones to maintain motivation.

Analyze and Adjust: If you notice consistent shortcomings in specific metrics, take it as a cue to re-evaluate your strategies in that area – don’t take it personally, this is the goal of the scorecard, to give you an opportunity to put more effort into an area that could use it.

Share and Seek Feedback: If you're comfortable, share your scorecard with a mentor or peer. External insights can be invaluable.

A scorecard is more than just a tracking tool – it's a reflection of your journey as a life coach. By regularly measuring and reflecting on the metrics that matter most in your business, you position yourself for growth, ensuring that you serve your clients to the best of your ability and that you can run a thriving coaching business.

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