I never hired a business coach when I started my freelance business. 
Now, part of this was because I didn’t know much about business coaching (and it certainly wasn’t as popular as it is now). But another big part of why I didn’t hire a freelance coach to help me out was that I figured I could do it all on my own.
As it turns out, I COULD---and DID---figure it out on my own!
…except that it took me YEARS (plus going back to a 9 to 5 job for a while) in order to get there.
*facepalm*
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Here are a few of the myths about business coaching that I bought into when I was a new freelancer…
1) Business coaching is expensive.
“Expensive” is pretty relative. And when you think about it, when you get paid what you’re worth as a freelancer, that could mean that you are able to charge clients upwards of $100/hour for your services.
Looking at it that way, how much FASTER could you start increasing your rates---and getting new clients!---if you invested in freelancing coaching?
I bet you could recoup the cost of hiring a freelance coach pretty quickly.
2) I don’t have ANY disposable income to invest in my business.
If money is tight and you really don’t have a budget for hiring a business coach, then you don't need to go into debt for it. However, more often than not, we actually DO have a little more flexibility in our budgets than we might think.
When I first started out as a freelancer, I was so intent on not spending any money that I didn’t think about how much it was costing me to not invest in myself.
Here are a few questions you need to ask yourself if you’re struggling with this:
- What will happen if you hire a business coach?
- What will happen if you DON’T hire a business coach?
- Is money the only thing preventing you from hiring a business coach?
- And in that case, does the freelance coach have payment plans to make it more affordable for you?
- Based on what you know of them from the free resources they provide, do you think that you would benefit from getting personalized feedback and support from them and even better resources in their paid programs?
Is business coaching right for you? Grab the cheat sheet to find out >>
3) I can figure it all out on my own.
You sure can! It’s probably just going to take you a very long time to get there. This is the main reason why I became a business coach: because I didn’t want anyone else to have to go through all the headaches, hassle, and mistakes that I did when I was trying to figure it all out on my own!
It’s so much easier to hire a freelance coach to help you with this piece, so you DON’T have to spend years struggling with your business.
4) It won’t take me THAT long to grow my business.
This is one of the most dangerous myths that freelancers buy into. After all, freelancing doesn’t look like it’s THAT hard to do! Surely after a few weeks, all the pieces will fall together and the clients will flock to me, right?
Nope. It doesn’t work like that. You need to create concrete customized strategies for your business, and you need to be committed to following through on your plans.
Many freelancers end up burning out, or getting frustrated because they can’t find any clients, or feeling overwhelmed with juggling everything, or having trouble identifying what they should focus on first.
The good thing is that you can get around this problem by hiring a business coach. Hiring a freelance coach will empower you to come up with a strong plan of action, to stay accountable with your business, and to get support throughout your freelancing journey.
5) What can a business coach teach me that I can’t get online for free?
YES: there are a lot of amazing free resources online! And you should absolutely take advantage of those. 
However, there are 3 crucial pieces that make paying a great freelance coach so worth it:
- A great freelance coach will basically provide you with a “roadmap” of what (and when and how) to focus on with your business. Rather than trying to spend your time sifting through everything on the Internet, you can just have all the steps laid out before you.
- A great business coach will help you to create customized strategies and systems that are right for YOU and your unique business---not just tell you to do the exact same thing as a bunch of other freelancers.
- A great freelance coach will provide you with personalized feedback on your work. They can provide input on the direction you’re going in, make suggestions for business improvements, and brainstorm new ideas with you.
There is SO MUCH VALUE in paying someone to help you out, because it will just take things to a whole new level.
Recently, I was chatting with a business friend about our two businesses and what we each teach our students, and she asked me curiously, “how do you teach your students how to find clients?”
Before I could respond, she hastily added, “I mean, don’t tell me if that’s a big part of your e-course and if it will give away your secrets!”
I found this last statement fascinating! And I also find this to be one of those things I’m a little skeptical of when I see course instructors and business coaches refusing to answer questions like hers, because they think it “gives away their secrets.”
I mean, really. If you can’t provide a one- or two-sentence answer on a topic without “giving away your secrets” or “giving away the only reason that people would pay you,” that’s a little bit concerning. And yet there are unfortunately a lot of business coaches who have that mentality, where they don’t want to answer questions because it will “give too much away.” If you are charging people money to hire you, I should hope they’re getting more than a one- or two-sentence answer to a question.
Of course, after we had an interesting discussion about this topic, I did go back and answer her question regarding how I teach my students to find clients---it all boils down to building relationships with potential clients!
You can check out more about the ways I recommend freelancers get clients by checking out my article on the Day-by-Day Breakdown for How to Get Your First Client and my article on 10 Ways to Market Your Freelance Business.
Right now, I am in the middle of hosting the free 30-day Begin Your Biz Challenge. This challenge includes email lessons and action steps, Facebook discussions, and Facebook live videos where I answer questions the participants have, all about how to start your freelance business.
That is a LOT of free value people are getting!
However, all of these participants could absolutely still benefit from joining the SaganMorrow.com School, even after doing the Begin Your Biz Challenge… because there’s so much more in those freelancer e-courses and my coaching program which they aren’t getting in the Begin Your Biz Challenge---particularly things like the worksheets I’ve designed to help you dig deeper, and the personalized feedback I provide on your work.
Hiring a freelance coach certainly has its merits!