For the last five years, people have been wondering how to become a life coach, and the reason lies in how this occupation has been a great support for millions lately, especially after the pandemic started.
Many would look at it as a financial and business opportunity. Still, if you also love helping others and like to support them by providing the required assistance and tools to unleash their potential, you may have taken too long to choose this career path.
Life coaches are in demand since businesses realized how important it is to have them as part of their operations but also due to how people overall notice a great difference with the extra support.
Unlike what you may think—and many do as well—a specialized coach can take your life from the bottom and lift it to the peak of the pyramid based on your goals and ambitions.
This is all thanks to how a life coach can help you determine what you’re missing, start developing the skills, get the resources you need, and work with you on this path.
You need to know about this: yes, it is a profitable business you can consider as a side hustle and even turn into a long-term job later.
Since we’re focusing on the option of making it a side hustle, keep in mind we are going to have mentioned it. However, you can learn and get started here regardless of your final goal with it.
What we will help you with is to learn how this can be what changes your finances and income for good.
What Is a Life Coach? – Let’s Dive Deep into It
Although we gave you a brief description already, we want to set this record straight as many people tend to misunderstand what this professional is dedicated to, even those who have been in the life coaching industry for a while—yes, somehow.
A life coach is a professional that helps people achieve greater fulfillment and success in their lives.
They do this by helping their clients improve their relationships, careers, as well as their day-to-day life. Overall, any aspect that is preventing them from personal growth and being able to have a better life.
Life coaches can help clarify your goals and identify obstacles that are holding you back and not only work in a plan towards them. If you have no idea where to start, they will get it done together.
Then, they will devise strategies to overcome each obstacle.
These professionals use their unique talents and gifts to help you create these strategies while they make the most out of your strengths to create lasting change.
Life coaches are often sought out by people who want to make significant life changes, such as changing careers. However, people often seek out them to live a happier and more fulfilling life.
People who often benefit from life coaches could be described as “anyone” since any person could use one, even if they feel their lives are all right as they are right now and have control over them.
However, many successful and happy people agree they are even more relaxed thanks to their support. Still, it is true very specific people benefit the most from them, so you can consider those that follow these “symptoms” to fall under the category:
- Frequent irritability.
- High levels of stress.
- They worry about anything or everything.
- Inability to change bad habits.
- Unsatisfaction in their social lives.
- Persistent dissatisfaction at work.
- Blockage of creativity.
Life coaches have gained a significant presence in the mainstream over recent years. A growing number of entrepreneurs, creative professionals, and executives are teaming up with life coaches in order to achieve success in their personal and professional lives.
How Can You Become a Life Coach?
It may appear that it is easy to learn how to be a coach, but this is a business decision in reality.
If you have decided this is the right calling for you, then you will need to determine if you are prepared for it.
For a side hustle, it may take more work than many would like, but it will be worth it if you are able to do things right and build your path. Thus, do not feel overwhelmed with the number of things you will need to handle.
In fact, you can just start way simpler than what we are about to introduce you to, but it is a good idea to keep all this in mind as it will be required sooner than later if you decide to take this side hustle or turn it into a full-time job later.
That being said, let’s start!
You Need to Find a Niche
It might be helpful to identify your niche before you become a life coach since your branch is quite generic or more like way too wide. Fortunately, it isn’t hard to specialize.
Life coaches are focused on the individual’s personal, professional and romantic lives. Others help people make positive changes in their lives, such as a healthier diet and exercise routines or discover their spiritual side.
As a life coach, you will touch on many areas, regardless of your main focus. Plotline Leadership, for example, offers three distinct service areas: career, projects, or personal stories.
However, you must remember that you will always be involved in people’s lives in every aspect—or 90% of them—as everything relates. You may specialize in improving their career path, but this is also part of their personal lives.
It’s nearly impossible to talk with someone about their job without talking to them about other aspects of their lives, and the same happens regardless of the niche you choose.
However, once you have identified your niche, which will likely be apparent to you based on your experience and the topics you are comfortable discussing with clients, you’ll be better able to market your business and yourself accordingly.
This will open a conversation easily and ensure people rely on you as they see you as someone reliable who knows what they are doing.
You Will Need a Certification Too
To become a life coach, you don’t have to be certified as a coach. A life coach is not the same as a psychologist or medical doctor. Then, why would we say that you need it?
First, you must undergo years of intensive training before starting any life coaching practice. According to the ICF study, 89% of coaches receive coaching training that has been approved or accredited by a professional coach organization.
Although it is not necessary to become a certified coach to start your business, it will be a valuable asset.
Being a certified life coach means an ethics guideline binds you.
It requires a bit more discipline. It’s obvious that you need to train every year. A person who brings this to the table has more discipline.
However, this doesn’t mean that all life coaches are technically certified. Many have worked as coaches without any official certifications, and they still make six figures a month and are well-known for their ability to help people.
However, those who have been successful in both cases consider that taking a specialized program when starting r later would be the best choice as this expands your horizons.
In other words, you will need it if you want to expand this into a good business, and we recommend that you, at least, get a basic certification from training programs that take a few weeks or months to complete.
This will give you more credibility and open doors to open with more people by charging more than even the standard rate.
This process doesn’t have to be that hard. In fact, you can find your life coach certification course online, by word of mouth, or via Google. However, you should verify that it is accredited by an organization like the International Coach Federation.
This association sets industry standards for ethical coaching. To find a course that meets your needs, you can use the ICF Training Program Search Service.
Your life coach training will teach you fundamental skills like active listening and creating a trust for your life coaching clients. Additionally, you’ll learn about the business of being a life coach as well as ethical issues that may arise during your practice.
Start Your Coaching Business (Or Basic Side Hustle)
You’re becoming a life coach as a professional, personal or spiritual advisor and as a small-business owner. To be successful in your small business, you will need to do the following:
- Register your company.
First, determine the type of business entity you want to set up for your life coaching business. These options include a corporation, sole proprietorship, or LLC.
Unless you choose to register your sole proprietorship, you will need to register your business with the state. We may recommend the first here as you don’t want to take this business as seriously in the beginning and just switch later if needed.
- Plan for your startup expenses.
Next, create a business plan. This will include everything from the cost of your certification program to overhead costs such as renting space or outfitting it. Another expense you may consider is business insurance—specifically liability insurance in case you are sued over providing bad advice.
It doesn’t take a lot of money to become a life coach.
- Make a marketing plan.
Without clients, you can’t be a life coach. It’s essential to create a marketing plan covering all life coaching aspects. If you are not comfortable with self-promotion, this may not be the right fit for you.
Referrals are the best way to get new customers for service-based businesses. You can start by offering mini or discounted sessions for people in your circle, such as your family members, friends, and family.
Other strategies to attract clients include networking with life coaches in your local area, increasing your visibility through conferences and hosting webinars for free, and looking into pay-per-click advertising and other online methods.
To attract clients, you will need to have a strong social media presence. You should at least have an Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn page, blog, website, and business website.
- How you will work with clients.
You’ll learn how to be a life coach and refine your approach to working alongside clients.
Whether working with clients on their career, story, or project, it is important to be clear and set a goal.
Before charging clients, make sure that you spend a lot of time talking to people before they sign up.
For this, other professionals offer several packages, including the 30-minute session, large ones that go from 1 to 2 hours or some between 90 minutes.
When you meet with your client, set a clear goal. You can always set up another appointment if you achieve the main milestone when meeting them. If the fit isn’t right, give each side a chance to move forward.
Invest In Continuing Education
Life coaches need to keep learning to be competent and up-to-date in order to provide the best possible service to their clients.
The amount of continuing education required will depend on the focus of your niche. However, all life coaches should continue to read and attend workshops and seminars related to their expertise area.
Active participation in the life coach community is the best way to learn about continuing education opportunities. Ask coaches about their learning experiences and find support groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Your clients will benefit from your ability to deliver your services better and have more options for coaching. Consider continuing education a business expense and a way to grow your business.
Is It Expensive to Become a Life Coach?
The moment of truth and the question you were wondering: how much will you need to start this side hustle?
So far, it feels like a lot of work, but you don’t have to look at it in this way.
Although this will require time and some investment, it is guaranteed to be returned if you do things right—as mentioned earlier.
Thus, look at this as a way to expand yourself and grow as well. But with that in mind, we don’t want to gaslight you from the important part of knowing how expensive this can be.
So, you don’t need a large investment to focus on it as a side hustle.
You will need to invest in many things to get your company off the ground or yourself as a personal brand in this niche.
As mentioned earlier, certification is needed, and it can run anywhere from $1.000 to $8.000 and can be quite costly. This can make it difficult to get started.
A second cost is a monthly fee you will have to pay if you are a member of a professional network like the International Coach Federation.
You should also consider whether or not you will need a place to meet clients or if your business is an online one. It is a major expense to rent office space. Apart from the rent, you will need to furnish the space and possibly pay for parking.
Marketing costs are another consideration. Many marketing options can help you spread the word about your coaching business. However, it is worth considering paying for advertisements when you first start out or want to expand your client base.
The initial costs to become a life coach are not high but can vary depending on what you offer.
In our experience, we believe you can invest about $2.000 and call it a day as a side hustle.
Why? Because you need the certification, a basic one will work just fine while you focus on gaining experience more than taking hundreds of courses and certifications from the very beginning.
Also, just go for the online option or meet at public yet private places your clients can feel comfortable with. It isn’t always necessary to have an office, especially in 2022, when everyone is more relaxed and wants to go out after being in lockdown for months.
If you feel like more money is needed or you aren’t sure about investing this amount on average, we suggest not going for it but rather assessing your options and working around them.
But How Much Can You Earn?
Well, it is only natural to worry about this, especially after what we mentioned about costs earlier.
First, you must know it can be difficult to assign value to help people improve their lives. However, this is a business, and you need to determine how much your time is worth to be able to charge people appropriately.
In this industry, the amount you charge clients will depend on your approach to working with them.
Do you work on projects? Are there travel implications? Are you more comfortable charging an hourly or daily rate like a psychologist or lawyer? Do you want to do this for a single session or as part of a long-term relationship?
Once you have this information, you can calculate the hourly rate and then go from there.
Life coaches can charge anywhere from $75 to $1.000 an hour depending on the services they provide and their qualifications—yes, that high.
Your pricing will depend on whether or not you charge separately for sessions or if you offer packages.
Of course, your experience, certifications, and training will be quite involved in how much you charge. Also, as a side hustle, you may need to charge less than average.
Many people considering this, just like the way you are doing it right now, believe it is a good idea to start at $45 an hour.
You don’t want to lower your prices way too much since it can look suspicious and make you look like a total newbie—even if you are, it doesn’t work like this.
You want to be competitive adapt to your experience, but without taking yourself down in the process.
We consider an average of $55 an hour works quite well in our case.
If you work about 20 hours a week, well, that math is quite simple, and you could even reduce the time if what worries you is how to deal with other responsibilities.
Pros & Cons: Why You Should (Or Shouldn’t) Become a Life Coach
By the end of the day, this is just a recommendation, and we want you to make a well-informed decision by learning about the pros and cons of it.
Thus, we want you to have a look at the good but also bad side of this side hustle so you can decide to bet on it or not:
Pros:
- You don’t need a profession or college career for it.
- It is possible to work about 10 hours a week and still make a good income as a side hustle.
- You will be helping people with their lives.
- The opportunity to build social relationships and make contacts.
- Work in your personal growth as well.
- Be involved with health aspects and industries.
- A great option if you are planning to invest about $2k.
Cons:
- The initial investment may not be the cheapest or most affordable to most people.
- Sometimes, you are forced to be in good spirit to help clients even if you are far from that.
- You need a lot of training and always improve yourself to ensure those counting on you get the results they want and need.
- Dealing with people’s lives is never easy.
Overall, we would highly recommend it after you have analyzed yourself.
Are you someone who wants to help? Do you know the basics of how to do it? Do you feel comfortable with the idea?
Even if it is a side hustle, you need to make sure your comfort and confidence are guaranteed. If so, we would bet for it 100%!
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