You learned to coach. Nobody taught you how to set up the business the coaching runs on - the entity, the bank accounts, the books, the taxes, the insurance. This is that course.
What the course is and isn't in a few minutes, then how the six starting-point roadmaps work so you never wonder where to begin.
Lesson 0.1.1 · How to Set Up a Coaching Practice
The identity shift the whole course turns on: from a coach who is starting a business to a founder who builds the layer the coaching runs on.
Lesson 1.1.1 · How to Read the Implementation Roadmap
The answer to "where do I even start?" - six step-by-step maps, one for your exact situation, each pointing to the lessons you need in order.
The rest of the 171 lessons unlock the moment you enroll.
The people who actually know this work - accountants, attorneys, insurance brokers - sell services, not curriculum. So the only free guidance out there is generic small-business advice that was never written for a coaching practice. This course was.
Six things you can actually do by the end - not concepts you've heard of, but decisions made and systems running.
Run the LLC-vs-S-corp decision on your own numbers, pick your state of formation using the three factors that matter, and walk through EIN, state registration, and the beneficial-ownership filing without guessing.
Open the business banking that keeps personal and business cleanly separated, set up a chart of accounts that maps to your tax return, and get a payment processor live so you can issue your first invoice.
Become a competent buyer of a bookkeeper, CPA, attorney, insurance broker, and payroll service - the questions to ask, the price ranges to expect, and the red flags that tell you to keep looking.
Set a tax-reserve methodology you compute yourself, make quarterly estimated payments on time, track deductions to the right Schedule C lines, and reach your first filing with the records already in order.
Bind the errors-and-omissions coverage a coaching practice actually needs (and check the AI exclusion), pick a retirement vehicle type that fits a one-person business, and know where your own work ends and a fiduciary's begins.
The capstone: entity filed, books reconciled, payments live, pros chosen, year-one calendar and tax reserve running. One completed roadmap, instructor-reviewed by Alex Kudinov, MCC - your practice, set up for real.
Twenty-one modules, from the decisions you make before you form anything to the annual cycle that keeps the practice running. Watch the diagnostic first, pick your roadmap, then drill into the modules each decision calls for.
The reason most coaches stall isn't the work - it's not knowing what to do first. So the course opens with six implementation maps, each a numbered sequence built for one starting situation. Pick yours and the order is decided for you.
You have the coaching skill and zero business infrastructure. The default map takes you from no entity to a filed, banked, insured practice in order.
You're already coaching for pay as an accidental sole proprietor. This map cleans up what exists - entity, separation, books - and elects S-corp if the math says so.
Coaching on the side of a day job. The map handles the W-2-plus-Schedule-C reality and the withholding adjustments that keep you out of an April surprise.
Leaving a corporate role to coach full-time. The map adds the exit-specific moves - the 401(k) rollover, the benefits gap, the timing of formation around your last paycheck.
Forming a US entity from outside the country. The map routes through the US-entity specifics and the Stripe Atlas path for international founders.
An American citizen coaching from overseas. The map layers in the foreign-earned-income exclusion, foreign tax credit, and FBAR notes the standard path skips.
Not sure which one you are? The diagnostic intake walks you through it in the first few minutes and points you to your map - and you can switch maps any time as your situation changes.
Two quick lists so you can self-select before you enroll.
Not "led by" - written, recorded, and reviewed by an MCC who built and runs a coaching practice, and who learned the founding layer the hard way so you don't have to.
Alex co-founded Tandem Coaching and runs it - the entity, the books, the payments, the contractors, the taxes, the insurance. Direct, pragmatic, and honest about what you should run yourself versus what you should pay a pro to handle. This course is the founding work he wishes someone had handed him on day one: categories and the math, never one-size prescriptions, taught generically so you can apply it wherever you set up.
More about Alex171 short video lessons across 21 modules. A diagnostic intake and six roadmaps route you to what to watch first. Watch on any device, no live sessions to schedule around.
No 30-day, 90-day, or one-year limit. The topical modules are an encyclopedia - come back to banking, taxes, or insurance the moment that decision is in front of you.
Pass the verification quiz and submit your Founding Pack - one completed implementation roadmap, reviewed by Alex Kudinov, MCC. You get a shareable certificate suitable for LinkedIn.
Checklists, scorecards, templates, and worksheets - entity decision matrix, account-opening checklists, pro-selection scorecards, the tax-reserve worksheet, the annual-maintenance calendar, and more. Yours to use long after the course.
One short form, no credit card. Your account is set up immediately - you can be in the first lesson, and looking at your roadmap, within 60 seconds.
Enroll now and the course is yours, free, for life - even after we turn pricing on for new founders.
We email you the access link. Unsubscribe from course communications any time.
Really free, no catch. We're opening the course at $0 during early access. Pricing turns on for new founders later - and if you enrolled before that, the course stays yours, free, for life.
What we ask in return: your email, and the chance to learn from how you use the material so we can keep making it better.
No - and it's deliberately built not to. The course makes you a competent buyer of those services and a competent operator of the layers you genuinely should run yourself. There's a whole module - placed early - on the boundary: where your own work ends and a licensed pro's begins, for legal, tax, investment, accounting, and insurance.
Every layer ends with the type of pro you need, what to ask them, the price range to expect, and the red flags. You'll spend less on professionals and get more from them, because you'll know what you're buying.
The entity, tax, and insurance mechanics are US-centric, but they're taught generically - the LLC structure, the three factors for choosing your state of formation, and the categories of filings - then you point to your own state's agencies for the execution. No "Delaware is best" shortcuts.
There are also dedicated roadmaps for non-US founders forming a US entity and for US citizens coaching from abroad.
It's the right time. The course assumes zero business infrastructure on day one - "Are you actually in business yet?" is literally the first decision it walks you through. The earlier you set things up cleanly, the less you have to untangle later.
If you're already taking coaching income informally, there's a roadmap for that too - formalizing an accidental sole proprietorship without making a mess of what already exists.
About 30 hours of content - but it isn't built to binge. It's an encyclopedia you work through along a roadmap, drilling into a module the moment that decision is in front of you: forming the entity this week, setting up banking next, taxes when the quarter closes.
There's no deadline and no expiry. You set up the practice at the pace the practice actually moves.
Three things you keep:
1. Your Founding Pack - one completed implementation roadmap, with your entity filed, banking and books set up, payments live, pros chosen, and your year-one calendar and tax reserve running. Instructor-reviewed by Alex Kudinov, MCC.
2. 144 resources - checklists, scorecards, templates, and worksheets you'll use long after the course.
3. A certificate of completion, shareable on LinkedIn.
Founder versus Operator. This course - Coach as Founder - is the legal, money, tax, and insurance backbone you set up so the practice can exist: entity, banking, books, payments, contractors, taxes, insurance.
Running a Coaching Business - Coach as Operator - is the work of growing it: niche, offers, sales, B2B sponsorship, and the contracts behind paid engagements. They're a deliberate sequence. Found it, then run it.
No. This is the business side of practice, not coaching skill, so it doesn't assume a credential or any Tandem program. It assumes you intend to run a coaching practice and want the operational foundation done right.
If you're also looking to earn your credential, that's our ICF Level 1 (ACC) and Level 2 (PCC) programs - separate work, and a natural companion to setting up the practice.
The work that has to come first, before the coaching has anywhere to land - yours, free, for life if you enroll during early access. Setup takes 60 seconds.
The operator side, once the practice exists - niche, offer, sales, B2B sponsorship, and the contracts behind paid engagements. Found it here, then run it there.
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The craft side of practice - choosing, sequencing, and holding coaching tools well, so what you do inside the session is as solid as the business around it.
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