Hottest Business Ideas for 2002

Business coaches have been around for years, but today many are morphing into life coaches. After all, life and business are intertwined, and many people need help in both areas. Life coaches generally charge between $300 and $500 a month for a weekly 30-minute phone call, in which they help their clients set goals and motivate them to achieve those goals. Life coach Karen Childress, 42, in Peterborough, New Hampshire, says, "[Clients] tend to stay with coaching for a few months to a few years; if it didn't work, the industry wouldn't be growing."

And it's definitely growing. Bobette Reeder, president of the International Coach Federation (ICF) in Washington, DC, notes that when she received her coach training in 1995, there were possibly two credible coaching colleges. Today, 42 recognized schools offer coaching education and training, 10 of them accredited by ICF. And ICF, which boasts 4,500 members, is growing by some 200 members each month.

Childress says you can make more money if you recruit corporate clients and offer additional services. For instance, in the past, she offered clients her own brand of do-it-yourself life coaching for cash-strapped clients. Members would pay $12.95 a month to set, organize and monitor their goals online. Combining the dual consumer demands of coaching and convenience is just one way entrepreneurs can use their fertile imaginations to fuel opportunity as a life coach. -Geoff Williams

Next Step

Be someone's hero. Read these books to jumpstart your life-coaching business:

• Coach Anyone About Anything: How to Help People Succeed in Business and Life by Germaine Porche and Jed Niederer

• Take Yourself to the Top: The Secrets of America's #1 Career Coach by Laura Berman Fortgang

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