Life coaching can be incredibly impactful. You’re looking and working with your client’s holistically — working on many aspects and how they play together.
But how do you become a life coach? Do you get a life coaching certification? Then, where do you find clients? And how much do you charge those clients for life coaching?
We surveyed 59 life coaches in depth to get answers to these questions.
This article will go into:
- General overview — who we surveyed.
- Coaching education — do you need a certification?
- Life coach pricing and rates — how much do life coaches charge? And for what services?
- Life coaching clients — on average, how many clients do life coaches have? Are they remote or local?
- Building a life coaching business — where do clients come from, how do coaches manage their business?
Let’s get into it.
General overview
We had 59 life coaches participate in the survey, here's where they're from:
There seems to be more part-time life coaches.
- This is my full time gig (39%)
- Part-time, with the hopes of going full-time in the future (37%)
- Part-time, and intending to stay part-time (24%)
Most have been coaching for at least a year, some are veterans!
Life coaching certifications — do you need one?
From our survey, 47 out of 59 coaches said they have a certification (79.6%).
How does certification affect number of clients or pricing?
Number of clients:
- Median number of clients for those without certification: 10.6
- Median number of clients for those with certification: 13.7
Pricing:
- Median 1:1 coaching rate for those without certification: $500-1000
- Median 1:1 coaching rate for those with certification: $151-300
Conclusion: Like our executive coaches segment, most life coaches have a certification. But that doesn’t seem to have an effect on pricing, since the median coaching rates are significantly higher for those who don’t have certification. It seems like you don’t need to have a certification in order to be a very successful life coach.
Continuing education goes well beyond certifications, and it seems like most life coaches invest heavily in it.
Here’s how much life coaches tend to spend annually on professional development:
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How much do life coaches charge?
Offerings:
- 100% of life coaches offered 1:1 sessions
- 86% offered group coaching
- 25% sold courses
- 5% have a community membership
On average, coaches tend to charge:
- $151-$300 for an individual session (42.3% of respondents)
- Surprisingly, “Nothing right now” was the winner for a group session (45.7%) — life coaches seem to be offering group sessions as part of their 1:1 services, rather than as an additional service.
- Only 25% of life coaches had a course, but the median price for those who did was $1000+.
How does tenure affect their coaching rates?
There seems to be some correlation between tenure and coaching rates amongst life coaches.
33% of life coaches who have been coaching between 4-7 years had a median 1:1 coaching rate between $300-500. Where as only 13.7% of life coaches with 1-3 years of experience had that same rate.
Life coaches who have been coaching for 1-3 years, were split between the median coaching rates of $50-$150 and $151-300. So if you’re in that lower bracket, you may be able to raise your prices right now!
How many clients do life coaches have?
The life coaches we surveyed had an average of 9.5 clients, and the average retention of clients was pretty much split between 3-6 months (34%) and 6-12 months (35.5%).
Going one step deeper:
- Full-time coaches had an average of 21.8 clients, who typically stayed with them for 6-12 months (43.4%).
- Part-time coaches had an average of 5.5 clients, who typically stayed with them for 3-6 months (41.6%).
What about where these clients are from?
The majority of life coaching clients for the coaches that we surveyed are remote (72.81%). Only 27.19% were local (defined as in the same city).
How do life coaches find their clients?
Life coaches tend to find their clients through Word of Mouth, with Social Media and Professional Referrals virtually tied for second.
P.S. If you need a way to package up your offering for those professional referrals — we have a free coaching pitch deck template.
What tools do life coaches use?
Taping together a bunch of separate tools seems to be how most life coaches manage their coaching business.
There’s a correlation between number of clients and how coaches manage their business — the higher the range, the most common it is to use a coaching platform.
P.S. Practice is a coaching platform that helps new and establish coaches get more time back by reducing manual admin work. Get a 7-day free trial today.
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That’s it for this segment of our 2022 State of Coaching Report (full report coming soon).
If you’re interested in getting a free copy of the report when it’s released, send us an email at hey@practice.do with the subject line: 2022 SOC Report please!
