How to Become a Coach

You’ve thought about becoming a coach. You’re curious to know more about the process, but you aren’t sure where to start.

Becoming a coach requires commitment to a few essential steps. You’ll need to find your niche, get trained, set up your business, choose your coaching format, and spread the word!

There are people out there looking for a coach like you who can help them make meaningful changes in their lives. Don’t keep them waiting! If you’re ready to take the next step and start selling your coaching services, keep reading!

What’s Required to Become a Coach?

Currently, there aren’t any strict requirements to become a coach. You don’t need a certain level of education or certification. 

While there aren’t any hard and fast regulations in the industry it’s encouraged to be as equipped as possible. Aspiring coaches often seek additional education, certification, or niche-specific training. 

Additional education, certification, and training can boost your credibility and professionalism. Not to mention the confidence boost you’ll get from the increased skills and knowledge you’ll obtain!

We’ll dig into training options for aspiring coaches in a minute. For now, consider what will make you most successful. Do you need to fill out a college application, research certification options, or find a training that suits your needs?

The Coach School is a great resource for people looking to launch their business. Certifications and training programs are great at equipping you with the skills you need but they don’t teach you how to run a business. The Coach Skills breaks down the essential elements you need to launch and grow your business!

Find Your Niche 

As you take the first steps to becoming a coach, knowing your niche is essential.  A niche is kind of like your specialty or your area of expertise. Are you a health nut? Business guru? Marriage miracle worker?

Your ideal client needs to know that you are the right coach for them! Honing in your niche will help your ideal clients find you. 

In order to become a coach that serves a specific niche, start by identifying a problem you solve. 

• What problem does your potential client have?
• What solution can you provide?
• Why are you the perfect person to help your potential client?

A final step in locking in your niche is knowing who you serve. Do you work with families, couples, men, women? Teenage clients, folks in their twilight year? Get as specific as possible about who you serve.

Here are some questions to help you further clarify your niche

• What age is your ideal client?
• What do they do for a living?
• What is their relationship status?
• How do they want life to be different one year from now?

Find a Training Website

Now that you have an idea of what your niche is, find a training website.

If you want to specialize in the Enneagram, find a website that can teach you how to become an Enneagram coach. Hoping to help your clients improve their health? Find a health coaching training!

Now is the time to do some research and find a training program that fits your needs. Be sure to look into requirements for your niche.

Below are tips and resources to get you started in your quest for a training program:

• 5 tips for choosing an online coaching certification
• International Coach Federation Education Search 
• iPEC

Pro-tip: You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a coaching certification. Simply find an online training that supports your niche. The Coach School founder Alli Worthington recommends aspiring coaches read The HeART of Laser-Focused Coaching: A Revolutionary Approach to Masterful Coaching

Set Up Your Business

The tools you picked up in your training will help you be an excellent coach. You’ll need a different set of tools to successfully run your business. Running your business requires you to get your hands dirty and go beyond hosting coaching sessions.

You’ll need to know how to manage your finances, market your business, and keep up with administrative tasks like scheduling and responding to emails. Set yourself up for success by investing in the basics of running a successful business.

Business Basics

Get started building your business with the basics. Below are items you must have to launch your business!

• Name – What will you call your business? Make sure your name isn’t too abstract. You want your name to reflect who you are and what you do.
• Tagline – Your tagline is a short, catchy phrase that shows the value you offer to your client.
• Banking – Set up a separate bank account for your business.
• Domain – Claim your website domain! Use GoDaddy, Bluehost, or any other website hosting service to buy the name of your URL.
• Email – After you lock in your domain name you will need a professional, secure email account. Set up Google Workspace with firstname@yourURLname

Want to dive deeper into the basics of setting up your business and beyond? The Coach School is the ultimate resource for coaches. Founder, Alli Worthington, shares everything you need to know about running a successful business. The Coach School breaks down everything from pricing to marketing, website to social media, sales to systems, and everything in between.

Perks of joining The Coach School:

• In-depth trainings on how to run your coaching business from an expert
• Weekly mastermind meetups with other students
• Live group coaching calls with Alli Worthington

Choose a Coaching Format

You’ve got the basics of your business lined up, now let’s get more specific about how you’ll coach.

Coaching Style

The first decision you need to make is whether you offer one-on-one, group sessions, or both.

Most coaches start off with one-on-one coaching. Starting one-on-one is a great way to sharpen your skills and get a feel for common themes that emerge during coaching time. 

Once you’ve built your confidence and identified a few common themes between clients you can develop a group offering. Group coaching is a great way to grow and scale your business.

Consider which style you will offer.

Coaching Location 

Next, decide where you’ll host coaching sessions. Will you meet in your home, in an office, online, or all of the above?

When meeting in your home or in an office space make the environment relaxing and inviting. To the best of your ability, provide a comfortable space for your client to sit down and relax. Avoid overpowering smells and ensure that the lighting isn’t too harsh or too dim.

If you go the online route, decide which meeting platform you will use. You might opt for Zoom (probably the most popular option), Google Meet, Skype or another platform entirely. Just like having an attractive place to meet in person, make sure you provide a quality experience for your online clients. Your set up should include decent quality video, reliable audio, and good lighting.

Coaching Timing

Finally, determine how long your sessions will be. Coaching sessions typically last for 30-90 minutes.

You might find that your clients prefer quick, laser focused sessions. In a 30-45 minutes session you can help your client dig into the topics they bring to the table and craft action steps to complete before your next session.

Longer sessions give you the opportunity to really dig in deep with your clients. You might find that you will have fewer sessions with your clients who opt for 60-90 minutes because you cover so much in your time together.

Feel free to play around with this. Experiment and see what works but remember, if a client pays you for an hour be sure to deliver an hour’s worth of work. 

Coaching Pricing

Speaking of paying clients, let’s talk pricing. Now that you know where your sessions will take place and how long they will last, it’s time to determine your rate. 

Most coaches who are just starting out charge $50 – $75 per session. Your rate should be based on any special skills or qualifications that you are bringing to your business. For example, beginners that have extra credentials like a relevant education (Bachelors or Masters), certification, or multiple years of experience might be able to charge $75 or more.

As a first time coach, lean toward the lower end of the range mentioned above. You can always raise your prices down the road. For now, you want to eliminate as many barriers as possible for potential clients (including price).

Need more help determining how much to charge? Take The Coach School Perfect Rate Quiz to find the price range that’s right for you!

Pro-tip: Pricing will be different for group coaching. The rates mentioned above are based on one-on-one coaching. For group coaching, charge members 1/10 – 1/4 your one-on-one rate.

Spread the word

Now for the fun part. It’s time to spread the word about your coaching business! You’ll need a website, social media platforms, and a list of contacts. 

Websites for Coaches

A website is a must have when it comes to spreading the word about your business. Here’s what you’ll need to get your sit up and running:

Step 1: Pick a platform. WordPress.org, Squarespace, and Showit are all popular options. Play around with each platform and choose the one that is most comfortable for you.

Step 2: Build pages. Be sure to have a…

• Home page – Should quickly show who you are.
• About page – Go more in depth about your services.
• Coaching page – Show how you help people and why you are passionate about it.
• Contact page. – Make it easy for potential clients to get in touch with you.

Step 3: Attract potential clients. Have ample opportunity for potential clients to book a Discovery Call with you. Embed links to your scheduling service on relevant pages. You might also add this link to the header or footer of your website for extra exposure.

Social Media for Coaches

You can share the exciting news about your new business on social media too. Set up accounts for your business and the social media platforms that your ideal clients are hanging out on. Start small by sharing high quality content on a few platforms. 

Once you’ve gotten the hang of a platform or two feel free to add more and expand your reach!

Networking for Coaches

Who can help you share the good news?

Brainstorm a list of supportive friends, family members, and colleagues that can share your work. Take your list and start making calls or sending texts and emails. Share about the business you are launching and ask them to help you spread the word!

Take the First Step!

Reading this article is a fantastic first step on your journey to becoming a coach. It’s a fantastic time to refine the skills you need to be a good coach and launch your business! There are people out there who need what you have to offer.

You don’t have to go the coaching journey alone. The Coach School is the ultimate way to grow your business. Experience incredible insight from coach and founder Alli Worthington, a community of other coaches, and support every step of the way.