If you want to be truly effective as a coach, you need the right tools in your arsenal.

Coaching forms are essential to organize your business and collect key information about your clients. They also make your onboarding and coaching process more effortless.

Paperbell is all about making running your coaching business easy, so it’s no secret we love forms. No matter your niche, the right questionnaires will make the admin side of your business a breeze—here’s how.

How Coaching Forms Can Grow Your Business

From impressing your clients to making you a better coach, here are three ways the right forms can grow your coaching business.

1. They Create a Positive Client Experience

Have you ever encountered an issue with miscommunication between you and a client? Maybe you didn’t understand their goals and motivations, made assumptions based on incomplete information, or took an approach to coaching that your client wasn’t a fan of.

All of these issues can be easily avoided in your coaching program by using the right forms. From onboarding questionnaires to feedback forms, you’ll never have to second-guess your approach again.

Coaching forms are also an excellent way for you to learn and grow as a professional. Many clients are more comfortable answering personal questions or giving feedback in written form. That means you’ll gain a new perspective on things they weren’t necessarily comfortable sharing with you in your coaching sessions.

2. They Free up Time

Think about how much time you spend on important but time-consuming aspects of your business. Onboarding, client check-ins, writing emails, creating plans… These can all be improved with coaching forms.

With that extra capacity, you could be acquiring new clients, creating new services, or taking more time off to recharge.

3. They Provide Better Insights

Crucial stages in your coaching journey, like onboarding or feedback, provide essential insights into your client’s needs, feelings, and barriers.

But do you ever feel like you’re struggling to get the full picture?

Unlike a coaching session or email exchange, forms can provide a less intimidating and, sometimes, more accurate snapshot of where your client is at and where they want to be.

Plus, you’ll have a record of their responses that you can pull up any time you need to revisit certain issues in their lives or businesses.

19 Coaching Forms You Need to Run Your Business

Check out these downloadable forms to expand your coaching toolkit.

Client Intake Forms

Want to start a client relationship on the right foot? A great onboarding form is key. 

Check out these coaching forms to make your first session flow better.

1. The Coaching Tools Company Intake Session Template Checklist

Keep things ticking along by following this easy guide to your client’s onboarding session.

2. Happy Rubin’s Template: Coaching Form For Client Intake & Follow-up

More of a DIY coach? Create your own intake form with confidence using this templated guide. 

3. Personal Coaching Information: Sample Pre-Coaching Questionnaire

This example questionnaire provides ideas for creating your intake form and shows how to get the most out of your onboarding process.

Coaching Assessment and Evaluation Forms

How do you know if what you’re doing is effective unless you’re measuring it? That’s where coaching assessment forms come in. 

They’re essential tools to make sure you and your client are on the same page every step of the way.

4. Life Coaching Evaluation Form From Grow The Coach

A great reference for feedback and session evaluation forms for clients to fill out following their sessions.

5. Life Coaching Professionally: Eight Life Coaching Evaluation Questions to Ask 

There’s no need to fear feedback when you’re asking the right questions. Not to mention, this template may just help you get the positive testimonials you’ve been looking for.

6. The Coaching Tools Company Wrap-Up Session Questions

End each session on a good note with this follow-up form for clients—the perfect accompaniment to the post-session email!

Coaching Business Admin Forms

It may not be as thrilling, but admin is an inevitable part of being a kick-butt coach. From legal forms to business trackers, these are a must-have.

7. Wonder Legal’s Coaching Client Agreement

When it comes to a client agreement that clearly defines your legal obligations, who better to trust than an actual law firm? 

If you need a more detailed guide, you can also read our article on coaching contracts.

8. Active Campaign Freelance Business Resources

If you’re a freelancer, odds are you’re running your coaching business alone. This free template pack includes checklists and templates for invoicing, meetings, client follow-ups, and more.

9. Coaches’ Coach Business Forms and Templates

Profit Equation worksheets, due diligence checklists, marketing budget calculator— whether you’re a business coach or not, this bundle has everything you need.

Life Coaching Forms

Stand out from the crowd with some easy-to-use and effective forms and templates. 

From free life coaching intake forms to session checklists, these questionnaires will help keep your business ticking like no other.

10. The Counselor’s Coach Life Coaching Consent Forms Packet 

Client consent can be tricky to navigate. These forms can be modified to your branding and to include a liability client agreement statement.

11.  Growth Lab: How to Structure a Coaching Contract Clients Can’t Wait to Sign 

We’ve said this before, but contracts are important. Make sure yours hits the mark with this super handy template from Growth Lab. The practical examples are the cherry on top.

12. Life Coaching Session Forms Bundle

If you haven’t dipped your toes into the pool of Etsy bundles yet, this one might be a game-changer for you. This bundle has everything you need for your practice and you can easily edit the worksheets and forms on Canva.

Health, Nutrition, and Wellness Coaching Forms

Food diaries, macro calculators, mindset techniques, there are a ton of different forms that health coaches need to deliver an epic service for their clients. 

Here are just a few to get you started.

13. Precision Nutrition Client Assessment Forms

A super detailed template to learn everything you need to know about your client’s health, history, and goals.

14. BlockSurvey Nutrition Consent Form

Use this questionnaire template to create your nutrition consent form or survey.

15. National Wellness Institute Wellness Tools

These forms will surely address any wellness goal your clients may have in the most fun and creative way possible.

Business Coaching Forms

It’s business time, and that means paperwork. Don’t worry—this is the fun kind.

Ditch the outdated spreadsheets for these sleek tools designed to help both you and your clients level up your businesses.

16. Better Proposals Free Business Coaching Proposal Template

Digital, interactive, free—what’s not to love? Start writing better proposals today, or teach your clients how to.

17. Paramount Business Coach Templates

Want to equip your clients with some epic tools? This extensive assortment especially made for small businesses should have you covered.

Relationship Coaching Forms

Love is in the air, and not just for your clients! You’ll fall head over heels for these forms—so much so that you may just wonder how you ever lived without them. If that isn’t a love story for the ages, then what is?

18. A Better Love: Marriage, Couples, and Relationship Forms

Interested in implementing a relationship vision questionnaire into your coaching practice? This is the right place to start. 

19. The Balanced Life Couples Counseling Intake Form

Not sure where to start? Start right here with this example intake form for couples.

5 Tips to Effectively Help Your Clients With Coaching Forms

Here’s how to use coaching forms to get the best outcome for your clients.

1. Use Forms to Eliminate Common Issues

It’s easy to get caught up in shiny new things, especially when it comes to beautifully formatted coaching templates (don’t they just trigger your inner stationery addict?) But you need to make sure that the forms you’re using are the right ones for you.

In other words, make sure the ones you’re implementing address a specific need in your coaching practice. Their job isn’t to create unnecessary extra work for you and your clients but to amplify the results of your coaching program.

2. Give Your Client a Heads up

The golden rule of forms is to always give your client an idea of how much time they should set aside to fill them out. That way, they can plan for doing so rather than feeling bogged down.

Setting clear expectations is the fastest way to improve your client experience and make it easy to work with you.

3. More Isn’t Always Better

Make sure each form has a separate, well-defined purpose. Avoid combining everything you need to know into one long form that takes hours to fill.

For instance, don’t combine payment records with onboarding questionnaires.

The point isn’t to bury them (or you) in paperwork. Rather, to automate some of your business processes, or to give your clients a chance to complement their work with you with some additional contemplation.

Think critically about what belongs in your sessions versus your forms, and take into account the personal preferences of your clients.

4. Don’t Forget the Branding

Now for the fun part: design! Even if you’re using a template, make sure to put your personal touch on it.

Branding elements on materials you’ve developed are also important in case they are shared with a third party. This way, the word spreads about you without you doing anything. Win-win!

5. Ditch the Paper and Go Digital 

Printing stuff out is so last year. Make things easier for yourself and the planet by opting for digital forms.

Paperbell includes digital intake forms and questionnaires that seamlessly integrate into your onboarding process. All you need to do is send your form link to your client, and all their data will be safely stored in your all-in-one client management system.

Build a Thriving Coaching Practice

With the right coaching tools at hand, you have a lot more time to dedicate to transforming lives. And there’s nothing that saves you more time than an all-in-one client management and website tool like Paperbell.

With built-in forms, packages, scheduling, payments, and contracts, Paperbell brings together everything you need without the hassle of multiple platforms.

It creates a fully functioning, personalized coaching website for you with all these features plugged into it so you’re ready to hit the ground running.

Try Paperbell now for free with your first client.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in April 2021 and has since been updated for accuracy.