Whether you are a new online coach, thinking of becoming one or one that’s been working at things for a little while, there are many great platforms and tools that work to grow your business. I share my list of favourite and best online coaching tools that I’ve used, tried out and recommend!
Having these tools in mind will help you figure out what you need to get ahead and how to be the most productive, organized and successful in what you do.
I always love to use free online coaching tools for my blog coaching business where possible. It helps immensely when you’re starting as an online coach to be smart in your expenses.
Unless you are earning thousands per month from your coaching business, you will want to invest in online coaching tools wisely.
If coaching is one of the ways you are monetizing your business, and if you’re running a blog with passive income streams, some of these tools will help on a broader scale.
So what coaching tools should you be using to grow your coaching business?
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Best Online Coaching Tools To Grow Your Business
This list of business tools for online coaching is a good start for getting you organized and ready to take on all of the details of running your own business.
It’s OK to do things manually at first, like booking appointments and sending details for bank transfers for payments.
However, as your business grows, you will want to automate the backend activities to maximize your time with clients.
Many of these tools will help you:
- get organized
- onboard your clients
- receive their payments
- communicate with them effectively
- promote your coaching business
When you’re just starting out, you’ll find that there will be things you need to help you get up and running as an online coach.
I hope this list is helpful to you!
1. Calendly
Calendly is a scheduling platform that makes booking your coaching sessions very easy. It works with many other platforms (including Podia, which I mention below). You can start off free, and that’s really all most coaches need.
Alternative: Google Calendar (see Google Workspace below).
2. Podia
Podia is a digital selling platform that lets you create and sell online courses, memberships, digital products and most recently – coaching sessions.
Yes! It’s also an online coaching software that helps you book coaching clients. What’s nice about it is that you can limit it to one-on-one coaching or expand it to group coaching.
It’s one of my favourite online coaching tools, as it goes beyond the coaching and provides me with a one-stop platform for additional income streams.
Here are a few top reasons why I love it:
- It keeps your clients in one spot. They create an account, and any time you recommend a product of yours, you’re not sending them to a different platform.
- I can use it to sell my digital content including ebooks and templates, as well as courses.
- I can add coaching as an upsell when I sell a course.
- It handles payments with Paypal and Stripe.
Here’s what my Confident Blogger Academy looks like on Podia: clean and professional!
Read my full Podia review to see why it’s a contender if you’re looking for business coaching tools.
| RELATED: How To Make Money With A New Blog, Right From The Start
A Beginner’s Guide To Creating And Selling Digital Products
3. Paperbell
Paperbell is a coaching software platform for booking clients, getting paid and managing your calendar. It also manages contract signing, group coaching and small classes, digital downloads and more.
If you aren’t selling online courses, Paperbell is a great alternative. You can start for free with one client, and pay monthly afterward.
4. Zoom
One of the most important online coaching tools is Zoom, for one-on-one video calls. Free to use with one person, and up to 40-minute sessions with more than one, Zoom is easy and well-known.
You can share your screen for presentations and webinars. If you like, you can record a session and share it with your client(s).
5. Google Workplace
Google Workplace lets you keep all of your coaching business documents in one place.
If you have your email via Google Workplace, as a business email, you also have access to Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Docs, Sheets and more.
Although the free versions are good enough for the most part, the professional suite, with your own specific business email makes you look professional and organized.
PRO TIP: Save a collection of your free resources in Google Drive and send them to your coaching clients as a welcome to your program. They will appreciate that they don’t need to go through a sign-up process for each one.
6. Airtable
Airtable is one of my new favourite free online coaching tools for managing programs, projects and keeping to-do lists is Airtable. You can even use it as a CRM tool to keep track of clients.
A free platform that works on desktop and has a mobile app, it’s like Trello or Asana but easier to manage. You get unlimited bases and workspaces.
7. Stripe
Not everyone likes to use PayPal, so having an alternative payment system is a good idea.
Stripe is a payment processing platform, very much like PayPal. Many like using Stripe because it works with credit cards, and is a robust platform.
It integrates with many tools and platforms (including Podia), making it super easy to set up and get paid!
8. Coaching Agreement Template
Before you get paid… before you even do your first session, you need to make sure you are protecting yourself and your client legally and financially.
Having a coaching agreement in place is very important to define what the expectations and limitations are. You need to confirm that you aren’t doing the work for the client, rather you are coaching and mentoring them in specific ways.
You don’t need to write a coaching agreement from scratch or seek help from a lawyer. Luckily you can purchase a template that’s easily modified for any specific coaching agreement. I use a coaching agreement template from A Self Guru. It’s the best investment I’ve made for my coaching business! It’s a one-time investment at a fraction of what your lawyer would charge you!
| Related: How To Legally And Financially Protect Your Coaching Business
How To Legally Protect Your Blog And Website
9. Dropbox Sign (formerly HelloSign)
So now that you have a coaching agreement, how do you get it signed?
You can send a PDF and ask for a screenshot/photographed version of the signed PDF, but it’s better to use Dropbox Sign. Send the document and the client provides an electronic signature. It’s date stamped and you can easily file it.
Free for 30 days, it’s a reasonable rate afterward. For any online coach who is coaching full-time and signing many clients regularly, this is an excellent tool.
PRO TIP: A fantastic alternative is PandaDoc, which has many of the same features. Try it with a 14-day free trial.
10. Planoly
How do you attract those potential clients? By using things like blogs and social media effectively to promote yourself.
Instagram is one of the best places to find people and engage with them. However, it can take much of your time to post to Instagram. Planoly helps you design your profile post theme (visually, so you can see what things will look like aesthetically), and plan your captions and scheduling.
It’s a worthwhile app to use when you’re seriously focused on Instagram to grow your personal brand as an online coach.
TIP: If you’re heavy into blogging and pinning Pinterest pins, a great alternative to Planoly is Tailwind. It has tools for finding the best hashtags and scheduling your posts in its Tailwind for Instagram features.
11. Self-Hosted Blog
A self-hosted WordPress blog is one of the best online coaching tools you can use to grow your coaching business.
Using a self-hosted WordPress blog gives you thousands of options for your website design and function.
Your blog becomes a powerful promotion tool, drawing people to your insights and knowledge and giving them a taste of how you can help them. Start a blog today with a quality hosting provider with excellent customer service. The one I use for this site is NameHero and I’m impressed with the quality and what I’m getting.
| Related: Top 10 Reasons To Start A Blog
How To Choose The Right Hosting Provider For Your Blog Or Business
12. Grammarly
One of the best free online coaching tools is Grammarly. The upgrade is great, but in most cases, all you need is the free version.
Grammarly keeps track of your spelling and grammar, catching you from making mistakes that affect how your potential and existing clients view your capabilities.
Poorly written communications, courses and coaching documents are a no-no!
13. Facebook Page – Facebook Messenger
The last online coaching tool you will want to have is a Facebook page for your business. With a Facebook page, you can set it up to use Facebook Messenger to communicate with your clients. This keeps it separate from your personal profile.
Using Facebook Messenger is a great way to hold preliminary quick discovery chats, and to communicate briefly in between coaching sessions.
| Related: How To Use Facebook Groups To Grow Your Blog And Online Business
14. Ring Light
When you’re coaching in the evenings (like I usually do), there’s nothing worse than using an overhead light that casts shadows on your face.
A table lamp won’t cut it.
Sometimes you need something a bit more intense. Invest in a ring light that not only will work nicely with your webcam, but also with a phone.
15. Webcam
Last but not least, you’ll need a quality webcam.
Those that come built into laptops are usually not the best quality.
I’ve been using the Logitech C922 Pro Stream (1080 p) webcam and love how crisp the image is. Its built-in microphone is also pretty good for general Zoom calls with clients.
Best of all, it’s pretty affordable for a quality webcam.
Grow Your Business With The Best Coaching Tools
One of the last tips I’ll share with you is to set up your home office for your coaching business. Learn about key working-from-home tips that will make it easier to run a professional coaching business.
These 10 smart business and blog organization tips will help if you’re maintaining a business website and blog.
If you’re just starting a coaching business, this list of online coaching tools will be very helpful in figuring out what you need to grow your business.
Try them out yourself – the best online coaching tools that I recommend are:
- Calendly
- Podia
- Paperbell
- Zoom
- Google Workplace
- Stripe
- Airtable
- Coaching agreement template
- Dropbox Sign
- Planoly
- Self-hosted blog/website
- Grammarly
- Facebook Page – Facebook Messenger
- Ring light
- Logitech webcam
As you grow your business, you can always upgrade to more expensive tools. However, in many cases, these are all you will need to be successful!
Related:
- 10 Reasons Why Your Blog Isn’t Making Money
- Top 3 Ways To Make Money With Your Blog
- How To Transform Your Blog Into An Online Business
QUESTION: What are online coaching tools you’ve used that are very helpful and should be added to the list?
Found this post useful? Share it with others on Pinterest!
I actually use prowritingaid instead of grammarly. I liked it had a one time lifetime license and gave me more help.
I also use Lightroom and Photoshop to really bring my imagoes to life before I put them into Canva. So when I’m creating my pins and stuff now all my images already look exactly how I want them.
Great additions to the list! I usually use Lightroom and Photoshop for my lifestyle blog for any photos I take myself.
Great list! Thanks for sharing. Some of the ones that I use and must-haves are Zoom, Grammarly, Canva, and FB. But, one of my newest is linktree. I’m using it to collect direct payments. And I just love it! Super easy to manage, safe and trusted.
I am going to share this to a friend who is about to start blogging. Wish I had this list when i started out!