Life Coaching Business

This is the name for a professionally specialized in motivational speaking, counseling and existential life approaches. Such a specialist receives certification at the completion of various levels of training, whether for the start up level or for an associates degree. Any certificate or diploma is received following an exam organized according to the standards of the accrediting institution. An example of organization that controls certification is the International Coaching Federation or ICF.

Certified or scam?

People often wonder on how legitimate a life coach career really is. And there have been many cases of fraudulent activity in this domain, due to the novelty of the professional opportunities and the big promises that some people are inclined to believe. There are nevertheless ways to avoid training scams, and become a certified life coach in your turn.

First of all, you can check with the International Coaching Federation and find out which schools they are working with as part of the accreditation program. In case that you choose an institution or academy that is not accredited by the ICF, you have to do the verifications yourself in order not to become a victim of training scams.

Check the curricula and see how it is structured. Schools that let you choose whatever courses you like and as many as you want, are not trustworthy. They will be more interested in getting your money. Beware!

Look into expenses. What the academy charges you should be fairly proportionate to the cost of the class materials, course text books and number of hours. If the school has a pay-as-you-go or pay-per-class program, then, the chances of hiding a scam are higher. A respectable institution charges per program, because that’s the system that ensures a good finality for the trainee, who completes education and graduates.

Learn from the best

Although I chose to mention it last, this is the number one rule of ensuring good training. Who are your teachers? The trainers and teachers that run a good life coach school are in their turn excellent life coaches. If they make more money from teaching than from coaching, it’s an alarm bell…

All the teaching staff should be professionally accomplished as therapists, counselors or business experts themselves. Otherwise, they cannot train and offer professional growth conditions to a trainee.

Good to know!

It takes more than just education to become a successful life coach. The ‘magic’ ingredient here is vocation… Only balanced people that enjoy a high level of wellness in their lives could be coaches for others. It’s not about teaching someone else existential truths or lifestyle guidelines, yet only someone who enjoys a feeling of completeness and has accumulated positive life experience, can guide others into the best circumstances to overcome obstacles and answer big dilemmas for themselves.

Remember that technically you can easily train for this profession, go to school and become a certified life coach, but existentially, things are far more complex.