When deciding on your personal coaching fees, you often ask yourself the question, “How much should I charge?” It is often a dreaded question because the rate you charge has a significant amount of influence on how many clients you will attract and how successful your coaching practice will be.

When deciding on your personal coaching fees, you may ask yourself several questions:

• What if my clients can’t afford my rates?
• Would I pay myself that much?
• Should I charge less because I am lacking experience?
• Should I charge more due to my years of experience?
• What if potential clients think I’m not a good coach because my rates are too low?
• What if clients don’t think I am worth the high rate I charge?

Personal Coaching Fees – Too High or Too Low?

You can scare potential clients away by having personal coaching fees that are too high…or too low! A recent report from the Harvard Business Review found that coaching fees range from around $100 to over $3,000. Wow – that’s a huge range! Your task is to find what is best for your personal coaching business. How do you find that sweet spot – that perfect price where you hit the ball out of the park and land all the clients you can handle? It is not easy – but here are a few helpful suggestions.

• Setting a fee is related to your own confidence. As you gain experience, your confidence grows and so does you fee. But remember, confidence is a factor of experience and clients know that – you cannot start out by charging fees that are exorbitant because you are confident ( arrogant?) before you have even helped your first client.
• Don’t charge so much that you appear uncomfortable when you state the price. Clients will pick up on this and think you are trying to gouge them.
• Do everything you can to appear professional. Coaches are professionals, but when we start out, we often try to scrimp and save on amenities such as a well- furnished office, a website, nice clothes, and other trappings that present a professional image. Coaches sometimes delay obtaining certifications. Don’t be merely a commodity (people bargain for commodities!), be a professional!
• Consider packaging your services – group rates, monthly rates, or coordinating your services with a coach in a different field and offer multiple services to your clients.
• Pay attention to what others are charging. Know your market, know your competition, and know your peers. Find out the range of personal coaching fees in your field and then blend that with your experience. If you are just starting out, place yourself nearer the lower end of the range. If you have been a coach for years or previously worked as a therapist, or have special skills and knowledge to offer because of your work or life history, then you can charge fees nearer the higher end.
• Develop your own unique techniques and style. Learn from others but make your coaching style your own. Your unique style is worth more money and can push your personal coaching fee higher.

Your style, knowledge, education, innate talent, and skills create the foundation for your coaching practice, but your personal coaching fees are the foundation of your business. determining the right price at different times of your career will be an important component of your success…or failure.

Hope you took some great value out of this post today! I’d love to hear your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment with your thoughts or questions. And also, you can click on the Twitter button below to retweet this article…Thank you!

Fred Philips
Business Coach
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