Why Your Coaching Business Can Start Feeling Like Another Boss

Like most people who start a coaching business, I wanted freedom.

I wanted to make my own decisions, work in my own way and create something that reflected who I was.

So I left employment and got rid of my boss.

Then, without realising it, I hired ten more.

I had a marketing boss telling me what I had to post.

An email boss telling me how often I had to write what I could and couldn't say.

A website boss telling me what every page needed to say, where the buttons had to go and what keywords I had to use.

A sales boss telling me how every conversation had to end and how to deal with those annoying people who wanted to say no to my offer.

An SEO boss telling me which words mattered more than the ones I actually WANTED to use.

And on and on it went.

Some of these bosses were actual people. Mentors or coaches I'd hired to help me grow my business.

But some of them weren't.

They were rules, systems and pieces of “best practice” I'd picked up from experts along the way from strangers I'd never met but who seemed to know EXACTLY what I 'needed to have' in my business if I was ever going to be a success.

And yeah, SOME of the advice WAS useful.

Some of it helped me grow.

The business had my name on the door...

But it didn't feel like mine.

That's the weirdest thing about giving your authority away.

Nobody has to TAKE it from you.

You hand it over, one reasonable decision at a time.

One expert.

One system.

One best practice.

Until the business you created for freedom is being run by rules you never even consciously chose.

So look, perhaps you don't need another boss disguised as a business strategy.

Perhaps all you need is to decide which rules still serve you, which ones don't and who gets to be in charge from here.