Have you ever found yourself in a situation where your client’s needs have broadened and you have required support or a different set of skills? How often have you referred that business to a colleague or have asked around for a recommendation in order to place that ‘perfect someone’? What if you could do that while enhancing your business’ reputation AND get paid for the effort? Occupying the role of a subcontractor would do this.

Coaches agree that there are also great benefits to subcontracting through another entity whether that be a coach or an agency who has an existing relationship with a client. In this kind of alliance you don’t have to concentrate as much time working on your own marketing or spend time maintaining the main client relationship or handling contracts, instead you can expect to coach and simply invoice the agreed hourly rate for your time.

Nahid Casazza of Aspyrre told me  “All I have to do is show up and coach. Most coaches love coaching and they really don't enjoy "all the other stuff" that goes along with building and managing the business so subcontracting is an ideal way to get paid to "just coach".  I will easily take on a subcontracting role at half my regular rate or even less, because when I have to do all the work to "get" clients, 2/3 of my time is spent managing the business side of things ….this gives the coach who is hiring me a nice margin on my work as well.  So we both win. “

Nahid subcontracts work to others too “the benefit there is that I can handle larger corporate contracts and not limit the number of people I can service.  If I have good coaches I can provide an even higher quality service because I have more room to match people to coaches.  And my business can grow and be more profitable because I am not only being paid for the hours that I put in, I am also being paid a margin on the hours my team of coaches puts in. “

Maris Joy from Beyond Vision Coaching offers these pointers in regard to what a coach might want to look for when getting into a subcontracting relationship -

• Look for someone you would want to work for as if you were looking for a job.
• Is the individual or company reputable in their field?
• Is the kind of coaching that is required in your area of expertise... Will the client be best-served by you?
• Does the individual you are talking to have many coaches that they work with, or would you be one of a few, in other words, what are the opportunities available and do they align with your needs?
• What are the parameters in working with the client... do you have free-reign in using your professional and instinctual judgment and coaching methods?
• What are the expected results and are they realistic?
  

RESOURCE AT: The Chapter will be holding a Subcontracting panel discussion on June 10th. The panel will include representatives from subcontracting agencies DBM and Right Management, and we will be asking them to share what they look for when hiring and placing coaches with clients.

Looking at conflict differently,
Candice

candice@redbarncoaching.com