Improving Your Effective Billable Rate: Business Coach Training

Much of the business coach training out there confuses business coaching with business consulting. 

But they are NOT the same.

And believe me, business coaching is the far better gig.

Consultants work for entrepreneurs, subordinating themselves to the will of the business owner. They’re NOT equals — they’re employees by another name. They base their work on hourly rates and deliverables, NOT value, NOT results.

Compare that to the world of sports.

In sports, a coach recruits players, teaches them the game, puts them through the drills, prepares the game plan, shouts instructions from the sidelines, and keeps everyone motivated through thick and thin.

A coach is an equal — even more than an equal — a valued teacher, mentor, motivator, educator.

There’s a crucial distinction here I hope you haven’t missed:

A coach would NEVER jump into the game and start playing alongside the players.

You do that, and suddenly you’re not a coach anymore.

Here’s why this makes such an incredible difference. It’s all about a concept I call the “Effective Billable Rate” (EBR).

The typical successful business coach has 10 to 15 clients, each of whom invest $1,500-$3,000 per month. In return, the coach invests 1 to 2 hours of coaching per client, per week. That’s $10,000-$45,000 in monthly cash flow for 20-30 hours of client work each week. Great cash flow, for sure!

Now, consider carefully this business coach training on Effective Billable Rate. If your clients are investing $1,500 per month for 1.5 hours of coaching and related emails per week, your EBR is $250 per hour. If you’re more tenured, and your clients are investing $3,000 per month for 1 hour of coaching per week, your EBR is $750 per hour.

$250 to $750 PER HOUR!

This is the million-dollar difference between consulting and true business coaching!

Now, in my experience working with hundreds of coaches over the past 10 years, most coaches will hover between $300 to $500 per hour…an effective billable rate that gets even the most high-powered doctors and attorneys salivating because ALL of it is staying with you! And you’re doing it all from the comfort of your own home office, WITHOUT the cost and hassle of medical or law school! Not bad, eh?

But you’ll never generate that kind of income as a consultant. Not by a long shot. That’s because deliverables and hourly rates, however well-done, just don’t have the perceived high value of pure expert mentoring.

Real business coaches understand that trading time for money is “industrial age” thinking — an outdated form of business management that leads to over-servicing and under-delivering.

In the “information age,” knowledge is inherently valuable — and when it’s skillfully applied, even in just minutes, it can be worth hundreds of thousands — even millions — of dollars to both your clients and you.

So get out there and position yourself as a true coach, NOT a consultant, and start bringing in incredible effective billable rates while your clients sing your praises the whole time. That’s the beauty of business coaching — and I hope you’re getting pumped up just thinking about it!

Want to know my best secrets for finding and attracting clients who will happily pay you buckets of money to help them grow their enterprises? Check out my e-book, Secrets of a Business Coaching Rock Star, for an overview of my entire step-by-step system!