How Much Does Business Coaching Cost (UK)

As you can imagine, one of the most common questions that I get asked is, how much does business coaching cost? So I'm gonna try and give you an honest and objective view about how much business coaches charge and the reasons why they charge in the way that they do. Imagine that with anything, take cars for example, you can get cheap as chips cars that cost £10K, you can get super expensive Bugatti Veyrons that cost several million pounds to buy, and it's exactly the same with coaches. Coaching and not knowledge comes in several different formats, business coaches being one of those, and that business knowledge can be in the form of free YouTube videos right the way up to super expensive, you know, million-dollar-a-year coaches who work with a limited select number of clients. So I'm gonna work through all of the different sort of the pricing bandwidth, as I call it, for coaches, and explain to you 5 different ways that coaches charge for their time, their expertise, and their knowledge. So as with any service that you're investing in, especially when it comes to your business, a business coach is no different. And I have a very firm belief that if you buy cheap, you buy twice, and I'm gonna explain why. I would also suggest that if you're looking at an investment in a business coach as a cost to your business, you're looking at it wrong. A business coach is here to offer you a blueprint in order to speed up the process of growing your business, getting more clients, making your business run more efficiently, and ultimately making more money, and so it shouldn't be seen as a cost. There are sunk costs in your business, things like overheads, rent, paying for your mobile phone bill, for example. Those are kind of bits of money that you're gonna give away to service providers that you're not gonna see back. A business coach is different. A business coach is here to help you grow your business, scale it, increase your turnover, and ultimately make your business more profitable. I.e., making more money. So when you're listening to the pricing bandwidth model that I'm gonna explain to you now, and the different types, the way business coaching is delivered, I want you to bear that in mind. A good business coach will be solidly focused on getting you a return on investment, an ROI, for your business in the shortest possible time, which means they have skin in the game, it means that you have skin in the game, and in working together, you grow your business faster than you could do on your own. I'm gonna offer another alternative way to look at investing in a business coach compared to other investments you could make. Other investments such as investing in property or investing in stocks and shares or Bitcoin or commodities like gold, silver, and, you know, crops and various things like that— all of those different investments will ultimately be held in terms of their value by external circumstances that are going on very much outside of your control. When you spend money in your business, it's very much in your control, and you, you have to weigh up, when I spend that money on a service provider within my business, How is it gonna make me more money back in return? And actually, in your business, you can invest £10K in a business and turn it into a £100,000 a year turnover business further down the line. So the ROI you can get on investing in a business is significantly higher than you could get on any of the other traditional ways of investing your money. Now, I mentioned about pricing bandwidth, especially when it comes to business coaches and how they charge. So I want you to imagine that a lot of people see coaches or service providers as a binary decision, that it's expensive or it's not expensive. I can afford it or I can't, it's a yes or a no. But actually, when it comes to all of the different business coaches on the spectrum, there's 5 or 6 different ways that those business coaches charge, and I'm gonna work through each one of those ways. If you're looking for a business coach, you can make a very well-educated decision about who it is that you're going to invest in and why. Now, I'm not gonna lie, you can get some really great business coaching advice online and completely for free. There's a ton of YouTube videos out there which you can go and consume, but you've obviously got to know what it is that you're searching for and what result you want to get out of watching those videos. Also, you've got to implement whatever you learn from those videos on your own, and that is something where a business coach, a physical business coach, comes into their own, because a business coach isn't about just giving you information. A good business coach will hold you to account in order to make sure that you are implementing everything which you discussed during your coaching sessions. But ultimately, if you wanted to get good business advice, You can buy a good book, or you can go and find it on a platform like YouTube. There's also tons of great courses out there, you know, on Udemy that potentially you could get for free, which will start to lay the foundations for growing your business, especially when you're starting up. And a lot of business owners, when they're starting up, like, they don't have a lot of money, so when a business coach comes along and says, it's gonna cost you several thousand pounds to work with me, and you've not made any money yet, relatively that feels like a big chunk of change. But again, I want you to think about it from the perspective of what investment you're making in your business, whether it's time or money. With a lot of the YouTube videos, you're probably gonna have to invest a lot more of your time filtering out all of the dross and the rubbish on YouTube in order to find the videos and follow the right sorts of people who are gonna give you sound advice that is easy to implement, that's gonna get you good results. Now also, it's gonna take you longer. If you're doing it yourself, it's gonna take you a lot longer in order to get the desired outcome and results for your business. And there's nothing wrong with that. If you're comfortable and you want it and you're happy for it to take a bit longer and you've got the time, maybe you've got some cash reserves saved up, by all means take the DIY approach. Watch some YouTube videos, buy a couple of books, and away you go. From free on YouTube, we then move up to the next level on the pricing bandwidth for business coaching and business advice, and that is for courses. And these courses are typically priced anywhere from, say, $50 up to $250 or even $500. The idea again though is that this is taking the YouTube model, but now we're building out some structure. Structured content in a linear format so that you can follow those— that instructional advice in an organized fashion. However, the downside to it— and it's great because it's affordable business advice, and, and when you're bootstrapped and you're starting out, it's a great place to start. However, the downside to that is a lot of these DIY courses don't come with any practical, tactical coaching advice in terms of like being able to help you implement, in terms of being able to hold you to account. So that's just something to bear in mind. It's better than free YouTube videos because now the content's more organized and it feels a bit more like there's a blueprint. Maybe you'll get a workbook with it, but you don't actually get the rocket which you need in order to really implement and push forward with this. And you're still going to have a lot of the fears kind of kicking around about, is this going to work? Or you'll try it and you don't know at which point to stop trying because that thing doesn't work for you. So when do you pivot and try a new idea? And again, that's the benefit of having a physical business coach involved. Is that they can help you walk through those key decisions about when to pivot, when to try something different, and when to move on to the next opportunity. Typically, for a lot of those courses, you've got access to it for as long as you need it, and it's there so that whenever you feel that you want to, you can dive in and consume that content and relook at that advice whenever you want. Sometimes, like, compared to YouTube, it's like you watch a YouTube video and then it disappears, you don't, you know, you struggle to find it again. Whereas a course, you'll have a login, you can go and log in and watch those videos whenever you like. And then you can have a go at implementing it. Level 3 on the pricing bandwidth model, when it comes to how much business coaches charge, is time for money. So it's what I call the value level at level 3. So this is where you take on a coach and they typically charge you X number of pounds per hour or per session. You will typically set up a monthly direct debit or standing order with them, and you just carry on coaching ad infinitum. So this is the point where you've got one-to-one interaction with a person now, instead of just being able to consume content on a course, you'll be able to bounce ideas back and forth between you and the coach. They will also challenge you on some of your belief systems. They will push you further than maybe you might have gone in terms of trying to implement some of the things which they're teaching you. The challenge though around time for money— and I've actually done another video which I'll drop a link in, uh, to this one around why charging time for money is fundamentally unethical— but the challenge around a coach who is charging an hourly rate, they typically will be charging somewhere between maybe the £50 an hour up to £250 an hour, or maybe even more. But really, a coach who is charging time for money, it's within their interest to keep on selling you more hours in order to pay their mortgage, in order to put food on their table, because when you stop coaching with them, they stop earning money. And so I don't feel that it's a very good relationship between coach and client when it's on a per-hour basis. And also, you get what you pay for. A £50 an hour coach is gonna be something very substantially different to a coach who is charging $10K for a program, for example. So I want you to bear that in mind when you're paying a coach by the hour. It's within their interest to sell you as many hours as they possibly can. And if you're interested to know more about kind of that value exchange and why hourly rates, day rates, are fundamentally unethical, I have done another video about that, so I'll drop a link to it below. So do go and check that out. But just think about this: great if you get one coaching session in, you get the desired outcome that you want, and bang, we're done. I don't think the coach would be terribly happy about that because it's just one session. But imagine this scenario where it takes you much, much longer to implement implement whatever advice it is which they're giving you. And maybe if they're not that experienced a coach, maybe the advice isn't that good. And now all of a sudden it's taking you several months or maybe even years to get your business to the point of where you wanted to get it to. And now the only person who is really benefiting from that is the coach, because they're just selling you hour after hour after hour of coaching. And that's not really very good for the relationship. It gets to a point whereby resentment starts to build up between coach and client. And I have seen this on a number of occasions because what tends to happen is coaching clients who have had a bad experience on hourly rate and not got the results which they wanted, they tend to come to me. Good for me because I get great results for my clients, but I'm just warning you to be very careful about when you're buying a coach at an hourly rate, who's actually winning out of this relationship. So do go and check out that video about hourly rates being unethical. That being said, there are also some excellent coaches out there who do charge by the hour, and you can get some fantastic advice. But do your research. Do make sure that you've checked out their client success, their testimonials, their case studies, their reviews. Do they have a good number of positive Google reviews on there? Do they have several video testimonials that you can go and check out and just ascertain whether they're a good coach and what sort of results to expect through working with them? The 4th level is my favorite, and this is where you get into that what I call expert space. And this is where you have a coach who has a blueprint, who has resources behind them. They have a structure to their program, and they know that they get consistent results by making each and every client follow exactly the same structure with their program. They have a very specific niche which they operate in, and they also focus down not just on market niche but also their product niche. So maybe they, they work on just 2, 3, or 4, like, very specific areas of a business where they know they make the most amount of impact. So these coaches know their value ultimately, and they also know that because they have a set way of working, that their results are repeatable each and every time that they bring a client into their program. It's, it's gonna present the same results for each and every client. Generally speaking, expert coaches will deliver their coaching program over a fixed length of time for a fixed fee, and you will know exactly what you're getting off the back end of it. And one of the great things about that as a potential client of that coach. You've seen all of the great results they get through their case studies and reviews and things like that. You know exactly the structure of the program and what you're going to get. You know that you've also got some skin in the game. They're more expensive. You're going to want to protect that investment because this investment is going to be significantly more than a time-for-money coach and perceived— and I'll explain why I said that in a second. You're going to want to protect that investment. It's going to be a lot of money, and you're going to want to make sure that you get the results which you and the coach agreed that you were going to get, which means you're going to implement and you're going to push really hard in order to get the most out of that coaching program. Now, I did just allude to the expert coach versus the hourly rate coach and why actually an hourly rate coach could ultimately end up being more expensive. Imagine a scenario where you're spending, say, £3K on a coaching program with an expert coach. So it's a fixed price over a clearly defined period of time. You know what results you're going to expect. An hourly rate coach, let's say for example you're spending £500 a month with them, for example, for a 2-hour session once a month, so £250 an hour, for example, but £500 a month, that's what you're in for. Now, they may initially sell you a 6-month coaching programme, so all of a sudden, the hourly rate coach is now the same price as the expert coach, but you get to the end of the 6 months, and you haven't got the desired results. Well, now all of a sudden, that hourly rate coach is gonna start selling you more months' worth of coaching, and so ultimately, when you buy that perceived cheaper hourly rate coach, it could ultimately end up costing you more than paying a fixed fee for a structured programme that an expert coach is gonna deliver you. If you're looking for a business coach, I would thoroughly recommend you do go and shop around and maybe speak to 2 or 3 different business coaches so that you can get a feel for what it is that they offer, how they charge, what the structure of their program is going to be. And also, the coach-client relationship is quite a personal one. You've got to make sure that you're going to get along with that coach over a long period of time. And if you feel that they're going to challenge you and you're not going to like that, then that's going to present a bit of friction in that coach-client relationship. The other thing as well is, like, don't be afraid to ask a coach what their guarantees are. Now let's be fair, nothing in life is guaranteed, but an expert coach which has a structure to their program that's had hundreds of clients come through their program and they get repeatable results is going to be more inclined to say to you, look, listen, if you go and do all of the work that we agree that you're going to do and you don't get the results, I'll give you your money back. That really should be music to your ears. It's exactly what I do. I'm going to be, you know, 100% transparent at this point. We have a complete 100% no-quibble money-back guarantee on our, on our product, because if somebody comes into the program and it ultimately isn't good fit, I haven't done my homework properly. I haven't assessed and qualified that prospective client well enough and made sure that they are going to come onto my program for the right reasons and get the desired outcome and the results which they want and the results which I'm promising them. So we have— I have no problem about refunding a client who doesn't get the results. Another thing you can do is just ask your coach, have you ever had to refund a client? Again, for the expert coach, this shouldn't be a problem because effectively you're buying a product, you're buying a package, and so like any good product or package, there is a refund policy like John Lewis do. You can return anything anytime, you know, if it doesn't live up to the expectations. A Time For Money coach, however, if you're paying them on a monthly basis and you don't get the results, and then all of a sudden you say to them 6 months down the line, can I have a refund, you're gonna probably have an issue here. Because 6 months down the line, paying them monthly— and don't forget, that money has been paying their mortgage and putting food on their table— it's unlikely they've got the reserves in place to to be able to refund you if you ask for it. There's an upside and a downside. Generally, the more expensive expert-level coaches have got more money in their coffers because they know that there might be a very small percentage of people who they have to refund over a period of time. Me, for example, I always hold some cash back just on the off chance that things don't go to plan and we have to refund somebody. I've only ever had to do that twice out of the 150+ clients who've been through the Fearless Business Accelerator. Less than 2%, I think, is a great ratio. That means we've got a 99% success rate on our program, and I'm not afraid to shout about those results and also protect those results. So the final type of coach on this model which I'm explaining to you about how much coaches charge is what I call the guru status coach. And these are the guys who will charge, you know, high 5 figures, 6 figures, or even 7 figures to work with them. For example, so they may have a really strong social media following, so they've got a big audience, which means that they can afford to charge lots of money because they're highly in demand. You will see some of the best coaches out there charging $100,000 a year even to work with them. You can even go up to the next level of initiative beyond that, which is when you look at the likes of somebody like Tony Robbins. It costs $1 million a year if you want to work with Tony Robbins on a one-to-one basis. He only has to work with 10 clients a year to make $10 million a year out of his coaching program. But the guy's been around for 30+ years. He's best known for his work which he's done in the NLP space. He's built up an incredible following. He's got some incredible events and learnings which he's put out there. I don't necessarily agree with some of the things which he says or some of his style of coaching. However, I've got to be very respectful of the size and scale of the business which he's set up there as a business coach. He's really inspiring to see what he's done. But obviously, like I've suggested here, there's a bandwidth. So at this end of the bandwidth, we've got free, cheap, very, very small amounts of money. At the other end of the bandwidth, we've got $1 million a year, but just to work with, you know, that's That's one guy who charges that amount of money. And actually, if you think about it, as you follow the chart down through, and this red line on the diagram which I've got up in front of you at the moment, that is talking about the amount of competition at each of those 5 stages as you go through the pricing bandwidth model. Obviously highly competitive in the YouTube space. There is an absolute ton of content out there which is getting, you know, there's more and more getting uploaded every day. Right the way through, if you follow it down to like you know, just one Tony Robbins. And that expert space, it means the more expensive the coach is, the less competition there is. And generally, I've said to you, I position myself kind of in the middle of that, that bandwidth model, moving more towards the sort of expert. I wouldn't class myself as a guru, certainly. The coaches that position themselves in the expert space, they know their value, and generally speaking, they are very good coaches. So it's well worth investigating a multitude of different types of coaches. Depending on what point you are in your business journey. And I'll reiterate, don't see a business coach as a cost on, you know, on the bottom of your P&L, like an overhead in your business. A good coach will be able to deliver a significant, a significant return on investment when you start working with them. They should be able to get you clearly defined results which come with some kind of a guarantee. And if you find a coach who can't offer that, Don't go with them, but do shop around. Go and look at lots of different coaches. Listen, I hope you found that video helpful. By all means, throw any questions into the comments below, and don't forget as well, if you enjoyed this video, do stick a thumbs up on there, go and like it, and do subscribe to the channel because I've got plenty more videos out there to help other coaches, consultants, and freelancers to price their products better and confidently charge more.