A life coach is a professional who helps people in improving their lives and achieving their desires. Life coaches create strategies and plans and target their client’s gifts and unique skills to improve their day-to-day lives, careers, and relationships.
Now the real question is how to become a life coach? What kind of qualities must you have to achieve success in the life coaching business? In this article/guide, we will provide some of the most crucial steps you will need to take to become a professional life coach and the potential costs involved in the process.
9 Steps to Become a Life Coach
According to the International Coaching Federation (ICF), there are over 54,000 life coach practitioners globally and over 16,000 in just North America alone. So clearly, this field is rich with clientele, and there is a real market for it.
Although it looks like that learning “how to become a professional life coach” requires a little more than outsized compassion and stellar learning skills, but in reality, becoming a coach is more like a business decision. So, once you have decided that this is your calling, take the following steps to ensure your services and business are legitimate.
Select a Niche
Before going in deep, you must select a specific niche. Some life coaches select a general and all-encompassing approach, while others specialize in a specific niche. Most personal coaches focus on client’s romantic, personal and professional lives. Others help them uncover their spiritual sides and make changes regarding their health.
Here are some popular life coaching niches:
- Business coaching
- Family coaching
- Fitness coaching
- Divorce coaching, etc.
Receive a Life Coach Certification
Becoming a life coach is not like becoming a medical doctor or psychologist, which requires years of intense education and training before practicing. It is not essential to learn “how to become a certified life coach” in the life coaching business, but it can surely be helpful and something much of your competition will have done.
Generally, you don’t require a life coach certification to practice as a life coach. But according to the International Coaching Federation, more than 90% of coach practitioners receive certification that was approved or accredited by a well-known coaching organization.
How to Become a Certified Life Coach
It does not matter if you find your life coach certification through Google or word of mouth, or whether it’s in-person or online. Just make sure the course is approved by a well-known association, such as ICF, which sets a standard for ethical life coaching.
If you have selected a specific niche – such as relationships, spirituality, career – find a certification that focuses on specific areas of life coaching. In life coaching training, you will learn basics like ethical concerns, creating a trusting environment, active listening skills, and creating a successful business.
Learning how to become a certified life coach can be an intense and expensive process. Life coach courses are almost never free, and many approved courses can cost from $1500 to $3500. In our estimate, becoming a life coach can cost you up to $5000 and more.
Create a Life Coach Business Plan
Once you are a certified life coach, it’s time to create your business plan. A life coach business plan contains everything you need to do in order to become a successful life coach. A good life coach business plan explains:
- Why Have You Selected Life Coaching?
- Type and Description of Your Business
- Your Unique Selling Point
- What Kind of Market Your Should Target
- How to Build Relationship with Clients
- Your Conversation Stage
There are a lot of benefits of creating a life coach business plan. According to a study, life coaches who create a business plan grow their business 35% faster on average. In addition, with a well-constructed life coach business plan, you:
- Get a solid action plan
- Get new ideas and solutions
- Make better decisions
Set Up Your Business
Once you have created a business plan, it’s time to set up your business as a life coach. Remember that, in coaching, you are not becoming a spiritual, personal, professional advisor – you are becoming a small business owner. Therefore, you have to do some diligence that all business owners do, including:
Plan your startup costs
Before being a professional life coach, you must plan your startup costs. This plan contains all the expenditures of your business, such as:
- Cost of the certification course
- Overhead costs
- Cost of business insurance, and more.
- Registration of your Business
Once you are comfortable with the costs, the next step is to register your business. To become a legit life coach, you can register your business as a corporation, LLC, or sole proprietorship. A secretary of state business search will be a helpful resource to register your business as a life coach.
Marketing
Once you are a legit, certified life coach, you need to target the market. First, you have to find ideal clients. Remember that you don’t want to work with everyone. You must find your ideal clients with specific personalities, professionals, and needs.
Nowadays, the cheapest and most effective marketing method is digital marketing, which includes Facebook ads, Google ads, LinkedIn pages, blogs, and more. Sign up to these sites with your professional business-based email account and improve your life-coaching communications, too.
Online Life Coaching
If you have started your business as an online life coach, your digital presence is quite important. For instance, you need a decent computer, a strong domain name, a high-resolution camera to conduct sessions, take pictures, and record videos.
According to some online life coaches, taking a course about life coaching and how to infuse it into your website is quite effective. With this type of course, you learn how to use different fonts and colors, how to Copywrite for your business, how to style things for social media, and more.
Price your Service
As a businessman, it’s okay to be a little selfish. If you want to become a successful life coach, you are probably wondering, “how much do life coaches make?” Well, the answer to this question depends upon your:
- Location
- Education
- Workplace
- Experience
A life coach can charge between $80 to $1000. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average salary of a life coach is around $57000 a year, with an overall range of $34000 to $97000. Therefore, select a reasonable price for your services. Your pricing will also depend upon whether you price for sessions separately or if you charge by packages.
Be Innovative and Flexible
Just as psychologists and doctors, you must continue your education to be innovative and get skill-building opportunities. Your education will ensure that you deliver the best service and stay at the peak of your powers. Depending on your niche, you should attend different workshops, retreats, seminars.
Stay connected with other life coaches to learn new techniques and skills, or find pages and communities on LinkedIn or Facebook. Remember that the better you are at your niche, the more you can help your clients.
Understand your Clients
You must understand what your clients really want from you. Your clients are paying you money, and they won’t be coming to just hang out with you. They have problems, and you will be providing solutions to their problem. At your first session, if you can express that you believe your client’s pain and offer a reasonable solution, you will be hired. YES! It is that simple.
Expand your Business
Once you have become a successful life coach, it’s time to up your game and expand your reach. For example, let’s say you have helped a lot of clients and seeing a steady stream of clients. Perhaps you are now feeling confident and want to expand your comfort zone by turning your local business into an international one.
To do that, you should provide contributing, well-written, and SEO-based articles and directory listings. After that, turn your business into a newsletter and build your mailing list. With the help of newsletters and a mailing list, you can connect with more clients and receive various inquiries for new clients in response.
Conclusion
Becoming a life coach is quite rewarding yet a difficult career path. This field is more than getting coaching skills. It involves practical skills, knowledge of business and requires a lot of learning and listening skills. In addition, it would be best if you had a specific personality and a mindset that improving and helping others is a way to earn money.
It may seem like a lot of hard work, perhaps more than what you were expecting. But remember that it’s all about selecting the right training program and taking one step at a time. It is surely going to take some time and patience to become a successful life coach.
Here are 9 steps to become a successful life coach:
- Select a Niche
- Receive a Life Coach Certification
- Create a Life Coach Business Plan
- Set Up Your Business
- Online Life Coaching
- Price your Service
- Be Innovative and Flexible
- Understand your Clients
- Expand your Business
