10 Different Ways to Make Money as a Health Coach

As a certified health coach, it’s highly likely you joined this industry to help others achieve their health and wellness goals. But, you also want to earn a comfortable living, doing something that you love.

While it’s possible to earn a six-figure income working as a health coach, most professionals in this industry are not getting anywhere close to that. The main reason behind this is that most health coaches only focus on one means of making money. And this is by offering one-on-one coaching sessions.

The reality is, there are several ways of making money as a health coach, besides offering one-on-one coaching sessions. So, if you have been struggling to earn a decent income from your health coaching business and you are looking for ways of boosting your health and wellness coaching salary, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we will walk you through 10 different ways of making money as a health coach and boosting your income.

1. One on One Coaching Sessions

This is arguably one of the most popular ways of making money as a health coach. As its name suggests, you will be offering one-on-one coaching services, working with individual clients.

With this health coaching business model, you can be charging by the hour or monthly, depending on what a particular client prefers. For instance, some clients may be simply looking for a single session. In that case, you will charge such a client by the hour. On the other hand, some clients may want to engage with you for a month or several months. For such clients, you can charge them a flat-rate monthly fee.

While this is the primary method of earning as a health coach, it comes with certain limitations. For instance, it tends to be quite energy-intensive. If you were to work for eight hours straight, you may be fully drained by the time you finish your day. Furthermore, your earning is entirely dependent on the number of clients that you have. So, if you go for an entire month without a single client, then you will have earned zero that month. Hence, it’s highly advisable to combine this method with other income-generating activities for health coaches.

2. Online Coaching

Online health and wellness programs are increasingly becoming popular. And the health coaching industry has not been left behind. Hence, if you are looking for a means of supplementing your wellness coaching salary, then you should consider offering online health coaching.

Online health coaching provides a passive revenue stream. By passive, it means that your health coaching business will be earning money, even when you are not conducting any sessions. Simply put, your health coaching income is no longer tied to the number of clients that you have or the hours you spend working with those clients.

Furthermore, online health coaching eliminates most of the challenges that come with one-on-one coaching. For instance, with one-on-one coaching, you can only work with clients within your geographic zone. But with online health coaching, your health coaching services will be available to anyone, regardless of where they are. And this translates to greater earning opportunities.

For online health coaching, you offer live sessions, using tools like Zoom, Google Hangouts or Skype calls. Hence, you can offer your services to anyone with internet connectivity and a connected device, regardless of whether it’s during the day, at night, weekday or weekend.

3. Sell Digital Products

Apart from offering online health coaching services, you can boost your income further by creating and selling health-related and wellness-related digital products. Some of the digital products that you can create and sell as a health coach include:

1. Recorded audio files: You don’t need complicated or expensive equipment to record audio files. Something as simple as a USB microphone connected to your computer is enough to do the job. You can also use your phone, in case you currently don’t have money to purchase a USB mic.
2. E-books: E-books provide yet another digital product that you can create and share with your audience. The e-books can feature a wide range of health coaching topics like fitness plans, healthy recipes, cleansing guidelines and nutrition plans, just to name a few.
3. Videos: While videos may require some skills to create, they can provide another channel where you can share your expertise with others, reach a wider audience and boost your health coach income. To record videos, you can begin doing so with your smartphone. Later on, you can purchase professional video recording equipment as your health coaching business grows.

4. Affiliate Marketing

If you have a health and wellness blog, then you should consider venturing into affiliate marketing. With affiliate marketing, you will be promoting health-related or wellness-related products on your blog, belonging to another individual or brand. You will then earn a commission whenever a sale converts from your end. This is a good way to monetize your blog.

Affiliate marketing will also provide another passive revenue stream for your health coaching business. As long as your blog or website is receiving decent traffic, then you are good to go.

However, it’s worth mentioning that you will also be putting your reputation on the line, when you decide to venture into affiliate marketing. So, it will be highly advisable to only promote products or services that you are using or you have enough knowledge about. Simply put, don’t recommend, or promote anything that you wouldn’t use or you have scant knowledge about.

5. Group Coaching Sessions

Apart from one-on-one coaching sessions, you can also venture into group health coaching and wellness classes. Group coaching sessions provide you with a great opportunity of sharing your expertise with a larger audience.

And as much as you will be charging a lower fee compared to one-on-one coaching, such sessions will help you to reach more people within a short time. For group coaching sessions, you will be providing generic health and wellness information.

If the attendees are impressed by your coaching approach, there’s a high chance you will end up signing some of them for one-on-one coaching sessions, further increasing your health coach income.

6. Sell Physical Products

Selling physical products is one of the lesser-known methods of making more money as a health coach. But, it can also provide another revenue stream for your health coaching business.

Some of the physical products that you can sell include branded posters, mugs, t-shirts, or water bottles, just to name a few. Also, you can also opt to come up with your own line of wellness products like vegan supplements.

You can then sell these products on your website or promote them on different social media platforms. Regardless of what you choose to sell, physical products can also provide a great means of supplementing your health coaching income.

The only issue you might encounter is that this strategy could work too well, leaving you in a situation where you need to start estimating quarterly tax payments to account for your uptick in earnings. This can be made manageable if you hire an accountant and use the right tools for tracking sales and reporting income.

7. Corporate Wellness Coaching

With an increasing number of people suffering from chronic illnesses and organizations paying approximately $3.8 trillion in healthcare costs annually, it’s easy to see why the corporate wellness market is rapidly growing.

And according to recent surveys, the corporate wellness industry is not slowing down any time soon. In 2020, the global corporate wellness market size was valued at approximately $52.8 billion. The industry is expected to experience a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 7%, between 2021 and 2028.

Therefore, if you are a renowned health coach, offering corporate consulting services provides you with another great opportunity of expanding your client base and earn more money. You can decide to offer the coaching services either online or in-person, depending on your clients’ location.

8. Host Motivational Talks

Are you a certified health coach that enjoys speaking in front of large audiences? If the answer is, then you should consider hosting health and wellness-related motivational talks.

You can make the first sessions free and open for everyone. And with time, your audience and reputation will grow. From there, you can then start charging for your services. Again, you can have these sessions either online or face-to-face, depending on your target audience.

9. Leverage Your Other Skills and Offer Related Services

As a health coach, you may probably have skills in other areas. For instance, you may have a personal training certification or a nutrition certification. You can use your expertise in such fields, offer related services and increase your wellness coaching salary.

If you have a personal training certification, you can sell workout routines, either as a stand-alone or add-on service to your clients. And if you are a certified nutritionist, you can create and sell meal plans for your clients. Again, it can be a stand-alone or add-on service.

You might even find you can use your skills to spread money around, and in so doing help people to live fuller lives - all part of being a good coach. You could transfer money to Vietnam to someone you know or whatever else, perhaps a crowdfunding option. Whatever you do, just make sure that you are considering your options.

10. Become a Brand Ambassador

If there’s a particular health-related product that you like and you always recommend that product to your clients, then you should consider becoming that product’s brand ambassador. As a brand ambassador, you will be getting special discounts, which you will be sharing with your clients. You will then earn commissions for every product sold through you.

11. Wrapping It Up

Your health coaching business shouldn’t rely on a single revenue stream. Instead, you should set up as many income streams as possible. So, in case one revenue stream dries up, you will have other revenue streams coming in and providing you with the money you need to run your business and support your lifestyle. And as you can see, you have numerous ways of making money as a health coach. You simply need to experiment with the different strategies that we’ve discussed here and then select those that align best with your audience, business model, and expertise.