How to start a Profitable Life Coaching Business
How to start a Profitable Life Coaching Business
Do you have the passion to be the best Life coach? Do you think you can work with people to work to their highest potential and live extraordinary lives? The life coaching business is a rewarding career for anyone like you who enjoys working with people. While people are exploring how to become a Life Coach, they are also curious about how to start a profitable Life Coaching Business.
Let’s get to the fact that the entry cost is far lower than other businesses which have thus increased the level of competition in the market. And yes! The coaching business will never let you stop learning, growing, and leveling up your coaching skills.
However, there are many aspects that should be taken into account before starting a life coaching business.
Read the blog below to get answers to the common question (of how to start a profitable Life Coaching Business) that is sure to arise if you are planning to start your life coaching business.
How to start a profitable Life Coaching Business
Find a client niche for your life coaching business
The term niche can be defined as a specialized section of a population that would benefit the most from your offerings. And as a Life coach, you have a lot of niches to target. It can be in the area of sales, parenting, business, finances, relationships, health, performance, etc. It can also be a slightly bigger niche such as the corporates who want to impart NLP training to the employees or have a coach come in and facilitate group or team coaching sessions. Or can help the employees overcome their fears, enhance their public speaking, leadership, and other skills, if the coach has behavioral change knowledge like NLP, Emotional Intelligence, and Neuroscience. As a Life Coach a person can also diversify services other than coaching; target students as clients who want to learn Emotional Intelligence, NLP, learn public speaking skills.
The need here is to start with a small but viable market and stick to that category of clients. And while doing so, you must be aware of the niche’s age, profession, lifestyle, and common problems in life to reach them.
Pro-tip on how to start a profitable life coaching business: Brainstorm the ideal clients who need coaching and reasons for them to join coaching from their perspective.
What is your USP, or how you can benefit your clients?
It means the unique offering that will make the client come to you for getting coached. Refer to a few examples below:
Example 1: Sara is an NLP coach who specializes in working with couples who come to her for relationship management. She chose this area because as a divorcee, and a single parent she is well aware of the struggles other couples go through. Her other specialization is NLP for kids as being a child psychologist she is well aware of what goes on in their minds, especially if parents are getting separated and after separation.
Her message to clients can be: I have been there and know very well how it is like to feel lost and lonely.
Example 2: Sam is an NLP coach and a career coach/mentor who used to teach Mathematics in school. He always had a good rapport with students and still helps them with anxiety issues, career dilemmas, and negative thoughts. He also assists the students to identify their abilities, skills and choose their career goals.
His message to clients can be: I have been through the phase of confusion and struggle when I was a student. I was lucky and managed to do well in life, but a mentor or a coach could have helped. I can relate to your challenge and can help you in a better way.
Example 3: Raghu is an NLP coach who works with corporate clients. He has a well-established business of his own which is now being handled by his son. This gives him enough time to concentrate on NLP coaching.
His message to clients can be: I am a business person myself. As a business owner, I know your struggles very well and I can help you grow better.
The USP of a coach will be to understand client’s individual issues and offering a solution, based on their own life experience. Clients will be provided one-to-one attention to solve their queries and ease personal and professional lives. Clients will be provided value for money. The coach with their own life story can help potential clients to relate more with him/her, and as such clients will feel a connection just by reading the experience of the coach. This helps the coach to build rapport and trust with the very selective audience, who will be inclined to work with the coach because they can feel that connection, and can already see working with the coach on their issues.
If you are looking for how to start a profitable life coaching business, then having a solid well defined USP is key.
Set your brand position as a Life Coach
In simple words, brand positioning is the technique to set your business apart from your competitors so as to build a brand preference in your target clients. And as a Life coach, if you are able to set a good brand position then you can attract the target audience easily. Best Celebrity Life Coaches, Best leadership / Executive Coaches all have a branding strategy. But remember that branding requires a lot of time and effort hence you must be ready to invest the same. Some brand positioning strategies can be:
Choose a unique brand name: Try to choose a name that has a direct relationship with the services that you offer. With this, there will be a brand name from scratch. However, it takes a longer time to build and establish a brand.
Create value: In the Life coaching business, see how you can create an alternate service along with coaching where you can offer more than coaching service to your client. You can build skills as a well-being expert, Emotional Intelligence expert, and help a client to overcome a problem or a challenge, which requires more than coaching ~ mentoring, and guiding based on the situation at hand.
Train clients of a specific niche: Along with coaching develop training skills so that you can facilitate training sessions in a niche. It will be a small market but with less competition. So, your chances to succeed will be higher. Example NLP training for Sales Practitioners, or Emotional Intelligence for students etc.
What is your pricing strategy for your coaching and training services?
The pricing that you set for the coaching business will impact the brand. There can be some options that you can include in pricing. The overall fee for the Life coaching sessions and training programs can be based on time, value, and brand. You can have multiple charge ranges based on the duration and type of course. It can be different for clients who wish to take private sessions or online.
Try to be careful if you decide to give free sessions. Such offers tend to attract people who always like to try out things for free and not commit to continuing. You can switch to a 30min online call instead of an offline free consultation. A key factor to establish as a Coach and towards how to start a profitable life coaching business.
How do you reach clients?
One of the biggest concerns before starting a life coaching business is to attract or reach clients. Here are a few things that you can apply to attract clients.
- Client pitching: it is all about showcasing your offerings to the target audience. In other words, it is traditional selling using new technology. It can be making calls daily or attending meetings to convince potential clients. But you need to be a good marketer here as it can work well for some while not for others.
- Attract through engaging content: Attracting the target audience includes creating engaging and great content. It then comprises promoting it in a way that the clients watch and notice it. You can create video content to get the attention of target clients. When you feature in a video telling how you can benefit clients adds credibility to your coaching skills and practice.
- Relationship building: Focus on developing and nurturing relationships with a few but critical key clients. It will help you in attracting more target customers.
- Outsource your marketing and sales: In other words, it is paying a commission or salary for outsourcing your brand building, lead generation, or advertising.
- Network with competitors: Yes, you read it right! It is not mandatory that your competitors are your enemies only. Try to connect with other coaches and join a local networking group. Making the right connections and refer clients to one another. Your strengths are competitors’ weaknesses and vice versa.
How do you decide who can be your perfect client?
It is critical to be clear of your client’s avatar. Who is the perfect client you would like to offer your services to and get amazing results? When you start, it is tempting to accept clients you are incapable to understand or who do not fit your business. Such clients will take more energy and time than all your perfect clients.
So, try to be clear on your offer, prices and packages, and who you can serve the best. It will be fun to guide good clients and they will recommend you in the market. But that will not be true for bad clients.
Do you have a support network?
One-to-one coaching can sometimes be monotonous and isolating. Ensure having a supervisor with whom you can deal with client issues and help you out in difficult situations. It will be good to be a part of an association with an ethical code and complaint processes. It will help you to stand out professionally in the competition and protect your clients.
Conclusion ~ how to start a profitable life coaching business
Starting a new profitable Life coaching business is not an easy task. It can take up to 2-3 years to generate a good regular income. Ensure having sufficient cash flow throughout the settling process. The key to developing a successful Life coaching business is deciding on target customers, attracting them, and increase your skills along with coaching. The above tips will help you to get started with your life coaching business.
