Coaching Blog

I've written previously about how executive, business and life coaches make money. And we have a free eBook that goes into detail about life coach salaries. But here's something we don't often write about: How else do professional coaches make money?

Average salaries for executive, business and life coaches range between $50,000 - 150,000USD for COACHING services. But most coaches have a few other services that they also offer, which can boost their salaries well into the high six figures.

The ICF has just released this helpful infographic on the "Extras" of coaching. In other words, extra services. Below it, you'll find a link to sign up for the Life Coach Salary eBook, to learn more about how coaches make money and how to set your coaching fees.

To get the FREE Life Coach Salary eBook, click below:

by Julia Stewart, MCC

Last night, I taught a Q&A tele-webinar on How To Set Your Coaching Fees for my clients, students and guests. They asked great questions and I know the class was a real eye-opener for them.

The class was inspired by questions from one of my coaching clients who is also a coach.

Bottom line? Life coaching is an expensive, highly personalized,  high-end service. All logic to the contrary, sometimes a service sells more easily when it's expensive. (Just ask a behavioral economist how logical people are about spending money!) And of course, all of this applies to business coaching and executive coaching, as well.

Long story short: if you missed the live webinar, or even if you were there, here's a list of 15 reasons your coaching fees are probably too low. I've divided the list between A. Your probable reasons for undercharging, B. Why that doesn't work for your clients, and C. The reality check. I hope it's helpful!

A. Why You Charge Too Little For Your Coaching:

1. You don't see the value in coaching. This is way more common than you might think. In fact I didn't see it until I'd been coaching a while. What changed? I worked with incredible coaches who helped transform my life. Then I watched myself transform my clients' lives. Then my clients started saying things like, 'If I weren't paying you $350, I'd find a way to pay you $10,000!'
2. You have a disempowering story about why people won't pay you more. Yes, a lot of people have been out of work for a long time. But 90% are still working and many of those are making more money than ever. And coaching continues to be the 2nd fastest growing profession in the world. But those are generalizations. The truth is, people who see for themselves the value in coaching will find the money to pay for it. For example, if you're a career coach who has a great track record helping people get hired, an unemployed person will pull together the money to hire you.
3. You're trying to sell coaching to people who don't value it. For one person, $25 per month will be too much to pay for coaching. But for someone else, anything less than $1000 may be too little, because they want the best coach they can afford. Like it or not, people frequently measure how valuable something is by how much it costs. And in the case of coaching, clients actually put more effort into their own results when they pay more, because they want their money's worth. So don't waste time on the 'client' who's interested in coaching with you, but not interested in paying, unless you sense they are that rare person who will knock themselves out even if you coach them for free - and you really want to coach them.
4. You don't think you're worth it. Okay, let's say you're a new coach and you've seen the credentials and track records of your competition. Pretty intimidating? It may be tempting to compete on price, but will that really satisfy you? A better strategy is to do everything in your power to get results and credentials as quickly as you can, so you can compete, period. Coach a lot of people for free for a set period of time, but be sure each client knows you want a testimonial from them in exchange. Become a certified coach quickly. Join the IAPPC.
5. You're trying to coach too many people. When I first became a life coach, I thought 30-40 clients was a full coaching practice. And to make a good living, I really did need a lot of clients, because I was only charging $100-200 per month for each. That left me in a chronic state of always needing more clients. I wish someone had told me that most successful coaches have less than ten clients. 
6. You don't know how much money you need to make. As I showed my class last night, your coaching fees aren't your life coaching salary. When you subtract the money it takes to make money, including your business expenses, taxes, and benefits you'd normally get from a salaried position, it takes a lot more money than you might think, especially if you only have 6 clients. Be sure you do the math.
7. You want to coach low-income people who could benefit from coaching. Nothing wrong with that, unless you put yourself out of business. Better to charge a fee to most of your clients that's high enough to allow you to offer some scholarships. You can also volunteer your coaching services to an organization that provides coaching to low-income people.

B. Why Charging Low Fees Doesn't Work For Your Coaching Clients:

1. People perceive life and business coaching as a highly-personalized, high-end, expensive service. That's what they're looking for and it's usually what they want to buy. When you charge less, you look like a bargain-basement coach (who may deliver bargain-basement results). One-to-one coaching delivers dramatic results and if the price tag is inconsistent with that, you run the risk of confusing people (and confused people don't buy.)
2. When people buy a high-end service, they're saying to themselves, 'I'm worth it!' That feeling is what they want. And when someone decides it's time to get a life coach to help them upgrade their life, that feeling is a big part of their resolve. They may actually be disappointed if you don't charge enough to make a statement that from now on, things will be different for them.
3. People want their money's worth, so the more they pay, the more value they'll get. Your high-paying clients will work harder and achieve more. And you'll be less likely to slack off, too. As one of my colleagues told me, every time she signs on a client with her new higher fee, she thinks, 'Holy crap! Now I have to deliver that much value!' and that's a good thing.
4. Your clients deserve better service from you. I tell my clients that it's my goal to give them exactly what they need. They're all high-achievers, so I'm confident they won't become needy just because I'm extremely supportive. But a coach who's trying to make a living with 30 low-paying clients is spread too thin between serving clients and constantly needing to market and sell in order to keep the numbers up. That means less attention for each client. And it may mean that you're needy, because you always need more clients. A needy coach is never at their best.

C. The Reality Check:

1. Coaches worldwide average around $200 per coaching hour. Even if you choose to discount your fee, you don't need to charge a lot less than that.
2. According to coaching surveys, most professional coaches average just six clients per week. That means each client needs to pay a hefty fee in order for the coach to earn a substantial salary.
3. Even if you have only 5-10 coaching clients, you will need to spend some time and expense on marketing and sales and you need to be paid for your entire week, not just the time you spend coaching.
4. When you add up what it costs to be in business, including business expenses, income tax, retirement investments and, if you live in the US, health insurance premiums and 100% of you Social Security and Medicare payments, you may find that earning a $100,000 take-home salary from coaching may easily require $150,000 in annual income.

Well there you have 15 reasons why your life coaching fees are probably too low. What are you going to do about it?

Set your coaching fees with confidence. Get the new FREE eBook:

Image by richiemontalbo

Post by Julia Stewart, MCC

A really cool problem to have (in the sense that it's the kind of problem you WANT to have) is to not know how to set your life coaching fees (or business or executive coaching fees, as the case may be).

There are many approaches to setting your coaching fees, some psychological (what's the highest fee you can say out loud without gagging?) to financial (how much do you need to cover your business and living expenses, plus benefits, etc.?) to whimsical (how much do you WANT to charge?).

What most new coaches really want to know is, 'Am I worth it?', 'Am I credible?', 'Will they laugh at me?' These are great concerns to talk about with your own coach.

If you don't have clarity about your fees, you probably won't sign on paying clients. Either people will shy away, because you seem uncertain, or you'll hold back on offering your services, because you're confused. That's expensive, so get it cleared up.

One of my EMCHA clients asked me about this recently and I decided to design a class for him that covers it thoroughly, because coaching around a topic like this is important, but sometimes some plain, old-fashioned information helps, too.

This live one-time-only class is free to SCM members and it's also available for a small fee to others.

[UPDATE: This class is now over and is no longer available to non-SCM coaches. However, you can learn some of what we covered by downloading the FREE Life Coach Salary eBook, below]

Learn to set your coaching fees with confidence here:

The number one question that business and life coaches ask me over and over and over is, 'How do I get coaching clients?', which is code for, 'How do I make money as a coach?'

At any given time, there seems to be a large percentage of coaches who are hungry for more paying clients. Some of them even have a limiting belief that you can't really make a living as a coach.

This flies in the face of the facts:

• Business and life coaching have been cited again and again as one of the fastest-growing professions by media outlets like CNNMoney, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, etc., etc.
• According to organizations that survey professional coaches and the people who hire them, most coaches make between $160 and $325 per hour.
• According to experts who've worked with millions of people (such as Oprah) everybody wants a better life, which helps explain the insatiable demand for life coaches.

So how is it possible that any coach doesn't have all the clients and money s/he could ever want?

• Marketing mavens will tell you that you need better marketing.
• Sales trainers will tell you that you need to close more sales (Well duh.)
• Coach trainers (like me) will tell you that good coaching skills practically sell themselves (I'm biased, but it's true).
• Law of Attraction gurus will tell you that you just need the right mindset (If it were really that simple, everyone would be a millionaire).

None of these solutions gets to the heart of what stops the majority of coaches from succeeding wildly - even the ones who are good coaches and do their best to learn everything that should help them succeed.

In fact, if you're honest with yourself, you already know why some business and life coaches aren't more successful, because this holds you back, too.

It holds everybody back at some point, including me. What I'm talking about is fear of rejection, shame, humiliation, failure, and being laughed at. It's the single strongest fear that humans feel, one so strong that it can make soldiers march into certain death, rather than live with the shame of running away. Sit with that for a moment...

Does it make sense that not one of the solutions I listed above really helps with this?

Well let me back up. They can help. They do help. Sometimes. But if fear of screwing up stops you from spreading the word about your new business and asking people to help you -- heck! -- if it stops you from asking people for their business; then learning a new program won't help you make more money as a coach.

So what will help?

Here are some things that have helped my coaching clients:

• Admit you have the fear and don't try to avoid how yucky it feels (people born to my generation -- Boomers -- or later, tend to avoid uncomfortable feelings, to their detriment)
• Ask the fear how it's trying to help and then let it help you (imagine it's a person who can talk and imagine what it would say. I know that sounds crazy, but it's an awesome tool for listening to your unconscious thoughts and for getting the best advice, ever.)
• Feel the fear and do it anyway (reach out to people, tell them how you can help them, etc.)
• Stay in action until the fear subsides (we stop fearing the things we do everyday)
• Model yourself after someone who's already succeeded ('fake it 'til you make it' is far wiser than it sounds)
• Hang out with people who've succeeded (You become who you hang out with)
• Don't hang out with people who are struggling (Research shows that folks who have the same problems, tend to reinforce those problems in each other and do worse, as a result)
• Become someone that other people want to hang out with (do what it takes to succeed and other successful people will hang out with you. That becomes a virtuous circle that creates more success for all.)
• Work with someone who understands and can help you (Like a really good mentor coach)
• Ask yourself if you really, really want it, because if you do, and you don't do as much of all of the above as you need to, you're out of integrity (that alone, will stop you from attracting clients)
• Stop making excuses for not taking calculated risks like, 'I'll launch my business when I have more money, more confidence, more blah, blah, blah...' (People who think that way tend to wind up losers.)
• Don't take a 'No' answer from the Universe (old-fashioned determination still works).

Once you've fully dealt with your fear of rejection and failure, then the right training or marketing program will start to work 'like magic'.

What about you? What form of fear stops you from attracting plenty of coaching clients? Share below in the comments section.

Learn how the Coach 100 process obliterates new-coach fears:

Want to know what kind of salary a life coach makes?

I wrote about international coaching salaries in the 2012 Trends in Business and Life Coaching post, based on the new ICF coach survey, which sheds light on the parts of the world where coaches earn the most. But a Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey of international coach salaries just came out, so here's some new info, broken down by type of coach.

It's important to note that executive, life and business coaching incomes vary wildly, (anywhere from free to thousands of dollars per hour) so these averages may not represent what most coaches actually make. However they do offer some clues.

Average coaching salaries according to Sherpa:

• Executive Coaches make $325 per hour
• Business Coaches make $235 per hour
• Life Coaches make $160 per hour

What's the difference between a life coach, a business coach and an executive coach? Sherpa's definition of an executive coach is someone who coaches executives on behavioral issues, which basically means an executive coach is a life coach for executives.

I take issue with Sherpa's definition that business and life coaches are consultants and advisors. Real coaches are neither consultants, nor advisers. Real coaches help their clients think and act more resourcefully, resulting in personal growth and achievement and for that reason, coaches usually make a lot more money than consultants or advisers.

In my experience, new business and life coaches can charge $100 - 200 per hour and veteran coaches with established results can often charge $250 - 600 per hour. What makes the difference is the skill of the coach and who they coach.

It's pretty extraordinary that someone who coaches by phone in their jammies from their home office could charge more than a Park Avenue lawyer, but it happens - if their clients get incredible results and can afford to pay for them.

Here's how: most successful coaches only have a few clients. According to Sherpa,  coaches average between 6 and 6.5 clients per week. When you only coach a few clients, you can be at your best virtually all of the time, which makes it possible to give incredible service and results. That's when you can charge a lot.

So average annual incomes, according to Sherpa, range from $55K to $116K. That's pretty close to past ICF survey averages for a life coach (or business or executive coach) salary.

Learn more about life coach salary rates and how to set your own coaching fees:

I finally have an answer for you to the age-old question: Which is more effective, coaching by telephone or coaching in person?

The coaches who prefer coaching in person, invariably assume their way is better. Those of us who prefer to coach by telephone sheepishly counter that coaching by phone seems to work just as well.

But is telephone coaching really just as good as coaching face-to-face?

After all, we've all read the scientific estimates that up to 90% of the information we receive in a face-to-face conversation is visual, not verbal. So how can telephone coaching possibly work as well as face-to-face coaching?

And from another perspective, face-to-face coaches often brag that they make more money per hour, but do they really? Yes, telephone coaches charge their clients on average slightly less per contact hour, but they also spend less time in non-contact hours.

I'll explain: While I don't recommend scheduling your clients back-to-back (a 15 minute break helps you refocus), I've done it and I know lots of other phone coaches who do it and I can tell you that a few hours, earning $300/hour, from my home office on a snowy Monday sure beats traffic jams, commuter trains, crowded elevators and cafeteria lunches, ad nauseum, by a mile. And when you add up the extra time spent in transit, plus tolls, tickets, parking, gas, wardrobe, wear and tear on your car, eating out, not to mention all of the above which also has to be spent on in-person client attraction, versus attracting clients via the internet, I'm willing to bet telephone coaches make more per hour, keep more of it for themselves,  and enjoy more of their working hours with less stress. A coach who's relaxed and having fun is always better than one who is not.

But here's why telephone coaching is actually more effective than face-to-face coaching:

Remember how up to 90% of information taken in during a face-to-face conversation is visual? That should make face-to-face coaching 10 times more effective than telephone coaching, but it doesn't. Why? Because nearly all of that visual information is unconscious, meaning the coach isn't even aware of it.

It gets worse. Many assume that our brains absorb continuous information, like video cameras  making a movie, but they don't. Not even close. Your brain takes a couple of snapshots of visual information and fills in (nearly all) the rest with your expectations, assumptions, beliefs, shadows, biases and prejudices. In short, while you're talking to that person, you're taking in some new information from them, but you're unconsciously adding 80-90 times as much information from your past.

And you don't even know it.

With telephone coaching, if you're well-trained, you learn to consciously hear more. And if you practice those hearing skills in hundreds of coaching sessions, you develop the kind of hearing - at least for conversations - that usually only the blind possess because thousands of hours of coaching changes your brain. That means you can hear far more than most of us ever thought possible. And you do it without adding tons of info from your past.

Are telephone coaches completely free of their past assumptions? No, of course not; no one is. But a strong case can be made that, because telephone coaching is a skill that's consciously learned from the ground up, the coach is aware of a larger percentage of incoming information, which helps them interface more fully with the present and the uniqueness of their client and the client's situation.

Here's an example: I've lost track over the years of the number of clients I've coached who were of a different race, socio-economic background, or sexual orientation, and I didn't know it. I'd like to think that wouldn't make any difference (unless it was pertinent to the topic of the coaching), but I've seen the studies on that and know how unlikely it is that anyone is completely free of biases.

Telephone coaching doesn't eliminate all assumptions and biases, but it narrows them down and makes it less likely that a bias or shadow can lurk undiscovered.

Here's another reason coaching by phone is more powerful: When using the telephone (or Skype), you can coach with anyone in the world. That means that out of over 7 billion people worldwide, you can match up with your ideal clients and be their perfect coach. Coaching in person is almost always constrained by distance and travel, forcing people to coach with whomever they can find in their home city.

You'd think with the ease and low cost of talking via online video, that video coaching would catch on quickly, but it hasn't so far. I'm guessing it's because video tends to highlight the visual in a way that makes it even harder to listen and really hear - and raises the likelihood that unconscious visual information is triggering a conditioned response. And if people can see their own image, they are more self conscious and less likely to show up authentically. Some find video coaching more distracting than anything. Indeed, some find talking by telephone t o have an intimacy that's lost with video.

Last but not least, from the client's perspective, lower prices for telephone coaching, plus higher quality coaching, means a greater ROI (return on investment) for clients. Who doesn't like that?

In short: phone coaching is not only just as good as in-person coaching, it's actually better. Do you agree?

We've been training our coaches via distance learning and preparing them for international coaching careers for over a decade. Find out more below:

Have you worked with monster coaching clients?

Every master coach has at one point or another, because it's tempting for life and business coaches to try to help  everyone - until we get chewed up and spit out.

If that's happened to you, thank those monster clients for teaching you a critical lesson in your master coaching career: You can't help everyone and if you don't choose your coaching clients well, you can't help anyone.

Here are ten types of coaching clients you should run from like they're Tyronnosaurus Rex:

1. Failus Gnossos - The client who thinks like a failure, no matter what. This client will spend their coaching sessions trying to convince you that it's not their fault; everything is going wrong because life's not fair. Yes it's true; life isn't fair, but it's the folks who take responsibility for what happens in their lives who succeed. If your client thinks this way on a frequent basis and your efforts to shift their focus are unsuccessful, suggest they work with a therapist, instead of a coach.
2. Controllos Everythingess - The client who tries to control their end of the conversation - and yours. Speaking of therapists, I once has a therapist client, who tried to psychoanalyze me while I tried to coach her: "Why would you ask me that?", "Why do you think that is?" Needless to say, the coaching sessions were a waste of her time and mine. Coaching clients need to be collaborative to benefit from coaching. That doesn't mean you control everything; it means the two of you are partnering for their benefit.
3. Responsibilities Nothingess - The client who refuses to take responsibility for anything. One of my clients had already worked with several coaches. She told me that none of them delivered on what they promised. I found her impossible to work with, because she kept making me responsible for her choices. I ended the coaching relationship with her early and I'm pretty sure she told her next coach that I didn't help her, either.
4. Dirtus Cheapess - The client who has a scheme to get more out of you for less. This type of monster coaching client comes out more during a recession, but the hard-core version is around even in boom times. Probably a fairer name for them is, 'misguidedly frugal'. You know the type: The distant aquaintance who calls for free coaching help because afterall you're 'friends', the total stranger with the sob story who wants you to coach them for free, the person who requests a complimentary coaching session with you, but who nervously ends it early when you mention continuing the relationship. As a master coach, you know people will move mountains when they really want something, so don't be overly sympathetic with people who want more from you than they're willing to pay for.
5. Nano Inspirationess - The client who is uninspired to the point of being depressed. It's easy for me to have compassion for depressed people, because I occasionally suffer from mild depression, myself. Unfortunately, even mildly depressed people are hard to coach, including me! I once gave a complimentary coaching session to someone who wasn't inspired by anything. When I broached the possibility that she was depressed, she told me that although she had been suicidal at one point in her life, she didn't think she was currently depressed. I'm no psychotherapist, but that was enough for me to decline to coach her. Depression is a serious problem. Trying to coach someone who is depressed is a serious mistake.
6. Victimus Dramaticus - The client who could 'really benefit' from coaching if they were just willing to let go of their perpetual dramas and victim status. Many new coaches fall for this mistake: They have a friend or relative who is in constant crisis and the coach just knows that coaching could help them. But it doesn't. That person you know who could 'really benefit' from coaching has to get to the place where they really want to change before outside assistance can make a lasting difference. When they are ready to take responsibility for their lives, they may need a 12 Step Program and/or therapist, before coaching is really helpful.
7. Lazy Mixedupedness - The New Age client who thinks all they need to succeed is abundance thinking. This one is slippery, but the 'evolved' client sometimes is the most dysfunctional. They may take the Law of Attraction so literally, that they do nothing but think and feeeel what they want. Good luck with that.
8. Greedus Monsterus - The client who measures their success and your performance in terms of dollars, only. Many clients hire coaches to help them make more money. There are few coaches who can really help them with that. Why? Because many coaches don't really understand money. It's a stand-in for everything else the client wants or 'needs'. Few clients really want money for itself; they want freedom, they want to get over their self-doubt, they want to win, or they want something else. You can never get enough of what you don't really want. Don't coach greed or need unless you really understand it.
9. Elephantus Blindness - The client who has a gaping blind spot that's wrecking their life and refuses to look at it. I once had a client whose fiance, an entrepreneur who had lousy credit, refused to marry her unless she loaned him $50,000 to start a new business. First she refused, then she relented, because after all, 'he's a sweet man who really loves me'. This client had several blind spots that to me were as big as elephants, but if I broached those topics, she'd deflect my questions with replies such as, 'I don't know. You're the coach. I thought you'd tell me.' I told her I couldn't be her coach.
10. Parasiticus Dependantess - The client who needs you to do  their work for them, because they're too 'sensitive', scared, unsure, etc. Sometimes going the extra mile for a client will inspire them to step up to a new level of greatness. But beware the client who 'needs' you to do what only they are responsible for. This client will eventually fail, but not until they've drained you dry.

Okay, maybe it's not fair to make fun of these coaching clients. After all, they're doing their best, just like everyone else. But a little humor will get you over the pain of firing a client who otherwise will devour you. In time, you'll spot these folks before you've given them your all.

So what are your monster coaching client stories?

Try Coach 100 and learn to identify great coaching clients faster.

I am writing to you from Salt Lake City, where I'm attending the Kanzeon Western Zen Center's Fall Retreat with Genpo Roshi.

As someone who has never wanted to be a Buddhist, but who is powerfully drawn to to the Big Mind process, I'm having a few interesting and fun culture shocks.

Like Monday, 6:45 AM, when I entered the Zendo for morning meditation in time for a Hogwarts-ian vision of black robed monks floating down the dark staircase in dawn's half-light. I must admit, I was slightly creeped out until I reminded myself that I'd already met all those people at dinner the night before, in their jeans and sweatshirts. They were perfectly lovely.

Nobody had said anything about robes, though! ;-)

I'm here for Big Mind, but meditation and enlightenment are two deep interests of mine, as they are just about a must be for a good coach. We need to always be opening that space for our clients and we can't just manufacture it.

Roshi talks a lot about the teacher/student relationship and how masters never lose the need for teachers. Otherwise, we get stuck or arrogant (or both). Same goes for coaches.

I've been looking for my next teacher for some time and here he is. Roshi doesn't call Big Mind, coaching, although he recognizes the correlation. He's helping people experience enlightenment in a quintessentially American way, but with 40 years of experience and 2,500 years of teachings.

Speaking of which, the Dharma, or Way, was predicted to end at about this time. Roshi believes that 21st Century monasteries will go away and that enlightenment will converge with the market, to integrate life and business with awareness. 

One element of this will be the elimination of a huge shadow that has forced monks to 'beg, borrow or steal', instead of earn, to survive.  

So many coaches are plagued by the same shadow. They feel uncomfortable with asking for money, afraid of the 'sleeze factor'. Unless you are independently wealthy, the money shadow will prevent you from succeeding as a professional coach.  

Not sure if you have a money shadow? Just look at your coaching career and ask yourself how you have begged, borrowed or stolen in order to coach. If you're not earning your way back to integrity, yet, you probably have a financial shadow. 

What to do? Big Mind, of course. They are broadcasting live everyday this week. You may even see me on screen. No robes, though. http://www.BigMind.org/zen-eye

[UPDATE: On February 3rd, 2011, Genpo Merzel announced that he would disrobe as a Buddhist monk, after admitting to improper relationships with some students. He plans to continue teaching Big Mind on a secular basis and will no longer teach at Kanzeon Zen Center.]