The client ceiling: what it is and how to find yours
The client ceiling is the point where you cannot add clients without your coaching getting worse. Find yours by dividing the hours you can coach each week by the minutes each client takes a week. If check-ins take 20 minutes, weekly, and you coach 15 hours, your ceiling is 45 clients. Check-in debt, the reading and replying that grows with every client, is what sets it.
How do I work out my client ceiling?
Your ceiling = coaching hours a week x 60, divided by minutes per client per week. Minutes per client per week = minutes per check-in x check-ins a week.
| Hours a week | Check-ins | Minutes each | Ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Weekly | 20 | 45 clients |
| 15 | Weekly | 30 | 30 clients |
| 20 | Every two weeks | 20 | 120 clients |
Where do most coaches hit it?
Most coaches plateau between 30 and 50 clients. High-touch coaching takes 30 to 60 minutes per client per week, and in one sample of 201 coaches the median coach ran 5 active clients and 81% ran under 20.
How do you raise it without coaching worse?
Take the typing and the remembering off the check-in and keep the judgment. When a reply arrives already written from everything that client told you, the minutes left are the ones only you can spend: the decision about what changes next week.
