How to Become a Career Coach

You love helping people identify their career goals and take the next steps in their professional development. Now, you’re ready to dedicate more of your time to that pursuit. Whether you want to explore part-time coaching or a transition into full-time career coaching, there are a few important steps to keep in mind as you get started.

1. Choose an area of focus

Even if your goal is broadly to help people navigate their career journeys, focusing on a specialty, service, level of seniority, or industry can help you stand out and manage your time. For example, you might focus on executive coaching or mid-level career development.

If you’re having trouble choosing a niche, take some time to think about the parts of coaching you enjoy the most and where you have expertise to share. Do you like helping others figure out a new career path or how to navigate a job search? Do you have years of experience interviewing or hiring for roles in a specific industry or type of business?

Get more tips for choosing your niche

2. Develop your expertise

Becoming a career coach isn’t just about getting the right certifications. You’ll benefit from having lived experience in your areas of focus. And it’s important to dedicate yourself to becoming a better coach too. 

That means taking the time to learn and practice coaching techniques to guide clients through goal-setting, evaluating choices, and cultivating influence. On top of your personal experiences, try attending events and webinars to strengthen your knowledge and take in new perspectives.

Career coach training

There aren’t any hard educational requirements to become a professional career coach. But often career coaches have some amount of work experience and a Bachelor’s degree. That said, if you’re coaching freelancers or content creators, hands-on experience in those career paths may matter more.

Many coaches pursue career coach certifications. While you can become a coach without one, it’s one way to signal your expertise to potential clients. You’ll also get support and resources as you begin your coaching career.

Experience and education are ultimately about building your authority and coaching skills. What you choose to pursue is up to you. Decide based on what makes you feel confident to support your clients and what you think will help them trust in your advice.

3. Make a business plan

Before you start, you’ll need to be your own business coach. You don’t need a formal, polished business plan, but set down your vision and goals by laying out the basics.

• Summary of your business: What your vision for your business is—how you want to help people and what you’ll specialize in.

• Services you’ll offer: What do you want to help clients with, and do you want to price services individually, in packages, or both?

• Your target clients: Who is your ideal client? Do they work in a specific industry or have a certain type of experience?

• 1-3 main goals of the business: Setting goals will help you make decisions. You can set goals around the growth of your business and what success for your clients looks like, for example.

• Market analysis (i.e., your competitors): Knowing who your peers are will help you understand what your target market is looking for and what will set you apart from them.

• How you’ll market your business: You don’t need a full marketing plan yet, but it’s good to have an idea of what resources you can tap, from search engines and social media to word-of-mouth recommendations.

• Budget and finances: Set guidelines around how much money and time you can invest into your business. Start by creating a running estimate of what you’ll need to get started and keep running for the first year. 

4. Set up coaching plans and processes

Now that you know who you’ll be working with and what services you want to offer, start creating workflows to help things run smoothly from the start. Make a list of the things you’ll need to run your business, like payment processing, invoicing, appointment booking, coaching plans, and educational materials.

Once you have your list, break each need or process into smaller parts. Where can you get what you need? Can you automate any part of the process? Can you make any steps repeatable or create templates to work from, so you don’t have to start from scratch every time?

5. Create a website

A website is a must-have tool for a career coaching business. Your website is a great way to get discovered by potential clients. And with details about your experience added, it’ll help to cement your legitimacy and trustworthiness as a coach.

Make sure your website has a:

• Custom domain: A domain is your URL and how people will find you online. Choose something easy to remember, like your name or the name of your coaching business.

• Homepage: This is the first page many people land on when visiting your website. Make sure it includes basics like a summary of who you are and the services you offer.

• About me page: Choosing a career coach is personal, and your bio page is an opportunity to win a potential client’s trust. Highlight your expertise and take a welcoming tone.

• Contact and/or scheduling page: Create a custom intake form so interested clients can reach out or make it even easier for them and embed an appointment calendar into a page.

• Services page: Go into more detail about what you want to help clients accomplish and what they can expect from working with you. Include prices for coaching here too.

• Testimonials and reviews: We’re more likely to trust a third-party’s recommendation. As you grow your client base, ask for testimonials for your site to grow your authority.

Your website is often the first interaction your clients have with you. Make the copy and the design match the feeling you want to give to your clients. Word the copy like you would when talking professionally with a friend. 

Get our guide to creating a career coaching website

6. Find your first clients

When you’re getting started, don’t be shy about sharing your new business. Many career coaches get their first clients from their network. Reach out to personal connections, share about your services on platforms like LinkedIn, and offer your services to professional connections.

You could start by offering free or discounted services to their first clients, with the understanding that you’re still working out the kinks. Ideally, those first friendly clients have a great experience and you can ask them for testimonials or references to their own network. 

Learn more about testimonial marketing

7. Grow your client base 

In the best circumstances, your client base will grow organically. As more people work with you and share their positive experiences, you’ll naturally get more inbound leads for new clients.

There are a few simple ways you can help this along.

1. Ask for a referral from every happy client. Make a habit of sending an experience survey to each client you work with. Not only will critical feedback help you improve, but you can encourage satisfied clients to share their experience with others.

2. Create content around your niche. Share career tips on your blog or social media and encourage your clients to share as well. Writing about your niche on your blog will help your site’s SEO. Your tips and positive reviews can drive positive social media attention your way.

3. Regularly share about your coaching journey. Sharing updates about your business will keep you top-of-mind for anyone looking for a career coach or who knows someone who’s looking. Plus, sharing can open you up to new professional connections or grow your peer support system. 

4. Consider offering referral discounts. People like to help their friends and colleagues. You could offer a small discount on your services for newly referred clients to encourage sharing.

It’s also important to keep up to date with developments in the career coaching space. You’ll remain competitive against other career coaches when you can coach clients on how to handle new technologies or trends in interviewing and recruiting.

Get more tips for marketing a service business

Ready to launch your career coaching business?