It takes a special kind of person to be a life coach.

It requires empathy, confidence, and exceptional listening skills.

But beyond that, it requires you to be business savvy and highly knowledgeable on a wide variety of soft skills.

The logistics of starting a life coaching business can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. If you know the right steps and the ways to get a head start, you’ll be serving clients in no time.

Below is 6 steps you will need to take to start a successful coaching business.

2. Strategize Your Offerings

We all have strengths. And a major key to any professional success is leaning into those strengths.

To recognize these, take some time to consider what makes you tick. Are you highly organized? Do you exude confidence in stressful situations? Are you a natural leader?

Whatever it may be, starting with your strengths as your focus for your life coaching offerings will help you build a client base you can feel confident you can serve effectively.

It may feel like you are putting all your eggs in one basket by establishing and focusing on a niche, but the opposite is true. By finding your niche you can market your life coaching services in a way you can truly be proud of, and accumulate more high-quality leads and clients.

2. Build Your Accreditation

You don’t technically need to obtain certification to work as a life coach, although it is certainly an option. However, if you already have years of experience to give you the knowledge and expertise that qualifies you to offer life coaching, then you very well may not need it. Life coaching is not an accredited profession, so it is completely up to you to show and consistently demonstrate your credibility to build trust with your clients.

One way credibility can be demonstrated is through education. If you have obtained a certification, diploma, or degree that qualifies you to teach others about a particular topic, that may be enough.

Alternatively, if your work experience is advanced enough that you can use it to coach others, that can be another way to boost credibility.

A life coaches’ qualifications are going to look different for everyone. All that matters is that you have something to offer and can prove it, whether that’s through accreditation, education, work experience, or a combination of these.

3. Establishment of Business Model

As a life coach, you are also a small business owner, perhaps an independent one at that.

It is important you familiarize yourself with the laws in your region for starting and owning a business. This includes taxes, insurance, and registering your business.

You may also choose to join an industry association to boost your credibility and take advantage of member benefits that could help you grow your business and gain a better understanding of ethical and legal practices.

You should also determine how you want to charge for your services. Will it be hourly? By session? By contract? Consider your target audience and what is going to accommodate their needs. You can also create pre-built packages or custom packages depending on your client’s needs.

4. Create a Marketing Strategy

You could be amazing life coach, but if no one knows about you, then you won’t get too far. Find opportunities to market yourself to create buzz around your business.

Consider attending professional networking events. You could do this as an attendee, or see if you can find opportunities for speaking engagements. This can help you personally reach people who could benefit from your services.

Don’t forget to establish yourself on social media too. LinkedIn is used by over 800 million professionals all over the world looking to grow professionally, so it is an ideal place to start.

Remember, when it comes to your life coaching business, you aren’t just marketing a business – you are marketing yourself. This means you must develop your personal brand. This can be a unique – but exciting – challenge.

Being a good marketer means knowing all the ins and outs of your company. Fortunately, you are already an expert on your own services and personal brand, so you’re already well on your way. No one can market yourself better than you.

5. Create a Lead Generation Strategy

When you’re gathering leads, it is imperative that you are gathering all the information you need and storing it in a database like a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software system. The following is some information you should include in your lead intake form:

• Company Name
• Industry Type
• Contact Name (first and last name)
• Email
• Phone Number

These can of course be revised to be relevant to your niche – but this is certainly a good start. You can even use our template here.

Ensure you store this data into a CRM promptly, whether it be manual or automated.

6. Prepare Your Coaching Content

If your clients are trusting (and paying) you to help them meet their goals, it is crucial you have valuable information and strategies to effectively help them.

This is one of the most daunting tasks of starting a life coaching business. It is extremely time consuming to develop high quality material you can use to coach your clients. Fortunately, our Soft Skills Library has all the content you need to provide effective coaching on virtually any topic to help them meet their goals.

Our training materials also offer Quick Reference Sheets that serve as ideal handouts for your clients to take with them for review to learn about any of our training topics.

Furthermore, our library includes worksheets that can be curated as work packets for your clients. Worksheets can help clarify understanding, and serve as homework for your clients to work towards their growth both in and out of session with you.

Conclusion

Starting a life coaching business isn’t easy, but it is extremely rewarding. And if you get good at it, you can make a significant amount of revenue with low startup costs.

Optimize your life coaching content with our Soft Skills Library!

Posted by Katelyn Roy on February 17, 2022