Tzabia Siegel is a trained coach who offers "freedom from dieting for a lifetime". Coaching services are offered through one-on-one coaching, tele-coaching, workshops, and speaking engagements. She is a certified Holistic Nutritionist with nine years of practice as a Nutritional Consultant.
But how did she get to be a successful professional doing what she loves to do? This is Tzabia's success story – a story that provides plenty of tips for anyone who wants to grow their professional services business.
Getting Started
Even as a teen, Tzabia was fascinated by the human body, how it functioned and how she felt in it when she ate particular foods and when she moved in different ways. She graduated from university with a degree in Physical Education with a specialty in fitness.
However, she discovered that there was little money to be made in teaching movement and started investigating, in her own words, "what I was interested in, what the world needed and what I could make money doing." This led to her training as a Holistic Nutritionist.
Tzabia was still searching for her "ideal work" though. "I knew there was something that I needed to add to the work I was doing in nutrition and movement to be satisfied that I was contributing to the world and to be financially successful," she says.
That ideal work turned out to be coaching. Coaching "was a natural for me as I had always loved asking people provocative questions. I was naturally curious about what made people tick, what they yearned for, what they are passionate about, what is going on in the deeper recesses of their mind. And it seemed to be a great fit with my prior training as there was an overweight/obesity epidemic and I knew that few people were talking about the real issues beyond food and exercise." So Tzabia trained to become a coach through Coaches Training Institute and Coachville.
Her expenses in her first year of business were $8000.00. More than 50% of that went towards training and being coached. The rest went towards standard operating expenses of a home-based business with some directed towards advertising (mostly online) and Web and graphic design.
Her first client was a fellow trainee that she met during her coach training. Other clients came through meeting her as a nutritional advisor or seeing her card at yoga studios.
Business Success Tips
- Focus on a money-making model - Tzabia discovered there was little money in teaching movement and searched for a service that would fill a need, be enjoyable, and be financially viable. Teaching movement met the first two requirements but not the third, so she adjusted her business model. See Is Your Business Model Broken? for more on how to develop a business model that makes you more money.
- Get the training/ skills you need - Coaching seemed to be a good idea as Tzabia realized she’d be good at it and that there would be a demand for nutritional coaching. She took the time and spent the money to get the training she needed to practice. As she says, "Develop professionally, personally and as a business person. Learn what your weaknesses in any of the above are and seek to get better in that area or hire someone to help you."
Tzabia Siegel's success story continues on the next page, with tips for marketing professional services and a look at the realities of running your own business.
