How to Become a Life Coach and Start Your Life Coaching Business

If you've heard of life coaching before, but you are not sure what this business entails, and how to become a life coach, then you are in the right place.

Starting a life coaching business can be a profitable endeavor, offering you the freedom to work on your own schedule and from anywhere in the world.

According to the latest statistics, the coaching industry is worth around $4.56 billion globally.

This means that there are countless opportunities for individuals to start their own businesses in this field.

However, becoming a successful life coach doesn't come without its challenges. In today's article, we will cover everything you need to know about starting a life coaching business, answer some common questions, and explain how to get started as a life coach - whether you are a certified life coach or not!

What Does it Mean to Be a Life Coach?

A life coach is someone who helps people become the best version of themselves. They work together with their clients to improve different parts of their lives, such as their jobs, self-care aspects, and relationships, which can make them happier every day.

Coaching involves teamwork between the life coach and the client. The life coach uses different tools to help the client set goals, overcome challenges, and use their motivation to achieve them.

One important aspect of life coaching is setting long-term goals and achieving short-term, personal and professional goals while helping clients learn how to make progress on their own in the long run, even without the coach's help.

Interested in other types of online coaching businesses? Check out this article from our blog: How to Start an Online Coaching Business [The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide]

Life coaches use thoughtful questioning, active listening, motivational interviewing, planning and goal setting, and ensuring accountability in their sessions.

Learn about the pros and cons of building your own online coaching business: Is Online Coaching The Right Choice? Pros and Cons of Selling Coaching Programs

What Are the Different Types of Life Coaches?

Life coaches come in various specialized fields catering to distinct personal growth and development aspects.

• Health and wellness coaches focus on promoting physical well-being through lifestyle changes, exercise, and nutrition.
• Career coaches assist individuals in navigating professional paths, making career transitions, and achieving work-related goals.
• Relationship coaches help individuals enhance their social interactions and build healthier connections.
• Financial coaches provide guidance on managing money, budgeting, and achieving financial goals.
• Creativity coaches support artists and creators in overcoming blocks and finding inspiration.
• Leadership coaches work with individuals to develop strong leadership skills and excel in their roles.

These are just a few examples of different coaching categories out there, that require different coaching skills. But you are not limited to focusing on these niches only!

How Much do Life Coaches Make in 2024?

Coaching is a business, which means that there's no set rate for life coaches, making it tricky to understand average income. However, some studies show that the average annual salary for coaches practicing in North America is $67,800, with 16% of coaches earning $100,000 a year or more.

Ultimately, as a business owner, setting your rates and acquiring clients will greatly impact your income. Beginners may earn less, while experienced coaches with a strong client base can command higher rates.

Learn more about how much money you can make as a life coach here: How Much Do Life Coaches Make in 2023?

Do I Need To Be Certified to Become a Life Coach?

The life coaching industry is rapidly evolving and not heavily regulated. But do you need to be a certified life coach to be successful?

There are no rules stating that you need special credentials or certifications to start a life coaching business.

However, it's important to be well-prepared if you want to excel as a coach, build trust and credibility, and attract high-paying clients. It's advisable to obtain a certain level of certification to add credibility to your business, especially in an unregulated market.

Keep in mind that certifications themselves are often unregulated. In addition to certifications, working with clients and collecting testimonials can also help build credibility.

So, while certification is beneficial, it's not a strict requirement to start your coaching journey.

However, certain coaching niches, especially in health and mental health, may require specific certifications.

Now, let's discuss how to start a life coaching business and create a business plan.

How to Become a Life Coach

Now that you understand life coaching, let's explore how to start a life coaching business today with our step-by-step plan.

Step #1: Pick Your Coaching Niche

Before starting your life coaching business, it's important to take the time to conduct market research and understand who your potential clients might be.

This research will help you gain a better understanding of the coaching world. Here's what you should find out:

• Identify the different areas where life coaching is needed.
• Determine the demand for coaching in these areas.
• Look into how other life coaches run their businesses and what services they offer.
• Check out how they advertise their services.
• Understand how much clients are willing to pay for coaching and what prices your competitors charge.

The first step in your market research should be to decide on the coaching niche in which your life coaching business will specialize.

Life coaches have different specializations, each tailored to specific personal growth and development areas. For instance, health and wellness coaches focus on improving physical well-being through lifestyle adjustments, exercise, and nutrition.

Career coaches help individuals navigate their professional paths, manage career changes, and reach work-related objectives. Relationship coaches aid in improving social interactions and fostering healthier connections.

Financial coaches offer guidance on money management, budgeting, and achieving financial goals, while creativity coaches assist artists and creators in overcoming creative blocks and finding inspiration.

Leadership coaches work with individuals to enhance their leadership skills and excel in their roles.

These are just a few examples of life coaching niches, but you're not restricted to these niches alone.

Once you gather all this information, you can create a plan for your life coaching business and decide how to structure it. Then, you can move on to the next steps!

Step #2: Start Building an Audience Online

It's crucial to start building an online audience as soon as you consider starting a life coaching business, especially if you plan to work exclusively online.

Many creators and coaches make the mistake of leaving audience building as the last step in setting up their business. However, building an online audience takes time and effort, so it's best to start as early as possible.

This involves promoting yourself, sharing valuable content on social media, starting a blog or podcast, creating YouTube videos, and participating in online events and workshops.

Even if you don't have services to offer yet, focus on providing value and sharing your knowledge. By doing this effectively, you can build a loyal audience. When you are ready to promote your services, you'll already have an interested and trusting audience to reach out to.

Learn more about promoting your successful life coaching business: How to Build A Personal Brand to Promote Your Online Course Business

Step #3: Come Up With Your Coaching Offer

Before you launch your business, you need an offer that determines what you are selling.

To do this, you need to identify your ideal client based on your niche, understand the challenges they are facing, what their goals are and what's preventing them from reaching their goals, and anticipate any objections they might raise that could deter them from investing in your service.

Here are a few key steps to help you craft an offer:

• Structure Your Coaching Package: Once you have gathered this information, consider shaping it into a coaching package or a unique offering.
• Create an Irresistible Offer: Instead of offering individual coaching sessions, a life coaching signature offer will guide your clients through a structured process designed to help them achieve a specific goal. It's important to highlight the transformation potential clients will experience after completing the coaching with you!
• Determine Your Pricing: Decide whether this offer will be a high-end coaching package or a more budget-friendly option, depending on the level of support you believe your ideal clients will require, and set a price for your coaching package.

In this article from our blog, we describe all the coaching pricing strategies and how to price a coaching business: How to Price Your Online Coaching Programs

Step #4: Choose a Coaching Platform and Build Your Website

In order to start processing online transactions and to set up everything you need for your business, you need a coaching platform.

This kind of tool will help you handle payments from clients, sell products, build your website, create storefronts, and handle clients information.

Your website is not the core element of your business, so don't spend too much time perfecting it if you're just starting out. A simple landing page that effectively communicates your services and value proposition, and highlights your experiences and past testimonials (if you have them), is sufficient in the beginning.

What you do need is a platform that can handle your clients' transactions and where you can create coaching programs to sell.

With Heights Platform, you can create and sell digital products such as coaching programs, coaching sessions, or events that you can offer to potential clients when you are ready to collect their payments. You can also build your entire coaching website with unlimited pages!

Everything you earn using Heights Platform is 100% yours to keep, and there are no transaction fees taken from your sales!

Step #5: Promote Your Business and Get Your First Coaching Clients

Starting your own coaching business can be tough, whether you are a certified life coach or not, especially when you're new and don't have many people who know or trust you yet. But there are ways to make it easier.

One great idea is to create helpful content for your target audience. Write regular blog posts, make YouTube videos, or start a podcast to showcase your expertise. The more you share your knowledge, the more people will get to know and trust you.

Another strategy is to connect with communities in your niche. Join relevant Facebook groups and provide genuine advice without trying to sell. Look for online events where you can speak for free, or offer to be a guest on niche-related podcasts or write guest blog posts.

To build your initial client base, consider offering your coaching services for free to friends, family, past coworkers, or people you find online who need your help.

Explain that you're building a portfolio and ask for their feedback, possibly in the form of a video review. This way, you provide value, collect social proof, and pave the way for future potential clients. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved.

After you get your first coaching clients and collect your first reviews, gaining new clients will become easier and easier.

We wrote a whole article about gaining your first life coaching clients: 6 Actionable Tips to Attract Your First Coaching Clients

Step #6: Diversify Your Product Offerings

A great way to promote your life coaching business, and introduce a new revenue stream is to sell more products and diversify your offering.

Consider expanding your services as a life coach beyond one-on-one sessions to boost your income.

This means expanding your income streams by offering online courses, training, ebooks, and other digital products related to personal development that can create a source of passive income, or as we prefer to call it, leveraged income.

This approach enables you to reach a broader audience and leverage your expertise without being tied to time-bound coaching sessions.

You can learn more about other products you can sell in this article: 6 Coaching Products and Services You Can Offer With Your Online Coaching Business

Online courses are a great example of a product that can diversify your income and build a recurring revenue stream with minimal ongoing effort.

Unlike coaching, where your time directly translates to income, online courses are self-paced.

This means that students learn on their own, requiring less (or zero) input from you. After the initial effort to build and create the materials for your online course, you can potentially gain unlimited scalable income and growth.

To build and sell engaging online courses or digital products, you'll need a reliable platform like Heights Platform, which can also serve as the foundation for your entire coaching ecosystem.

Start Your Coaching Business With Heights Platform

Starting a life coaching business offers the potential for financial success and personal freedom, but it also comes with its own set of challenges.

In today's article, we talked about what it means to be a life coach, the various types of life coaching, potential earnings, and the steps to launch your business.

There are countless niches you can choose from to become a life coach, but the one thing that all life coaches have in common is that they need a platform to handle online transactions, manage clients and build their website.

Heights Platform offers the tools you need to effectively manage your business and retain 100% of your earnings.

Try Heights Platform free today and start building your successful coaching career!