No matter how passionate you are about coaching, you still need (and deserve!) to support yourself. But deciding on the right life coach prices for your business isn’t as straightforward as you might hope.

Your life coaching fees don’t just dictate how much you earn. They’re also an indicator of how much you view your services to be worth. 

In other words, your clients – existing and potential – are likely basing the caliber of your service on your life coaching fee structure.

There are a lot of factors that go into not only setting your coaching prices but adjusting them, too. That’s right – even established coaches might want to re-examine their established rates.

Whether you’ve yet to launch your coaching business, or you want to overhaul your long-standing life coach pricing structure, this isn’t something that should be taken lightly.  Educate yourself on everything you need to understand about pricing your services, and see just how much of a difference it can make to your business model.

How to Set Your Life Coach Prices

Trying to figure out the cost of a standard life coach rate is like asking how long a piece of string is – it depends! Just take a look at these diverse life coach fee structures.

Rather than arbitrarily settling on a life coach pricing structure, you need to consider all the things that should be factored into that number. Want to find the perfect life coach rates? Here are some crucial things you need to think about first:

How Much Do You Want to Earn?

Make a list of all your expenses – rent, mortgage, utilities, groceries – and figure out how much money you need to be earning. And don’t forget taxes!

While this budgeting exercise will give you a bare minimum amount you need to be earning to scrape by, you should be aiming for higher than this number. Think thrive, not survive!

 Do you want to have savings? Spending money? Go on holidays? What is a (realistic) salary that would allow you to afford all of these things? 

Don’t forget to factor in business expenses, too – like all your amazing digital coaching tools from Paperbell!

How Much Time Do You Have?

Do you have a completely clear schedule you can devote to coaching, or just a couple of hours a week outside of your day job? Be realistic with how much time you can afford to give to your business without over-burdening yourself. Your clients deserve your best!

Next, consider how much of this time you’ll need to devote to your clients, services and general business admin. The hours you spend making social media posts, answering emails and filing invoices is just as much “work time” as your one-on-one time with clients. Don’t forget to factor in preparing for consultations and follow-up paperwork, either.

What Does Your Ideal Client Look Like?

Some handbags cost $20, while others cost $200,000. The people who are buying the cheap handbags likely aren’t buying the designer handbags, and vice versa. And yet there’s still a demand for both of these products.

Your life coaching fees are exactly the same. Think about the person you want to serve. How much money do they make? How much would they be willing to pay for coaching? That price might just be higher – or lower! – than you were initially planning to charge, but that’s okay. The important thing is to make sure your pricing aligns with them.

What Kind of Services Will You Offer?

If you’re coaching and consulting with individuals or groups, think about how many clients you can (and want to) take on, that fits into the amount of time you can give them. This will help you to break your goal income down into an hourly rate.

You can also create life coach packages that include a certain number of consultations over a set period of time. This means you can create a minimum commitment for every client, which encourages commitment.

Some examples of life coaching packages from real coaches include:

• A “VIP Package”, with 20 x 90-minute video or phone life coach sessions, an initial two-hour life strategy session, 10 emergency 15-minute calls, and a “graduation lunch” – all to be redeemed over six to 12 months. Price: $7,515.
• A “6 Months Business and Marketing Coaching Package”, with a full business review, action plan, monthly video calls and follow-up email support. Price: $3,128.
• A 3-month love coach package with 6 x 60-minute bi-monthly video sessions, unlimited coach access between sessions, and worksheets and tools as required. Price: $495.

Of course, there’s more to coaching than talking to people. Some people coach purely through selling digital products, such as eBooks and online courses. This allows you to think about life coaching packages and fees in terms of selling units of a product.

Whatever your service looks like, always try to up-sell. Provide optional add-ons, such as access to a daily messaging service, or a weekly video call rather than email check-ins. 

Here’s some advice that every coach should consider: don’t be afraid to include an ultra-premium tier that’s significantly pricier than your other services. Most clients won’t go for this option – but the one or two clients a year who do buy it are going to seriously increase your profits.

How Qualified Are You?

Credibility builds trust. In other words, clients will be willing to invest more in someone they feel is qualified to coach them.

This doesn’t just relate to your coaching qualifications, but any other relevant accreditations and experience you might have,

Did you work in corporate team management for 10 years? Do you have a large social media following or positive online testimonials? Is your Bachelor of Communications helping you to guide your clients? All of these things increase the value of your services.

Traps to Avoid When Deciding on Your Life Coaching Prices

The previous questions should have helped you to identify a pricing structure that fits your qualifications, products or services, and expected outcome. But before you start charging your clients, you might want to double-check that you aren’t shooting yourself in the foot with the numbers you’ve decided on.

Overpricing

There’s a fine line between creating a premium service and setting unrealistic expectations. 

If your life coach rates are too high, you may dissuade clients from committing altogether. Or worse – run the risk of under-delivering in line with your rates. Be ambitious, but also be realistic.

Underpricing

You may be tempted to undercut the competition, but are your cheap services cheapening your offering?

It’s true – charging more can be scary. Ask yourself honestly: are you pricing out of the fear that people won’t be willing to give you that much money? Or are you making assumptions around how much they can afford to pay?

Always challenge the narrative you’re telling yourself. Remember – people often take you seriously when they’re required to invest more.

Over-Complicating Your Pricing Structures

Coaching isn’t always straightforward, so if there’s one thing you can make crystal clear to the client, it’s your pricing.

No one likes hidden costs, or worse yet – feeling so confused by your price list that they give up and find another coach. Make sure the client is fully informed of any costs well before you invoice them. That includes the difference between inclusions and paid extras, too!

Should You Publish Your Life Coaching Rates?

There’s really no clear answer on this one, so at the end of the day it’s really up to you. To make this decision easier, let’s break down the pros and cons of each option.

Publishing your life coaching rates means anyone who contacts you already knows they can afford you, so there’s very little chance they’re going to bail after you give them a quote.

On the other hand, keeping your pricing hidden means you can connect with the client and pitch yourself to them personally with a discovery call. It can create a sense of exclusivity and premium service. It also allows you to deliver custom pricing based on the client. 

Setting up your coaching packages in Paperbell makes it easy to go either way. You can share a link to your package page publicly, or keep it VIP-only until your prospect is ready to buy. 

Signs Your Life Coach Prices Are Too Low

Setting life coach fees too low is one of the most common mistakes coaches make – and most aren’t even aware they’re doing it.

That’s why it’s so important to recognize the signs that you’re underpricing (and undervaluing) your services. Do any of these sound familiar?

Your clients aren’t committing. Missed appointments, last-minute cancellations, low effort – if multiple clients aren’t taking their coaching seriously, it means they don’t value you or your time very highly. 

You’re only just scraping by. Remember that comment earlier about thriving, not surviving? Don’t wait – raise those rates!

You can’t imagine scaling. No room to take on more clients or increase your service offering? Make room – by raising your life coach rates. That way, you’ll be able to handle fewer clients but earn more, or free up room to create new offerings and opportunities without losing out financially.

How and When to Raise Your Life Coaching Fees

There are three scenarios in which you should be raising your life coaching fees: when you desperately need to, before you need to, and on a regular basis.

Take the aforementioned example of financially scraping by. Clearly, there’s a need to be bringing in more money here, so raising your fees here makes sense.

Ideally, you shouldn’t be letting yourself get to this point, which means proactively raising your rates. This might be in anticipation of a rainy day, or when you’re planning something that’s going to require a bit more money, such as up-skilling through a new course.

And then of course there’s the underrated annual raising of fees. Think about it: you’re likely going to be improving as a coach each year – and your rates should reflect that. 

If you are raising your rates, be sure to inform your established clients well in advance. If you can afford it, consider offering a special foundational rate to encourage them to stay on board.

How to Set up a Refund Policy

If you want to (and are legally able to), you’re totally within your rights to refuse refunds. But did you know that refunds can actually save you money?

Think about it: let’s say a client wants a refund, and you refuse because you have a no-refund policy. That (likely angry) client then goes on to bad-mouth you all over the internet, costing you potential clients.

Want to set up your own refund policy? Make sure you check in with the consumer laws in your country first, so you don’t accidentally add anything to your policy that might contradict these. If you can afford it, get a lawyer to look over your policy just to be safe.

We recommend Paperbell for selling and delivering your coaching package, as you can automatically include a contract with your refund policy that your client signs right when they purchase. You can also add your refund policy to your Paperbell terms and conditions. 

Whether you’re charging a client or refunding what they’ve paid, it all comes back to reputation. Your rates and the way you handle these transactions speak volumes about the caliber of your coaching business. Are your life coaching fees saying the right things about you?