Life coaches are professional motivators who help clients set personal goals and overcome obstacles. With the popularity of the self-help movement since the 1980s, life coaching services have also gained popularity. Life coaches specialize in different areas of coaching, but when done well, life coaching can be a full-time career. However, because life coaching is a relatively new, non-standardized field, it can be unclear how much money potential life coaches will make.
Is There an Average Life Coaching Salary?
The short answer is no. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the governing body that collects data on employment and salary information for various fields, but because life coaching is neither legally standardized nor high-employment field, the BLS has no current data for salary of life coaches. There are plenty of other sources discuss salary and employment, but the range of salary reported falls anywhere from under $20,000 a year to well over $100,000 a year. The truth of the matter is that a career in life coaching will only be as monetarily successful as you make it.
Number of Clients
Life coaching is a service business, which generally means that most life coaches work for themselves and offer standard rates to clients. Some life coaches are able to charge a few hundred dollars per session, and more successful life coaches can sometimes charge over $1000 per session. Regardless of your standard rate, the more clients you are able to serve, the higher your profits will be.
Education and Certification
While there is no straight educational path toward a career in life coaching, the better education and credentials you have, the more money you will be able to charge your clients. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) and International Association of Coaches (IAC) are two accrediting bodies that offer certifications for professionals. If you have this kind of credential to offer clients, it justifies why you would charge a higher fee.
Specialty
Finding a coaching niche can help you build expertise and clientele, which translates into higher revenues. Common coaching specialties include romantic coaching, weight and body image coaching, business coaching, career coaching, etc. If you have an established reputation in one these niches, clients are more likely to be drawn to you and be more willing to pay for a service that they perceive to be more effective than coaches outside of their desired service.
Experience
Like with most careers, the more experience you have, the more profit you make. For life coaches, this is because expertise matters. Clients who are willing to pay for a life coach want to ensure that they’re making a good investment, so they’ll want to see that you have experience. Once you have experience, you can charge a higher fee to set you apart from inexperienced life coaches.
