Starting a life coaching practice is not an easy task. You might be worried about:

• whether or not you are venturing into the right business
• if you can earn a decent living
• if you have the right credentials
• whether you will be able to catch up and compete favorably with the more experienced coaches in this profession

Your worst enemy in starting this kind of business is fear, uncertainty and procrastination.

From personal experience, I have a clear idea what it is like to establish a profitable coaching practice. I know what it takes to have potential clients understand your ability to help them so that they hire you.

My Biggest Mistake Starting A Life Coaching Practice

When I started out, I was confident I could do everything by myself including finding resources, prospective clients etc. This was a big mistake! I later realized that I could have made more money if I had started out by seeking assistance from an already established professional coach. Having support from an experienced coach can be the defining difference between coaching as a profession vs. coaching as a hobby.

Life Coaching as a Career: The Pros & Cons

A life coach is an individual who helps people to succeed in their personal or professional objectives. This fast developing career course is very flexible because it can be practiced anywhere… by anyone who is interested in it.

WARNING:  For you to thrive in this profession you need to develop a coach’s thought process. This means that you must have a passion for educating and helping people achieve their goals and objectives in life. The good news is that there are no specific certifications or educational requirements for this career, though having a business background can come in handy.

Starting A Life Coaching Practice – A Guerrilla Guide

Life coaching involves two phases:

The first phase involves helping your client to discover issues that might be hindering them from achieving their objectives.

The second phase involves counseling your client to help them overcome these obstacles. Ultimately, this gets them on the road to achieving their goals.

NOTE: A guerrilla coach wants to get their clients in the fastest, easiest way possible! Starting a life coaching business does not necessarily require you to get a special license. Don’t waste your time with this if it’s not the law in your area.

Here are the guerrilla’s steps to starting a life coaching practice…

Step 1: It is important for you to experience successful coaching for yourself before starting a life coaching business. Choose a qualified coach who you can comfortably relate with. They need to give you some coaching on how to start your own coaching business.

Step 2: Get some kind of training to help you understand what life coaching entails. This can involve:

• educating yourself by doing personal research
• taking a life coaching course
• pursuing training from an established life coach

Keep on learning and training until you are ready, or have perfected the art of coaching other people. Some coaching programs may offer certification after completion, which might come handy when you start your business. Since there are no state requirements for life coaches, you can immediately start coaching when you’re ready.

Step 3: Once you are ready to coach, you need to define your target client. Your target client will include the people you enjoy helping, people you have already helped, and people you naturally attract into your life.

Step 4: Develop a program aimed to meet the needs of your target client. This program will give you an opportunity to showcase your expertise and knowledge. This program should:

• make sense to your audience
• be explained easily
• actually offer concrete solutions to your clients’ problems
• be a no-brainer for your client to pay for (affordable)
• deliver the real measurable results that your client hopes for

Step 5: Marketing

Marketing is simple and straightforward. All your marketing will include an ‘input’ (offers, advertising, campaigns, etc.) and a desired ‘output’ (the result you want from the ‘input’). For you to gain the client base and keep your business running, you will need to learn or develop the marketing skills to promote your business.

Confusion when promoting your business comes when you are trying to do everything at the same time, or when you are trying to establish which ‘input’ to do first. Do not try to go about marketing you business by yourself. You will end up getting frustrated and wasting your time, and eventually cash. It will be more convenient and fruitful for you learn how to market your business from an individual who has experience and knowledge on how to effectively market a coaching practice.

Marketing a coaching practice involves telling your prospects what you can do for them, and making inquiries as to whether or not they are interested. If you get a positive response, you sign them up. Otherwise, you thank them for their time.

With these guerrilla tactics you can quickly set up a successful life coaching practice. This profession can not only earn you a decent living, but also gives you lots of options. The key to the guerrilla coach’s success is taking it step by step and working ‘smart’ (not hard) through each of them.

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!

Jeffrey T. Sooey
CEO, JTS Advisors
Founder, Coaches Training Blog community