Life Coach Career Income Potential

Reports of life coach career income potential are pretty exciting. But I've seen a multitude of claims that earning a high dollar life coach career income is quick and easy ... believe me, they are greatly exaggerated! It takes a good education from a quality coach training program, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and a lot of time and energy. But for me, it is totally worth it!

Average Life Coach Income: A 2007 study of nearly 5500 thousand coaches from around the world found that the "average" annual income for full-time coaches was over $83,000 (US dollars). The researchers found that part-time coaches made around $26,000 a year. If you happen to be a member of the International Coaches Federation (ICF), you can read a copy of the study on the ICF website.

Full-time Life Coach Career Income: The average full time life coach limits herself or himself to less than 20 one-on-one clients a month and charges around $350 a month per client. If you have 20 consistent clients, that means a gross income of about $7,000. Not bad, eh? But remember you've got to attract 20 clients on a consistent basis to do that!

Different Coaching "Niches" have different income potential. The life coach career income potential reports encompass other "niches" or specialties. Coaches who focus on different niches such as Executives or Entrepreneurial Coaches charge a lot more than others, around $700 per hour and can gross over $17,000 a month. There are some coaches who have tremendous reputation and experience (and excellent marketing teams!) who charge beyond $1,000 an hour. But don't count on doing that right out of your life coach course of study.

Most new coaches I know charge between $100 and $300 an hour for telephone coaching, which really isn't too bad. As I said earlier, it isn't quick and easy income! But it can begin to pay off if you are diligent about your marketing.

Alternate Ways to Create Life Coach Career Income

• Obviously, there is the private coaching practice where you meet either telephonic or face-to-face.
• Tele-classes and Webinars are a great source not only for additional income but also for marketing purposes.
• Group Life Coaching classes will increase your hourly income and make it more affordable for your individual clients (i.e.- 10 clients at $50 per class = $500 per hour]. I like this coaching format because I know the value of people learning and growing together and I feel strongly about providing a way for less affluent people to experience the power of life coaching.
• You can work with wellness centers and practitioners such as massage therapists, Naturopathic Physicians, etc
• And thank goodness traditional medical professionals, therapists and chiropractors are becoming more and more knowledgeable about the value coaching services can be to the health of their clients and patients.

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What is the Cost
of Generating Life Coach Income?

Like most small business endeavors, generating life coach income costs time and money, first for your training and then for building and maintaining your practice. Most people who choose a life coach career become small business owners. The overhead is pretty minimal, usually less than 15% of total sales.

Sales?! And yes, creating life coach career income relies on making "sales!" That said, an important part of your life coach career training ought to include basic entrepreneurial and marketing skills so you can attract and keep track your clients.

What kind of time is involved? After you've examined quality life coach courses to select the right one for you, it will probably take between 6 months and a year to complete your training. There are many life coaching courses pitched online that promise much quicker and cheaper "certification" and training ... but please be wary of these. Look into them carefully so that you don't waste your money and precious time.

Once you've graduated and have been certified you can probably begin to generate some income within a few months to help defray the costs of marketing and repay yourself (or the bank) for life coach course costs.

What exactly are the upfront costs of developing a solid life coaching career income? It can cost as little as $5,000. However, many, if not most coaches, find that ultimately it costs more like $12,000 to $15,000 when they count the cost of training, setting up a good home-office or renting space, marketing materials and website development.

As mentioned earlier, you can find a training program for not a whole lot of money, as little as $395.99, if you believe the internet ads. But be careful! An excellent life coach course will take substantive time, and inevitably, money. Plan to spend between $1200 and $10,000 depending upon how complete the training package is. Many quality coach training schools plan a course of study that gives you the very basics of what you need at one price and then you return for more training (and more time and money) later in your career.

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