Do your friends always come to you for dating advice? Is flirting your second language?
And if you’ve answered yes to the above — have you ever considered becoming a dating coach?
Keep reading to find out how to become a dating coach, including vital information such as:
- What is a dating coach?
- Should you become a dating coach?
- How much do dating coaches make?
- Do you need a dating coach certification?
- How to become a certified dating coach
What Is a Dating Coach?
A dating coach is a type of life coach that helps clients achieve success in their dating lives.
For instance, they can teach new dating techniques to their clients — or help them develop more self-confidence!
Here’s one thing to keep in mind: dating coaches are not relationship coaches. While they may both rely on similar coaching certifications, they don’t have the same purpose at all.
Relationship coaching helps clients achieve healthy, long-term relationships. On the other hand, dating coaching helps people in the dating aspect of their lives.
Should You Become a Dating Coach?
Should anyone who’s great at giving dating advice become a dating coach?
Not necessarily. Giving dating advice to your friends and coaching clients to improve their dating strategies don’t require the same skills.
When you’re getting paid to coach someone else, you need to show up as the best version of yourself. You also need to have:
- The ability to hold your clients accountable
- Active listening skills
- At least one coaching model you know how to use to get results for your clients
- A talent for visualizing and setting goals
You also need to have the desire to run your own business and become your own boss — and while this can be an incredibly fulfilling lifestyle, it’s definitely not for everyone!
How Much Do Dating Coaches Make?
As self-employed business owners, dating coaches don’t have a straightforward “average salary.”
In theory, you don’t have a cap on your earning potential. But you also don’t have a minimum — if you land no clients, you don’t get paid.
On average, a brand-new dating coach can charge between $60 and $150 per coaching session. However, this will vary depending on:
- Your expertise
- What results you can help your clients achieve
- Whether you’re certified or not
For instance, many coaches charge bigger prices by selling coaching packages that promise a specific outcome. Clients will be willing to pay much higher prices if they see value in your program!
The more testimonials you have, the more you can increase your rates as well. Testimonials prove that what you claim about your dating coaching program is true.
Do You Need a Dating Coach Certification?
Unlike other fields such as psychology or therapy, the coaching industry isn’t regulated. As such, you can start your coaching business and begin taking paid clients without any particular educational path.
However, that doesn’t mean there’s no value in a dating coach certification! While there are no regulations for the coaching profession, there are still recognized organizations that hold authority in this space.
And having a certification from one of these organizations can help you establish yourself as a credible dating coach.
One of the most widely recognized organizations is the International Coaching Federation (ICF). While they’re not the only organization that provides credentials for coaches, many coaching programs become accredited by the ICF because of how much authority they have in this industry!
In short, you can trust that any program with the ICF seal of approval will help you gain the tools you need to improve your dating coaching skills.
If you’re a brand new coach with no prior coaching experience, getting certified is one of the best paths forward. You’ll learn how coaching works so that you’re able to fully support your clients!
How To Become a Certified Dating Coach
Have you decided that becoming a certified dating coach is the best path for you? If so, follow these 6 steps to get certified, land your first clients, and grow your dating coaching business.
1. Pick a dating niche
Yes, “dating coach” is a type of life coaching niche. But you’ll have a better chance of landing high-quality clients if you define your niche even further.
Ask yourself: who do you see yourself working with the most? What type of dating do you have the most expertise in?
It’s highly unlikely that you have the expertise to help anyone of any gender and any stage of life with their dating life. For example, maybe you’re best at helping:
- Introverted, career-driven men who struggle to showcase their value
- College-aged women who are brand new to the dating scene
- Freshly divorced people who need help getting back into the dating pool
The more deeply you niche yourself, the more relevant you’ll become to the people in that niche.
Of course, a deeper niche also has a smaller pool of potential clients. But unless your goal is to work with every possible person before you retire, that’s okay!
For example, would you rather get coached by a general business coach? Or would you prefer to work with someone who specifically helps dating coaches establish themselves in their niche? Who would you believe could help you the most?
That’s the power of niching down.
2. Choose an accredited dating coaching training program
When it comes to reputable, accredited programs, there aren’t many “dating coaching programs” available.
Yes, they exist — and you’re likely to find a ton of them if you search for them on Google.
But if you want to get certified with the ICF or another reputable organization, you need to find a program that’s accredited with them.
For those programs, you’ll need to look for a life coaching program. Why? Dating coaching falls under life coaching. You’ll be able to niche down once you have the basic training.
If you want to get certified with the ICF, note that there are three types of accreditation programs can get.
The first option is the Portfolio path, which is required if you choose a non-accredited coaching program. This is the most challenging way to get your dating coach certification because you’ll need to submit proof that the program meets ICF standards.
However, you can also choose programs that have one of these two accreditations:
- Level 1 / Level 2 / ACTP Path: When you complete this type of program, you have everything you need to take your exam and get certified.
- ACSTH Path: These programs provide you with the core training hours, but you’ll need to pursue other requirements on your own — such as the performance review and the Mentor Coaching hours.
The first options are usually more time-consuming and expensive. However, you don’t need to find any additional training before you take your exam!
3. Complete your coaching certification
After you’ve enrolled and completed the coaching program of your choice, you can finally apply for your certification.
If you picked a program with ACSTH accreditation, you’ll need to get the following before you take your exam:
- 10 hours of Mentor Coaching
- Performance evaluation
- Any additional coaching logs that you didn’t complete during your program
The exact number of hours you need to coach other people varies depending on the certification you want. Here are the three certification levels offered by the ICF:
- Associate Certified Coach (ACC): Requires 60+ hours of coaching training and 100+ hours of coaching experience
- Professional Certified Coach (PCC): Requires 125+ hours of coaching training and 500+ hours of coaching experience
- Master Certified Coach (MCC): You need to hold (or have previously held) a PCC credential — it also requires 200+ hours of coaching training and 2,500+ hours of coaching experience
You can start with the ACC or PCC, depending on which program you’ve enrolled in. Several programs provide you with enough education hours and coaching opportunities to make you eligible for the PCC right away!
4. Launch your first dating coaching offer
After you successfully complete your exam and get your certification, you’re ready to prepare to launch your dating coaching business!
Your first step should be to come up with a dating coaching offer.
This isn’t just the name of a coaching session or what’s included in your coaching program. Rather, it describes the outcome you’ll help clients with.
Here’s an example of a potential offer for a dating coach:
“I’ll help you land (and navigate) your first date with a successful man.”
Another example could be:
“I’ll help you establish a dating strategy to find your dream wife without dating apps.”
In short, the offer focuses on the transformation that happens for your clients. That’s why you should start with this step first — because it’ll inform the rest of your program!
With your offer in hand, you’ll be able to build a dating coaching package that includes the necessary support you’ll need to provide to get clients where they want to be.
You can create multiple offers and packages. However, start with one and validate whether people want it before you expand your services!
5. Land a dating coaching client
You have your offer and a clearly defined dating coaching program — now it’s time to enroll your first client.
As a first step, tap into your personal or professional network to see if anyone you know may know someone who could use your coaching services. For some dating coaches, this first step is enough.
But if this doesn’t yield any results, you’ll have to start looking outside of your network. For instance, you can sign up for a coaching directory such as CoachCompare to increase your chances of getting found organically.
Or you can start growing your network on LinkedIn, too!
6. Grow your dating coaching business
After you’ve landed one client, it’ll be much easier to find more — especially if you can get a glowing testimonial from them!
As a first step, make sure to ask for a referral in case they know anyone else who needs your services. But you should consider expanding your reach using marketing as well.
Here are just some of the marketing strategies you can implement to grow your dating coaching business:
- Social media
- Paid Facebook ads
- Blogging and SEO
- Pinterest marketing
- Becoming a podcast guest
- Email marketing
Start with one strategy to get the best outcome without burning yourself out. After you have mastered one method, feel free to reproduce your initial success on other platforms!
Start Your Dating Coaching Business
One of the largest obstacles to creating a successful coaching business, regardless of your coaching niche, is all of the admin and tech workload that comes with the territory.
That’s why we built Paperbell — to help coaches sell their coaching online, the crazy-simple way. Get a free account to test it out for yourself!
