Chapter 4
How Much Can a Spiritual Life Coach Earn?
We assume that most people who are looking to build a Spiritual Life Coaching practice aren’t just in it for the money. This is good, because that approach probably wouldn’t be successful.
If you were choosing a life coach, would you be drawn to a coach who just sees you as a source of income? Or would you want a coach who is filled with joy when they see you blossom? Coaches who are motivated by a genuine desire to help their clients heal tend to be the coaches that are popular with clients.
If you are drawn to explore Spiritual Life Coaching as a possible career choice, you are probably one of those people who loves helping people heal and thrive.
However, when considering any career change, it’s a good idea to figure out whether it’s likely you could at least pay the bills, and even live a comfortable lifestyle. Although no one can guarantee how successful you could be, we can give you some ideas of what you may want to consider, in projecting possible future earnings.
Your earnings will depend on how successful you are. So, let’s consider: what does it actually take to be successful?
Seven Essential Elements of a Successful Spiritual Coaching Practice
1. A sincere caring for others, and inspiration to help.
2. A methodology that works.
3. A methodology that you can learn in a thorough, step-by-step way, to become skilled enough to get good results.
4. An ability to attract and retain clients.
5. An awareness of, and compliance with, the legal and ethical issues that apply to you.
6. A physical office and/or a quiet, private location with a phone or—better yet—a computer with internet hookup capable of Skype or Zoom communication.
7. Self-motivation and self-management skills.
These are the main things you’ll need, and we go into how to build a successful practice more thoroughly in Chapter 1.
Now, assuming that you have what it takes to build a successful practice, what is a reasonable range for what you can earn?
To answer this question, we need to take a guess at what you can charge, how many clients you will be working with, and what your expenses will be.
How Much Can a Spiritual Life Coach Charge?
There is no one right answer to this question. Established coaches generally charge between $100 and $200 per hour, and some charge even more.
Rates can depend on many factors. First, what kind of clients do you have access to? Do you live in a wealthy area, or are your neighbors struggling to pay the bills? Do you have an “in” with schoolteachers, or are you well-connected with medical professionals or lawyers?
Think about who you want to attract as clients, and who would be realistic for you to attract, and what they would be able to pay for your services.
Next, what are your credentials? Can you justify your rates by your training and experience? Are you using methodologies that have research to back them up?
Then what about personal factors? Are you good at “schmoozing” and building rapport with strangers? Do you exude confidence in your abilities?
It isn’t good to be over-confident, but we’ve also known many coaches who undervalue their abilities. A coach who feels apologetic about getting paid by clients will probably have a harder time asking for higher rates. If a coach doesn’t feel they are worth the money, clients probably won’t, either.
Keep in mind, coaches who are starting out sometimes charge less, while they build their practice. They may charge between $50 and $100 per hour, to quickly get some clients, gaining experience and confidence, with a plan to raise rates later. This is a valid approach, as long as you aren’t putting out the message that what you have to offer isn’t of value.
Examples of Earning Potential
Example 1: Starting Out
Let’s say a coach keeps her day job, and is adding client-work evenings and weekends. She decides to start out charging $75 per hour, and normally does 90 minute sessions, which is $112.50. She is averaging about 5 clients per week, or 20 per month.
She’s earning $112.50 * 20 = $2,250 per month, or $27,000 per year. That’s a good start, especially considering her client sessions add up to only 7.5 hours per week! It’s a good thing she’s kept her day job, though.
As for expenses, let’s say she has a very presentable office room in her home where she can see clients in person, instead of renting office space. She also does work via skype and zoom, which is sort-of free because she already owns a computer and is already paying for internet service.
Let’s say she paid about $3,000 for initial coaching training and certification, which was recouped reasonably quickly from her client income. Her other expenses are pretty minor.
Example 2: Gaining Momentum
Now, let’s say she cuts her day job back to half time and doubles her client load. She raises her rates to $100 per hour for 5 new clients a week. So her new clients are paying her $150 per 90-minute session, which comes to $750 per week, $3,000 per month, and $36,000 per year. We add this to the $27,000 she was already making, and now she’s making $63,000 per year.
Of course, some of her original clients will have gone by the wayside, to be replaced with new clients who pay more, so actually, she’ll be doing better than this. However, she might also be spending about $1,000-$2,000 a year on additional trainings, to further increase her skills.
Not bad, for client sessions totaling about 15 hours a week!
Example 3: A Mature Practice
OK, so now, she decides to quit her half-time day job and devote herself to coaching work. After a couple of years, she has lots of experience, she’s getting great results, her clients love her and she loves coaching. So, she gradually raises her rates to $150 per hour ($225 for 90 minutes). After some time, most of her clients are at her new rate. She decides she just wants to work with about 2 clients a day, to stay fresh and have plenty of time for other things.
So, let’s say she does 10 90-minute sessions a week (about 40 sessions a month) at $225 a session. That’s $9,000 per month, and $99,000 a year if she takes a month off. Most people can live quite comfortably with these earnings.
Of course, this is just an example. A coach who charges less per hour, sees fewer clients, or has higher expenses will make less. On the other hand, there are plenty of coaches who make more.
Realistically, it also takes some additional time marketing to gain clients. And coaches who want to be the best they can be will continually do more skills trainings. However, on the plus side, running a coaching practice from home saves on commute time, each and every day, which is a considerable time savings.
We can’t promise anyone what their income will be. However, if coaching is a good fit for you, and if you have the seven elements of a successful coaching practice listed above, you can do the math yourself to see what your income potential could be.
There’s Income, and Then There Are the Real Rewards
“Seek to do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you.”
–James Freeman Clarke
As a practical exercise, it’s good to figure out whether coaching can meet your financial needs.
However, the people we know who make a living through coaching appreciate the intangible benefits as much or more than the income.
Every spiritual tradition we are aware of teaches that helping others is a way to true happiness. Many spiritual life coaches find that helping their clients leaves them feeling more relaxed, yet energized, than they had been before!
In fact, helping others is so deeply rewarding, some people who don’t need an income stream choose to do coaching partially, or even completely, on a volunteer basis. If they’re using a method that is truly transformative, the reward is being able to offer that to people, and see people’s lives become more harmonious. In addition, we can recognize that each individual person whose life is transformed is also transforming the consciousness of the world. Little by little, guiding others through transformational experiences creates a better world to live in.
And It’s a Darn Good Lifestyle
In addition to the joy and satisfaction of helping others heal and thrive, many people love being their own boss, with a flexible schedule. If you are working independently, you get to decide how many clients to work with, and which ones to take on. You can schedule your vacations when you want them. If there’s an important event you want to take part in, you can schedule client sessions around it.
If you’re working out of your home, there’s no commute, no parking, and no rush hour traffic. You can grab some lunch out of your own fridge, or order a pizza—whatever you want.
And, if you are working with clients over skype or zoom, you can be wearing pajama bottoms and slippers, and they’ll never know!
Is It For You?
Although Spiritual Life Coaching is a wonderful career choice for many people, it’s really up to you to decide if you are a good fit for a coaching lifestyle. Do you, for example, have the ability to motivate yourself and manage your practice? If not, could you acquire skills in this department?
These are questions that only you can answer. Perhaps you already have a lot of the pieces in place, you’re confident you can do what it takes, so now all you need is a training to gain coaching skills and you’ll be ready to hit the ground running.
Or, for you, the idea of being a Spiritual Life Coach might still seem out of reach. You may have various obstacles to achieving it. There might be some life circumstances that would need to be changed, as well as inner obstacles.
If so, keep in mind that Core Transformation has helped many people transform inner obstacles to reaching their goals. So if you want to explore Spiritual Life Coaching, and yet something stops you, spiritual life coach certification training can not only help you help your clients reach their goals, it can also give you tools to reach your goals, as well!
Now, we could consider Core Transformation to be an example of Spiritual NLP. Many Spiritual Life Coaches are drawn to Spiritual NLP, so they have the tools to help clients get results. But what is Spiritual NLP, and how can it help? We address this in Chapter 5.
