Group vs 1:1 programs [tips inside]

It seems like everyone has a group program or course these days right?

And while you might have one or are thinking about starting one, I’ve got some serious tips you should consider.

I see way too many functional health practitioners stretched thin financially and energetically, trying to make a living with group programs when they haven’t created a solid foundation yet.

They are missing the mark in MANY ways, and I don’t want this to happen to you. But I get it.

It’s easy to be distracted by what other functional health practitioners are doing and to think you need to be doing that too.

It’s easy to hide behind a group program because you’re afraid to put yourself out there, and when you question your ability to help people.

It’s easy to lean into your desire to help the masses even if that means you’re not putting yourself first.

Group programs aren’t’ right for all functional health practitioners, and even if they are, there’s a specific time and place to use them in your business.

In this week’s video and blog, I’m giving you expert tips on when and how to use group vs 1:1 client programs so that you can work less while helping more people and taking better care of yourself.

Let me ask you this…

If all of your colleagues were jumping off a bridge, would you do it too?

We need to ask ourselves this type of question in business just like we would in life. Just because “everyone else is doing it”, doesn’t always make it right for you.

The success of your business 100% depends on it being in alignment with your personal needs, desires, and your niche’s needs.

When taking this into consideration you’ll know if you should focus on group, one-on-one, or both types of programs for your business.

I’ve got 3 key questions to help you assess if group programs are right for you right now…

#1 – What is your income goal?
Consider this…if you want to make $10K per month, how many group program enrollments would you need?

If your group program was $50, you would need 200 enrollments per month. If you priced it at $300, you would need 33 enrollments.

And you would need to do this every month to hit your goal.

Versus, if you priced yourself right with 1:1 coaching you would only need to enroll 2-5 clients per month. Based on your enrollment success rate (number of clients you enroll compared to the number of consults you have), you likely will need to schedule about 8-20 consults a month, which is about 2-5 per week.

Which one sounds easier? Getting 8-20 consultations scheduled or enrolling 33-200 paying people?

One-on-one packages, when priced right, are the fastest path to cash and financial stability in your business.

#2 – Do you have an email list?
Your best bet at selling a group program is through your email list. Yes, you can market it on social media and even do Facebook or other ad types. However, social media followers and ad viewers are mostly cold to lukewarm traffic – meaning they don’t know you well yet, and therefore the chances of them enrolling directly from one of those places is slim.

The goal is to move people from social media to your email list so you can warm them up to you by connecting with them more frequently, delivering a TON of value, and building trust with them to eventually buy.

If you have a quality engaged email list, you can expect about 10% of them to enroll. So if we go back to question #1, your email list would need to be at 330-2,000 strong to hit your group program enrollment goals, and even then, there are no guarantees with that.

But here’s one more thing to consider about email, something I know from my personal business statistics…a potential customer is on my email list for an average of 6 months before they buy something.

Nurturing an email list and selling group programs are part of your long-game business plan, but not necessarily for what you might need right now.

Versus, your email list could be much smaller to hit your 1:1 program enrollment goals. If you have a $5K one-on-one program and 100 people on your email list (even if it’s just friends and family, which is how I started), all you need is one enrollment per month to make $5k/month, and that follows the 10% email enrollment average!

Plus, it’s much easier to network yourself in-person and online to schedule a consultation when you position it correctly (more to come on that in a future video and blog!).

#3 – What are you/will you be teaching?
Do you have a proven method that you’ll be teaching in your group programs or course? How do you know it will work?

This is where working 1:1 with clients becomes critical for the success of your group programs.

Working 1:1 with clients is not only the fastest path to cash in terms of pricing and obtaining clients, but it’s also how you will refine your niche and define your “signature system” or proven method for getting results.

You’ll get to test and tweak your approach with 1:1 clients, you’ll be able to see what concepts you can easily teach in a group format and which ones need to be reserved for deeper one-on-one work.

This is exactly how I developed my Seasonal Cleanse Challenge and Get Your Gut In Gear group programs.

I focused on building a foundation with 1:1 clients first.

From that experience, I developed and launched my semi-annual Seasonal Cleanse Challenge to help more people while working less, and to nurture a handful of people from the challenge into my 1:1 programs.

Eventually, I developed and launched the Gut In Gear group program for the Cleanse Challenge people who needed a next step but weren’t ready or ideal for 1:1 work.

A foundation is vital to building any type of solid structure, physically or metaphorically.

So make sure your bases are covered before you jump off the group program bridge; know your niche, establish financial stability, prove your method, and build an email list.
To help you build a foundation with 1:1 program packages, click here to get my Package Creation Worksheet for 1:1 programs.

And check out my blogs on niching here.