Career coaching fees vary from coach to coach and from location to location. Fees are also dependent on specialty or niche, experience, background, and training. As would be expected, coaches with more experience can charge more than beginning coaches. Career coaching fees generally range from around $75 to $250 per hour.

Because the coaching industry lacks concrete standards for fees, it’s almost like being blindfolded and throwing a dart at a dartboard. New coaches need to set their fees at the lower end of the range, but, setting your fees too low can hurt your business. Lower rates give potential clients a perception of lower value. On the other side of the argument, fees that are set too high can turn people away. Since potential clients do not know your value and skills, they may not feel comfortable shelling out fees at the high end of the scale.

Using Basic Math to Set Your Career Coaching Fees

When determining fees, it is advisable to do some math. What is your desired income? Someday you may make a million dollars per year, but pick a reasonable number when starting out. Let’s say your desired income is $60,000 per year Now, do an estimate of your business expenses. Take lease payments, utilities, marketing, and all other expenses. Let’s say your expenses are $20,000. That means you need to generate $80,000 per year in revenue.

The nest step in determining career coaching fees is to figure out how many clients you can work with in a normal week. Let’s say that number is 20; you would have 20 billable hours per week.. Now, you need to determine your billable hours per year. Since you are just starting out, let’s assume you only take two weeks of vacation. This would mean you have 20 x 50 = 1000 billable hours per year.

Once you have calculated your desired revenue and your billable hours, you can determine your hourly rate. Divide revenue by billable hours ($80,000 ÷ 1000 = 80). Your minimum hourly fee is $80. This gives you some wiggle room as you may want to push your number higher, but you know that you can lower all the way down to $80 if needed.

This basic math gives you an idea of where to set your career coach fees, but it is merely a starting point. Other factors will figure into the equation. As you add in group coaching and other revenue streams, your career coaching fees may change. Group coaching would be charged at a lesser rate, but you are making more in one session because of the higher number of clients during the hour. You could lower your number of billable hours if you have more group coaching – giving you more time off to market and promote, look for additional opportunities and revenue streams, or just spend some time with the family or out on the golf course.

Though this math is quite rudimentary, it gives you a basic idea of where to set your career coaching fees. They can then be adjusted as you move into a niche, gain more experience, or have more satisfied clients. Fees are one of the most important component of your income, and for beginning coaching, it is usually the only component of income – setting them correctly is one of the keys to long-term success.

To learn more about how to generate an endless wave of high paying coaching clients, get your FREE Instant Access to our “Life Coaching Business Blueprint” video toolkit when you go HERE.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
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