How To Pick the Right Technology Tools For Your Coaching Business

Too many people are intimidated by all possible “technology” options and end up distorting analysis instead of acting and making things happen.

To avoid overflow, don’t keep reading and researching anything and everything without knowing what YOU need. If you buy services and software just because the commercial offer sounds good, you end up spending money on many things that you don’t need. To make matters worse, the experience you give to your customers is not determined by what you want or need, but by a set of tools and technologies that seem useful.

Here are some simple steps that will make your life easier:

1. Compare user experience/user path

For the process you want to implement, step by step, write down how you want your customers to perceive the process from start to finish.

2. Analyze the user’s path to identify requirements.

For each interaction, write down the technological requirements you’ll need to achieve it. For example. Customer pays you through your website. Requirement is a tool that allows you to set a button and accept payments over the Internet.

Find the tools you need.

Now, for each requirement, you can find two to three options that provide the experience you’ve described. For example. To accept payments on your website, you can specify services such as PayPal, e-junkie or 1shoppingcart.

Weigh costs and benefits

Once you’ve listed the possible solutions for each need, think about cost-benefit ratios to find the best value for money. Sure, you can pay over $200 a month for An infusionsoft, which can handle your email, shopping cart and affiliate program – but do you want those overheads to be at this stage of your business? If you’re just starting out and you only have a few products, you can combine Mailchimp ($0 for the first 2,000 subscribers), PayPal ($0 plus transaction fee) and e-junkie ($5 per month for more than 10 digital products). run it for as little as $5 a month. (Of course, if you’re at the point of your business where Infusionsoft makes sense, use full automation!)

Your first step in overcoming the “technological mess” is to communicate your vision, your business model and your proposal. You take action and save time, energy and money.

Go where you want, faster, with less stress and less sweat.

Lin Wong, business artist and chief libertarian at Slideberry  provides Business Soulwork and Marketing Activation for health and well-being trainers. Slideberry supports trainers and health and wellness professionals through prepared materials, marketing tools and corporate coaching services so they can REALLY, REALLY and FORGET to perform ‘Get Out There Make It Big’ without reinventing the bike, without getting lost in confusion and information overload or missed opportunities because they don’t know where to start.