It’s the DREAM of so many part-time coaches hustling on the side of their full-time day job: How do I ditch this crappy day job forever and live the LIFE I want, coaching athletes all day while still paying my bills?
I still remember the minute I decided it was time to go full time in 2013, driving in a Jeep around Kona at the Ironman World Championships. The decision that changed my life. Ditching the government contracting misery for my dream work.
The next question I often get: How many athletes do I need to go full time? And it’s a great question. But the wrong one. Athlete count is not what makes full time possible. It’s the systems BEHIND that number that make full-time, profitable coaching an option.
There are plenty of coaches out there with 20-25 athletes who are still drowning and broke, barely paying their expenses with their coaching revenue. We need to fix that first.
Why a lack of systems holds you back
Think of the lack of systems like a training plan with no structure. Just random workouts put together with a “hope” that it will be enough for improvement. The athlete is doing the work, sure, but with no structure, who knows if it’s too much, not enough, or not the right type or mix of intensities.
This is how I want you to see a business setup without systems. It’s plans written at all hours of the day. It’s athlete notes strewn between eight different notebooks (and by the way, you lost a notebook and now can’t find what John said about his 2027 goals seven months ago). It’s so many messages at 10 p.m. via texts, DMs, FB Messages, emails, etc. It’s taking payments through Venmo, check, and cash, on all days of the month, with no system to audit the cash flow. And so much more.
A systemless business keeps you busy but doesn’t make you profitable, and you are probably missing key information to help your athletes because of the disorganization. A double whammy that needs fixing first.
And lastly, without systems, more athletes just means breaking at a bigger scale: more hours, more scattered payments, and more 10pm texts.
This, sadly, is something I see with so many coaches who learned how to be amazing coaches, but the businesses haven’t kept up with their coaching knowledge.
4 must-have systems to go full time
Here are the 4 systems I want you to create before thinking about going full time:
System 1: Marketing, so athletes can find you consistently.
A repeatable system to get ideal athlete inquiries. A true niche of who you coach, a visibility plan to stay present, and a simple way to say who you coach.
You can’t go full time on referral luck alone.
System 2: Finance, so you know your real numbers.
One payment system with subscription billing to simplify the process. This helps you know what an athlete is actually worth per month and what you need to bring home monthly to replace your paycheck.
The jump is a math problem. So do that math!
Tip → I recommend the TrainingPeaks Payments system. It makes it easy to set up and monitor recurring billing and keeps payment right in the app. This guide explains how to get it set up. (Note: Payments is only available to coaches in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K.)
Bonus: Bring all your athletes onto Premium TrainingPeaks and roll it into your pricing. They get a premium experience and much better coaching!
System 3: Operations, so you can coach better in less time.
Create great workout libraries, progressions, and REPEATABLE and simplified onboarding, plus keep all your athlete notes and conversations in one place electronically, not in notebooks.
The coach who writes every workout from scratch and has to dig through notebooks to find athlete information has a hobby, not a business.
Tip → If you haven’t yet, this is a great time to start using the Strength Workout Builder in TrainingPeaks and give the new Workout Generator a try. It’s awesome! (Note: Workout Generator is a coaches-only tool.)
System 4: Boundaries and time management, so you can still live your life.
This is the BIGGEST issue I’ve seen in the 300+ coaches I have worked with. Here’s my biggest plea for you today: Keep 99% of your conversations with your athletes IN TRAININGPEAKS where they belong. Not in DMs, FB messages, or random text messages.
Tip → I recommend moving the majority of your athlete conversations to workout comments OR the new Messaging feature in TrainingPeaks. Just last week one of my new athletes let me know through the Messaging feature that he’s doing his first Ironman. Woohoo! Now I can always find that information, in the app where I coach.
Build the systems now, make the jump when you’re ready
So here is my homework for you: Pick ONE of these four systems and start building it this week, while coaching is still your side hustle. Don’t build all four the week you quit your day job. Build them now, one at a time, so the jump stops being a leap of faith and becomes a math problem you have already solved.
As I shared in my last article about losing an athlete, we are in the middle of Selling Season. The athletes are coming. Build the systems now, and the decision I made in that Jeep in Kona can be yours: prepared, profitable, and FULL TIME.
Need help filling the roster spots that opened up this season? Start with my free training: The Full Roster Fix.
