Are you considering a career as a life coach? That’s great! It’s certainly a profession that never gets dull, that will keep you busy, and bring great rewards.
You’ll have the satisfaction of helping people in many aspects of their lives, and make a good living too.
So what do you need to become a life coach?
Read on to find out…
Could you be the right type of person?
Before we get down to the practical details, you need to know whether or not you’re well suited to this type of work.
It takes a special person to be an effective life coach.
While some of the skills you need to succeed in this career can be learnt, much of what makes a great life coach is natural talent, and a certain type of personality.
Could this be you?
Do you have these unique skills?
Can you answer yes to most of these questions? If so, you’re just the type of person who could make a superb life coach…
- Are you a good listener?
- Do you have endless patience?
- Do you truly care about other people?
- Do people come to you for advice or to talk about their problems?
- Are you empathic, and easily able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes?
- Are you able to see problems from different perspectives?
- Are you a good problem solver?
- Are you driven and self-motivated?
- Can you successfully motivate others?
- Do you have an overall positive attitude?
- Are you able to be discreet?
- Are you happy to work flexible hours?
If you’ve answered yes to most of the questions, that makes you the perfect personality type to pursue a career in life coaching.
So what else do you need to become a life coach?
Do you need a certification to become a life coach?
Interestingly, life coaching is an unregulated industry, so from a legal perspective, you don’t need to have any certifications.
However, it is a competitive industry, so earning a life coaching certificate is the perfect way to prove your credentials and stand out from the crowd. As explain in our life coaching statistics article, clients want credibility, which is why 89% of life coaches hold some kind of professional life coach certification.
In addition, clients are likely to discuss issues and information of a confidential or personal nature, and so certification offers potential clients the reassurance that you are a trained professional.
What’s more, there are so many aspects to life coaching, so many areas in which you can offer your services, and so there’s a whole lot of knowledge you need if you’re going to be a successful life coach.
From learning the best ways to motivate someone who has become stuck in a rut in life, to helping someone write a killer resume to score their dream job, the role of a life coach is so varied and there are so many skills you need in order to offer the very highest-quality life coaching services.
When you take a life coaching course you will learn so much, gaining a huge amount of knowledge that you can share with others.
You’ll also learn how best to communicate with clients to get them to open up, to share thoughts, dreams and feelings, so you have all the information you need to guide them towards their goals.
So ultimately, while qualifications are not necessary, taking a life coaching course that results in certification is hugely advantageous, both for the skills and knowledge gained and the distinct benefits of having a life coaching certificate under your belt.
While we are on this topic, consider reading our What is a Certified Life Coach? and How to Become a Certified Life Coach guides next.
How to get started as a life coach
Starting up your own business can be daunting if you’ve always been an employee before, but being your own boss can be so invigorating and empowering.
It’s an incredible journey that is well worth it.
Here are some points to consider when setting up your life coaching business.
Register your business
When you set up your business, you’ll need to register with the relevant authorities in order to pay your taxes correctly. Don’t be caught out, get everything legal and above board from the start.
Set up a website
A high-quality website will give you a professional image, a place to showcase your certification and testimonials and offer potential clients a way to discover more about your services and a way to easily get in touch.
We suggest using Squarespace. They don’t have a guide for life coach businesses, but they do for career coach businesses, which is a similar type of coaching.
Don’t forget to prominently feature your certification here too, as this is a great way to make your business stand out above others that haven’t earned this distinction.
Create a name and logo
How will people remember your business? It’s time to create a memorable name and design an eye-catching logo.
Think about your branding. What colors will you use? What fonts and styling?
Keep your marketing materials consistent, from your website to your social media adverts and your business cards, to create a brand that’s uniquely ‘you’.
Advertise
Of course, you’ll need to get the word out there that your expert life coaching services are available, so marketing and advertising will be of utmost importance, particularly in the early days of your business.
Later on, when you’ve successfully helped several people, you will start to gain those all-important word-of-mouth recommendations, but until then, you should focus on advertising.
Look for any opportunities to promote your business. You could place advertisements in local publications and add your details to online databases of local businesses.
If you have writing skills, you could start a blog, or write guest posts for other websites.
You could give talks on a relevant topic to local clubs and groups or start a podcast to reach an even wider audience.
Also, never pass up an opportunity to network; word of mouth is a powerful tool.
Develop your social media presence
Social media is an excellent, low-cost advertising vehicle, but it’s easy to get it wrong.
Be sure to have a presence on all the most popular social media channels, but don’t be tempted to bombard them all with adverts for your business.
Think carefully, post regularly but not too frequently, and offer posts that bring value to the reader.
No one wants a constant stream of adverts. Think about tips and advice you could post on your feeds, advice that could actually benefit people, or make them think. When you offer value, you retain followers.
