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How Much Does It Cost to Become a Life Coach?

Starting a new career can be both exhilarating and scary because you don’t know what to expect. Thankfully, the life coaching industry has been growing steadily because people are learning the value of investing in themselves–and others. But before you ask what a life coach makes, you should know how much it costs.

Before you become a life coach, you need to undergo the prerequisite training, be it through the best online life coaching programs or in person. While it’s not required, there are various benefits of a life coach certification, which of course come with costs of their own.

Understanding the Cost

It’s easy to jump right into a new endeavor without knowing the costs, but it’s better to be prepared financially than risk being surprised when the cost is higher than what you expected. We’re going to break down costs into four categories—registering your business, marketing your brand, acquiring business insurance, and investing in scheduling software.

Registering Your Business

You need to register your business if you want to be seen as legitimate–being registered is also important in case someone decides to take legal action against you. Registering your business as an LLC costs around $100 to $150 annually.

Business Insurance

Business insurance isn’t mandatory when starting a life coaching business, but you want to rest easy knowing you’ll be protected if something happens to your business. You should consider business insurance even if you’re operating your coaching from the comfort of your home—this includes insurance on data, which is one of the most important assets you’ll be collecting from clients. The price of business insurance is based on how comprehensive it is and the insurance company you chose.

Marketing and Creating Your Brand

The only way you’ll succeed as a life coach is by having clients. As such, you should plan to spend money on marketing. There are many ways you can market yourself, including by hosting free training sessions and webinars.

Content marketing is another effective way to market your life coaching business–you’ll want to establish a blog, which comes with a variety of costs, such as purchasing a url and web hosting. You may even end up hiring a blog writer if you don’t have the skills to do it yourself.

Scheduling Software

It’s not uncommon to receive an overwhelming number of clients at once. As such, you should consider investing in quality scheduling software to ensure you effectively track everyone and provide them with the best service possible. Scheduling software will also reduce the need to worry about matters such as invoices and contracts.

Other Costs of Becoming a Life Coach

Other costs that you should expect to incur can include:

  • Becoming certified
  • Employee salaries
  • Social media management
  • Cost of office equipment

Final Thoughts

Now that we’ve covered the bases, it’s up to you to work on the final details. The two most important costs to consider are your office space and your marketing—the rest can come later. Looking for more in-depth guidance? We’ve got you covered at Symbiosis Coaching.

Certified NLP Coach

Program Description: The Certified NLP Coach program allows you to incorporate very powerful NLP techniques you’re your day-to-day coaching practice.

ICF Training Hours: 65

Duration: 25-weeks

Schedule: One 2-hour class per week

Includes certificate: Yes

Certified Organizational Development Coach

Program Description:

The Certified Organizational Development Coach program is an exclusive and very unique program, designed for coaches who wish to coach entire organizations with their Organizational Development and Change Management goals. This program provides you with 65 ICF training hours - more than enough for the ACC credential. Over a series of 25 weekly lectures, it prepares you to deal with volatile group dynamics across entire organizations. Topics including OD interventions, Team Engagement, Buyer Behavior of internal customers, The Tripod of Success, Ensuring Sustainability, Performance-Retention correlation, Strategies to influence behavior - and many more - are covered in detail.

Coaches are introduced to the ARCS Model, as well as to the Organizational Culture Audit Toolkit. Employee motivation, satisfaction, and productivity are discussed, as well as their impact on the performance of the organization as a whole. Students are introduced to various Change Management models including Lewin's Planned Change model, the ADKAR Change Management model, and Kotter's 8 steps of Change Management. Resistance to change and its manifestation are discussed, as is Behavior Modification.

Upon completing this program, Certified Organizational Development Coaches will have all the tools they need to affect positive transformation within organizations, and will be able to coach teams and personnel at all levels - including initiators, decision makers, influencers, and intervention implementers.

In addition to coaches who are launching their own Corporate Coaching practices, this is an essential program for HR professionals, Training and Development Professionals, Managers, and Corporate Leaders who wish to implement internal policies and OD processes to guide their companies and people through ongoing change.

ICF Training Hours: 65

Duration: 25-weeks

Schedule: One 2-hour class per week

Includes certificate: Yes

Certified Executive Coach

Program Description

The Certified Executive Coach program has been designed for coaches who wish to coach managers, executives, and corporate leaders. The goal of this program is to cultivate a deep understanding of how the executive coaching process works as well as some of the challenges that come up in executive coaching conversations.

This program has been approved by the International Coaching Federation for 32 hours, and it comprises of 12 live, instructor-led, fully interactive virtual classes offered over zoom. These classes cover various aspects of executive coaching including, but not limited to Effective Collaboration, Performance Management, Upskilling, Conflict Management, Effective Collaboration, Developing Team Members, and many more.

This program has a very unique, hands-on, experiential structure. Classes are focused on active participation by students through real life Coaching Challenges and discussions of real life executive coaching situations.

ICF Training Hours: 32

Duration: 12-weeks

Schedule: One 2-hour class per week

Includes certificate: Yes

Certified Life Coach

Program Description:

The Certified life Coach program is an essential program for anyone considering coaching as a profession. The goal of this program is to create a deep understanding of the coaching process, along with how and why it is effective in catalyzing shifts in the mindset to create positive, sustainable transformation.

The training is based on the ICF’s core coaching competencies. It focuses on skills that lead to effective coaching conversations and that are required to build a successful coaching business. It evokes awareness about how identity, thoughts, and feelings determine mindset; and why a change in Think Feel Do impacts the achievement of goals though a change in this mindset.

This program is approved by the International Coaching Federation for 95 hours and comprises 24 live, instructor led, fully interactive virtual sessions offered over Zoom. These lectures cover all aspects of coaching – topics such as Human Emotions and the Brain, Coaching through Emotional Intelligence, The Belief System, Coaching Process and Structure, Deep Listening, Setting Worthy Goals, Asking Insightful Questions, Addressing Client Resistance, Coaching Groups, The Business of Coaching, and many more. These are complemented with a library of reading and reference material, coaching challenges based on various real-life coaching situations, extensive hands-on coaching practice, and assignments designed to trigger reflection on and mastery of coaching skills.

ICF Training Hours: 95

Duration: 24-weeks

Schedule: One 2-hour class per week

Includes certificate: Yes

Class Schedule
ProgramStart DateClass TimesClass Schedule
Certified Life CoachTuesday, June 13th10:30am ET
3:00pm ET
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 2-hours, for 24-weeks
Certified Organizational
Development Coach
Monday, July 17th10:30am ET
3:00pm ET
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 2-hours, for 25-weeks
Certified Executive
Coach
Thursday, July 20th10:30am ET
3:00pm EST
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 2-hours, for 12-weeks
Certified NLP Coach
Practitioner
Wednesday, July 19th10:30am ET
3:00pm EST
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 2-hours, for 25-weeks
Platinum - ACC/PCC
Mentoring
Friday, August 18th10:30am ET
3:00pm ET
8:00pm ET
Once a week, 1-hour
for 7-sessions PLUS 3 one-on-
one sessions with mentor