As the French philosopher Henri Bergson said, “You can’t expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow.” Today’s tools can support and enhance your coaching relationships. They can help your clients reach their goals more quickly and easily. Today’s tools are web-based, affordable and really, really cool.

Many coaches already interact with their clients using web technology such as webinars, video conferencing, podcasts and more. Other coaches use the telephone, email, and a fax machine. Think for a moment about your coaching style and your clients. If you look at your practice with an open mind, there are probably loads of ways to reduce repetitive tasks, improve your service and streamline your marketing. Here are just a few suggestions:

- Create online forms for your clients with Wufoo. It is quick to set up and eliminates emailing, printing and faxing documents back and forth. Plus, all your information is then available in one place. Bonus: you can also accept online payments.

- Add online scheduling to your site.

- Record your session calls. Give the files to your clients for future review.

- Easily create beautiful newsletters or weekly coaching tips to send to your clients and contacts.

You can also use online tools with your clients to improve organization, accountability and productivity. Basecamp is a brilliantly simple project management system used by tens of thousands of small businesses; I personally would be lost without it. There are applications that help with weight loss, job searching, financial accountability and planning, dating and so much more. Mashable.com has great lists and reviews of web applications of all stripes. Many have free versions.

At the end of the day…

You don’t need to spend hours glued in front of your computer; if you can’t see how something could be useful to you in 10 minutes then it is probably not a good fit. Find a few online applications that look interesting and give them a spin. Think of one area of your business that could use an upgrade or one client’s particular need and search out a solution to that problem. A little bit of research and possibly an afternoon of restructuring could save you hours each week and rejuvenate your coaching business.

Many people lament that the Internet is killing interpersonal relationships. Sure, it is possible to never leave your house and interact with other people solely as a warlord elf in an online fantasy game. For the most part, however, I would argue that the Internet is changing and enriching the way we interact as communities. It gives us tools to connect, collaborate, and communicate in new and organic ways.

With all this bonding and idea-swapping and general chatter happening, the possibilities for your coaching business are limited only by your imagination.  If you are finding that your more traditional marketing isn’t working as well as you’d like, try social networking on for size; you sure can’t beat the price. What kind of clients do you want? What is your niche? Seek out that community through blogs (technorati is a great place to start) and social networks such as Facebook and Linkedin. Offer up some really good, free information. Join conversations on Twitter or start new ones on forums relevant to your expertise. If you provide value to the discussions, people will respect you and seek you out.

Do you already have a great community of clients and friends?  Start your own free social network.   Say, for example, that you are a nutrition coach.  You create the “Vibrant Health Network”, which is fully branded and customized with useful features. You invite all your clients, past and present. Membership is open, so they invite their own friends and family. You start subgroups just for your teleclasses so that your clients can chat and support each other. You post tips, recipes, and videos and other people follow suit. Your network is chock full of useful information and is growing daily. Your eBooks sell like crazy and your events fill up overnight. You are wildly successful.

Next time – Coaching 2.0: Use the right tools for the job.

Quite frankly, there is a sea of coach sites out there that appear to have been created in the late 1990’s with flashing animations, aggressive pop-ups and photos that look like they were taken at Glamour Shots. A well-designed coach site seems to be the exception, not the rule. Personally, I blame this on the large number of shockingly ugly websites out there that sell web marketing tips and tools to coaches.  They have led you astray.

We have a 7-second attention span when surfing the web so your site’s appearance and usability are really important. Your philosophy may be compelling and your clients’ results extraordinary, but I will probably never learn that if your site is outdated, hard to navigate or hurts my eyes. Consciously or unconsciously, I will think that you are offering an inferior service and move on to something else. Think of it this way: you wouldn’t go for a job interview in MC Hammer pants and a tube top.

Here are some tips for creating a lovely and inviting website:

- What qualities do you want to be associated with? Find sites that give you that feeling and emulate them.

- Make sure your navigation is simple, straightforward and identical on every page.

- 90% of the time people scan information, they don’t read from top to bottom. Break up your material with titles and subtitles. Write clearly and concisely. Don’t write too much on one page (300-500 words tops, less is better.)

- At the end of the day, content trumps design. Give viewers some useful new knowledge for free, without making them sign up for your newsletter to get it. If your content is good enough, they will hand over their email address anyway because they want to know more.

- Take a step back. Would you hire you based on your website? Find a few friends who will be totally honest with you and get their opinion as well.

Next up – Coaching 2.0: Forget traditional marketing; it is all about community.

Having an online presence is no longer an option.  A recent Pew study showed that 73% of Americans now use the Internet.  A March 2009 Gallop poll reported that about half of adults are online for more than an hour per day. Many people will not hire a plumber without first looking them up online. Like it or not, your potential clients are typing your name into search engines. They want to get to know you virtually before you ever talk on the phone or meet in person. Your website should tell them about you, your business and your coaching style in some depth. Bonus points for having a blog.

You can hire a web company to build you a great site if you have some extra marketing dollars lying around, but there are lots of fantastic companies online that make building your own site easy, even enjoyable. A few good options to get you started include: www.webs.com, www.joomla.org, and www.weebly.com.

A few further things you can do to improve your site’s visibility: If possible, include metaData (the code that searchbots look for when ranking your site) such as site maps and keywords. After you have created a site (or updated your old site), take a moment to register it at the major search engines like Google and Yahoo as well as the Open Directory Project.  If your url (web address) is new or has changed, make sure to update it in any relevant coaching directories or lists – or find new ones. The more links there are to your site, the better your search engine rating will be.

Coming soon – Coaching 2.0: Looks matter.

I am not a coach. I am a designer and entrepreneur currently building a web application for professional coaches.  So what do I know about coaching and the web?  I have spent the better part of the last year studying the coaching industry, the resources and websites for coaches online and all the latest trends and technology emerging on the Internet. That, and I have been searching for a coach for myself so I have some insight about what your potential clients may be thinking.

Psst. They may be thinking that many coaches out there need to work on their Internet skills, pronto.

Some of you may be understandably reluctant about this. In the past, being web savvy was the strict domain of IT professionals. No more, my friends. There is a widespread movement among web designers and developers to employ good design and drastically improve user experience. Google hasn’t just given us dizzying search capabilities, but also online calendars, document creation and sharing, photo albums and personalized news. Scores of new web applications are being launched each week to fit every niche need imaginable.  So what does this computer programming revolution have to do with your coaching business? Everything.

Believe it or not, devoting some time to exploring new web technology can drastically simplify your life. It can make you a more effective coach. And unless you have a never-ending stream of referred clients pounding down your door, the success of your business depends on it.

In our next 4 posts, we have some very specific ideas about how the internet can improve your coaching business along with some great resources for you to check out. Subscribe to our RSS feed or come back in a few days for the latest installment.