The state of things right now isn’t exactly predictable. Costs are up, people feel cautious about spending, and there’s this underlying tension around money that’s hard to ignore. In episode 138, we talked about how people are feeling cautiously pessimistic—worried, unsettled, but still hoping for the best. We also talked about something that matters a lot for financial coaches: there’s a growing need for what we do, but need doesn’t automatically translate into demand.

People may need help more than ever, but that doesn’t always mean they’re waking up saying, “I think now is the time to hire a financial coach.”

So how do we meet this moment? How do we show up and steady people instead of sell at them?

  • Flexibility is your competitive advantage. When your expenses are lean, you can offer payment plans, adjust pricing, and respond to clients’ real needs without financial pressure forcing your hand.
  • Predictable income is a business strategy, not a compromise. Your full-time job gives you something full-time entrepreneurs don’t have: the ability to plan, save, and give your business time to grow without crushing pressure.
  • Your business doesn’t need to be impressive to work. What matters is whether it fits your actual life, serves your clients well, and gives you something nothing else in your life currently gives you.
  • Scarcity motivates action. Limited availability isn’t a weakness. Instead, it cuts down on client indecisiveness and makes scheduling easier for everyone involved.
  • Focus on activities that fill a gap only your business can fill. If your full-time job is high pressure, make your business fun and relaxed. If parenting feels thankless, let client appreciation fuel you.
  • You have to claim what you need and ask for it specifically. The hardest help to ask for is often just space, permission to focus on your business for a Saturday morning without guilt.
  • Steadiness is what your clients are craving right now. By creating it for yourself first, you bring that same grounded energy into every coaching session.

This is the next step in that conversation. Here are strategic recommendations for this season in your financial coaching business, whether you’re working full time and thinking about becoming a coach, or you’re already coaching and trying to figure out how to navigate this year without burning out.

Keep Your Expenses Lean in Business and Personal

You might be feeling tension between growth and restraint right now. On one hand, you’re told that if you want to be successful, you need to invest, hire, scale, build, go bigger. On the other hand, you’re looking around thinking something feels off. And it’s true… costs are up, people feel hesitant, and things feel less predictable now.

Here’s our recommendation for this season: keep those expenses lean.

That doesn’t mean shrink your dreams. It doesn’t mean play small. And it definitely doesn’t mean operate from fear. It means preserving flexibility, because flexibility is what allows you to be generous, creative, and responsive.

Imagine being able to offer someone your program for less than you normally would, not out of desperation, but because you can. Imagine being able to spread payments out longer so that the monthly amount feels doable for a client, because you can. Imagine choosing not to raise your rates this year, even though your costs have gone up, because you’ve decided slimmer margins are worth the impact you’re having right now.

That’s not weakness. That’s financial leadership.

Lean doesn’t mean permanent. It means responsiveness to the moment you’re in. And as financial coaches, this is what we’re good at.

Maximize Your Resources Without Shame

Something you’re likely already naturally skilled at as a financial coach is maximizing resources. The good news is your business can benefit greatly from that perspective right now.

There is no morally superior size for a coaching business. One of the best attributes of the financial coaching profession is that you can be a financial coach in lots of different ways. Some coaches work with one client at a time. Some have a side business. Some have a full private practice. Some have teams. All of these options are valid.

When I was working in corporate accounting and helping people with their money on the side, it was incredibly gratifying. That work mattered. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t my full-time identity yet.

I want to gently push back on the internet narrative that makes it seem like if you’re not all in, you’re not serious. Stability is not a compromise; it’s a strategy.

Maximizing your resources right now means looking at what you already have and using it intentionally, not judging it.

Keep Your Job: It’s an Asset Right Now

If you have a full-time job right now, you have something many entrepreneurs don’t: predictable income.

Predictable income is a competitive advantage right now. It means you can plan, you can budget, and you can save. You can give your business time to grow without putting it under crushing pressure. You might also have benefits, retirement matching, time off, and a set schedule.

Your paycheck can be a tool for your business. It can buy you time, it can fund flexibility, and it can lower the emotional stakes of every decision you make. And right now, lowering the stakes is a great strategy to adopt.

Now is not the time to rush out of your full-time job just because a business influencer on the internet says you should or you’re not serious. For many of you, keeping your job is exactly what allows you to build a thoughtful, sustainable coaching business.

Use your job to create opportunity and use your paycheck as a tool for your business while you have it. Don’t let the internet make your path feel small or wrong.

I have a team now, but I didn’t start wanting that. I didn’t even know enough to have that on my radar when I started coaching. I just wanted to make $2,000 per month. That was my goal. You can absolutely grow steadily this way. And that steadiness you’re creating for yourself? That’s the same steadiness your clients are craving right now. By living it, you’re able to bring that grounded energy to the table and to every session.

how to be a financial coach - financial coaching essentials

Design Your Business Around Your Actual Life

Your business doesn’t need to be impressive to work. It doesn’t need to be impressive to help a lot of good, hardworking people. What it needs is to fit your life.

Let’s look at three main resources: money, time, and energy.

Time

How do you find time to be a financial coach when you’re busy working full time?

First, see if your workplace has flexible options. Can you go part-time? Can you do a 4-10 schedule so you have one full day to work on your business each week instead of an hour or two each day? Can you do 35 to 36 hours each week, almost full-time, but those extra four or five hours can create a slower transition into full-time entrepreneurship?

Don’t worry if it will work next year or in five years. If it works right now, roll with it. You can always change it. I’ve worked weekends, I’ve worked evenings. Now I don’t work either of those, but I would next week if that was what was best for me, my family, and my business.

Will clients meet you if you only have limited availability? Absolutely. If anything, scarcity is a powerful motivator and it cuts down on indecisiveness for your clients. In fact, I tell coaches all the time: only give two options when you’re inviting someone to schedule with you. Say something like, “I have Thursday at 9 a.m. or Thursday at 3 p.m. available. Which one is best for you?” That’s so much easier for clients than saying,

“Let me know when is a good time and day for you to meet.”

Design your schedule around you and your needs.

How you spend your time is important. The less time you have, the more critical it is that you’re spending it proactively. That means prioritizing.

Energy

How do you make the most of your energy when you’re already working full time?

Pay attention to the time of day you are at your best. When are you more analytical or creative? I front load all of my creative work because I am much better in the morning. By later in the day, I’m much better at administrative tasks. Gain self-awareness so you can give yourself what you need to be successful.

Focus on the parts of coaching and your business that give you what you genuinely need in life right now. For example, if you’re the stay-at-home parent in your home and you’re wanting to be a financial coach too, parenting young kids is not a role full of gratitude and praise when you do a job well done. So maybe you take really good care of your clients at the end of the session and ask them what one of their main takeaways was from that meeting. That’s a beautiful way to wrap a session anyway, and it can give you a little boost as well.

If you work a very high-pressure job, try to adopt a fun, relaxed, and chill approach to your business. Don’t put pressure on yourself to set certain targets and hit them. Just focus on whether you’re having fun and enjoying it. Build your business and coaching around that for right now.

Whether you’re brand new or have been in business for a decade, there’s always more to do than there is time for. That doesn’t ever really go away. So focus on the activities that give you something nothing else in your life gives you. This makes it feel so much more sustainable, even when you’re strapped for time and energy.

Money

Consider paying someone a small amount to help you. Pay someone $20 an hour for a couple of hours each week. That’s an extra $40 for them. They get to help someone build a cool business and it could be huge help to them, even if it’s just some extra fun money. And really, it can help you too.

Invest some of your paycheck to free up time, energy, or capacity. Maybe then you spend your time marketing or connecting with people, or maybe you’re strengthening some of your business operations so that you can run more efficiently when you do go all in on your business. Or maybe you spend the time tending to yourself, your home, your family. My business has always done best when I’m taking care of myself, my family, and my home.

The Bonus Recommendation: Claim What You Need

You’ve probably heard people say that you should ask for help, but I think this is much trickier than that. You have to get really good at claiming what you need and asking for it.

The hardest help to ask for is simply space. I also find it hard to ask for permission to feel selfish, even if that’s not what I’m being. I often think, I don’t need you to do anything except tell me that it’s okay for me to ignore everyone for a Saturday morning so that I can do something that’s really important to me. Just tell me that that’s okay and that you support me.

Practice asking for what you actually need and be specific.

This Season is About Steadiness

These strategies, steps, and recommendations will help you have a successful financial coaching business in 2026. Here are some reminders:

This season is all about steadiness for you and for your clients. Think practically and strategically in your business, just like a financial coach does. Your business can be whatever you need it to be this year, and next year you can change it. In fact, you can change it whenever you want.

Maximize your resources. Be intentional with your time, energy, and money and help your clients to do the same.

And remember this: you don’t have to be great to get started, but you do have to start to be great.