A fair life coaching fee should reflect the value of the service you provide, along with some acknowledgement of your client’s ability to pay. This balance of value-delivered with the client’s ability to pay is the hallmark of a professional. You should never underestimate your value or just how much your services are worth. So don’t lower your fees because you question your worth. On the other hand, acknowledge your client’s situation, and adjust your fee to reflect your role as a professional.
Life Coaching Fee Needs to Reflect a Few Things
The first order of business is to fairly set your life coaching fee structure to reflect the impact that you have on the lives of your clients. If your coaching takes your client from an “also ran” to a “winning thoroughbred” then you should be paid accordingly. And don’t be shy about it. You impact and change people’s lives in wonderful ways. Yes. Priceless is the word for that. And if this is what you really do and you are not just a charlatan, then you should be paid accordingly.
Your Coaching Fee Needs to Reflect Their Ability to Pay
As a professional, in the best sense of the word, your fees need to reflect your client’s financial situation. And if appropriate your work needs to be offered on a pro bono basis, because as a professional it is about service and not only about the money. I recommend accounting for your services at full value with discounts offered to reflect the client’s ability to pay. This helps to keep your head straight, while still meeting the needs of your clients. Also don’t forget that this noblesse oblige is an obligation that you can share with your more wealthy clients – for the good of their souls, of course.
The Trick Is to Make All of This Transparent
Like all good deeds, they are better done in secret or at least not with a lot of fanfare. So when you set a life coaching fee, remember that “mum’s the word”. Each and every one of your clients needs to feel that they have paid a fair price for the help that they received. And none should be made to feel that they were given consideration based on their weakened financial position. And that, my friend, is a good bit of the art of all of this.
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Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach
Always difficult to know what to charge for one’s services. I know I have had this difficulty. However here is an anecdote that might help people who are experts in their field and yet feel shy about charging a decent fee.
An architect was called up to draw plans for an extension on a house. He did the work, and charged $5000 for the plan. The customers looked at the plan and said, wouldn’t it be nice if instead of that wall, we could have a larger room. So the architect when back to the drawing board took an eraser, erased one line, and added two more. Then he took his modified plans back to his clients who loved it. They asked him how much they owed him, and he presented them with two bills. The first one for $5000, and the second one for $500. When they saw the price of the second invoice the customers were shocked and said how can you charge so much for something that must have taken you 10 minutes. So the architect took the second bill, tore it up and wrote another one:
For erasing one line and making the required modifications… $50
For knowing where to make those modifications……………….$450
Long winded comment but I often remind myself of that story when pricing a job.
I think for many different businesses, it can be hard to price… especially if the client is on a very tight budget. I think it is important that even though money might not be the biggest factor, that the time used is paid for appropriately. I find that even in my own business people like to take advantage of the fact that the designs are what they will make money off of and that it took time to produce that project.
Each business person has to decide for themselves what “they are worth”. When you have put that concept together, then you will know what makes sense. Of course it is important to consider the client and the case, but the end game is “what are you worth”? I have discussed this with different entrepreneurs in different industries a number of times and it seemed to always come to the same conclusion. I have also found this to be true in my own business ventures. Thanks.
As with so many other things, undercharging can give the impression you don’t think you and the service you provide are worth much, and overcharging will keep many away who might otherwise have come to you. This is a problem for my daughter, who is afraid to charge anything at all for the alternative health care service she provides. She does an excellent job at something a person cannot do for himself.
I am a coach and mentor, and I don’t charge anything for what I do. But a commitment IS called for from the person I mentor–a time and energy commitment. It costs no money, but certainly depends on the person being willing to commit himself to do the same for others.
Willena Flewelling
I am always struggling to set a price. Because I’m in a ministry situation, and not just a “business,” it feels like I need to give away more. All these guidelines don’t really help when I come to setting actual fees.