Whether you've just completed your certification or are thinking about investing in a health coaching diploma with HCA, knowing how to make a successful living as a Health & Wellness Coach and achieve a strong return on investment is good to know.
In this blog, we share some ideas on ways that you can:
Earn a living from your health coaching qualification
Grow and maintain a successful health coaching practice
Create a sustainable income
The different career paths & opportunities as a Health Coach
As a professional Health Coach, you have the flexibility to choose from a variety of career paths that align with your passions and expertise. Whether you enjoy one-on-one coaching, corporate wellness programmes, group sessions, or membership offerings, each avenue offers a unique opportunity to make a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of others. Let’s take a look in more detail:
1-2-1 Coaching
During your studies with HCA, you will primarily work one-on-one with your peers and volunteer case study clients, giving you a realistic insight into what coaching individual clients is like in practice.
Offering personalised, one-on-one sessions is one of the most direct ways to make money as a Health Coach. Clients are often willing to pay a premium for tailored advice, ongoing support, and accountability in their health journeys. The average hourly fees in the UK are £60-£150 per hour and fees can be higher for corporate work.
As part of the fourth and final pillar of our Level 5 Diploma, students are guided through the ‘Essential Launch Formula’ which includes support on structuring client programmes and packages, as well as determining appropriate pricing, to make sure that you enter the health coaching field fully equipped and feeling confident.
As a Health Coach you may wish to offer one-on-one sessions every day, or on specific days in order to make space for some of the other ways you can practise, as outlined out below.
Corporate Wellness
Are you interested in supporting workplace wellbeing? Perhaps you’re from a corporate background yourself and have witnessed the need for employee wellness support first hand. There are so many exciting options in this space! That may be working with a company to co-create wellness programmes for their staff, delivering ad-hoc wellbeing talks or workshops, or working with individual employees on a regular one-to-one basis to help them achieve their goals associated with health at work and beyond.
Many HCA Health Coach graduates go on to provide company-funded one to one coaching sessions once trust has been established or in some cases, clients seek them out having come across them in their workplace setting.
Corporate wellbeing work tends to command higher fees; this will be dictated by the previous experience you have and the niche you select. Currently, trending topics in this area include menopause in the workplace and neurodiversity.
Group Coaching
Providing group health coaching programmes can be a very efficient, effective and enjoyable approach to help more clients at once. You may find that this is not only more affordable for your clients but can generate a bigger income for you with fewer hours of work than one to one coaching.
For example: If you charge £299 each per person for a 6-week group coaching programme with 8 participants, that's £2392 for the programme as a whole. By running several groups simultaneously, you can maximise your earnings while reaching more people.
The group coaching programme theme will depend on your niche market and the specific topic you have in mind. Some topics that have worked well for HCA graduates have included hormone focus, blood sugar balancing, and healthy start initiatives like ‘New Year, New You’ - an amazing thing about health coaching is you can be as creative as you like and are really only limited by your imagination.
Group programmes also provide opportunities for collaboration with other professionals, such as nutritional therapists, psychologists, and fitness experts.
Membership Programmes
Another option to explore is health coaching membership programmes where clients pay a monthly or annual fee in return for ongoing support, resources, and exclusive content.
This is something that can be simple to create and could take place online for example using a Facebook or WhatsApp group or in person, meetingmonthly at your favourite health restaurant or event.
Memberships offer recurring revenue and can help you to create a more predictable income. A Health Coach recently shared how little input she’s ended up having in the community as they have become self-sustaining and prefer to take advice from one another rather than her - in the nicest possible way!
Combining health coaching with another qualification or expertise
Health Coaches come from diverse professional backgrounds before transitioning into the field, allowing them to bring unique perspectives and skills to their practice. For example, a former journalist might now write health-related blogs and articles for well-known publishers or contribute to academic research. A writer could publish books on wellness topics, or a chef might release healthy recipe books, either as part of, or in addition to, their health coaching practice.
The transition can also go the other way—personal trainers may incorporate health coaching into their fitness packages, and doctors might integrate coaching into their medical practice, offering a more holistic approach to patient care.
At HCA, we welcome students from various backgrounds, recognising the value that different experiences bring to the health coaching profession. Explore some of our Graduate Stories to learn more.
How to make a return on investment on your Health Coach diploma
Getting a return on investment from your health coaching diploma is about smart strategy, dedication, and diversifying your income streams.
Here’s an example of what your return on investment might look like:
One-to-one health coaching sessions:
6 Sessions per week for approximately 2.2 months to recoup your course fees
Group health coaching sessions:
One group coaching programme with 8 members, running for 8 weeks.
Corporate health coaching:
4 x Corporate Days per month = approx 1.4 months to recoup your course fees
The day in the life of a Health Coach looks different for everyone. It’s a career that enables you to choose your own niche and focus on the ideal clients that you really enjoy supporting.
It’s perfectly fine to start with one particular avenue and switch to a different approach if it doesn’t suit you. Health coaching is a flexible career that empowers you to follow your passions while continuously growing.
Join one of our free live introductory webinars to find out more.
Comments