Have you hit a plateau in your leadership development coaching business? Do you want to create a more custom experience for your client base? Do you have creative ideas that you wish you could make a reality, but your current platform doesn’t allow for it? Custom software might just be the answer you’ve been looking for!
Before jumping into custom software for your leadership development business, stop and consider these questions first:
What does success look like for you and your leadership development business?
There’s a good chance you’re asking your leadership development clients some version of this question, but have you applied it to yourself? There’s no right or wrong answer here. Many people are happy with the amount of impact they’re having already. But many others want to reach and influence more than they currently do. If you see yourself as hitting a plateau, then your vision is bigger than your current results. So begin by clarifying your vision. What does success look like?
What are you currently creating and offering right now?
Your current results are a direct consequence of your current processes and habits. If you are using easily customized software to deliver your training, you’re likely to get easily achieved results. To change your outcomes, you must begin by changing your processes. And as someone in the leadership development business, that means taking a hard look at the tools you use to develop and deliver the curriculum to your students and clients.
What are you willing to invest back into your leadership development business?
While many commercially available tools can be had for low cost, custom software can range from mildly expensive to extraordinarily expensive. Truly custom software of the kind that can change the trajectory of your leadership business is likely to cost at least six figures. You need not spend all of your capital up front, but you should be clear-eyed about what it costs to make the leap.
Once you’ve clarified your vision, examined how your processes are producing your current results, and determined a reasonable budget, you’re ready to think about custom software. You may be wondering…
“What can custom software do for my business?”
It can deliver exactly the experience you want.
When you use an 80% solution, you’re limited to the capabilities needed by the 80%. Truly extraordinary companies need to go beyond those features.
It can help you build a collaborative team.
While many leadership development and coaching businesses start out with only a one or two-person team, growth and impact often come only when you scale the business to include others. With a custom platform, you can bring in the contributions of others – administrators, facilitators, and vendors – into a single view that allows everyone to work together more smoothly.
It can give you insights that off-the-shelf platforms can’t.
Getting and giving feedback quickly and effectively is a key theme in many leadership development methodologies. The same holds true for your business. With a custom platform, you are able to identify the critical KPI’s that represent your business (which content is resonating when are sales most effective, how many referrals are you getting) and build the software to surface those metrics.
It can easily tie into your other materials.
Have you written a book, hosted a podcast, or developed other content that you need to weave into your class in ways not available with your current solution? When you build a custom solution, you are able to present all of your content in a seamless and unique experience that best amplifies your effectiveness for your clients.
Custom Software and Your Leadership Development Business
Building a leadership development business is not easy. Beyond figuring out how to translate your own perspective into materials than others can learn from, you also need to tend to the logistics of running a business. When you first begin, relying on readily accessible and inexpensive platforms is not only necessary, it’s the smart play. But at some point, you’ll outgrow what those tools provide. Fail to change and you’ll hit a plateau.
If your vision is greater than what you’re able to get with your current tools, it’s probably time to think about building custom software. Mutually Human has helped several other coaching and leadership development clients through this journey and we’d love to take these steps with you. Click here for your free consultation.
