Real Talk: How Much Do Life Coaches Make?

When someone is considering becoming a life coach, they’re usually starting by investing a lot of money in a life coach training program. For that reason, they understandably want to know how much life coaches make, so that they can anticipate whether or not they will make a return on their investment.

Surveys on Coaching Income

Our coach training program has surveyed its graduates and found that 70% of them are making money after graduation, though the amount varies wildly based on the amount of time someone has been a coach and time they are able to invest in marketing their businesses while also working a side job. Of those graduates who are making money, the range was $200-$1500 monthly.

Reports of how much life coaches make online vary, with some people saying life coaches make $325+ per hour and others saying the median life coaching salary is around $50k.

How Much Coaches Make Depends on the Business Model

Coaching is a business, just like any other. You will build it by referral, one client at a time, just like any other.

Our program wants to teach you the craft of life coaching, and we want you to make money at it--and we want you to do that sustainably and in a way that's easeful, rather than creating stress around finances.

Initially, to build your business you’ll start with free sessions to build your expertise and referrals, then move to low cost sessions ($15-25/hour) and then slowly raise your rates, from there.

From our experience in the industry, most life coaches have an hourly rate of around $100/hour once their practices are established (and until your practice is established, we suggest the sane, sustainable, easeful approach of keeping your salaried job while you build out your practice).

Leading retreats, workshops, selling digital products, facilitating online courses, writing books, speaking, and being invited to teach for other people’s workshops/courses become a diversified income stream for most life coaches.

Marketing Training is Crucial

Our program includes resources for basic marketing and operations help, so that you can learn how to grow your coaching practice and turn it into a full-fledged business. We don’t charge you more for marketing training or position that support as an up-sell—because we want you to succeed as a coach.

Learn more about our ICF Accredited coach training program, starting with getting our course catalogue that contains information on what we cover, what it costs, and how to get started—you can also access the free Become a Coach Video Series.