Coaches Shouldn't Need Seven Tools to Run One Business

Coaches shouldn't need seven different tools just to run one business.

I've talked to enough independent coaches to know how quickly this stacks up without anyone intending it to.

The stack nobody chose

One tool for scheduling, because the client-facing calendar needs to look professional. Another for programme management, to track where each client is in their journey. Another for accountability, because good coaching requires follow-through between sessions, not just during them. Another for contracts, because nobody wants to chase a signature manually. Another for CRM, to keep track of leads and relationships before they even become paying clients. Then assessments, because most methodologies rely on some kind of diagnostic. Then content, because apparently every coach also needs to be producing material constantly now.

And somehow, buried in the middle of juggling all of that, you're supposed to actually coach. You're supposed to show up fully present for a client who's trusting you with something difficult, right after you spent forty minutes trying to get an invoice to sync correctly with your accounting software.

Your coaching business shouldn't require its own IT department to function on a normal Tuesday.

Not another tool

I built Viveka specifically to eliminate this kind of fragmentation. Not by adding another tool to the pile, but by creating one connected environment to run the business around the coaching, instead of a business that's constantly interrupting the coaching itself.

That shouldn't be a controversial thing to say, and yet for most independent coaches, tool sprawl is simply the accepted cost of doing business. I don't think it has to be.

Sources and further reading

1. ICF Core Competencies and professional standardsInternational Coaching Federation
2. Join the Viveka coach networkViveka Coach