From personal finances to personal development, life coaching has fast become one of the most popular ways for creator educators and infopreneurs to monetize their expertise. You probably landed on this article because you want to launch your own life coaching business or start earning more as a life coach. In this blog post, we’re helping you create a stellar life coaching business plan.
Harnessing a business mindset is the first step in becoming a successful life coach. Step two? Creating a business plan. A life coaching business plan is an all-inclusive roadmap to launching a profitable life coaching business. It helps you define your goals, outline your marketing strategies, and implement your coaching plans, so you can stay organized and earn the most from your life coaching business.
Read on for tips on how to build a lucrative life coaching business, and grab our free Life Coach Business Plan Template to easily create and implement your own life coaching business plan. It features step-by-step guides, helpful writing prompts, and fillable tables that’ll help you get your coaching business up and running in just a few minutes. Get it for free!
Why create a life coaching business plan?
So, why should you create a business plan as a life coach? While it might be tempting to start creating your coaching plans and jumping on client calls, like, right now, creating a well thought-out business plan has a number of long term benefits. These include:
- Creating better coaching plans: Putting in the effort (and market research) to understand your target audience enables you to create coaching programs that will better serve them.
- Building a strong brand identity: Defining your purpose, identifying your target audience, and strategically planning your content (you know, all those great business things), help you create a strong brand identity that will make you more credible to your audience and recognizable within the coaching market.
- Reaching your target audience: Developing an effective marketing strategy will help you better target and reach the people who will want to purchase your services.
- Setting yourself apart from the competition: Building your brand and creating programs based on your unique value proposition will set you apart from the competition within the crowded coaching market.
Sure, each of these benefits are great on their own. Taken together, however, they’ll ensure you’re making the most out of — and earning the most from — your coaching business.
How to create a life coaching business plan
Now that you’re aware of all the income-boosting benefits of creating a life coaching business plan, it’s time to get down to business. Here’s how create your own business plan in seven simple steps:
- Determine your niche
- Identify your target audience
- Create your coaching plans
- Launch your website
- Develop your marketing strategy
- Organize your business operations
- Create a budget
Step 1: Determine your niche
The first step in creating your life coaching business plan? Finding your coaching niche.
Your coaching niche is the area of expertise that you’ll focus on in your coaching practice. Think of it as your specialization within the life coaching market. Ultimately, your niche will determine your target audience and the types of services you’ll offer as a life coach.
So, why niche down as a life coach? Well, because life coaching is actually a catch-all term that covers a variety of different types of coaching. In reality, there are tons of different life coaching niches out there to be explored. Some of those include productivity, creativity, self-discovery, and personal development coaching — and that’s just to name a few!
The first step to finding your coaching niche is pinpointing your passions and expertise. Growing your life coaching business from your strengths and interests enables you to create better coaching programs and build a more sustainable business. When deciding on your coaching niche, think about the topics that you’re passionate and knowledgeable about. What topics do you like speaking about with others? What areas of life do your friends ask you for advice on?
Example: If you’re your friends’ go-to when they’re going through interpersonal drama, then you’ll want to add relationship coaching to your list of possible niches.
After you’ve figured out which topics you’re passionate about, you’ll need to do a bit of market research to figure out which of those niches are the most profitable. Here, you’ll need to conduct keyword research, using tools like Google Keyword Planner, to see which niches are the most in-demand (i.e. have lots of search engine inquiries) and the least competitive (i.e. have the fewest search engine results). According to the rules of economics, a niche with high demand and low competition will be your best bet in earning the most as a life coach.
Step 2: Identify your target audience
Now that you’ve decided on your coaching niche, it’s time to identify your target audience. Your target audience is the specific group of people who will most benefit from your coaching services. Gaining a deep understanding of your target audience, from their demographics to their needs, is crucial to your business because these are the people you’ll be tailing your coaching programs and marketing efforts towards.
Identifying your target audience requires conducting some market research or, more specifically, competitor research. This entails identifying life coaches within your niche, and analyzing their services and marketing strategies, as well as their audience and client base. As you do your research, pay attention to patterns in your competitors’ audience demographics, as well as recurring pain points and questions that come up in their comments sections.
This kind of research helps you determine which market segments your competitors are targeting and just how they’re going about doing it. In the end, this data will help you target new audiences, find gaps in your niche, and create more effective coaching services.
Want to identify your target audience today? Our free Target Audience Templates Bundle helps you understand your target audience’s needs and pain points fast, so you can start creating the coaching programs they’ll want.
Step 3: Create your coaching plans
Now that you’ve identified your target audience, it’s time to start creating the coaching programs they’re looking for. In other words, you’ll need to build out your offering of life coaching services.
Before you can start creating your first coaching program, you’ll need to figure out the topic it will address. For this step, you’ll need to consult your coaching niche. Your niche will dictate the range of topics that you can rightful cover in your coaching program.
Example: If your niche is creativity coaching, then you know you won’t be creating a program about conflict management (leave that to the relationship coaches!) Instead, you’ll want to focus on topics within your niche’s wheelhouse. In the case of creativity coaching, this might include artistic development, overcoming creative blocks, and innovative thinking.
Once you’ve determined your coaching program’s topic, you’ll need to get clear on its purpose. In this context, it might be helpful to think of your program’s purpose in terms of its objectives and intended outcome. In other words, it’s what your program is trying to help clients achieve.
Your program’s purpose will be determined by your target audience’s needs and pain points, which you discovered in the last step.
Example: If you’re a creativity coach and your audience frequently asks you for help overcoming their creative blocks, then you might want to create a coaching program to address that pain point.
Develop your coaching strategy
So, at this point you’ve determined the “what” and the “who” of your coaching program. Now, it’s time to dig into the “how”. That means determining exactly how you’ll help your clients achieve your program’s intended outcome.
For this step, you’ll need to decide on the specific tactics and activities you’ll use throughout your coaching program, as well as developing the assessment tools you’ll use to track your clients’ progress and success throughout the program’s duration.
Build out your coaching program session-by-session
Now that you’ve got all the nuts-and-bolts (i.e. the tactics and activities) laid out, it’s time to start building out your coaching plan, session by session.
Your client’s growth journey will guide this process. While building your program, think of all the different things your client must learn and steps they must take before they achieve the program’s final goal. Each coaching session should bring your client one step closer to your program’s intended outcome. Each session should be distinct and discrete, with its own clearly defined topic, objectives, tactics, and homework.
So, how long should your coaching program be? Ultimately, your program’s length (i.e. its total number of sessions) will be determined by the amount of material you need to cover to bring your client from Point A to their goal. You decide the length of your coaching program, however, if you want a ballpark metric, the typical life coaching program typically runs from 8 weeks to 12 weeks in length, at one session per week.
Step 4: Launch your website
Now that you’ve created your coaching programs, it’s time to get them (and your coaching business) online. And that means creating your business’s website.
We know, we know: you’re probably asking, at this point, “Why, in the age of TikTok and Instagram, do I need a website for my coaching business?” While social media platforms are great content marketing tools, the tried-and-tested website remains crucial for any online business worth its sale. And for a good few reasons!
First, your website acts as a hub for your business. It’s where potential clients can learn all about you (on your “about you” page), discover your social media channels (on your “contact” page), view your content (on your “blog” section), and browse your offering of coaching services (on your integrated online storefront).
On top of that, a well-built website lends your business a sense of credibility, showing prospective customers that you’re a professional who takes your vocation seriously. And as if that’s not enough already, having a website also gives your business a better foothold on popular search engines like Google, which can drive tons of prospective clients to your business.
Step 5: Develop your marketing strategy
So, you’ve created and launched your coaching program. Now, you need to let your audience know that it’s officially up for sale. And that means promoting your life coaching business.
From social media marketing to email marketing, there are lots of ways to market your life coaching practice online. Here are a few of the most popular tactics.
Social media marketing
You’re a content creator, right? If that’s you, then you’ll want to harness the power of social media to promote your life coaching services. One of the most intuitive ways for content creators to market their coaching services is with, well, content!
Already have a following? That means you already have a built-in pool of potential customers for your coaching services — all you need to do is create the content that will catch their attention. If you don’t have a following, then you’ll definitely want to choose a social media platform (or two!) and start growing one organically.
No matter your platform of choice, there are a few things that every life coach should keep in mind while promoting their services with content. The first one is the importance of authenticity. When it comes to creating promotional content, it’s crucial that your videos don’t read as an advertisement. Remember that your audience follows you for the unique perspective and expertise you have to offer them. So make sure you’re not compromising your “secret sauce” while promoting your services. Your promotional content should be just as compelling, entertaining, and educational as your regular content.
So, what’s the key to creating authentic-feeling promotional content? We suggest creating content that’s topically similar to the program you’re promoting. From there, you can easily insert a subtle CTA telling your audience that they can access more of your knowledge and expertise by purchasing your coaching program. Effective marketing content should give your audience a tiny taste of what the program you’re promoting has to offer, while encouraging them to enroll to reap all of the benefits.
Email marketing
Sure, we might be living in the era of the social media #sponcon, but did you know that ye olde newsletter is still holding its ground as one of the most effective digital marketing strategies?
It’s true! And we’ve even got the numbers to back it up. On average, email marketing generates a ROI of $36 for every dollar spent. On top of being an excellent audience-building tool, newsletters are a powerful way to convert prospects into real, paying clients, which ultimately earns your business more money. With all that in mind, you’ll definitely want to harness the power of the e-newsletter while developing your coaching business’s marketing strategy.
Before you can start writing and sending out email blasts, you’ll need to build up your email list. This is the list of subscribers who will receive your marketing newsletters. To build your list, you’ll need to capture your audience’s email addresses. Luckily, today, there are a number of methods for creators to do just this, including adding opt-in forms to your link-in-bio page and online storefront, or creating lead magnets and offering them in exchange for your followers’ contact info.
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Click here to start building your email list with The Leap today, for free.Taster coaching sessions
You’re a life coach, so why not take advantage of a marketing tactic unique to the vocation? Yup, we’re talking about taster sessions.
A taster session is a short coaching session that gives prospective clients a “taste” of your coaching expertise and services. The idea is that, after your client has had their taster sessions and discovered your unique value as a life coach, they’ll want to enroll in your paid programs in order to continue accessing more of the same. Taster sessions deliver immediate value, which makes them a powerful tool in converting your followers into paying clients.
Additional marketing tactics
From blogs to live speaking events, there are tons of other marketing tactics that life coaches can capitalize on.
Want to discover more of the most popular marketing tactics for life coaches? Check out our Life Coach Business Plan Template.
This comprehensive template provides you with all the most effective marketing tactics available to life coaches, and walks you through how to develop and implement each tactic for your life coaching business. Get it for free!
Step 6: Organize your business operations
Getting your operations in order is a crucial (and oft-overlooked) step in developing your life coaching business plan. Why? Because your operations are the things that get your life coaching business off the ground and running smoothly.
All businesses have a unique set of operations tailored to the particular needs of its niche or industry. And life coaching is no different. As a life coach, your operations strategy will include your appointment booking, service delivery, and invoicing systems.
Determine how you’ll deliver your services
In order to start selling your services (and earning an income), you’ll need to figure out how to deliver them to your clients. There are a couple of different tools you’ll need to consider when puzzling out your service delivery strategy.
First, you’ll need to choose an appointment scheduling tool. This tool allows your clients to book their sessions online with just a tap of a finger (or the click of a mouse). From your end, this tool helps you organize and manage all of your appointments, which can easily become overwhelming as your client roster grows.
Next, you’ll want to determine just how you and your clients will interface during your sessions. Of course, you could go totally old school and jump on a real phone call. In this day and age, however, your best bet is video conferencing. For example, Zoom and Google Meets are some of the most popular apps for online meetings.
Develop your invoicing system
Next, you’ll need to lay out your invoicing system. (How else are you going to get paid?)
This step is two-pronged. First, you’ll need to decide on what invoicing software you’ll be using. Of course, you can go old-school and write up your own invoices in apps like Excel or Google Sheets. If you want to save yourself the grunt work, however, there are lots of invoice generator apps out there, including Wave, PayPal, and Square.
Step 7: Create a budget
Want to set your life coaching business up for (financial) success? Then you’ll need to understand just how much money you expect it to bring in — and how much money you expect it to cost! In other words, the final step in hammering out your life coaching business plan is creating a financial plan.
This step entails breaking down all of your revenue streams and calculating the amount of revenue each of them brings it. It also requires determining your business’s fixed and variable costs, as well as your break-even point.
Need help creating a financial plan for your life coaching business? With step-by-step instructions and helpful fillable tables, our Life Coach Business Plan Template helps you create a comprehensive budget, covering your revenue projections all the way to your break-even analysis. Get it now!
Launch your life coaching business today
And there you have it: your step-by-step guide to launching a successful life coaching business. Now, it’s up to you to put this article (and our handy business plan template) to good use and begin building the life coaching business of your dreams.
Follow The Leap on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more monetization tips for creators. We also make a newsletter.
Further reading
- How To Become a Life Coach (Tips + Free Templates)
- How To Become a Mindset Coach (Tips + Free Templates)
- Your Guide to Creating an 8-Week Coaching Program (+ Free Template)
- Your Guide to Creating a 12-Week Coaching Program (+ Free Template)
- How To Create a Coaching Contract (+ Free Template)
- How To Find Your Target Audience (+ Free Template)
- How To Use the Wheel of Life in Coaching (+ Free Template)
- How To Find Your Coaching Niche (Tips + Free Templates)
- How To Sell Digital Products Online: A 6-Step Launch Checklist
