If you find fulfillment in helping others set achievable goals and accomplish their dreams, a career as a life coach could be the right path for you. But there’s more to it than that. Life coaches are equal parts entrepreneurs and expert motivators.
Learn how to start a life coaching business in 11 key steps, from identifying your target market to measuring success. Plus, we’ll show you why life coach insurance is a critical part of starting your business.
11 Steps to Starting a Life Coach Business
Becoming a life coach is essential to starting your business, but it isn’t everything. There are other logistical, legal, and promotional aspects to consider, all covered below!
1. Define Your Niche and Target Market
The life coaching field is broad and varied. Career, ADHD, and spiritual coaches all fall under the umbrella of life coaches despite offering very different services to clients.
This is why picking your life coaching niche is the first step towards starting your business. Knowing your specialty helps you understand the types of clients you want to attract, and those clients become your target market.
To pick your niche, consider:
- Your credentials: What life experience or formal training do you have?
- Your interests: What kinds of situations are you interested in helping clients navigate?
- Your strengths: What problems are you particularly good at assessing and overcoming in your own life?
2. Explore Certification and Training
Many life coaches choose to obtain a certification before they start coaching. However, this is optional — many coaches have successful careers without any formal training, often due to their previous life experiences. Others get certified after they’ve already started coaching.
Although it isn’t required, there are many benefits to becoming a certified life coach, such as:
- Strengthening your existing life coach skills
- Learning new skills and strategies
- Building a peer support network
- Connecting with a mentor
- Boosting your credentials
Some certification programs are accredited, meaning they’ve been approved by a third-party organization (often the International Coaching Federation, or ICF). Others aren’t, and those programs are generally more affordable than accredited ones.
Pro Tip: If getting certified appeals to you, check out our list of the best life coach certification programs!
3. Create Your Business Plan
All successful business owners — life coaches or not — have one thing in common: they all started with a plan.
Your business plan is the roadmap to your success, documenting important aspects of your business, strategy, and finances for you to reference as it grows. This includes your:
- Target market
- Mission statement
- Financial projections
- Marketing strategy
- Certificate of Insurance (COI)
Pro Tip: Learn how to write a life coach business plan that keeps you on track to achieve your career goals.
4. Choose Your Business Structure and Meet Legal Requirements
Your business structure determines how you’re taxed and what your personal liability is when something goes wrong. This is done by registering your business with the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Some of the most popular structures for life coaches are:
- Sole proprietorship: You and your business are considered the same legal entity, so your personal assets could be at risk if someone sues your business
- Limited liability company (LLC): Keeps your business and personal assets separate, offering more legal protection for you
- Corporation: Increased personal liability protection, but more complicated to set up; typically used by larger coaching businesses or coaches who hire employees
Additionally, meeting legal requirements also means:
- Getting a business license from your city, county, or state (requirements vary; some places don’t require sole proprietors to obtain a license)
- Applying for an employer identification number (EIN) to use for tax purposes
5. Draw Up a Coaching Contract
Every coach needs a coaching contract to protect themselves from liability. Misunderstandings between you and your clients can lead to expensive lawsuits or broken boundaries. Creating a strong contract helps keep all parties on the same page and can be referenced as needed.
A well-drafted coaching contract typically has:
- An outline of the scope of your services, including your session frequency
- Terms of payment, including your refund and cancellation policies
- A disclaimer explaining that coaching is not therapy
- A confidentiality clause
- A signature line for you and the client
While you can buy contract templates online, consulting a lawyer is always an excellent idea. They are the experts and can help you create an ironclad contract that protects you and your clients.
6. Get Life Coach Insurance
Contracts can protect you if you get sued by a client, but they can’t pay for any legal expenses you face if that happens. What can? Life coaching insurance.
Lawsuits aren’t cheap. The attorney’s fees add up over time, and settlements and judgments can easily reach six figures. Life coaching insurance is designed to cover those costs, sparing you the financial burden and making it possible to continue running your business.
It can also cover:
- Medical bills if a client injures themselves during a session
- Repairs or replacements if you break a client’s property during a session
- Legal expenses if you are accused of copyright infringement, defamation, or violating a client’s privacy
Insurance isn’t just a solid investment — it’s also a stellar trust signal for clients to show them you’re prepared. Learn more about the different types of insurance for life coaches and why so many coaches trust Insurance Canopy for their coverage needs.
7. Build Your Digital Presence
When many people think of their digital presence, they think of their social media channels. It can be tempting to try and build a brand across all the major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Pinterest, etc.).
However, it’s more important that you put energy into the platforms your target market actually uses.
Even if you don’t have clients yet, take an educated guess about which platform(s) they use. If you want to be a parenting coach, your clients will likely range from 30 to 55 years old. The older half most likely uses Facebook, whereas the younger half is probably more inclined to use Instagram.
Your digital presence goes beyond social media, though. It also includes your website, which is arguably the most crucial part.
A great website should have:
- Easy-to-navigate menu
- Clear, uncluttered homepage
- “About” page that highlights your background and credentials
- Services page that includes your pricing and packages
- Contact/online booking page
- Testimonials
- Blog/resource page
8. Establish Pricing and Packages
Pricing your services can be tricky — on one hand, you don’t want to overcharge and turn away potential clients with sticker shock. On the other hand, you don’t want to undercharge and struggle to turn a profit.
Follow these steps to set fair prices:
- Check out the competition: What do other life coaches in your niche/area charge? Remember that their prices may be higher than yours at first because they have more experience, but this should give you a good idea of what your clients expect to pay.
- Factor in your experience and credentials: If you’ve been certified, you will probably be able to set higher prices than if you haven’t, because this adds value to your services. The same is true if you have an educational background that supports your niche.
- Decide what packages you’ll offer: Your prices should depend on the services you provide. This includes the amount of time you spend with clients every week, the results you promise, and any resources you provide as part of a package.
Pro Tip: Learn more about how much life coaches make and what factors contribute most to your earning potential.
9. Develop Your Marketing Strategy
Approaching your promotional efforts with a marketing plan helps you be intentional and strategic, which aids in reaching your target market.
An effective marketing strategy involves the following:
- Messaging that speaks to your target market: Speak to their needs, not yours. What problem(s) are they trying to solve? What value can you offer that they can’t get from a different life coach?
- Developing your brand identity: This includes how you speak to your target market — do you use a friendly, casual tone or a more formal one? It should also incorporate your “why” behind becoming a life coach. What drove you to this career and motivates you to continue working with clients?
- Picking your promotional channels: There is no shortage of channels — both online and physical — you can use to market your business. From email marketing to networking at industry conferences and events, narrow your focus to target the people most likely to become future clients.
Don’t hesitate to test messaging, tone, and even which channels you use to find what works best. Keeping a close eye on engagement and asking clients to share how they found you helps you hone in on the best methods.
10. Land Your First Clients
With a strong promotional strategy, many potential clients will learn who you are and what you have to offer. However, that doesn’t guarantee they’ll book a session with you.
Getting that first client can be a major source of anxiety, but you can make it easier by doing the following:
- Offer a few discounted (or free) discovery sessions to collect testimonials you can add to your site, as well as potentially attract long-term paying clients
- Host a free webinar on a topic that would appeal to your target audience and encourage attendees to book a discounted session with you afterward (e.g., a parenting coach hosting a webinar on how to mitigate toddler meltdowns)
- Create a referral program where clients who successfully refer a friend to your business receive discounted sessions for a month
- Get active in online communities related to your niche and give advice freely while plugging your website and business
Pro Tip: Get even more ideas with these 15 proven strategies to attract clients to your life coaching business.
11. Monitor and Assess Your Business Performance
As you get your life coach business up and running, keeping tabs on how it’s performing is crucial so you know what’s working and what needs adjusting.
There are several key categories to monitor:
- Clients (number of new and retained clients each month, how many discovery calls lead to new clients, and satisfaction/positive testimonials)
- Finances (monthly revenue versus your expenses, profit margin, cash flow, and average income per client)
- Marketing (website traffic, email list signups, social media engagement, and which channels bring in leads)
- Personal and professional (skill growth, confidence level, whether your work aligns with your goals, and client challenges)
Don’t wait until the end of your first year of business to assess your progress! Check in quarterly so you can quickly pivot or divert more resources to a channel that consistently brings in new leads.
FAQs About Starting Your Life Coach Business
How do I pick a profitable life coaching niche?
Start by identifying a niche that resonates with you. Consider your interests, your skillset, and what challenges you want to help clients overcome.
Once you have a niche in mind, look for:
- Other coaches who specialize in that area and are succeeding
- Books, podcasts, and other media focusing on that subject
- Active online communities where people are discussing your niche
All of the above are promising signs of profitability because they indicate demand for experts in that niche.
How much does it cost to start a life coaching business?
This answer can vary widely, with startup costs ranging from $100–$10,000.
Some of the factors that influence your expenses include:
- Whether you decide to get certified
- If you rent a physical office space
- Which business structure you choose (LLCs and corporations cost more to set up than sole proprietorships)
- If you work with a lawyer to create a custom coaching contract versus buying a template
Which tools do I need for scheduling, payments, and sessions?
Life coaches have many tools available to use for these aspects of their business:
- Paperbell: Online platform designed for coaches; features include client management, scheduling, and payment plans
- Simply.Coach: Online coaching platform; features include client portals, scheduling, payments, and goal tracking
- HoneyBook: Offers client management, contracts, scheduling, and invoicing features
- Calendly: Scheduling and payment platform integration
- Stripe: Popular payment processor that integrates with many coaching platforms
- PayPal: Another popular payment processor that can integrate with coaching platforms
JoAnne Hammer | Program Manager
JoAnne Hammer is the Program Manager for Insurance Canopy. She has held the prestigious Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation since July 2004.
JoAnne understands that starting and operating a business takes a tremendous amount of time, dedication, and financial resources. She believes that insurance is the single best way to protect your investment, business, and personal assets.
JoAnne Hammer is the Program Manager for Insurance Canopy. She has held the prestigious Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation since July 2004.
JoAnne understands that starting and operating a business takes a tremendous amount of time, dedication, and financial resources. She believes that insurance is the single best way to protect your investment, business, and personal assets.
