How to Become a Life Coach: 4 Steps to Build Your Business
Brandi Glass
• 4 min read
Life coaching is a fulfilling career in which you’ll help people actualize their goals and build a better future for themselves. It’s also often attractively paid and can offer flexibility. However, knowing how to build your business and establish yourself as a life coach can be challenging.
Not to fear: we’ll break down how to become a life coach, from choosing between freelance and employee status to certifications. We’ll also share practical tips, such as life coach interview questions to prepare for.
Freelance vs Employee: Which is Right For You?
As a life coach, you can work independently or in-house at a life coaching firm. Both options can be rewarding, so choosing between them comes down to what you want out of your career.
Working in-house, you’ll have a guaranteed paycheck and benefits. However, you might have less say over the direction your career moves in or the clients you work with.
Alternatively, as a freelancer, you get greater flexibility but also greater responsibility. You can choose the type of work you take on, and you can also set your working hours and rates. However, being the boss or the only person on your team means the buck also stops with you. You’ll probably spend more time doing administrative tasks and you may find yourself taking work home with you more often.
How to Become a Freelance Life Coach: Freelance or In-House
Decide Your Career Goals
Just like when you have an introductory session with a new client, the first thing you need to do is establish goals.
Ask yourself what you want to achieve as a life coach. Do you want to help women succeed in the workforce, addicts stay sober or recent divorcees find meaning in their new life? Would you prefer to work with high-flyers or low-income communities?
You should also think about what you want from your career. For example, how important is work-life balance versus financial success? Do you want to be part of a company or a freelancer? Would you consider coaching online or would you prefer an in-person connection with your clients?
Knowing this information will help you make the right business decisions moving forward.
Get Your Qualifications and Certifications
You don’t need qualifications or certifications to become a life coach. However, there are advantages to having them. Clients and employers will have more confidence in your abilities. Perhaps more importantly, you will find yourself better equipped to handle your clients’ diverse needs and issues in a supportive, empathetic and productive way.
Whatever certifications you decide to get, make sure they align with your goals. You could get qualifications in psychology, counseling, education, wellness or coaching. Alternatively, you could sign up for something more specific to your preferred niche, such as business or inequalities and social science.
Create a Business Plan
If you’re going to be freelance, a carefully thought-out business plan will set you up for success. Make sure your plan includes:
- Initial costs, e.g. for building a website or renting an office
- Funding sources
- Where you will find clients
- Your price rates
- Registering your business and filing for a federal tax ID
- Creating contracts and NDAs for use with clients
- Obtaining insurance
Market Yourself
You know your goals, you’ve got your qualifications and you also know where you’re going to find clients or employers. Now it’s time to market yourself so you can start working as a life coach.
Create an online presence, including social media accounts and a website. Not only could it lead to incoming work, but it will also give prospective clients and employers a way to find out more about you.
Attend in-person and online networking events. Offer to speak at events. Create useful free resources. All these things will help you connect with potential clients and establish yourself as an expert life coach.
Finally, check job boards for full-time and contract roles. Add yourself to online life coach directories. And make sure you have a professional business card, too!
20 Life Coach Interview Questions to Prepare For
Whether you’re interviewing for an employee role or having an onboarding meeting with a new client, some life coach interview questions come up again and again. Make sure you know how to answer them so you can impress interviewers and reassure clients.
- Tell me about yourself.
- What do you specialize in?
- Why are you applying for this role?
- Tell me about your coaching style.
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- How do you ensure you continue to develop as a life coach?
- What do you consider a successful life coaching session?
- What should clients expect from a session with you?
- How do you build a relationship of trust with a client?
- Have you ever had a client that you felt was a bad fit? What did you do?
- How would you handle a client that was struggling to express their needs or goals?
- How do you ensure your relationship with a client remains professional?
- Tell me a mistake you made as a life coach. What happened?
- Tell me about a moment from your career that you’re proud of.
- How do you ensure you’re sensitive to clients’ backgrounds and identities?
- What would you do if you felt a client posed a danger to themselves or others?
- How would you handle a client who was overly fixated on a goal?
- Have you ever done online coaching?
- What are your long-term career goals?
- Do you have any questions for me?
Impress Interviewers and Attract Clients with a Stellar Life Coach Resume
It doesn’t matter whether you become a freelance or employed life coach: you still need a resume.
As a freelancer, you’ll find companies will still want to see your resume. Plus, you can add it to your website. Potential clients will feel reassured by your wealth of experience and expertise, and there’s no better way to demonstrate this than with a resume.
Meanwhile, if you’re applying for permanent life coach positions, a resume will help you stand out among other applicants and negotiate a higher salary or better work conditions and benefits.
Not only does your resume need to highlight your best features, but it should be customized to the job in question. It also has to be machine-readable and optimized for applicant tracking software, so that your resume gets viewed by an actual recruiter and not just filtered out by a computer.
Our life coach resume templates will help you get started. What’s more, by using our resume builder tool, you’ll be able to build your resume in minutes. First, the software will suggest the ideal resume structure based on your experience level and background. Then, it will recommend recruiter-approved phrasing and keywords to make your resume stand out.
Build your resume now so you can start building your career as a life coach.