How to Become a Wildly Successful Certified Financial Coach

Want to become a financial coach?

Running your own coaching business comes with many perks, such as freedom, flexibility, and purpose.

But how do you make it happen? In this post, you’ll learn…

• What financial coaching is
• How YOU can start a financial coaching business (even if you’re currently in a busy 9-5)
• How to get your first paying clients
• What it takes to grow it into a full-time business

Want to learn more? Read on!

How to start a financial coaching business – checklist

1. Find your niche

2. Set up your business

3. Get certified

4. Create a coaching package

5. Get your first coaching clients

6. Market your coaching business

7. Grow your coaching business 

8. Learn how to coach

What is a financial coach? 

A financial coach helps people improve their financial habits and achieve their financial goals. As a financial coach you can support your clients in their investment strategies, help them get out of debt, or manage their personal finances. 

And the need for financial coaching is at an all-time high. After all, 35% of Americans with a credit file have debt in collections. Only 46% have a rainy day fund and 24% of millennials demonstrate basic financial literacy. 

At the same time, 25% of Americans say they stress about money all the time. Money is seen as more stressful than relationships and work. 

So there is a market for financial coaches.

Take Paridhi Jain, who helps people manage their finances so that they can achieve their money goals in a sustainable and stress-free way. 

And Ryan Chaw helps people make smart real estate investments with his specific real estate investment strategy. Ryan created $10k+ in passive monthly income by investing in single-family home real estate.

But what exactly can you help your clients with? And what are the benefits of a financial coaching business?

What does a financial coach do? 

Financial coaches focus on helping their clients improve the way they handle and earn their money. For example, coaches can help coachees to:

• Get out of debt. You support people to pay off their debt in a smart way and make smarter money decisions.
• Organize their finances. You help people understand how to use and manage their money better. 
• Save money. Together with your coachee, you set up saving plans and goals. 
• Make more money. This can be more generally about getting raises and finding new income streams or something specific, like creating an extra income stream with real estate investments.
• Adopt better money habits and change their money beliefs. People have different beliefs about money and as a money mindset coach, you help them transform those blocking beliefs. 

And financial coaching works. According to a study that was part of the 2013 initiative by Citi Foundation and NeighborWorks America, financial coaching has tangible results.

More than half of clients who hadn’t had ANY savings at the start of their coaching reported some savings after participating in the program. Also, participants increased their FICO scores by an average of 59 points.

And two-thirds of those who had felt stressed about their finances when the program began didn’t feel that way after going through coaching. 

A 2015 study by the Urban Institute shows even clearer benefits. Participants achieved significantly higher credit scores thanks to coaching. Depending on which group they were assigned, they accumulated $1,200 in savings and their debt declined by $10,650. 

That’s how powerful financial coaching can be — it can actually change your clients’ lives.

What is the difference between a financial advisor and a financial coach? 

A financial coach is not a financial advisor (who usually has completely different requirements for their services). Financial coaches don’t have any specific requirements, but financial advisors might need to obtain a state or SEC license.

As a coach, you offer support and guidance, you don’t sell and recommend financial tools. You also don’t manage the coachee’s financial portfolio for them. Financial advisors, on the other hand, can do just that. 

How do you become a financial coach? 

The best way to start helping your clients? Privately, through one-on-one coaching sessions.

And a coaching business can help you… 

• Replace your salary and quit your 9-5
• Make it possible for you to work for yourself
• Choose who you work with 

…You pretty much get to choose what your work and life looks like. 

How do I know? Because before I started my business, I was where you are now. At a demanding 9-5 that felt like it lacked any purpose. I couldn’t decide my own hours and was stuck with the vacation days my employer allowed me to take. 

That’s why online coaching felt like SUCH a great option. I realized that I could start my own business while working my 9-5 and quickly make a great income. 

And within four months, I had quit my day job and had already made six figures in my first coaching business. 

Today, I’ve helped tons of clients do the same (among them several financial coaches). 

And these are the steps I recommend every new coach to take. 

1. Find your niche 

First, you need to solve a specific problem. So you need to choose a niche that serves a target audience. 

For example, a few financial coaching niches include: 

• Retirement planning coaching 
• Sustainability investing coaching 
• FIRE coaching
• Real estate coaching
• Personal finance coaching 

Your niche depends on your financial expertise and experience. Most importantly, work with a client base that is WILLING and ABLE to work with your clients. 

An easy way to find your formula is to answer this prompt: 

“I help ___ to ___ so that __.”

Want to dive deeper into niches? I talk more about them here: 

2. Set up your side business

The next step is to decide on a business structure. The most common are: 

• Sole proprietorship: A structure that’s simple, but doesn’t free you of personal liability. 
• Limited Liability Company (LLC): You are more protected from liability compared to a sole proprietorship, but this legal structure is also more complicated to set up. 

For more information on both structures, read SBA’s guide. Also, read my guide on LLCs here. 

While I do recommend that you start your business as a side business, you need to treat it as a business – not a hobby. 

And if you’re wondering HOW to do this while you’re trying to manage your life and schedule, good news. I have a calendar management hack for you.

You see, when I was growing my own coaching business, I was simultaneously managing my busy corporate job. 

The way I made sure I was consistently working on my coaching business was this:

I scheduled EVERYTHING. 

Every day, I would set aside 3 x 15-minute blocks throughout the day. I used these blocks to engage in social media groups and share my content. 

That way, I had already committed to working on my business and it made it a no-brainer for me to get my tasks done. 

And once your business is generating an income that’s double your salary (so that you can account for taxes and expenses), you’re in a great place to quit your job. 

3. Get certified (if you want to)

You CAN become a financial coach without a certification – if you have the right experience. For example, I don’t have a business coaching certification. But I’ve built businesses for the past 10+ years and I’ve helped thousands of people do the same. 

I wouldn’t be more qualified to help people start their businesses even if I had a certification. 

However, if you WANT one (because you feel one will help you network, gain credibility, or anything else), go for it. If so, take a look at certifications accredited by the International Coaching Federation or a similar organization. 

Read on because further down, we’ll talk more about the best financial coaching certifications.

4. Create a financial coaching package 

The next step is to create your financial coaching package. 

Don’t overthink this part. Instead, start at a relatively low price point, get testimonials, and work yourself up to ask for higher rates. 

My recommendation is that you start selling 3-month financial coaching packages at $1,500. That’s a low-barrier commitment for your clients and you get to practice your skills as a coach.

For more, take a look at this quick video I put together for you: 

Also, check out my guide on how to price your coaching program here. 

5. Get your first financial coaching clients 

To build a massively profitable coaching business, you need clients. (Otherwise, you have a hobby, not a business.)

And the steps to get there aren’t complicated: 

#1: Share your solution to a problem that people want solved.

#2: Lead with value (aka epic free content).

#3: Share it with as many people as possible.

Repeat.

Step #1: Go to a platform where your clients hang out.

This could be Facebook groups, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube or some other platform. Focus on one or two platforms where your audience hangs out. For example, Ryan, who we talked about above, is active on YouTube because he knows his audience hangs out there. 

Step #2: Give, give, give.

On your chosen platform, start engaging and sharing content that solves people’s questions about their finances. 

This is key: Your content HAS to be incredibly valuable. Focus on giving instead of ‘selling’ or ‘marketing.’

And with “value,” I don’t mean boring.

Instead, think of why people are on these platforms:

To get entertained.

That’s what your content should do, too (and then in that content, you include your golden nuggets). 

For example, this is what entertaining and valuable content might look like. You can use this to post valuable insights about personal finance in a fun way.  

Step #3: Get on a free 15-minute call.

Once you’ve shared valuable content for a while, it’s time to start selling.

And NO, selling does not mean salesy.

If you were salesy, you would be spamming social media with annoying sales messages.

It’s the kind of stuff that business-coaches-who-shouldn’t-be-business-coaches will tell you to do. It’s not how it works. 

Instead, build some trust in an authentic way by offering a free 15-minute coaching call. During this call, you offer a valuable insight about how your coachee can manage her finances. 

Your call should be related to your coaching offer. For example: if you help people save more money, you share a simple tip on how to start saving more money by the end of the month. 

And at the end of that call, offer your services. You can say something like:

“Now that you’ve seen how much value you got in just 15 minutes, would you like to talk more about how we can work together to make this happen for you?”

This way, you share incredible value with people who immediately see for themselves how much you can help them.

Is it ethical to get clients with money problems? 

Now, you might be thinking, “All this sounds great, Luisa… But can I really justify charging people who have financial problems?” 

Let me clarify something:

If you work with people who want to get out of debt (versus people who are looking to make more money), this is NOT about you taking money away from them. It’s about you helping them get out of debt. 

People WANT help with their problems. And they are smart. (At least the kind of people you want to work with are.)

If you can show that you help get your clients results (with your own results or someone you’ve helped) and that you have a solid background in managing money, you can help your clients get results.

And in that case, it’s an investment, not a cost, for your clients.

(Imagine them NOT getting your help. Where will they be 5-10 years from now?)

Ultimately, as a coach, you are in charge of who you work with. If you don’t feel like someone will get out of debt when you first talk to them or you feel, for any other reason, that you shouldn’t work with this person, you don’t have any obligation to accept them as your client. (And instead, work with one of those thousands of people out there who are a much better fit.)

6. Market your coaching business 

Listen:

It’s easy to get stuck thinking about ALL the tactics you need to grow your business. But when you’re just starting out, you DON’T need that much in your business. 

The things you shouldn’t waste your time on right now are a coaching website, a marketing funnel, or webinar funnels.

Your first task is to get your first paying clients. Focus on that before you do anything else.

And a few great ways to get those clients is to focus on one of these marketing strategies: 

• Tap into your network: One of the best places to find your first clients is to ask people you know. And no, this isn’t about being salesy. Instead, ask people you’ve helped in the past and check in on them to see if they’d want to work with you.  
• Use social media: As we talked about above, social media is a great place to start. Read my social media guide here. 
• Get on podcasts: Podcasts are full of your ideal clients – and podcast hosts want to hear from you. Take my client Ryan, who sells real estate coaching. He’s successfully used podcasts to market his business. 

7. Grow your coaching business

When you’re making $5-10K/month or however much you need to replace your income, you can start thinking about how to grow your financial coaching business.

Because listen:

There’s SO much opportunity to build a profitable business you love.

When you have your coaching business up and running, you can either continue growing the coaching side of your business with one-on-one and group coaching and eventually hire coaches to help you out.

Or you can start selling online courses. This is a way to scale your business faster because you don’t have to deliver personal coaching services anymore. 

With your courses, you can basically deliver the same value as in your coaching program but to a much bigger group of people. 

This is when you’re starting to think of things like:

• Facebook ads
• Webinars
• Email funnels
• Expanding your marketing to different channels

By reaching more people, you get more leads into your sales funnel and ultimately, you grow your business. That’s the strategy I used for ultimately scaling my business to $1 million in a year. 

8. Learn how to coach 

You’ve found your niche, marketed your business, and have your first clients…But how do you coach and help your clients get results? 

The best coaching sessions have one thing in common: They offer TRANSFORMATION. 

In other words, they’re goal-oriented. So for every session you hold, set a goal. That goal should help your client get closer to a monthly sub-goal, which again helps them work on their overall coaching goal. 

For example, if you offer a coaching program with the goal of helping people learn how to invest 10% of their income, your coaching program might be structured like this…

Month 1: Setting up an investment plan and creating habits that help your client save and invest $100 a month 

Month 2: Finding ways to save 5% of your client’s income  

Month 3: Saving 10% of their income 

What qualifications do you need to be a financial coach? 

You know, one of the biggest myths in the coaching industry is this:

To become a coach, you need a coaching certification.

Not. True.

Yes, in some VERY specific cases, you’re actually required to get a degree or certification. Those are exceptions. 

In most cases, you don’t need a certification. That’s a way for coaching certification companies to make more money. As a financial coach, you don’t sell investment products or manage someone’s portfolio. 

Instead, you can set up shop, start working with clients (at a much lower rate than the rate you’ll ultimately aim for) and get results. 

That way, you offer your financial coach services for a lower rate, improve your skills, become an incredibly good coach, and start charging more. 

There’s an easy “test” you can take here. Consider your skills and experience. Then ask yourself, have you helped someone manage their money and achieve great results? Or yourself? Or do you have professional experience in money management?

Either way: If you have results to show, your specific type of experience doesn’t really matter. That’s because, with your results, you can show that you can help others get results, too. And that means you’re qualified to become a financial coach. 

(You might be thinking, “I have the skills, but not the results. Does that mean I can’t be a coach?” If that’s the case, there’s a simple solution. Go out there and help people, your friends or family. With their results, you’ll quickly show your value to clients.)

However, you might want a certification for various reasons. Also, make sure you’re on top of any licenses you need if you give that type of advice, such as making investment decisions for your clients or selling insurance.

And in that case, you’ll want to find the right certifications. Let’s look at them next. 

The 4 best financial coaching certifications 

What are the best financial coaching certification programs? 

While I personally haven’t taken these programs, I’ve listed the four best certification programs here below based on online information and reviews. 

1. Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP)® 

This is a formal recognition awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., for financial planning, including taxes, insurance, retirement savings, and estate planning. CFP is awarded to people who fulfill the criteria, pass exams, and continue annual education programs. 

The criteria you’ll have to meet are in the following areas: 

• Formal education (bachelor’s degree or higher degree from an accredited university or college, plus completion of specific courses)
• Performance on the exam 
• Work experience (three years of full-time experience in the industry or two years in an apprenticeship role) 
• Professional ethics 

A CFP® exam will cost several thousands of dollars, including exam fees, membership dues, and study materials and courses.

2. Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

The CFA institute offers this designation, which is the gold standard for investment analysis. 

To become a CFA charter holder, you’ll need to: 

• Pass three levels of exams 
• Have over four years of professional work experience and a bachelor’s degree OR 4,000 hours work experience over three years 
• Meet the professional conduct admission criteria, live in a participating country, hold a passport, and pass an English assessment 
• Submit reference letters 
• Sign off on the CFA’s code of ethics 

The cost of this program varies, but is several thousands of dollars. You’ll need to cover enrollment and exam registration fees, books, and study programs. 

3. Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC)

AFC, offered by the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, is a professional designation for financial counselors. Counselors include those who counsel clients individually or those who train or educate clients. 

To get accredited, you need to meet the following criteria:

• Educational 
• Ethical 
• Experience (at least 1,000 hours)

A premium bundle with more review material costs $2,175. However, there are many options for how to earn your certification. 

4. Certified Financial Education Instructor℠ (CFEI®)

CFEI is a financial coach certification program offered by the National Financial Educators Council. The designation is awarded to people who specialize in teaching money management topics in a classroom setting. 

To earn a certification, you need to: 

• Complete the CEFI course (takes about 40-60 hours)
• Pass an exam
• Show proficiency in teaching methods 
• Show a thorough understanding of personal finance topics

CEFI doesn’t allow you to manage someone’s portfolio or sell investment products. The CEFI course costs $297.

How to choose a financial coaching certification 

A financial coaching certification program is a significant investment. You’re spending money, time, and energy on getting it…so you want one that makes a difference. 

How do you make that choice, though? 

Here’s what to consider: 

• Accreditation and recognition: Choose a certification that’s accredited by organizations like FPA, ICF, AFCPE, and CFA and is recognized in the industry. 
• Content and your goals: The program you choose should cover the topics you’re interested in. For example, look for programs that help you apply what you learn in a real-world setting. 
• Cost and time commitment: How much does the program cost and how much time will it take? Those are practical questions you’ll want to ask yourself. 
• Networking: If you’re looking for a way to connect with other coaches or industry professionals or mentoring, then look for a program that offers just that. 

To choose a program, make sure you talk to others in the industry, learn more about the program and read reviews, and consider what your goals are and what program works best for your specific circumstances. 

FAQ: Become a financial coach

How much money do financial coaches make?

There’s no income cap. As a coach (and business owner), you decide how much you make. That’s one of the great perks of this line of work. As a financial coach, you can easily show tangible results (for example, money saved or made or debt paid off), which makes working with you a no-brainer. 

On average, financial coaches make $74,470 to $108,726 per year. Similarly, the average salary for financial advisors is $99,580 per year. 

Is there a demand for financial coaches?

Yes, there’s demand for financial coaches. For example, financial advisors are in high demand and the demand is expected to grow 17% between 2023-2033. Overall, interest in paid financial advice has gone up (from 58% to 63% for men and from 52% to 61% for women). 

Want to start your own financial coaching business?

Now you know what it takes to become a financial coach. 

With the right strategies, you can quickly set up your coaching business and take the first steps to replace your income with a flexible coaching income.

However, there’s only so much I can share in one article. 

That’s why I created my coaching business training program, Employee to Entrepreneur (ETE). Because I know how overwhelming starting a coaching business can be. 

When I started my first coaching business, I was in a well-paid 9-5. I wanted desperately to get out of it and be my own boss, but I didn’t want to risk everything I had built.

At the same time, I couldn’t find any advice that applied to me – someone in a corporate job who wanted to break free. I wanted a roadmap I could follow…but all the courses and programs I found were created for people who had already left their jobs. 

After years of trial and error, I finally figured out how to build a highly profitable business on the side. And so I quit my job and started helping others do the same. 

If you want to stop fumbling about building your coaching business, ETE helps you do just that. ETE is an A to Z roadmap that shows you how to grow your business from the ground up. 

Want to learn more? 

Get my FREE blueprint that shows you how to grow a successful coaching business – and learn more about ETE. 

Warmly,

Luisa Zhou

Read more: 

How to Become a Real Estate Coach

Legal Requirements for Coaches

The Top Coaching Insurance Programs