Do You Need a Coaching Certification to Make Money?

Do you need a coaching certification before you can make money? If you've been asking that, or thinking you need one more book first, this post is for you. Short answer: a certification isn't what's holding you back. In this post I'll show you what actually makes money in a coaching business, the simple path from lead to paying client, and how one coach I worked with stopped studying and started selling.

Do you need a coaching certification to make money?

I talk to a lot of coaches who say, "I need to take this certification first." Or, "I need to read this next book." Or, "I need to get my website perfect."

Don't get me wrong. It's not a bad thing to have certifications. It's not a bad thing to have a clean website. But when push comes to shove, there's only one question that matters.

Can you help somebody get from where they are now to where they want to be?

If the answer is yes, you need to start helping people. Another certification won't get your business to the next level. Taking action will.

Want to go even deeper? Watch the full video.

Books don't equal money

You can have all the right tools and information. But unless it's applied, nothing happens. This is where so many coaches get stuck. They feel like they need everything figured out. They feel like it needs to be perfect.

The best way to do it is just by starting.

And I get why it happens. Especially if it's your first business, you want to do everything right. But that need to make it perfect is slowing you down from getting in front of the people you need to talk to. Reading and studying feels like progress. It makes you feel good. But it isn't the thing that brings money in.

How a coaching business actually makes money

Let's break it down, because it's simpler than you think. If you're selling high ticket coaching, the most common path is:

• You get a lead.
• The lead gets on a call with you.
• The call turns into the person paying you.

Fairly simple. Then the next question is, how do you get the lead?

Three ways to get a lead

• Outreach. Reach out to people directly.
• Ads. Pay to get in front of the right people.
• Content. Put stuff out that your ideal client cares about.

People think it's rocket science. It's really not. You just need to get yourself in front of the people you could help and invite them to take a next step. Then they become a lead, and that leads into a call.

What do you sell? Keep it simple

The next worry is, "What do I sell?" Sell something. I have frameworks I teach the people I work with, but all that matters is this: you take a person from where they are now to where they want to be.

You're saying, "You're here right now, and you want to be up there. Here's the ladder I can walk you up. I've done it myself, or I've helped other people do it."

Here's an example. Say I want six-pack abs. What do I need? Nutrition. The gym. The mental side. Consistency. And part of consistency is accountability. So if I'm a health coach, those could be the four pillars of my program. Boom. Done. That's your program.

Same with a business. You need to know your ideal client and your offer. You need a way to get leads. You need to sell. And then you deliver. You already know how to deliver. That's your bread and butter. So focus on the other three.

If you're also wondering whether you're qualified at all, I wrote about whether anyone can become a personal coach.

Your first attempts will be messy, and that's fine

The path to a successful coaching business is full of trips and falls. That's normal. Your first video online is going to be bad. If you go back to the very first video on my YouTube channel, it's embarrassing. And I'm sure years from now I'll look back at today's videos the same way.

Maybe your offer isn't perfect. So you get on a call and they don't buy. Okay. But you learned something. You found out what they wanted and why they didn't buy. That's information you can't get from a book.

Nobody will ever buy your coaching if they don't know you exist. So you have to put something out there.

A real example: from studying to $10,000

A coach I worked with was a lot like what I just described. He was reading all the books. Very detail oriented. He wanted to study everything first.

Here's all we did.

• Defined his ideal client. Not perfect. It took about an hour or two.
• Defined the problem that person faced and how he'd solve it. That became his offer.
• Ran one very simple Facebook ad. A headline, some text, and that was it.

The leads came in at about $10 each. He spent around $1,700 in total, so about 170 leads. He closed two of them at $5,000 each. That's $10,000, in about a month and a half to two months.

Don't get me wrong. That's not a crazy amount of money, and your results will depend on you. But he actually started. And the biggest thing for him was learning how to sell on the back end, because he wasn't used to those conversations. That comes with time. Then he can put some of that money back into more ads and keep improving.

If you want to try the same first step, here's how to run your first paid ad campaign.

What to do in the next 24 hours

If you and I sat down, we could get this done in a day. You can do it yourself too.

• Write one sentence: "I help this person reach this goal with this offer."
• Pick one way to get leads. Start DMing, start making content, or run a simple ad.
• Start having conversations.

That's it. If you only take one thing from this post, take action now. So many coaches never build the business because they overthink everything. Get out of your own way. For more on the first moves, here are the first steps to launch your coaching business.

FAQ

Do I need to be certified to be a life coach or business coach?

For most coaching, a certification isn't what gets you clients. What matters is whether you can help someone get a result, and whether people know you exist.

How long does it take to start making money as a coach?

It doesn't need to take months or years. You can define your client and offer and start getting leads within a day. How fast you close depends on your sales skills.

Should I build a website before I start getting clients?

No. A website is nice, but it isn't required to start. A simple ad, a call, and a clear offer are enough to begin.

If you want to learn this with other coaches, join the free community here: join the free TD Coach community.