Life coaching is a profitable home business. However, you are going to need to be passionate about life in order to do well here. While  becoming a life coach, there are certain steps that you are going to need to follow.

Review Your Lifestyle

Take a moment to do an honest inventory of your own life. You need to be a successful person (who is living up to your own values) if you want people to come to you for advice. In other words, you need to be walking the talk. 

Choose a Specialized Area

There are a lot of different fields in life coaching that you can focus upon. This includes anger management, behavior modification, career, family life, finances, relationships, time management and even weight loss just to name a few. Whenever you are choosing which area you want to specialize in, it is important to focus on something that you know very well and actually have first-hand experience in. This way you will be able to offer your clients the best help and information. By specializing, you will have more time to grow in your knowledge, and thus be able to offer the best service possible.

Get Training

Those who excel in this field usually have a degree in either psychology or sociology. However, there are also relevant training courses that you can attend. These can last up to six months and can be taken either online or off.  Before enrolling in one of these programs, you will want to know the teacher's reputation. Make sure that you read any testimonials, ask for the teacher's portfolio and find out if the course is recommended by any industry leaders. It is also important for the course to be accredited by the International Coach Federation. Once you have completed the course, you can take exams to get certified. This will give you an advantage over other life coaches, because a lot of clients prefer to work with certified life coaches.

Develop Your Skills

Outside of taking a training course, you will also want to work to develop your analytical, communication, motivational and people skills.  There are numerous online resources and materials that can help you here.  It is also a good idea to watch other life coaches at work, and practice these skills as much as possible.

Licensing

Some states require that you be licensed in order to work as a life coach. You will want to call your local government office to see if your state requires such a license.  If so, they will have a process that you will need to go through, forms that you will need to fill out, classes that you will need to take and a background check that you will need to undergo.

Just as with any new career, it is important to learn as much as possible.  Once you have taken all of these steps to become a life coach, you will be ready to work from home.