There are no standard life coach business forms, just as there is no standard life coach training. In most places, you don’t actually need any kind of certification or license to have a life coaching business, but that doesn’t mean you should just blithely start coaching clients without any kind of paperwork. Obviously you should make sure you know what, if any, requirements exist in your country or your area. But even if there is no requirement beyond what you need to run a business, it’s a good idea to have some formal paperwork, signed by your client as part of your client intake. You can mail or fax the life coach business forms to your client. Make sure you get them back, signed, before you begin coaching.

What Are The 3 Critical Life Coach Business Forms?

The 3 forms I use are modeled from those of several coaches and mentors I have worked with.

1. The first is a brief mental and physical health evaluation. This provides a minimal screening for obvious major medical and psychological issues that could be relevant in coaching. It can let you know about addictions that might interfere with the coaching process, although at this early stage in the coaching relationship, your client may not be willing to share that information. And last, it can give you a sense of how much impact your client’s health is having on his life.
2. The second is a disclaimer and statement that coaching is not therapy or a medical treatment and that you are not diagnosing or treating any medical or psychological condition. In some places, for instance California, the law requires all “non-licensed practitioners” to provide a written disclosure form saying that he or she is “not licensed by the state as a healing arts practitioner”.
3. The third of the life coach business forms is an agreement for services that lays out the coaching package my client and I have agreed upon, with the time frame and amounts for payment and what coaching services she will get in return.

Do You Really Need To Bother With These?

Depending on where you are located, you may have a legal responsibility to provide the disclaimer. More importantly I believe these life coach business forms provide clarity for you and your client in terms of what your business agreement is, what you will do and what you can’t do. Most life coaches don’t get into legal hassles with their clients, but it’s not unheard of. No matter how great your relationship is with your client, misunderstandings can arise, and if your agreement is clearly written down and signed by both of you, there’s a lot less opportunity for confusion. As a good coach, you know that clarity is always a good outcome, whether in your life coach business forms, in your life coach business, or in your coaching.

The life coach business forms you devise don’t have to be complicated, but I think it’s a good idea to design or acquire these very basic forms, even the ones that are not a legal requirement, and use them at the beginning of each new coaching relationship. What do you think?

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Dorine G. Kramer
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach