How to Start a Life Coaching Business While Working Full Time

Do you have a desire to help people, expand your career or start a business as a life coach, but you’re not sure if you want to leave your current career?

If so, you’ve probably wondered if it’s possible to be a life coach and have a full-time job at the same time.

The answer is yes!

You can absolutely become a life coach without having to quit your current job.

Whether you already have a full-time career you love and you’re looking to add to your repertoire, or you think you’d love to become a full-time life coach, there are some things you should consider first before deciding what the right path is for you.

Best-selling author and world-renowned transformational coach, Mary Morrissey, says,

“I’ve been in the coaching profession since 1981, so I have a fair amount of experience in this subject. I’ve trained and certified a lot of individuals who weren’t sure how to proceed. Some never wanted to leave their full-time jobs and some did, but they weren’t ready quite yet.”

As Morrissey discovered, there are many ways you can merge coaching with your full-time job or build your coaching business while working 40 hours a week (especially while balancing work and family).

But before you explore your options, it’s a good idea to ask yourself three important questions first.

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Doesn’t starting a life coaching business mean that you need to leave your current career behind?

If you’re wondering whether you’ll be forced to abandon work you love when becoming a life coach, let’s take a closer look at the real question, which is,

“Will I have enough time and energy to juggle life coaching and my existing career at the same time?”

The answer is, it’s absolutely possible, but it depends on how busy you allow your career to make you, and how you intend to structure your life coaching business.

There are plenty of options when it comes to shaping your coaching career!

If you don’t know the principles behind shaping your life, it can be easy for your current line of work to make you so busy that you can’t possibly fit anything else in.

Your subconscious, which loves to guard you from change and risk, will work to keep you swamped; if it senses a big adjustment in your life looming on the horizon, it will do its best to protect you by keeping you busy so the change cannot take place.

And if you’re planning to coach clients mostly 1-on-1, that can and will eat up far too much of your time.

That’s why it’s important to take control of your life and create the extra time you need.

It’s also imperative that you know how to serve multiple people at once, so you can build a thriving coaching business without working all day, every day.

If you know how to serve many people simultaneously, and you can keep your existing career from eating your whole day, it is entirely possible to become a life coach while continuing your other line of work.

Your new-found wisdom might even enhance your existing practice, allowing you to bring your clients even bigger results!

So… what if you want to leave your career?

If you want to escape from your present career, the question becomes,

“Can I make enough money as a life coach that I can afford to lose my current income source?”

Again, the answer is “yes,” but it depends on how you run your business.

Do you know where your potential clients are, how to get their attention, how to enroll them, and how to coach them in a way that lets you serve many people at once, so that your income isn’t limited by the number of hours in a day?

And if you don’t know, should you let that stop you?

If your current career isn’t giving you joy, by all means, leave it behind.

You were meant to spend your life making a difference by doing work you love, not simply surviving from one unhappy week to the next.

And if you choose to become a life coach, and you understand and consistently apply the principles of success, you absolutely CAN create the lucrative practice you’re hoping for.

How you’ll know when it’s time to transition to coaching full time

One of the best questions you can ask yourself that will reveal whether it’s time to transition from your current career to becoming a full-time life coach is:

“What would I love?”

Would you love to stay in your current career, and start a part-time life coaching business?

Or, would you love to leave your current job or shut down your current business entirely, and become a full-time life coach?

Both paths are available to you, and you can always choose one path, and then change course later on down the road.

Many life coaches start out by staying in their current career, and then once they become certified, they begin coaching clients on evenings and weekends.

Once their businesses reach a certain growth point, they then leave their careers, and transition to life coaching full time.

Again, there’s no right or wrong path here.

The direction you take depends 100% on the kind of career and lifestyle you’d love to create as a life coach!

How to start a coaching business and merge careers

There are many ways you can merge coaching with your full-time job or start a coaching business while you’re working 40 hours a week, especially while balancing work and family.

Here are stories about two people who have completed coach certification training with Brave Thinking Institute for whom this was a consideration.

Erin had been an attorney for over 30 years when she came to Brave Thinking Institute for coaching certification training.

She was tired of helping people solve disputes and wanted to help people live lives they loved instead.

She wanted to help clients design the kind of lives where disputes weren’t the natural outcome.

When she started, she set aside only one Saturday per month building her coaching business.

Pretty soon she was scaling back the time she spent at the law practice and increasing the amount of time she spent coaching.

After about 18 months, she was able to leave her law practice and devote her time exclusively to coaching clients.

Erin is now doing work she loves – helping people create lives that are more in alignment with what they truly love.

Another coaching graduate, Cynthia, is a cardiologist who didn’t intend to leave her full-time job.

Cynthia wanted to learn to be a coach so that she could help her patients not just deal with the effects of disease, but to help them develop a mindset that generates different results in their lives and increase their vitality.

Cynthia coaches her patients and treats them, so that their entire sense of well-being is transformed.

If you love the job you’re in, you might want to nourish transformation for clients within your existing practice.

Or, coaching can be a stepping stone toward a brand-new, full-time profession.

The important thing to know is this:

You’re in charge and you get to decide!

Balancing work and life when starting a new coaching business

If you’re passionate about building an impactful, lucrative coaching business while creating a lifestyle you truly love (and are able to enjoy), there are three practices you must master.

Practice #1. Use the principles of success to control your to-do list.

Part of being a life coach is teaching other people how to shape their own realities, so they can create their circumstances instead of their circumstances controlling them.

So to become a successful coach yourself, you will need to master these principles and apply them to your own life.

So let’s take a look at your current situation.

• Are you too busy to become a coach?
• If so, what exactly is keeping you swamped?
• Are there tasks you’re doing that you aren’t suited for that could be done more quickly by someone else?
• Are there things you’re good at but aren’t passionate about that could be delegated?

You might think that these things need to be done, and no one else will do them right or you can’t afford to get help – but that would be allowing your circumstances to control your life.

So take a moment and think about it:

• What do you WANT to be doing with your day?
• What’s keeping you from doing it, and what action steps can you take to start shifting that?

Practice #2. Merge your business and your coaching.

If you’re in an industry that complements life coaching, becoming a coach can add another layer to your services, and allow you to serve your clients on a whole new level.

By learning the mindset and principles of success, and knowing what causes failure, you’ll be able to discover the root problems behind your clients’ challenges.

This allows you to not only help them overcome those challenges, but also to prevent the problems from popping up again, so the results you create are bigger, faster and longer-lasting.

Now you can raise your fees – you are providing value far above many of your peers, and you deserve to be paid accordingly!

Practice #3. Set up a system that lets you coach multiple people at once.

Yes, it’s true: Designing group programs can be more work up front than simply enrolling clients and coaching them one on one.

That is, if you’re doing the work of creating the program yourself. Before I get into that, let’s consider the cost of coaching solely one-on-one.

With this method, you trap yourself in a cycle of trading dollars for hours and your income will always be limited by the number of hours that you work in a day.

Even if you get well known and you’re able to charge more, your income and free time will always be competing with each other, leaving you with less of both than you deserve.

Because of that, it’s highly suggested that you use a system that lets you serve multiple clients at once.

This removes those frustrating limits from your income and impact, and allows you to change hundreds or even thousands more lives, without spending hundreds or thousands more hours.

Utilizing this system instead of “trading hours for dollars,” you can fit life coaching into your schedule, so your family and existing career doesn’t suffer because of it.

Becoming a life coach full time

For some people, work is just a means to an end. Earn enough money, make ends meet, feed the family and pay the mortgage. For others, it’s a sacred mission.

It’s something they enjoy waking up to each morning, and it fills their hearts with hope and joy.

Which situation are you in now? If you’re in a career that isn’t exciting and fulfilling to you, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

But remember: You deserve so much more.

You deserve to be doing work that you truly enjoy. You deserve to be able to take pride in what you do, knowing that you’re making an impact on the people around you and the world as a whole.

You deserve to reach the end of the work day with plenty of free time to spend with your family and friends, and with no nagging worries that you haven’t made enough money that day.

Is your career or business doing that for you?

So, take a few minutes to think about your work, and what you want to create with it.

It doesn’t have to be a big, daunting task that severely interrupts your day; just set a timer for 10 minutes and contemplate the following questions.

• Do you enjoy your work, and look forward to doing it each day?
• Are you proud of the changes you’re creating in the world?
• Are you making the money your time is worth, and taking enough of that time for yourself, to enjoy your family, your friends and your life?
• And if you aren’t, then what is keeping you stuck in that position, unable to create a business or career that’s everything you desire and deserve?

The most important thing to know is that you get to choose! You get to create whatever you want for your life and your career based on your vision for your life.

Would You Love to Build a 6- or 7-Figure Coaching Business?

If you’re ready to answer the sacred calling to become a life coach and you have the desire to help as many people as possible, it’s vital that you have the right tools and skills needed to enroll clients.

To discover how to successfully enroll new clients and truly serve your community, download this FREE eBook: How to Enroll 10 New Clients in 90 Days or Less!

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If you feel called to build a career you love serving others as a life coach, but you’re not sure where to start or even if it’s the right path for you… we’d love to help! Apply for a free Strategy Session with one of our hand-picked, highly-trained team members and we’ll explore with you what it takes to become a heart-centered life coach and help you determine if this is the path you’re destined to follow. Learn more here.