How should you determine your personal coaching fees? Does it really matter or should you just pick a number out of a hat?

Yes – Your Personal Coaching fee Matters

The amount you charge is one of the most important decisions you can make when starting your coaching business. Your personal coaching fees have a direct influence of how many clients will consider your services and actually pay money for your services. You want to get your personal coaching business off to a good start? Take some time to determine the correct fees to charge.

Questions to Ask About Your Personal Coaching Fees

When starting a coaching business, you need to write out (or type) a business plan. Part of that plan should include your coaching fees. When calculating those fees, you should write down (or type) a few questions to ask yourself.

• What are the prevailing rates for personal coaching in my area?
• Should I charge less than most coaches because I am a new coach?
• Will potential clients think my fees are too high if I charge as much as experience coaches?
• Should I set an individual fee and also have a lower group or discount fee?
• Should I ask for feedback on my pricing?

The Prevailing Coaching Rates

It takes a little homework to find the answer. According to a Harvard Business Review report, coaching fees range from $100 to over $3,000. That’s a staggering amount of variation in coaching fees. The best way to determine what the rate in your area is to call a few coaches in your area. Ask how much they charge and how much experience they have – this will give you a good ballpark estimate.

The Least Amount of Experience Means Lower Personal Coaching Fees

Yes – when you are starting out, your fees need to be near the bottom of the market. But, don’t just undercut all coaches in your area – potential clients may see an extremely low price and think you don’t offer valuable coaching. Don’t undervalue your coaching just because you are inexperienced!

Coaching Fees Too High?

If your fees are too high, you may scare away potential clients. Clients will often look at both fees and experience when selecting a coach. When they call around for information, and they notice that your fees are at the high end of the market but your experience is at the low end, they will most likely think you have overvalued your services. It’s good to be confident in your coaching ability, but don’t let that confidence become an obstacle to attracting clients.

Provide More Than Just One Coaching Fee

You personal coaching fees should be simple but varied. You should have an individual fee, a group fee, and also offer package discounts. Package discounts can group discounts, monthly fees, services that are coordinated with other coaches, or packages that include other products (books, DVDs, online coaching, etc.)

What do Clients Think About Your Pricing?

The only way to find out is to ask them! You should be skilled in providing feedback to your clients, and you also make it part of your coaching plan to periodically ask for feedback. This can also include asking about your personal coaching fees. Clients can provide you with important knowledge about what they think about your pricing. This will give you pertinent information for setting your fees in the future.  If you don’t ask, you won’t know!

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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