There are Personal Coaches who simply adopt the going rate for the area where they provide services, and it often works out for them. The rest of us put a considerable amount of effort into calculating our rates. Science backs the minimum margins we must implement to sustain our business, but there’s an artsy side when considering factors such as marketing and growing our business. The savvy client will only justify a higher rate with experience, education, and expertise.
Cost of Living
A coach’s margins for running their business are often configured around the pay they need to meet their own basic living expenses, healthcare premiums, and retirement planning. Coach pay is often configured at a rate less than half that of private session. The true cost of running a coaching business, outlined below, will not be apparent to most clients.
Cost of Doing Business
Most of a coach’s revenue comes from sessions and classes, but they also have to put in a lot of hours behind the scenes. Keeping and organizing records, reading food journals and exercise logs, making regular adjustments to programming are all things often done between bookings and those workhours also have to be paid. Furthermore, clients aren’t forever. Marketing has its own costs in addition to the time spent doing it. Finally, there’s the maintenance of equipment, purchases of new equipment, space leases, and other costs related to running a successful, sustainable coaching business.
Biennial Recertification
Every two years, a Personal Coach must recertify before their credential expires. Some supporting credentials may also have expiration dates and require separate recertification. Nutrition coaching and CPR/AED credentials are among them. This whole process requires validation of continuing education credits, and those costs are passed on as fees to that a coach must pay. These fees vary between certifying bodies.
Continuing Education
Depending on the level of investment in their own education, this factor has the greatest cost potential of a Coach’s overhead. There are countless supporting certifications often referred to as Specializations that can improve your coach’s ability to develop better tailored programs for clients with more specific goals. Specialization courses may cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Of course, a coach may also be doing the bare minimum to meet the continuing education requirements by simply attending free workshops, taking free classes, or opting for a recertification exam. These free alternatives serve to keep them up to date on program design and other fundamentals but offer little in terms of growth. A Coach that is motivated to grow is often the coach that can motivate growth. The differences in rates between coaches can hinge on their personal educational investments. It’s up to you to do your homework and determine if a Coach’s higher rates are reflective of the $500 education that is very common in the industry or the $10,000+ that some of us have invested in premium courses over the years to maintain a professional advantage.
Celebrity Coaches
Celebrity status can also justify a higher rate, especially if your connection with a celebrity you hold in high regard increases your motivation for success. The greater degree of connection, the more motivational this can be. If the connection is one-way, such as streaming videos or downloading a program from a website, that motivation is more likely to quickly go stale. Of course, celebrities that operate this way know this and will try to get as much investment up front out of you as possible. If you are highly motivated by celebrity coaches, you may find it much more fulfilling and inspiring to work with one you can interact with. A high-energy celebrity coach that you can personally collaborate with on your success often helps maintain elevated levels of motivation, permanent lifestyle changes, and maximum results. It may seem I’m being hypercritical of the way certain celebrity charlatans irresponsibly operate, but I hold their shortcomings responsible for eroding client trust and leaving the us to pick up the pieces.
Private, Semi-private, Group & Virtual Training
Finally, you must consider all the various ways coaching services can be delivered. Free, ad-supported streams and cookie-cutter programs posted online may work for a small group of DIYers with simple goals, but an individually tailored program by a professional coach who cares about your success will achieve the best results both safer and sooner. Virtual training will be the most affordable version of this, but success rates are lower. The virtual client will be much more responsible for their own motivation, commitment, and accountability. Group coaching is also affordable, and many clients thrive in the competitive, yet supportive atmosphere these classes bring. Private and semi-private coaching services command higher rates but offer specialized programming for achieving more specific goals in the shortest amount of time without compromising safety.
Why It Matters
Superficial comparisons between coaching rates is not only unfair to coaches, but unfair and possibly dangerous to you as a client. A good baseline rate for your region can often be found at your local recreation center. A high-priced coach may simply be rate-matching coaches who can actually justify a higher rate. A certified coach that is undercutting everyone in your area is likely struggling with an unsustainable business model and doing the bare minimum to maintain their certification. Or worse, a cheap “coach” may be a complete fraud with no valid credentials or insurance that ultimately put you at serious risk. Check out this post on validating a coach’s credentials.
