How To Start a Sports Coaching Business

Are you dreaming of building a career doing what you love? And, is that all about offering sports coaching services to athletes? If your goal is how to start a sports coaching business, be it part-time or full-time, or on a low budget, the good news is that you can build your own sports coaching business. 

In this blog, we will walk you through the most important steps of the process of starting a sports training business on a small budget with huge potential. 

Now, let’s begin.

Is starting a sports training business profitable?

According to research, the sports coaching industry is an $8 billion business that holds a 3% annual growth. 

The sports coaching industry is expected to continue performing well in the years to come. And one of the reasons behind it is increased participation in sports for health benefits and to offset the hefty college tuition through sports scholarships.

Steps to get your sports training business started from home

Get your certification

If you are serious about how to start a sports coaching business, it is crucial to get a certification in your niche. Why is it so? Because getting certified is the only way to prove that you have the necessary skills to help athletes who have never worked with you before improve their performance and help them achieve their goals.

There are many credible organizations that offer workshops, online courses, and certificates for coaches. 

Some of the popular organizations are:

• American sports and fitness association.
• American council on exercise.
• United endurance sports coaching academy.

Choose your target clientele

Target clientele is the ideal customers for your sports training business or the people who could benefit the most from your coaching services. These are the athletes who are looking for your services. 

So how do you choose your ideal audience? Firstly, you have to dedicate some time to thinking about your ideal clients. Find out who they are, the challenges they face or what they need. And write down a detailed description which is how you create your buyer personas. 

Do this so that you will have an idea about what services to provide, which in turn will help you choose the right niche for you.

Your knowledge is your product

The knowledge you have gained from education to industry expertise as an athlete and a coach is the “fuel” of your sports training business endeavors. This implies your services must be based on your knowledge and coaching skills.

Design your business strategy

When you are looking for how to start a sports academy, it’s recommended to begin with a solid business plan. The only way to ensure that your sports coaching business will go on the right track is to design your strategy well. 

But where do you start your sports training business strategy? Consider the following: 

• Target clients.
• Pricing policies.
• Lead generation tactics

Set up your workspace at home

The best thing about running a sports training business online is that you can set up a workspace at home as you are offering your coaching services over the internet. Find a space that is quiet and organize it in a way it will instantly put you in your “training zone:

Invest in a high-quality web camera, a microphone, lighting set up, etc., to begin with. You might also need online coaching software which will discuss in the upcoming sections.

Get an accountant and a lawyer

You need an accounting and legal support even if you are running a home-based sports training business. These professional services will not just give you time from procedural affairs, but they will also help you to avoid mistakes that otherwise might be very costly, especially in the long run.

Besides the advice that these professionals provide, they can help you with much more. For example, a lawyer can help you examine different agreements based on legal requirements. Likewise, your accountant will help you prepare and file your taxes properly.

Work on creating your online presence

The next important step is to build an online presence for your business. Establishing your online presence is an excellent way to share your content with a broader audience and connect with potential clients. 

Here are some of the ways to get started:

• Website and blog.
• Build an online coaching website to attract prospective clients and provide services. 

Marketing actions: Allocate a budget for promotional activities like paid advertisements. 

Lead generation: Create, and nurture your list of contacts. That’s where most of your clients will come from in the long run.

Social media: Most of your target clients would use popular social platforms all day; make use of them yourself.

How does the Online sports training business work?

Working on an online sports coaching platform is simple. Besides the platform admin, there are two types of users- Coaches and Athletes. Coaches can register on the online sports coaching marketplace, where they list down their coaching experience, expertise, and everything about them. Based on this info, users can find the right coach according to their specific needs. 

Here is a quick overview of online sports coaching marketplace works:

Athletes

• Athletes create their profiles on the platform. 
• Searches the desired coach profile and book a live session with them based on their availability. 
• Make the payment set by the coach.
• Attend the live sessions with the coach. 
• Review or rate the coaches based on their experience with them.

Coaches

• Coaches create a profile on the platform, and the request for which is sent to the admin for profile approval. 
• After listing, coaches can set their availability in the calendar and start receiving booking requests. Coaches can also decide whether to choose one-on-one live sessions or group sessions. 
• Coaches then confirm the bookings and deliver the live sessions. 
• Lastly, coaches receive the payment of the completed session from the admin.

In simple words, an online coaching marketplace connects athletes with private coaches. The process is as simple as “Search, book sessions, pay, and get trained. 

The business model of the sports coaching business

If you are planning on how to start a sports business, an online coaching marketplace can be the best bet. The business model of most online marketplaces is the commission model, where they deduct commissions from the fee athletes pay online coaching through the platform. 

Besides commissions, there are some of business models, which are as follows. 

Subscriptions: The online coaching marketplace owner can sell monthly or annual subscriptions to the athletes and coaches to access the website. 

Featured sections: The website owner can add a featured section on the marketplaces for the coaches who want more visibility to be displayed with more prominence. 

Banner ads: the website owner can also display advertisements on the website, which will be a direct revenue source. You can run ads through third-party networks like Google AdSense. 

Selling merchandise: Website owners can sell merchandise on the platform, which will also help with brand visibility and promotion.

How to build a sports coaching website?

Considering the growth and popularity of the online sports coaching market, it will continue promoting excellent opportunities for both sports coaches and investors. The industry will be influenced by advancements in technology and increasing demand for online coaches.

If you want to build your sports coaching platform, it is important to select a feature-rich software solution. Pinlearn, a white-label marketplace software that can be an ideal solution to your own sports coaching marketplace with both essential and advanced features packed into one, reduces the time to enter the market and helps new businesses to cater to the requirements of coaches and athletes.

Being an all-in-one software solution to build a constructive online coaching environment, we can help you reach your unique business goals and establish yourself as a leader in the lucrative sports coaching industry.

Here’s what you will get when partnering with Pinlearn:

• Ability to customize your coaching platform.
• 100% open and unencrypted code access.
• Choose your own web-hosting partner.
• Host both live sessions and online courses.
• One-time purchase with no recurring fee.
• Quick deployment and easy migration.

Conclusion

Considering the growth of digitalization, the online sports training industry will continue to show promising opportunities for investors. The market will be driven by tech integration in sports coaching and the demand for online sports coaches. 

For your sports training business to start making money and scaling up, it is critical to continue to foster strategic practices.

Put in all your effort and positive attitude in your business; eventually, your hard work will start paying off.