Three Simple Ways to Overcome Business Blues and Blossom in 2025

By Laurel Elders, MCC, CEC

Experiencing Business Blues? Lack of growth or needing more client's? Here are three symptoms of Business Blues and how to diagnose and locate the cure.

Whether you are not yet signing up the clients you want or need, or you are looking to expand your business, this article walks you through three ways to diagnose and fix the gaps in your desired business success. I want for you to get out of the business blues and to step into your business blossoming.

First: Let’s look at the word blossom. A blossom occurs when a the flower on a plant reaches maturity and blooms. Merriam-Webster states it is, “A peak period or stage of development.” And “the state of bearing flowers.” Metaphorically, we want our business to bear flowers, to reach its peak, to optimize.
If you haven’t experienced this peak yet, that is ok. Below I cover three ways to identify the gaps and close them so you can move from business surviving to business thriving.

#1 – “I’m offering free sessions but no one is signing on.”

If you are in this scenario, there are a few things to look at.
The first is your sales process. I know, I know. People don’t like to think of sales. But think of it like a sail on a boat. If you want more clients, they need a way to sail over to your services. How you create that pathway is VERY important. We teach our coaches how to craft an invitation and deliver a free first session that enhances the client sign-up experience and thus increases new client sign-ups. If you do not know how to do this, please reach out. I will share our process with you to help you get over this hurdle.
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The other issue that can absolutely prevent sign-ups is lack of confidence or clarity around your coaching services. If it is lack of confidence, please skip ahead to symptom #3. If it is lack of clarity, then read on.

Lack of clarity means your contract, rates, or coaching process still feels fuzzy to you. If you can’t speak about your services with absolute concise clarity and confidence (after practicing in a mirror until it rolls off of your tongue naturally), then the solution is simple … get clear before conducting any further free sessions.

Consider, “What parts of my services still feel unclear to me?” Tidy those up. Practice speaking clearly about your offers. When you are clear, new clients will feel clear.
What if you have your sales session down, you know how to invite clients to sign up, you are clear about your offers and still nobody is saying yes?

If you find that clients are not signing on, then it is time for feedback. After we graduate from coach training, we can assume we are good to go. However, there can be hiccups in our approach that we might be blind too. Asking for candid feedback will help you close any gaps.

To do this, reach out to friends, other coaches, colleagues and offer five free sessions in exchange for their candid feedback. Relate to them as if they were a new client so that they can experience your approach. After the session, email them these questions:

• How was your overall experience with me?
• What felt off, or a little rough? What could I have done to enhance your experience?
• What advice do you have for me to improve my services?
• Were there any moments that I handled really well? If yes, what were they and how did they have a positive impact?
• What else would you like to share with me about improving my service as a coach?  

After gaining insights, I invite you to really take the feedback to heart and use it to improve. As you improve, your client sign-ups will improve.

#2 – I would love to build my business off referrals, but I’m not getting any yet.

Good news. This is very solvable! First, hands down, you want to acquire five referral partners. These are five individuals (not companies) who know, trust and love you. These five would also be people in front of your ideal client's. Examples of key referral partners:

• Coaching niche: Retirement. Referral partner: Fiduciary.
• Coaching niche: Life. Referral partner: Chiropractor.
• Coaching niche: Leadership. Referral partner: Consultant.

Do you see the connection? Creating these partners is a blessing to them because you are a resource for their clients and there is zero competition with them. If you do not yet have five referral partners, and want tips on acquiring these, I’ll be posting the next article on this very important key to amplifying your success.

Referrals are the best, easiest and fastest way to succeed as a coach. This is because if you are recommended by someone a person already trusts, then you do not have to spend time demonstrating that your service is a safe and trustworthy investment for them. This saves you time, energy and money.

If I had only one piece of advice to give you, it is to build a referral based business. Yes, do other things to market, but do not skip this one key step.

#3 – I want more than anything to be a successful coach, but I’m so nervous about marketing. I suffer from impostor syndrome.
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This is so common. It can feel so vulnerable to put yourself out there in new ways. You are not at all alone. Some things to consider:

• Why did you become a coach? Stand strong in your passion and conviction. Stand strong in your WHY. You can even create a passion statement and read it to yourself each morning before you market or meet with new potential clients.
• As Leila Hormozi puts it, “You don’t have imposter syndrome. You are just new.” It is normal to feel nervous anytime we start something new. Remind yourself, it is ok to feel nervous, because it means you care.
• Successfully maintaining clients takes one ingredient. Cultivate this one ingredient and you will do just fine as you expand your business into the success you seek. This single simple ingredient is… care. Can you care about your clients enough so they feel supported, loved and considered? Yes. Absolutely you can. This leads to even more referrals down the road. This leads to longevity of the coaching partnership. This leads to new connections. Care. Care. Care.

My final message to you is that you have everything you need to succeed at this. You just need to lean further into your process and learn from those who have come before you. Trust me. I learned the hard way. Learning the hard way cost me years of my time, energy and potential income. There is a better way.

If you are ready to gain direction and insights like these, I’m offering a group mastermind of ten like-hearted coaches who are ready to launch their coaching business by expanding their clientele. If this is you, please visit me here: https://www.integrativecoachtraining.com/biz-launch-mastermind.html

Also! Today I covered the top three symptoms and how to diagnose them. Do you have a scenario not included above? Message me anonymously and I’ll answer it for you one of my upcoming articles. No need to go it alone. As Simon Sinek says, together is better! 

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