EP 290 -How to Start An Online Coaching Business in 2026 | Simple Step-By-Step Guide For New Coaches

If you want to start an online coaching business in 2026, this episode will walk you  through exactly how to do it, step-by-step. Whether you’re a new coach or finally ready to turn your experience into a profitable online coaching business, I’ll walk you through the simple process to build a coaching business that’s aligned, sustainable, and set up for success.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The 5 essential steps to start an online coaching business in 2026
• How to find your niche and identify the clients you’re meant to help
• What you actually need to start (and what you don’t!)
• The simple tech stack I recommend for new coaches
• How to market your coaching business authentically (without pressure or burnout)
• Why consistency and clarity matter more than funnels or fancy systems

If you’ve been overthinking what to do first, this episode will simplify everything and help you move forward with confidence.

Ready to build your coaching business in 2025? Register for our upcoming LIVE workshop here: https://coaching.debbieshadid.com/workshop

Free Resources for coaches:

- Free Masterclass to Grow Your Coaching Business: https://coaching.debbieshadid.com/masterclass

- Canva Workshop: https://coaching.debbieshadid.com/register

Tools I recommend for coaches:

- Flodesk (email marketing): https://flodesk.com/c/DEBBIESHADID

- Descript (video editor): https://get.descript.com/cj4n2vzke4vu

Connect with Debbie:

Website: https://www.debbieshadid.com 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbieshadid/

If you find this episode helpful, make sure to subscribe on YouTube for more videos to help you grow your coaching business: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz6RS8kQGMLJqJrK9uKdjtg 

Disclaimer: Some of the links shared in this description are affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools and resources I use and trust to support your coaching business.

Let’s connect!

• Website: https://www.debbieshadid.com
• Instagram @debbieshadid
• Subscribe on YouTube

#DebbieShadid #LifeCoachBusinessBuildingSchool

Transcript

0:00

If you've been thinking about starting your coaching business in 2026. Maybe you're saying this is the year it's all gonna come together. This episode is for you. I'm actually going to talk about the steps to building a successful business in 2026. This is not about registering your LLC or opening a bank account or even designing a logo. It's also not about building a course before you've even coached someone or about trying to build a business with AI doing all the work. Those things might make you feel productive, but they don't actually build momentum that will create income. Building a real business means building a brand or an audience and a following, and your reputation. That is what creates trust and visibility and paying clients. Too many coaches are hiding behind this getting ready stage, tweaking the tech, Designing freebies and engaging in endless AI content. Are you guilty of that? But none of that really replaces real connection in 2026. The coaches who will grow the fastest are the ones who lead with clarity, confidence and who have conversations. They will focus on connection, not complexity. So, today I'm gonna walk you through the exact steps to build and grow a profitable boutique style coaching business this year. And I want you to start right now without paid ads, without tech overwhelm, And without overly relying on ai, I actually want AI to be your assistant, not your strategist. My name's Debbie Shadid I've helped over 10,000 women not only build, but grow successful, profitable boutique style coaching businesses. You guys ready? Let's dive in. Step one to building your business in 2026 is to know your niche. Know what you stand for before you can start posting, before you can build your website. Creating that offer, you must know who you serve and what the problem is you are going to solve. Your niche is the heartbeat of your business. Without it, every piece of content that you create will feel scattered, and I can tell you, the consumer will not know who it is you stand for or what you're gonna help 'em with. You have got to be crystal clear about that. I don't want you to help everyone. I want you to help a very specific person with a very specific challenge. And don't worry, you will be including people by doing this, not excluding people. Inside of the Business Building Boutique we walk people through this process of getting that niche clarity. It is business changing. You need to identify who your ideal client is. You have to understand how they speak, what is the words that they use about their problems? Uncover the transformation that they are searching for, and the one you can provide when you know exactly who you help and what that real result is, your marketing can suddenly become much easier because you'll be speaking directly to the person who actually needs you most. Step two is to build an authentic brand. Once your niche is clear, it is time to build a brand. And I'm not talking about picking colors or even a logo that is part of a brand, but branding in 2026, it is about authenticity, about consistency and trust. It is about you showing up as the real you. This is how you are going to beat the AI game. You show up in your voice, your energy with your story. Women over 50, they have a huge advantage here because you've already lived, you've already led, and you've already experienced so much. That credibility will shine through when you are confident enough to really bring your whole self into your brand, so I'm talking about a polished brand with beautiful colors that reflect who you are. A beautiful logo, fonts that are clear and easy to read, polished photos, even if it's only one, until you are able to build up that portfolio of photos, a professional email address, you cannot email from your Gmail. It's got to be something like debbie@debbieshaddid.com. Then you need to have really beautiful professional graphics done inside of Canva, and I wanna invite you right now to join my Canva workshop, where I will actually teach you how to build a professional brand in three simple steps using Canva. I'm gonna help you understand what your professional brand should include. The link is right here in the comments. Make sure you watch it. Plus, when you stay till the end of that training, I'm gonna give you 30 days of social media graphics and I'm gonna teach you how to use 'em. So remember, people don't buy coaching, they buy you. Your brand has to create trust. It needs to look professional. It needs to look as if you have been in business for a very long time. Step three is to create an offer that really solves a real problem. When you think about that offer, this is where so many coaches get stuck. What so many people will say to me on a consultation call is, do you think 12 weeks is good? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what you need for your coaching. How many weeks does it take for your ideal client to get the transformation that's gonna stick, You don't need to build a course or a year long program. In fact, don't do that. Your first offer should be focused on solving one real, tangible problem that your ideal client actually wants. And I also want to make sure that it's a problem that you can comfortably solve. Just set aside that imposter syndrome feeling that you might have by picking something that you know you can solve. Don't over promise. Over deliver instead. So. What is the biggest frustration that your ideal client has, and what's the transformation that you can help somebody get? That is actually what your offer's gonna be. I actually teach clients how to create this offer. We map it out so that it's very simple step by step process that will achieve a transformation at the end. You can do this whether you are offering private coaching or group coaching, and ideally to start your coaching business in 2026. You start with private coaching. This is where you build your base, you build your reputation, and it is the easiest thing to sell. And I can tell you, you'll make more money. Selling private coaching than anything else you can offer, especially in the beginning. At some point we can talk about you scaling to group programs, but for now I wanna invite you to sell private coaching. Step four, start talking to people, and I'm talking about marketing without ads. let's be honest for a moment. This is the step that most of you guys want to avoid. Marketing is everything in your business. If you are not selling your coaching, there's only one problem and that's a traffic problem. You do not have enough people engaging in your business, seeing your posts or on your email list or anything else. You don't even need ads, a funnel automation, none of that. What you need is to have conversations with people, and I wanna blow your mind here. Selling coaching in your local market through real conversations, through real networking is literally the easiest, fastest way to do it. When you get online and you're posting, you are depending on the algorithm to find your people, and all you have to do is get in your car and go to a networking event and find some people. All you have to do is talk to people in your local market. I teach a very simple formula, and that is to build connection. That's about having relationships, meeting people, telling 'em what you do, offering to help 'em. having some conversations, those coffee chats where you really connect with people and help them understand what is possible for them with coaching, then it's inviting 'em to have a consult with you. It's the invitation that you're gonna say, Hey, get on my calendar, and then it is to moving them into clients. again, connection, conversation, consultations, and clients. And remember, if you've been around for any period of time, I talk about having a comfortable conversation, not an arm twisting consultation. Coaching is a relationship. That's what it is. You're gonna work with people and your clients are gonna be sharing very honest, real truths with you, and they need to feel connected to you. So every client starts with one conversation that matters. So start by connecting with your neighbors in your local market through networking in Facebook groups, through local events, in communities where your ideal clients are. Ask questions. Share the most valuable information you have. You can give it all away. I'm not kidding. All of the beautiful strategies and tips and helpful things you have, because everybody wants true connection, so they will still hire you. So. Be genuinely helpful. I want you to work on building these relationships because this is literally how you're gonna get your first clients. It is not gonna be because you sell hard. It's gonna be because you invite people to have a conversation. You get to know people and you invite them to take the next step. Step five is to keep your tech simple. In 2026, do not complicate your business. I already know that tech is overwhelming. If you're listening to me, I know how old you are and I know what your story is about tech. You're saying like, oh my gosh, I'm terrible at tech. It's so hard for me to learn this stuff. Guess what? You do not need complicated technology. You need Zoom. You're already using Zoom. You need a calendar to schedule calls on. You need stripe for payments. You gotta be able to collect the money. You need to know how to use Canva. I've already given you a way to learn how to use Canva, you can just go to debbieshaddid.com/canva join my Canva workshop, or click the link and you can learn how to use Canva in 38 minutes. Okay? It is much easier than you think. Then you need to have an email marketing tool. We recommend flodesk. I will leave an affiliate link for that as well. And then Descript. Descript is how you edit really anything in 2026, because you're going to be doing so much video and so much audio Descript. I'm also gonna share an affiliate link in the comments. Make sure that you keep your tech simple. All of those are easy to use, okay? All of that together is about a hundred dollars a month. And I tell you, you can use those tools until you reach the a hundred thousand dollars mark annually in your business. That is how easy it is to set up your business. That's the easy tech you can use so you can focus on marketing and clients instead of your tech. Alright, I wanna pause for a moment. I wanna talk about mindset. I'm gonna invite you to change your mind about your coaching. What you are is a coach with a business. You're not just a coach. You are somebody who has a company. I love to tell our clients, you're the CEO of your coaching company, and it's like what? Well, you are, if you treat your business as if you have a business, you'll start to generate business. Oftentimes people say to me, wow, you're so dressed up and you're so made up when you go to work. Yeah. You know why? Because I have a business. I show up to business, and I'm not saying that you need to look like me or dress like me, and you definitely don't need to wear a red lipstick, okay? People will say, you're so fancy. This is what I feel good in. But what I'm saying is you decide to have a business with regular hours. You get dressed like you're going to work. You treat this like this is your job. You market like it's your job and then you'll have the business that you desire. So you're not just a coach, you're an entrepreneur, you're a CEO. can you imagine what a difference you'll make in your business? When you start having the mindset that I have a business and you start treating it that way? Every woman will win when you show up with the belief, with consistent marketing and when you don't stop. I always say the women who win are the ones that don't quit. That's it. The ones who win don't quit. If you're enjoying this episode, I'm telling you, I teach you how to build your coaching your business. If you are loving this and you're like, okay, I love what I'm hearing here. I wanna invite you to subscribe. I wanna make sure that you stay connected with me all through 2026. I'm gonna be providing you with tons of great marketing ideas, again, all free marketing, where you will learn strategies to grow your coaching business and really build a business that you're gonna love. So let's do a recap here. In 2026 building a coaching business is not about using fancy tech. It is not about the latest software. It is not about AI being the lead in your business. It is about you getting clear on who you help. It is about building lots of connection through marketing and through connecting with people personally in your local market and is about consistency. One of my favorite books is by Darren Hardy. It's called The Compound Effect. This is what consistency does. It compounds. This is the simple thing that we know about saving money, how it compounds over years. The same thing applies for your marketing. The more people you connect with, the more posts you do. The more emails you do, the more people that you get to know. The more likely your business is gonna grow. and then one day you're gonna be so excited about the business you've created and you're gonna thank yourself for being consistent. The things that matter most are getting crystal clear on your niche. They're about learning how to communicate in simple, easy ways. Do not talk and coach speak. Make your marketing really easy to understand. And then again, I'll mention it one more time. Marketing never ends. Marketing is the ATM to your coaching business. So the three steps that matter most out of all of this is to know who you help. That's number one. Number two is to build a brand that builds trust. This professional brand that is elevated and that looks like you're a pro. And then number three is to create those relationships through your marketing so you can turn them into paying clients. So that's it. Now you know what to do to build a successful coaching business in 2026. Do not overcomplicate this. Just do what I've told you, Start with that niche. Build an authentic brand. Create an offer that solves a real problem. Start talking to more people. Keep your tech simple manage your mindset. Remember, you're the CEO, and then keep doing it consistently. Alright, have a beautiful week. I cannot wait to see what you're gonna create and the magic life-changing work that you're gonna do in 2026. Until next time, bye-bye.