How to Scale Your Coaching Business on a Budget: The Best Software for coaches

Scale your coaching business on a budget with Kartra. Discover affordable strategies and tools for growth, designed for life coaches and online entrepreneurs, including the best software for coaches.

This post is sponsored by Kartra. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make it possible for us to provide free content and coaching business inspiration.

Scaling your coaching biz isn’t just about dreaming big—it’s about smart moves and even smarter tools to support your mission and growth. And if you’re anything like me, when it comes to taking your coaching business to the next level, the maze of expensive tools and complicated systems is killing your vibe (and your budget). Sounds familiar?

The truth is, expanding your impact and income doesn’t require emptying your pockets or selling your soul to social media. It’s time to debunk the myth that scaling is synonymous with spending.

Yes, in order to scale, you’ll need a way to manage client relationships, automating your marketing efforts, etc. And yes, the path to growth often feels like navigating a complex maze. 

But not anymore! In this comprehensive guide, where savvy meets strategy, your budget is no longer a barrier and tech doesn’t have to be a hurdle thanks to a robust all in one solution to scale your coaching business. 

How to Affordably Scale Your Coaching Business 

If you’ve been led to believe that shelling out big bucks for expensive ad campaigns, pricey software suites, and fancy websites from high-end branding and design agencies is the only way to scale your coaching business, you’re not alone.

But it’s a lie! And this common misconception holds many brilliant coaches back, trapping them in a cycle of “spend to ascend” that’s not just daunting but downright unsustainable.

The good news: scaling can actually be affordable, easy and (gasp!) fun. Here are 7 of my fave sustainable scaling strategies:

1. Mastering SEO and content marketing to attract your ideal clients organically.
2. Utilizing email marketing effectively to engage and nurture your audience.
3. Creating and selling digital products for passive income streams (especially if you can sell using evergreen email funnels).
4. Switching from 1:1 to 1:many group coaching programs to scale your impact.
5. Automating and systemizing processes to save time and reduce manual work.
6. Using relationship marketing and partnerships to borrow bigger audiences (maybe even creating your own referral or affiliate program)
7. Hosting webinars and online workshops to educate and convert prospects.

Sounds easy enough, right? But we all know the behind-the-scenes of bringing these strategies to life can be a challenge. 

That’s why it’s crucial to introduce a tool that makes implementing them seamless and affordable. Enter Kartra, your all-in-one digital coaching platform and the game-changer for scaling your coaching business. With Kartra, building landing pages that convert, managing your email campaigns, hosting your digital products, and automating your entire client onboarding process becomes not just possible, but pretty dang effortless. 

All-in-One Software for Coaches vs. A La Carte?

In a market flooded with coaching tools and software for coaches, each shouting louder than the last claiming to be the silver bullet for your business needs, having a streamlined all in one platform can be a life saver. However, the reality is often a compromise between quality and cost, leaving coaches stuck between a rock and a hard place. But what if there was a solution that bridged this gap?

If you’ve tried a few of them, you know they’re all ready to nickel-and-dime you at every turn. You start out piecing together a patchwork of apps for life coaches, crossing your fingers that somehow, they’ll sync up and work magic.

Yet, the reality for many of us is a tangled web of apps and platforms that promise the world but deliver a fragmented mess and eating into your profits. It’s an unsustainable drain on your resources and sanity.

If you’ve found yourself flipping between tabs, wrestling with integrations and Zapier, and hemorrhaging cash on solutions that only ever solve half the problem, rather than focusing on your clients, you are going to LOVE Kartra.

Imagine having everything you need under one roof: from client management and email marketing to creating and hosting your courses. And for a fraction of the price of what you were paying before?

Enter Kartra, the all-in-one platform for building, launching and growing your online business. designed to support the multifaceted needs of coaching businesses without the hefty price tag.

Kartra isn’t just another app for life coaches. It’s the Swiss Army knife of coaching platforms, tailored for those of us who mean business—whether you’re just planting the seeds or you’re ready to grow your existing practice into a flourishing empire. 

It is possible to scale your coaching business on a budget without compromising on quality. Take it from me: when I stopped piecemealing together my coaching business tools and made the switch to Kartra,  I saved $12,000 per year immediately, and that savings has only continued to grow.

Check it out. I did some research on the average cost of the most commonly used coaching software platforms:

• Course and Membership Hosting: $39 to $199/month
• Email Service with Automations: $50 to $300/month (Assuming you have at least 1,000 subscribers)
• Payment Processing Fees: $119/month 
• Affiliate Management: $0 to $500/month (based on scale and features)
• Customer Service Helpdesk: $100/month
• Webinar Software: $20 to $500/month
• Landing Pages and Opt-in Forms: $15 to $300/month
• Zapier or automation integration software: $20-$200/month

Average cost totals about $1,000 per month across all these different tools. But Kartra offers EVERY SINGLE ONE of those features, starting at just $99/month. Even being on the more advanced plan, I personally only pay $219/month (a rate I was grandmothered into since I’ve used the platform for 4 years now!). 

And just in case you’re thinking that more expensive means better, I even made the switch to Hubspot in 2023 thinking the grass might be greener. I was paying thousands of dollars per month and it couldn’t do even half of what Kartra was capable of. I switched back quickly. 

This streamlined approach not only simplifies your tech stack but also represents significant cost savings, freeing up resources that can be better invested in growing your coaching business. 

Let’s explore why Kartra is the best online coaching platform, and how to maximize its features to scale your coaching business!

Leveraging Kartra: Essential Features for Coaching Businesses

Kartra doesn’t just simplify your tech stack at a significant cost savings, it’s a cohesive ecosystem that’s not only easy to manage but actually grows with you.

I see so many new coaches starting off with something cheap in the beginning just to save a few bucks, but then ultimately having to migrate to a better tool later because the cheap tool doesn’t actually serve their needs. 

And let me tell you, migrating is for the birds. It sucks, no sugarcoating it. I always recommend starting with a tool you can really grow into, even if you start on the cheapest plan while you’re getting started. Do it for your future self. 

But what really sets Kartra apart as the best coaching platform for growth? Kartra simply understands the unique needs of coaches. Whether you’re in the life coaching space or you’re mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs, Kartra’s suite of features is tailored to support the nuanced demands of your coaching business, like:

• Transparent Client Journey: I don’t just see what my clients are up to; I get a 360-view of their journey. Purchases, interactions, email opens, course progress—you name it, I can see it, making customer service not just a task, but a personalized experience.
• Streamlined Operations with Automation: The bedrock of any thriving coaching business is efficient client management. Kartra excels here with automation that simplifies every aspect of your client’s journey. From the moment someone shows interest in your services, Kartra’s automation tools kick in—capturing leads, segmenting them based on their interests, and guiding them through personalized paths that feel tailor-made. Automated follow-ups ensure no client slips through the cracks, making Kartra a standout choice among life coaching platforms for those who value both personal touch and efficiency.
• Effortless Scheduling: Scheduling sessions shouldn’t be a time sink. With Kartra’s integrated scheduling feature, it’s anything but. Embedded directly within your Kartra-powered site, this tool allows clients to book their own sessions based on your availability, automatically syncing with your calendar. This feature eliminates back-and-forth emails, reduces no-shows with automated reminders, and positions Kartra as a gem in the realm of online coaching software for hassle-free appointment management.
• Exclusive Membership Sites: For many life coaches, offering exclusive content through membership sites is a key revenue stream. Kartra simplifies this with its integrated membership site builder, allowing you to create, manage, and scale your membership offerings with ease. From drip content to ensure a steady engagement to secure login portals for each member, Kartra handles it all. This functionality not only elevates Kartra’s status as a top-tier software for coaches but also empowers you to create a vibrant, engaged community around your coaching practice.

I share a lot more about other Kartra features that I use and love in my own coaching business here.

Maximizing Impact and Investment with Kartra for Coaches

I’m nothing if not a step-by-step practical tips kinda gal. So here’s how you can harness Kartra’s full potential to scale your coaching business on a budget: 

1. Pilot New Offerings with Minimal Upfront Investment:
   • Today’s Action: Draft a simple outline for a mini-course or workshop. Use Kartra’s landing page builder to create a signup page, complete with your outline and a call to action. Set up an automated email sequence in Kartra for sign-ups, giving them a taste of what’s to come.
2. Enhance Client Loyalty with Automation and Personalization:
   • Today’s Action: Identify your most engaged clients based on Kartra’s analytics. Create a personalized email campaign targeting them, perhaps offering an exclusive piece of content or a special consultation discount. Use Kartra’s tagging feature to segment these clients for future personalized outreach.
3. Build and Engage Your Community:
   • Today’s Action: Plan a monthly webinar or live Q&A session using Kartra’s integrated webinar tools. Promote it through all your channels. Use this as an opportunity to gather feedback, answer questions, and connect on a personal level, solidifying your community.
4. Dive Deep into Kartra’s Analytics for Tailored Strategy:
   • Today’s Action: Spend an hour today exploring Kartra’s analytics dashboard. Identify one metric that’s underperforming (maybe email open rates or landing page conversions). Set up an A/B test in Kartra to try two different approaches to improve this metric over the next month.
5. Simplify Your Tech Stack:
   • Today’s Action: List all the separate tools you’re currently using (for email, landing pages, course hosting, etc.). Compare these with Kartra’s offerings. Start migrating at least one function over to Kartra today, beginning with what you use most frequently or what’s most costly.

In the journey of scaling your coaching business, Kartra stands out as more than just software—it’s a strategic partner. By embracing its full suite of features, you can launch, grow, and connect in ways that not only save time and money but also carve out a distinctive space for your coaching practice in a crowded market. Kartra isn’t just about doing business; it’s about doing business smarter, making it the ultimate choice for coaches ready to take their impact to the next level.

Additional Resources

• Get a 30-day free trial and save 20% off your first payment when you use our link successwithsoul.co/kartra with code: SWS20
• Sign up for our upcoming Get it Done Week happening April 15, 2024, where we’ll support you to launch your email list with your first lead magnet and automated welcome series! 
• My Full Kartra Review
• Kartra vs Kajabi