Video summary
The core issue facing many sports coaches who manage forty or more clients yet still struggle to generate a real income is often a combination of underpricing and an unsustainable business model. The speaker argues that the majority of these coaches are charging far too little for their services, typically selling individual sessions rather than comprehensive training programs. When revenue is based solely on hourly rates or per-session fees, coaches feel compelled to constantly seek more clients just to increase earnings, which leads to burnout and inconsistent monthly income. To fix this, coaches must repackage their offerings into high-value programs that require a longer-term commitment from parents, such as six or twelve-month contracts, allowing them to charge significantly higher prices like $2,000 to $7,000 per program rather than small hourly fees.
Beyond pricing, the structural model of the business is frequently broken because it relies on inconsistent attendance and lack of formal contracts. Many coaches operate on a "pay-as-you-go" basis where they only get paid when a client shows up, making their income volatile regardless of how many clients they have booked. The speaker illustrates that having hundreds of clients does not guarantee financial success if the underlying system is flawed; instead, successful coaches treat their business like a structured enterprise with set schedules and upfront payments. This shift transforms the operation from a chaotic collection of one-on-one appointments into a predictable revenue stream where the coach's time is protected and utilized efficiently, ensuring that having fewer clients does not equate to less income if each client is properly managed and compensated.
The final and perhaps most critical factor for scaling the business effectively is leveraging communication skills to transition from exclusive one-on-one training to group formats. Running eight individual sessions a day is physically exhausting and limits long-term growth, whereas grouping six to ten athletes together allows a coach to train more children in less time while increasing their hourly earning potential. By improving coaching communication and teaching efficiency, coaches can reduce their daily session count from eight to just one or two while still serving a larger volume of students through multiple groups. This approach not only preserves the coach's energy but also frees up significant time for marketing and business development, ultimately leading to a more profitable and sustainable career that does not require an unrealistic number of individual clients to succeed.
Read the full video transcript
Coach, what's going on? It's Ben
Neighbors. In today's video, I'm going
to answer a direct question that I got
on Instagram from a private basketball
trainer that sent me this message. He
said, "Hey Ben, I'm booked with 40 plus
private clients, and I'm still not
making real money. What am I doing
wrong?" Now, I'm going to be very blunt
in this video because a lot of coaches
that have like 40 to 60 or even 40 to 70
clients are not doing this as a
full-time income. They have really
hit-or-miss types of months in their
business. And so, what I want to do here
is I want to just be very direct and
show you what the issue is and how to
fix it, all right? So, anytime someone
tells me they have like 40 plus clients
and they're still not making real money,
I always look at first how much are they
charging? Because if this guy was a
client of mine, he would be charging
probably between like 2,000 for 6 months
of of training up to like 5,000 or 7,000
for 12 months of training. So, if you
charge like 2K, let me just use this as
an example. If you charge $2,000 and you
have
30 clients, you that's less, that's 10
less than 40.
Uh, you know, that's $60,000 every 6
months as long as you have 30 clients in
your program that have paid $2,000 for 6
months training. So, when I look at
that, that's a six-figure per year
business as long as you have 30 clients
that are paying 2K every 6 months. So,
if we even go higher than that, now, if
you have 40 clients that are paying uh,
2K every 6 months, that's $80,000.
That's $160,000
of revenue in your business. So, most of
the time when coaches tell me like,
"Hey, I'm not making any real money. I
have like 40 to 60 clients." The first
thing I always look at is the money.
Like, how much are they actually
charging? 99% of the time, I see that
coaches are charging way too little. And
the only way they can make more money is
if they run more sessions and get more
kids. So, that's the first problem. The
way you fix that is you repackage and
you
resell
how you do what you do. Like, you sell
an actual program. You are not just
selling your time. And that's why
coaches that I work with are able to
sell packages of like 2,000 up to at
this point the highest package that I've
ever seen in this industry is $40,000.
And again, that's like an elite type of
coach who has 20-plus years of
experience.
Um
and I'm not saying you're going to do
that, but I am saying that that is
possible, right? So, you got to be
charging more than what you're at right
now. If you have 40 clients and you're
not making a living. So, that's just
straight up the first thing. The second
thing is the model. Most of the time
when coaches tell me they have 40 or 50
clients, I know that these clients are
not on a contract. I know that these
clients are not paying monthly or they
are not paying up front. Um I know that
these clients aren't even showing up
every week. And 99% of time, you only
get paid when they show up. So, the
model is broken if you run your business
that way. And it's not going to matter
to me if you have 40 clients or 200
clients. I've talked to coaches that
have literally 250 clients. They tell me
they have 250 clients and they're making
like $20,000 a month. Hey, there's
coaches that I work with right now that
have 100 clients that are making like
30, 40,000 dollars a month.
Right? So, the model is typically
broken. So, the way that you fix it is
you treat this like a real business. You
you don't treat it like this thing where
it's like, "I'm free this week on this
day and this day. And I'm going to text
everyone and see when they want to come
train with me. And then I'm going to
make money when someone shows up to the
session." If that's the case, you're
going to be broke even if you have 100
clients because you don't have a
consistent model that really protects
you and the business. So, that's the
second thing. Now, the third thing, this
is, in my opinion, the biggest
difference maker if you can nail down
the first two. So, if you can nail down
the pricing and you don't nail down the
model, the third is the leverage that
you have with communication. And I'm not
talking about how you, you know, text
clients and how you email clients. I'm
talking about how you actually coach
your clients. Because right now, if
you're running like 40 one-on-one
sessions per week, I mean, if you do
that Monday through Friday, that's like
eight sessions per day. Most 20 to 35 or
25 to 50-year-old guys or girls, you're
not going to have the energy to sustain
that long-term. What happens is you get
so into the weeds of what you're doing
and you think that's the best way of
doing it, and you haven't given yourself
time to back away from what you're doing
to evaluate, how is this actually going?
How much energy do I have? Could I
change the model? Um
and if I step up my communication in my
in my training sessions, I'm going to be
able to have more leverage. So, let me
give you this example. I can take
someone that has 40-plus clients. Let's
just say 40 clients. And they're doing
everything one-on-one. And within 60
days, we could change their whole
business to where the all of the clients
are doing group training. And you could
have like groups of six. And if you do
if you do the math, that would be
literally seven groups. So, you could go
from 40 sessions per week to seven
sessions per week if you're training
groups of six. You could train
groups of 10. And
you can go higher and higher on that
scale, it comes down to your level of
communication. So, if your
communication's really good, you have
way more leverage in this business
versus someone who just gets stuck with
one-on-one training. And I'm not saying
one-on-one training is bad. I started
with that model at the very beginning
and I ran that into the ground. I ran as
hard as I possibly could. I even hired
other coaches who ran that model, but
the second we
turned on group training, it was like
our calendar got collapsed. It's like,
you have way more energy or sessions,
way easier to manage, too, with the
business, cuz everyone's funneling into
the separate groups that you have, set
days, set times. At the end of the day,
the leverage comes from how good you are
at communicating, how good you are at
teaching, how good you are at showing in
your session. And that's where you can
go from making like, you know, let's say
you make $100 an hour for one-on-one
training. Well, if you do that, like you
can make 500 or even $1,000 per hour
with group training, camps, clinics,
because you're training way more kids in
a smaller amount of time. And what I've
seen, 100% of the time with the coaches
that I work with that go from one-on-one
to groups, or like small groups to
larger groups, they have way more
energy, they have way more time to
market themselves, cuz they're not
day-to-day just training kids all day
long. And it's just easier for them to
grow their business. And on the
financial side, they're not selling
individual stuff anymore, they're
selling a six or 12-month type of
program that parents are committing to.
And the key thing I want you to look at
is over six months. If you can price
what you have between
$1,500 and $3,000 for your price for six
months,
you're in a really good spot if you can
get up to 40 clients. Like, you have
more than a six-figure per year business
if you can like land on numbers in
between that. If you don't, then you're
kind of trapped with the price.
And the only way to really make more
money if you're trapped with the price
is if you take on more clients. That's
not the ideal situation to put yourself
in if you're the business owner, and
it's going to be hard, too, to scale
your business with assistant coaches if
you have that model. So, again, got to
look at your price. That has to be
fixed. Got to look at the model. How is
that set up? Private training or group
training? And And again, you find all of
the leverage when you become a better
communicator with coaching. And that's
where you can train way more kids per
hour. You can go from like eight
sessions per day to like one session per
day, and you can honestly be making more
money with that model. Right? So now, if
you are watching this and you're like,
"Hey, I want to put that together."
Like, I don't want you to take my word
for it, but I'd want you to do a couple
things. First, go on my YouTube channel,
click on playlist, and look at the
client case study videos that I have,
the interviews that I have. You'll see
examples of coaches that have hundreds
of customers, and it's all group
training.
Um you'll see examples from people that
have like
50 clients. They have a a profitable a
really profitable six-figure per year
business. So it's not going to come down
to you needing a million clients. You
need the right clients, the ones that
take you serious, the ones that are
committed and invested into your
program. And if you are watching this
and you want to learn more, go watch
more of my YouTube videos, go look at my
playlist, look at the proof that I
already have there. And if you're
seriously interested in getting my
one-on-one help, this is all I do. So,
all you do is you go down, you can book
a call with me. I'll text you, I'll ask
you some questions and see if you're a
good fit. I'll tell you everything you
need to know about my program before you
even take a call with me. And at that
point when we chat, I'm going to learn
more about your business, look at your
situation, and see if you're a good
candidate to work with me. I'm very
picky with who I work with. I don't take
on every single coach. Um I typically
work with like 20 to 30 coaches
one-on-one per year, and that's it. So,
you're watching this, you want more of
my personal help, go book the call with
me. It's free. You have nothing to lose.
See you later.