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Do you have a dream of helping people better themselves and live out their own dreams? If so, you may be interested in becoming a life coach. A life coach can be a fantastic way to make money doing meaningful work that you were meant to do. However, to understand whether or not a life coaching business is for you, it's important to understand what it is and the different types of coaches there are.
What Is A Life Coach?
A life coach can do a variety of things depending on the client's goals. Typically, a general life coach will be tasked with encouraging and providing guidance to his/her clients on different things that are happening in their lives whether it's business or personal. Typically, a client would hire a coach to help them with a specific task or even a life event they are struggling with. The coach will be there to provide a plan-of-action and to provide actionable advice in order to help them achieve what they are seeking to accomplish. A client may even hire one in order to help them make a specific transition that has been difficult to make in their life.
Different Types Of Life Coaches
1. Health Coach
A health coach would be someone who is going to be there to provide guidance on both nutrition and fitness. If someone is looking to improve their lives through nutrition and fitness and they otherwise struggle to make the necessary changes on their own, they may seek out professional help.
2. Business Coach
A business coach is someone who would be hired in order to provide consultancy for your business. Whether the client is just starting their business or they are looking to exponentially grow, a coach would be hired to provide an outsider's perspective and to give the necessary guidance needed to help the client achieve his/her business objectives and goals. This type of coaching is very thought-provoking and you would be seeking to empower the client in order to get them to take the necessary steps to meet and/or exceed their business' goals.
3. Career Coach
A career coach is someone a person might hire in order to get personalized and direct one-on-one guidance from a professional. As a career coach, you would be tasked with providing not only coaching but also counseling. You would need to help clients make well-informed career decisions. Likewise, you would be assisting with the creation of optimized resumes, improved professional profiles, and more. As with any other coach, the client would come to you for answers. You would be there to give them solutions. Typically, career coaching would involve a lot of fine-tuning and motivational efforts to get them much more confident in their own professional ambitions.
4. Nutrition Coach
A nutrition coach is going to be someone who is there to provide dedicated nutritional guidance to a client. A client may come to you (a nutrition coach) unable to formulate a meal plan, count macros, and more. You will be there to assist them and to give them the personal motivation and guidance they need to meet their nutritional goals.
5. Relationship Coach
A relationship coach is someone who can be called on from someone seeking relationship-specific advice. As a coach, you would be there to work with your clients to help them achieve their relationship goals. You would typically do this by enhancing their communication skills, forcing them to look at themselves much more introspectively, and by helping them deal with conflicts in a much healthier way.
6. Cancer Coach
A cancer coach is typically someone who will offer personal guidance throughout the entire journey from the actual diagnosis throughout the treatment process to the finish line when you beat cancer. A lot of coaches that get involved with this line of work typically have direct experience dealing with the disease whether as a patient, caregiver, or through the experiences of a family member.
Starting A Business:
- Figure Out Your Goals
As a life coach, you will need to figure out what 'niche' you will step into. You want to figure out the type of coaching that would be the most personally rewarding for yourself. There are plenty of different types of coaching you can do. Finding something you have a passion for will make you much more likely to succeed.
- Read and Get Training
Just because you are educated in a specific topic doesn't necessarily make you suitable to be a coach. Consider investing in books and coaching training in order to not only become much more marketable, but it will make you more credible and it can give you key knowledge and skills that can translate to better performance in your coaching life.
- Create a Marketing Plan
If you are going to be setting out on a life coaching journey, you will be in charge of everything, including marketing. Marketing is everything when it comes to working for yourself. You need to ensure that you have a consistent flood of leads coming in at all times. Gain exposure by writing professional articles, create your own self-branded website showcasing your success stories, and even offer free mini-coaching sessions to showcase your ability.
As you can see, a life coach or another niche-specific coach can be a personally fulfilling business. If you are considering starting a business as a coach, follow the tips above for the best results.