What do health and wellness coaches need to know about their entrepreneurial endeavors?

Photo by Sarah Dorweiler

In 2017, the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching established a national board certification for health and wellness coaches (NBC-HWCs). This board researched the sociodemographic characteristics of NBC-HWCs and their interest in entrepreneurship related to gender and age.

The research found that over 50% of participants wanted to enter the private sector after they had completed their training. With this large percentage of individuals searching to work independently, Dr. Babcock has several suggestions for the training of health and wellness coaches.

  1. H&W training programs should provide students with training specifically for their entrepreneurship development and support
  2. H&W training programs should establish a baseline of developing entrepreneurship education content.

The scope of Dr. Babcock’s work looks to begin establishing a baseline within the H&W coaching field. As this field has been rapidly expanding, a documented regulation to training programs would be highly beneficial for the field.

So, what does this mean for coaches? Especially if one’s coaching career is beginning or moving to a different field, it is best to be well prepared. Understanding that your passion and drive for H&W coaching should be balanced with an understanding of entrepreneurship is key. If you are choosing to work independently, it is critical to understand what that entails as you are starting out on a new leg of your career.

You can find Dr. Babcock’s full article here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17521882.2020.1831562?src=


IOC's Tips of the Week are authored by Austin Matzelle