Are You A Starving Coach?

It seems that more and more people than ever before are becoming coaches and there are many great coach training schools for coaches to hone their skills.

That is good news for people who want to be coached because coaching can bring truly huge benefits to clients but it could be very bad news for many coaches.

My thinking is based simply on the law of supply and demand.

As an ever-greater number of well-trained and competent coaches enter the industry, the result is that the marketplace becomes more competitive. Which in simple terms means that a smaller percentage will succeed financially.

“You don’t have to be a ‘bread-head’ to want to succeed financially”

I don’t want to come across as a “bread-head” whose sole priority is financial gain.

Those who know me well would attest to the fact that the oft-quoted line “My goal is to make a positive difference in the world” is a phrase, that while clichéd, is one I am proud to use .

Coaching done well really does have the power to transform lives and, in the process, make the world a better place.

But, as coaches, we have to acknowledge that we are in business and a primary drive in business is to make a profit. We can dispute the meaning of “profit” but for me the way I like to define it is that profit is the result of the value I bring to marketplace.

My clients are the ones who will tell me whether I am bringing value to our relationship and they’ll do this by staying or walking.

Back to the “financial success” thing.

Statistics show that very few coaches actually make a decent income from coaching and that many coaches face an uncertain financial future.

Here’s what Stephen Fairley, author of ‘Getting Started in Personal and Executive Coaching’, found in his research:

“73% of all coaches make less than $10,000 [about £5000] in their first year…

Only 60% of all second-year coaches have managed to find 10 paying clients…

Less than 11% of all coaches make more than $50,000 [about £25,000] by their second year in practice…

Only 9% of coaches make more than $100,000 [about $50,000] a year doing coaching.”

Ouch!!!

But there is some good news though!

The Harvard Business Review reported that over one billion dollars is spent annually on coaching in the United States. That shows there’s plenty of demand.

Coaching can be very lucrative for those who have the ambition, determination, skills and knowledge to get to the top of the field.

Successful people in any area of life are able to draw upon a mixture of inner and external resources that separate them from the majority of others in their chosen field. This is also true of the coaching industry.

I think market forces are placing us firmly in the position of having to make a clear decision when it comes to how we want our coaching business to be. We must ask ourselves:

“Will we do what is necessary for our business to succeed financially, or will we be another one of the would-be-great coaches who have to give up on our coaching career because we simply cannot financially afford to continue (even though we love to coach)?”

If we’ve got no coaching business, how can we help our clients then?