Hannah McNamara

Caught in the ‘time for money trap' as some people refer to it?  If you stopped running one-to-one coaching sessions, how long would it be before all your income dried up?

You may be perfectly happy earning income from coaching sessions.  Many coaches are practising to create a second income around another job or coach part-time while they raise their children.  Others do not need to rely on the income from coaching as they have another source of income such as savings, investments, their pension or a supportive partner.

Whether or not this applies to you, it's still worth considering if you could supplement your earnings in other ways.  This would give you a buffer should you need to stop working temporarily.

Here are four of the most common ways in which practising coaches earn additional income:

Associate Coaches – when they are fully booked, rather than turning clients away coaches book their new client in with an associate who delivers the coaching on their behalf.  The lead coach takes payment from the client and then pays the associate, less a commission for the work.

Affiliate Commissions – if you already recommend other people's products and services to others, you should consider finding out if they operate an affiliate programme where you would earn a commission or introducer's fee.  Companies like Amazon run programmes where you promote their products on your website.  When people click on the link it takes them to a unique website address or URL which allows the company to identify you as the person who sent the customer there.  You then get paid a percentage of the sale.  Commissions paid range from a few pennies to tens or hundreds of pounds or dollars, depending on the value of the item you're helping them to sell.

Event Marketing – if like most coaches you enjoy attending workshops and training courses, then if you recommend that event to others you could benefit financially.  Many event organisers work in a similar way to the above affiliate commissions and pay you either a percentage of the ticket price or a fixed fee for each referral.  If you get involved in helping to promote some of the big internet marketing seminars or personal development events you can find yourself earning hundreds each time.  Equally if someone you know is running a workshop, you could earn commissions by helping them promote the event.

Coaching Products – everyone talks about the need to create your own coaching products.  What if you don't have the time or the inclination?  Have you thought about selling someone else's products instead?   You could do this either on a retail basis where you buy the products in (books, CDs, etc) and then re-sell them at a higher price to clients or you could promote the products as an affiliate (see above) and earn commissions when people buy them from the company's e-commerce website without having to buy stock.
If you started with just one of these options, you could start earning yourself some extra money.  Who knows, once you see the first commission cheque come in you might get a taste for it!

© Hannah McNamara