This is part 3 of our series on getting your online holistic nutrition business off the ground. Part 1 was about gaining clarity on your niche and your ideal client. Part 2 was about setting up your website and your social media, this is part 3 and we are talking about figuring out how you will deliver your gifts to your clients, whether that is through ebooks or courses or programs or coaching. We will talk about the different options and how to get started.
It’s important to know what your goals are when it comes to creating the career of your dreams. The exciting thing about creating an online business as a holistic nutritionist is that you get to decide how you want to do it. What really matters to you when it comes to the benefits of the way you run your business? Do you want to work very few hours or do you want to generate a certain amount of income or does press and media attention matter to you? Write down what you really care about and want to get out of your business. This will help you decide what you want to create and offer.
It’s interesting because so many people who are self-employed are trying to do what they “should do” instead of what they really want to do. I know I have done this myself. Someone out there, a coach or a guru or a colleague, tells you that this way is the best way to have an online business and this is what you should be doing. When you do what you “should be” doing and not what you really want to do, you start feeling resentful and you don’t enjoy your business. Get clear on what you really enjoy doing. I personally love to create and be creative so I do work for natural health companies writing articles and creating recipes. For some people, maybe being in the kitchen would feel exhausting and frustrating and not fun at all. Some people love to coach big groups of people, While others thrive in one-on-one connections. Imagine all of the ways you could show up in your business. What feels the most exciting and fun? When you do work that feels exciting to you, your audience and clients can feel that and they are way more drawn to you compared to if you are just following some step-by-step plan that someone else gave you that you’re not really enjoying. After all, you are your own boss here. Why not be the best boss you’ve ever had and create a career that is genuinely enjoyable?
When most people think of being a holistic nutritionist, they think of doing one-on-one holistic nutrition consulting with individuals. And maybe that is exactly what lights you up. That’s great! If you love to connect with people on a deep level and be their personal support, one on one consulting is great for you. Here is a downside: the cap to how much money you can make is low because there are only so many hours you can give. A lot of people can end up overworking themselves if they only offer one-on-one coaching and need to put in a lot of hours.
A way to expand how much income you can make while still coaching others is to do group coaching. You can still keep the group rather small if you like to have a closeness with your clients. This way, you can put in the same amount of hours and earn triple, quadruple, or even ten times what you would earn from coaching just one person at a time. Use what you learned in the first part of the series to create a group coaching program around a particular problem. Everyone in the group should be at a fairly similar stage and facing fairly similar health problems that you can support them through all at once. A bonus to this is that they get to meet other people who are a lot like them and can form their own bonds and friendships within the group.
If you are someone who doesn’t particularly like coaching and you love holistic nutrition and love to teach and talk about it, or maybe you love to create in the kitchen, another service you can offer is article writing and recipe creation. This is what I do and I absolutely love it. I’ve always been the creative type, and I quite like working alone so it’s nice to have work that I can do at home on my laptop, or from anywhere really. You can pitch yourself to natural food companies or local health food stores or any other company that values natural wellness.
When I’m talking about programs and products, I’m talking about something that you can create once and continue to sell for as long as you like. There is no time input required from you after the program or product is created and made available for purchase. There is also no cap to how many people can purchase your program or product. Offering a program or product is a great way to help an infinite number of people while making an uncapped income while also not putting in so much time and getting burnt out. If you are still offering services and coaching which requires time input from you, offering a product or two is a great way to supplement your income without the need for inputting more time. It’s a great idea to have more than one revenue stream.
A product would be something like a digital cookbook, an ebook, journal pages or meal planning worksheets, or something of that nature. You can just create it once, make it available for purchase on your website, and continue to sell it.
A program would be more like a digital course. It might be several weeks long, and would include materials like videos or worksheets or assignments. When you’re creating a program, you want to make it specific. Think back to part 1 of this series and make sure that the program you are creating is catering to your ideal client in a specific way. For example, if your passion is balancing hormones, you could create a program like Finding Balance After Birth: An 8 week Program for New Moms. You want your ideal client to recognize right away that your program was specially designed just for someone like them. You don’t have to make it super complicated to create and deliver your program. You can send the weekly lessons via email, or give them a link to a page on your website that requires a password to view. Don’t get too caught up in creating something that looks pretty and perfect. What people want to know most of all before they purchase something is that they can trust you and that you understand what their problem is and how to help them with it.
You can choose to focus on services or products or both. If you love to provide coaching services, it’s a great idea to add a product or program to help an unlimited amount of people without putting extra time in so that you can make a solid income without getting burnt out. One more tip: resist the urge to overcomplicate things! I often see new grads create programs that are overloaded with information or they give their clients way too many recommendations to follow. Don’t let your self-doubt convince you to over deliver to the point that it’s overwhelming. Your urge to prove yourself in this way will work against you. You’ll get your clients the best results when you keep it simple yet effective so they can implement without getting overwhelmed. Another common mistake is to offer deep discounts. Keep in mind the psychology of offering a really low price compared to the rest of the market. It makes potential clients think there must be something wrong with your offering or that it isn’t valuable. Trust that you are ready– you’ve been trained well if you’re a graduate of CSNN!
Contributed by Melanie Maxwell, R.H.N.
https://www.vibrantlywell.com/