In this year's 3rd Annual Survey, 212 of you kindly responded - so a BIG Thank-you! If you're interested in what your fellow "Launch Pad" Newsletter Readers do, how long they've been coaching, their goals, the challenges they're facing, what they like and don't like about our newsletter (and more!) - read on!

About You

Question 1: What kind of coaching do you do?

(people could select all the categories that applied)

In the "Other" Category, we had a wide variety of coaching niches including "Empowerment Coaching", "Group" and "Team Coaching", a number of addiction and mental health coaches, "divorce coaching", "expat coaching", "weight loss", "nutrition", "creativity" and "retirement" coaching.

Question 2: How long would you say you've been coaching for?

Three quarters of you have been coaching for up to 5 years, although evenly spread across the 3 ranges given, with 13% coaching for between 5 and 10 years and 10% coaching for 10 years or more.

About Your Goals

We asked you a few open questions about their goals. We've attempted to summarise and group together the common themes that came up.

3a) What would you MOST like to achieve this year?

• By far the largest percentage of you, 49%, specifically mentioned growing your client base. The next largest group was 19% who wanted to grow their coaching practice and income. That makes 68% of you who wanted to grow their business or client base.
• 9% of you wanted to specialise or focus more on a specific niche or type of client.
• 6% of you wanted to run or create a program, course or workshop.
• A further 5% of you were specifically interested in group or team coaching.
• Roughly 5% of you were looking to create or update a website.
• 5% wanted to boost, or get clear on, your marketing.
• Roughly 5% of you were looking to complete certifications or get accredited.
• 4% of you wanted to boost or develop you skills (see bullet 2 in question 3b below for an idea of what skills)
  
• 3% of you are looking to boost their confidence and develop personally.
• 2% want to create or complete products, 2% want to use more tools in their practices and lastly 1% of you wanted to do more remote/online/telephone coaching.

3b) What OBSTACLES might get in the WAY?

I loved that you were so honest and open about what was bothering you. Here is a summary of the main obstacles you mentioned:

• The obstacle most frequently mentioned by you was a lack of time - 20%. A further 5% specifically mentioned having a full or part-time job which got in the way and a further 4% specifically mentioned child or family commitments.
• 17% of you quoted a lack of marketing skills as what could get in the way. In addition, 5% of you said a lack of experience was an issue, 5% said a lack of business skills and 2% said a lack of technical skills was getting in the way.
• 11% of you mentioned difficulty finding clients could get in the way, with a further 3% specifically mentioning converting prospects and enquiries into clients as a challenge.
• 14% of you said fear, limiting beliefs, self-doubt and a lack of confidence was their biggest obstacle.
• 11% said a lack of money or finance was an issue for them.
• 7% of you said either "me" or "nothing" when asked what obstacles could get in the way!
• 4% of you mentioned the economy or stressed client finances being an obstacle for getting clients.
• 4% of you quoted a lack of tools or resources.
• 4% of you mentioned physical health issues that could get in the way.
• 2% of you mentioning feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
• Just 2% of you mentioned competition from other coaches (less skilled or otherwise) being an obstacle.

3c) What are you most excited about?

This was one of my favourite questions of the entire survey. What wonderful inspirational answers from you all!

Summarised below are the common themes:

• Growing my coaching practice
• Learning new skills!
• Being my own boss - the idea of being independent and free
• Creating a new coaching program, workshop, teleseminar!
• Helping people grow and prosper!
• Empowering others
• Making a difference in the world
• Sharing my message
• When the client has "Aha" moments!
• Fulfilling MY potential!
• Trying new tools
• Growing my online presence
• I love my clients!

3d) What would make your life easier?

This was another favourite question in the survey! Many of the same themes came up that were in both your goals in Q3a) and obstacles in Q3b). However, there were two NEW people-related answers, 1) 10% of you mentioned getting help from a VA (Virtual Assistant) and 2) 8% of you mentioned wanting more connection, to feel less isolated - perhaps finding help or a partner of some sort to work with.

Here are the common themes mentioned in  answer to this question:

• 15% More Systems and Better Organization
• 12% More Time
• 11% More Clients
• 10% More Money/Regular Income
• 10% Getting a VA
  
• 8% More support and connection eg. business partner/contacts
  
• 9% Ready-made Tools (they're in the right place then!)
• 4% Help with Website / Technology
• 4% More Confidence
• 4% More Focus and Determination regarding their business
• 4% More Clarity around the Value of Coaching - to make it easier to market themselves.

About Coaching Tools and Products

Question 4: Which of these products could you be interested in?

(people were asked to select all they were interested in) 

Over 75% of you were interested in complete "workshop" packages, followed by 57% being interested in Executive and Leadership Coaching Tools & Exercises (something I have been asked for a lot in the last 6 months or so). Almost 50% of you were interested in calming meditations and 40% were interested in Health & Wellness / Relationship Coaching Tools. Coming "last" but still with almost of third of you interested were Retirement and Youth/Teen Coaching Tools.

Question 5: What product idea did we miss?

Again, this was an open question, so we don't have a graph or official percentages but here are some of the themes and approximate percentages:

• 29% of you came up with a wide range of ideas and requests - for articles, information, support, teleseminars, a coaching community and more!
• 21% of you gave varied and unique tool/product requests - which made for extremely interesting reading. We have some great niche coaches out there, and far too much one-off information to share here! See the last bullet for our chunking up of the types of tool requests.
• 13% of you requested tools and resources we already offer at The Coaching Tools Company (eg. small business coaching tools). Obviously we need to improve our marketing!
• 9% of you wanted help with marketing their business, and 7% of respondents requested tools to help coach themselves and run their practices more smoothly.
• The following specific categories of tools were requested:
  • Parent/Youth/Teen coaching tools (5% )
  • Financial or Money Coaching Tools (3%)
  • Finding Life Purpose/Passion (3%)
    
  • Motivation Tools (3%)
  • Empowerment/Confidence Tools (2%)
  • Stress Management Tools (2%)
  • Mom Coaching Tools (2%)
  • Health & Wellness Tools (2%)
  • Group Coaching Tools (2%)

About "The Launch Pad" Newsletter:

Question 6: Roughly how long have you been receiving our newsletter?

Most of you (just over half) have been receiving our newsletter for between 6 months and two years, with 38% receiving it for less than 6 months.

Question 7a. What do you like MOST about the newsletter?

This open-ended question yielded some very interesting (and sometimes opposite!) answers from you. Here is a brief overview:

So, what did you say you liked BEST about our newsletter?

• Well, 5% of you said they liked everything! Thank-you!
• By far the largest proportion of you loved the articles (43%) - saying there were great topics and informative articles.
• 21% liked the tools, resources and links mentioned in the newsletter
• 21% of you said they loved the tips, practicality or relevance of the articles.
• 21% of you loved our Free Tools and discounts/offers
• 10% of you valued the inspiration & ideas, expanded thinking and fresh perspectives.
• 10% of you liked the layout/how easy to read/bite-sized articles
• 8% of you liked the variety
• 7% of you loved that the articles were specific to coaches and coaching.
• 6% of you liked the regularity of contact, reliability and/or feeling of continuity.
• 4% specifically mentioned the positive, upbeat attitude / authenticity!

 Question 7b: What do you like LEAST about the newsletter?

When asked what you liked least, 59% said nothing or that you liked everything! A further 13% said you didn't know, the question was not applicable or that you were too new to answer.

• Next, 16% of you said the newsletter design/layout was too busy (something we will be looking at!).
• 3% of you said the newsletter was too wordy.
• 2% of you thought there were too many ads.

Question 8: We asked "How often would you PREFER to receive our newsletter?" (currently weekly)

We were wondering with the volume of email we all get these days, whether you would prefer to get our newsletter less frequently. And while it seems that just over a quarter of you would prefer every 2 weeks, nearly 60% of you wanted to continue receiving the newsletter weekly!

Wrap-up and Draw

Question 9: "What else? What do you want to tell me that I didn't ask?"

This was a "coaching question" to capture anything you thought was important, but that we might have failed to ask you about.

75% of you took the opportunity to give us your final thoughts. And we were delighted that 58% of you who responded said "Thank-you!" and/or that you loved what we were doing (that's 43.5% of the total survey respondents!).

And almost 30% of you used this question to give us an idea, suggestion or request. Of those 30%, the responses were extremely varied mostly on article/topics to cover and suggested products. A number of people requested information on using the tools more effectively/how to use the toolkits - which is something we will be looking at.

The lucky draw winners are:

• Coaching Tools MEGApack: ArLene Lamarche
• Coaching Toolkit of Your Choice: Janice Cunning, Tanja Cameron & Coralee Kulman
• Coaching Tool of Your Choice: Petra Votisky, Dawn Hale, George Sykopetrites, Jim Fullerton, Lesli Koskela
• And everyone got 25% off our products - sitewide!

If you liked this survey post, you may also like:

• The Coaching Tools Company Survey: 2012
• 15 of The Best FREE Business Building Resources for Coaches on the Web!
• Get Potential Clients to Choose YOU: Use this Simple Hidden Treasure Concept!