“How much should you charge as a business coach?” It’s a question most entrepreneurs and aspiring business coaches will ask at one point or another when deciding if business coaching is the right career move for them. If you decide to set up your own business coaching company, you will have to decide on your rates yourself. This can be a daunting prospect because pricing not only determines your bottom line, but it also impact whether or not someone decides to become a client.
How much a business coach should charge depends on a range of factors. However, when you join a business coaching franchise, how much you should charge has already been figured out for you, which can be a massive relief.
In this article, we will walk you through determining how much to charge as a solo business coach, and typical pricing you can expect to charge when joining a business coaching franchise.
Before you start thinking about pricing, you need to identify your income goals and plan how you going to get there. This will help you determine how many clients will you need and how much will you need to charge them to achieve these goals? When starting out as a solo business coach, you might not feel comfortable charging your ideal consulting fee that’s ok, start with a fee you feel good about.
You can always increase your prices when you feel the time is right. However, if you are an experienced coach and have a proven track record of helping your clients achieve results, charge accordingly. Remember not to under value yourself and the value of your coaching services.
Generally speaking, there are 3 main ways that business coaches charge for their services:
1. By session. For example, charging $200 for an hour-long coaching session.
2. By month. For example, $1000 per month which may include a number of coaching sessions and access to other valuable online content as a bonus.
3. By package. For example, a 6-month package for $5,000 this may include a number of monthly coaching sessions, valuable online content and a group strategy and planning day.
Charging by the package is perhaps the best way to charge your services as a business coach. Why? Well firstly, it makes your income more stable and predictable, which is great for when you’re just starting out as a business coach.
Secondly, clients who sign up for a package are showing you they are willing to make a commitment and an investment. This means they are way more likely to take business coaching seriously, which will see them (and you) get better results.
When creating and pricing your business coaching packages, it’s important you identify common challenges or goals you expect to see across the clients you want to work with. Generally, a good business coach will charge according to the value their services will bring to the client.
To determine the price of your coaching package you first have to think about the results you expect your clients to see as a result of your business coaching services. As an example, you have a client that has a team with poor communication, an expected result of your coaching services could be an increase in communication between teams, which will ultimately boost workplace morale and overall business outcomes and goals.
Think about how your coaching services will help your clients increase communication between teams. How will that look? You might start with a communication assessment where you will identify specific needs. Then, every month, for three months, you’ll have two calls with your client. During those calls, you will provide your client with action steps for execution, which they need to complete before the next phone call.
You’ll also provide your client with an abundance of resources, and be available via email between calls. It is far more enticing to bundle the latter up and describe the tools you’ll be using to help your client achieve the results they’re after, rather than simply saying “we’ll have two calls every month.”
For the above service, you might charge a small business owner $3,000, while you might charge a larger corporation $6,000. This is because in general, a larger corporation will need more of your focus and attention due to its larger team size, while a small business will have less team members and require less work on your part.
Think about the value and amount of time you will be investing into your particular service you will be providing your clients, and then price your coaching package accordingly. If your service is in some way going to significantly increase your client’s bottom line, then it’s okay to charge more.
When joining a business coaching franchise, the stress of deciding how much to charge is taken away. The systems and processes have already been packaged and priced for you accordingly. As an ActionCOACH franchise owner, you’ll charge approximately $2,000 per month, per client.
This is through ActionCOACH’s flagship One-to-one coaching program. This involves running weekly or fortnightly sessions for about an hour with each of your clients over the phone or in person. Here are further examples of how much you would charge for add-on services for existing business coaching clients:
To learn more about becoming a Firm Franchise Partner and owning a firm or becoming a Business Coach. Check out ActionCOACH for more information about buying a franchise in Australia. Click here to find out more about ActionCOACH Franchise opportunity.