Hey health coach! You've been killing it with your one-on-one local practice and may be wondering how you can reach and impact more people. Or maybe you want to hit the ground running and offer online coaching right out of the gate.

Many coaches make the decision to take their health coaching business online for a variety of reasons. An online business can offer tremendous benefits that a traditional business can not. In order to see if starting a web-based coaching practice is the correct path for you, you must weigh all of the rewards along with the risks.

Below are seven reasons to take your health coaching business online:

1. Lower Overhead Costs

One of the key benefits to running a business online is the low cost involved to get started. For most online businesses there are no property or lease overhead costs because you can perform your coaching online from a home office.

Start-up costs are also usually much lower. For the price of a computer with reliable internet access, a domain name, a hosting account, and a good website, you can be up and running almost immediately.

Some costs will remain the same whether you're an online business or a traditional brick and mortar shop, such as such as the cost of business licenses, insurance, accounting, and legal fees. However, these are relatively low costs that apply to any business whether you're online or not.

2. Flexibility and Freedom

The flexibility and freedom that an online business offers is another key benefit. Since you can run your online business from just about anywhere, you're not tied down to a single location. If you need to get out of the house, you can take your laptop to the library or the local coffee shop and work from there.

Heck, you can even work from the beach while on vacation if you have to (although it's advised to try to refrain from working while vacationing so you can recharge).

In addition, your online business can be a full time endeavor, or it can be something that you simply do in your free time or while you maintain another full time job. Many coaches start this way so they can have the predictability of their full time income while building their online business slowly, with the plan to eventually phase out of their full time position.

3. Expanded Customer Base

You can reach customers and clients virtually anywhere in the world with an online business. Since the web is available just about everywhere in the world, the entire planet can provide potential sales. A local practice can only grow as large as its surrounding areas. It's easy to see how this can limit overall profitability.

Since customers from all over the world can shop at an online business, different doors are going to be opened. There may not be enough clients in your area to sustain your coaching practice geared to your local area only, but an online company can sustain itself much more easily.

4. Expand Your Existing Business

Even if you are already successfully conducting in-person coaching sessions in your local area, you can still turn your existing practice into an online business. Physical products or services that you already offer to your local clients can be sold to a nationwide or even a worldwide audience.

Online shopping cart and storefront software is very inexpensive today, and many of them are super user-friendly so it makes it easy to get your online store up and running. Or if you'd rather outsource the building of your online store and focus on what you do best, you can hire a web developer to help you.

In addition, expanding your current business to online can also create more name awareness and brand recognition to your local practice. Local folks may notice that you've got clients around the world and this lends credibility to your expertise and ability to help people both near and far.

5. Limitless Potential

Another solid reason for starting an online business is the fact that the market is always evolving. The internet is still really in its infancy. There are many countries that have yet to establish a large online presence for their citizens.

Also look at the various ways business have made money over the years. A few years ago selling products online and ad income from blogging were how most were making their money. Now there is affiliate marketing, podcasting, selling online courses, membership sites, and online summits. Who knows what other types of online income streams will evolve in the future. Don't you want to take advantage of that? By establishing your online presence now, you'll be ready to try any new methods of online revenue generation that may be available in the future.

6. More Profits

Have you ever noticed that by coaching clients in a one-on-one setting, you're pretty much trading hours for dollars, and you have finite growth possibilities? By turning your individual programs into online group programs or courses, you can increase your profits exponentially.

Also as mentioned above, there are many other ways you can make money online these days. I really love affiliate marketing because there is literally no cost involved other than your time to promote other people's products or services, and you get paid a commission or affiliate fee for everyone who purchases through your links. If you're blogging you should definitely be doing affiliate marketing, especially if you're already recommending products and services on your blog.

7. More time for YOU (Eventually)

At first this may not apply, because to be completely honest it does take an incredible amount of time to get your processes and systems in place in order for your online coaching practice to run smoothly.

However, once you have everything up and running and as automated as possible, you can actually work less hours than you did when you were only coaching one-on-one clients, while making more money! And working fewer hours means more time for self care, spending time with family or friends, and doing other things you enjoy.

Summary

You've seen many great reasons why you should take your health coaching business online. But are there any drawbacks?

Running an online business can require great personal motivation, and this is the area that can halt many potential online coaches. Many people go in with the outlook that it's going to be easy money, which it often is not. Just like any other business, the company will only succeed with hard work and dedication.

Others may struggle with technology or marketing, or staying motivated and avoiding distractions while working from home. Luckily there are business coaches, virtual assistants, and technology experts who can help you in the areas where you lack expertise.

Still debating whether you should take your health business online? Find clarity, support and guidance in the exclusive Facebook community!

👉 JOIN US HERE 👈