I teach about twenty coaching classes every year.  And no matter the level of the class (beginner, intermediate or advanced), no matter the exact topic, and no matter whether the class is online or on site, there is one question I almost always get: “How much should I charge for my coaching?”

Of course there is no government mandated rate for coaching, no minimum wage or maximum rate.  You can charge whatever you like, and you can charge whatever people will pay.  But my advice to coaches is to consider three factors when determining your coaching rate.

Aim for an Equity of Exchange

First, you need to think about the value going out to your client and the value coming in to you and try to get those to balance. This is called “equity of exchange” and it will give you some guidance with establishing your rate and prevent you from being overly confident or overly timid about how much to charge.

This important notion will serve you far, far better than other approaches such as “Charge as much as the client is willing to pay,” or “Charge what the client can afford,” or “Charge what feels (un)comfortable for you.”  When you aim to charge according to the value your client gets from the coaching, you’re making things fair for you and your client, and you have a basis upon which to increase your rates as you provide more and more value.

Charging a fair amount actually increases the value you provide.  If your rate is far below the value you’re giving, you’re cheating yourself and you may not show up very well.  If the rate you charge far exceeds the value you’re giving, you’re cheating the client and you still may not show up very well.  My friend Bill Copper likes to say that he wants to charge enough that he’s happy to show up for the coaching and do his best, but not so much that he feels anxious that the other person is paying too much. I think that’s good advice.

Consider Your Experience

Second, you need to think about the amount of experience you have and increase your rate as your experience increases.  This approach is based on our first factor, but let’s flesh it out a bit.

If you’re a brand new coach, the value you get from the experience of coaching is very important, so you may not charge anything – you just want the chance to practice coaching.  It’s not that your coaching is worth $0, it’s that you’re basically bartering with your client: your client gets the benefit of your coaching and you get the benefit of a chance to practice.

You’ll always benefit from the opportunity to coach, but as your experience grows the value the client gets from the coaching far outpaces the value you get from getting to coach.  At this point, you need to start charging or bartering for something other than just the experience.

Generally speaking, new coaches charge in the neighborhood of $25 to $50/hour for their first few clients, then start increasing the fee as they grow more competent.  As a rule of thumb, coaches with 100 hours of experience (and perhaps their ACC credential) charge $75 to $150/hour, while coaches with 500+ hours of experience (and perhaps their PCC or MCC credential) charge $150 to $500/hour.

Adjust to Your Client Niche

The better you coach, the more you charge – but only to a point.  And that point differs according to the client niche you coach.  No matter how great you are as a coach, if you coach church planters you are not going to earn $250/hour for coaching because they cannot afford to pay that much.  A coach to homeless people, missionaries, people recently released from prison, or single mothers trying to get out of debt is not going to charge as much as an equally-competent coach who works with small business owners, CEOs or recently promoted school administrators.  Some clienteles not only have more money to spend on coaching, they actually will gravitate AWAY from coaches who charge too little.

So how about you?  What advice do you have for coaches trying to determine how much to charge?  Leave your advice in the comment section and keep the conversation going!