If you don't know what Internet Business Coaching
is, you will soon enough. These companies are becoming more and
more visible on the Internet scene every day.
What they do is provide you with
'personalized' help in starting and running your
Internet business. There are several Coaching operations
we've seen recently that provide some or all of the
following services to you, over a set period of time:
One-on-One phone time with your assigned Coach
Email support with your assigned Coach
Online Classes
Printed materials to read
Video/DVD materials to watch
Seminars around the US
These services are supposed to be
designed to teach you everything from how to set up
web sites or auctions, to choosing which products
might sell better for you, to raising your rankings
in the Search Engines, and more.
Are they legit?
Frankly, as far as I'm concerned,
the 'jury' is still out on this question. I've looked
at some of their course outlines, I've spoken to several
of the owners and managers of these companies, and I've
dealt with some of the smaller (one or two person)
operations that want you to think they are big companies.
I have a ways to go yet before deciding whether I want to
make any particular recommendations. There are three large
Coaching companies I have found that look legitimate to me,
but I want to go a lot further in investigating the issue
before I tell you that I think they are worth the time and
money. There are also many very small operations, as I said,
that want you to think they are big Coaching companies, and
those, to me, are definitely not worth the money. It's just
not possible for one or two people to provide the level of
constant training and support needed by more than just a few
clients, so the small Coaches are out, in my opinion. The
larger companies may be legit, but I'm still working on
determining that. When I make that determination to my own
satisfaction, I'll tell you about it in a future edition
of this Newsletter.
This particular article is intended to
explain why a legitimate Internet Business Coaching company
would have to charge the kinds of high fees that so many
Coaching companies ask for (anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 or more).
They've gotta pay the rent!
A large Coaching company will have
many people working for them in the same set of offices.
Let me give you an idea of what that costs them, by
telling you about what it costs us to run our offices.
Whenever you bring a group of people to
work for you in a closed environment, like an office setting,
it costs a lot of money. I can attest to that personally.
My company, Worldwide Brands, Inc. employs many people in
our offices near Orlando, Florida. My Partners and I spent
a great deal of money setting up those offices, and a great
deal more bringing on the (excellent) staff of people we have here.
It isn't as easy as just renting space.
Once you have the office space, which isn't cheap to begin
with, you need to furnish that office space. Desks, chairs,
file cabinets, tables. Those plastic things that you put on
the floor that your chairs roll around on (you wouldn't
believe what those things cost!). Staplers, paper, pens,
sticky notes, and places to store and organize your office
supplies. Restroom supplies. A refrigerator for everybody's
soft drinks and lunches. Signs for the building and the doors.
Then, you need Phone Service. Thousands of
dollars for digital phone systems that run multiple lines over
a digital (T1) phone connection. An 800 number. Thousands per
month in phone service and long distance bills.
Of course, you can't run a business
without Computers. A PC for every employee, and a couple of
extras for training use. A Server Computer to function as a
central data storage location, and to run nightly backups of
all your data. Thousands of dollars worth of software licensed
for all your computers and your Server. Printers and a Fax Machine.
A Network Router and Hubs.
The Computers are useless unless they can
connect to the Internet, so you shell out more money for a
High-Speed Business Internet Connection that can handle the
load when all your employees are working on the Net at the
same time, which they almost always do.
What happens if there's theft, or an
accident? You are required to pay for Business Insurance
to protect yourself against loss, and against someone
being injured at your location. Of course, you need to
pay for Alarm System installation and maintenance before
you can even get the Business Insurance.
Then you have bills for Power, Water,
and sometimes Natural Gas. You have to keep the lights on
and the air conditioning running, or you're going nowhere fast.
When that's all paid for, the real costs begin!
Whenever you employ people, you have large
expenses associated with that employment. We provide a great Medical,
Dental, Vision and Life Insurance Plan to our employees, as does
anyone with a real business location. That costs us a lot, every
month. Then there's Unemployment Insurance that we have to pay,
and Workman's Compensation Insurance. There's Human Resources
Outsourcing, Training Programs, Overtime, Bonuses, and the
occasional Group Lunch. And that doesn't even take Payroll
into account!
What it all boils down to is that placing
a group of people in an Office environment costs a ton of
money. Be glad that you are setting yourself up to work
from home! We maintain our Staff and our Offices for the
sole purpose of researching and publishing The Drop Ship
Source Directory, The Light Bulk Wholesale Directory, and
The Market Research Wizard. Doing that takes all of the
expenses and resources I've listed above, plus a lot more
to operate our sites and pay for research materials and
advertising. When we work on our Directories, we are all
working on the same thing. All of the attention of the
Owners and Employees of our company is focused on one thing,
all the time: Researching and Publishing our Directories and
the related information you see on our site.
Now, imagine what it takes for a
Coaching Company to put twenty or thirty people in an
office setting, and then dedicate each one of those people
to working with only a few of their clients for months
at a time! Each one of those very costly employees can
only work on just a small part of their business for them:
maybe eight or ten clients that have signed up for Internet
Business Coaching. That's the only way they can truly provide
quality service to their Coaching clients.
So, when I see these companies charging
$3,000 to $6,000 and more for several months of personal
Coaching, I do understand why they need to do that! In order
to provide quality One-on-One service to their Coaching clients,
they have no choice but to charge that much. All that money does
not go into their pockets. Most of it goes just to maintain the
business itself.
That doesn't mean, however, that they
are providing quality service. As I said, I'm still
researching that. The three companies I have found look
good so far, but I haven't gotten far enough in my research
yet to recommend any of them personally. When I do, any
recommendations I have will be posted in our Resource Center
(www.Worldwide Brands.com) and sent out in our Worldwide Brands
Home EBiz Newsletter.
Once I form my opinion, I hope it will help
you to form your own opinion. :o)
