Coaching Costs

By Chris Malta
Posted Monday, December 13, 2004

Why does Internet Business Coaching cost so much?

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, and doing that takes all of the expenses and resources I've listed above, plus a lot more to operate our site and pay for research materials and advertising. When we work on our Directory, 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 Directory 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 and sent out in our Newsletter.

Once I form my opinion, I hope it will help you to form your own opinion. :o)

Chris Malta
WorldWide Brands, Inc.
For more information, visit (http://www.YouCanDropship.com)

About the Author
Chris Malta is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. He has worked with computer Systems for 18 years. He's been involved in eCommerce systems, networking and site design for more than 6 years. He developed The Drop Ship Source Directory, and he and his partners at Worldwide Brands, Inc., publish the Directory and run eCommerce sites of their own using Drop Shipping as their only business method.