Most coaches think charging $100 per hour means they've made it.

The math tells a different story.

Even if you work 15 hours a day, seven days a week, you cap out at $547,500 per year. That's before taxes, business expenses, or the fact that you'll burn out long before reaching that number.

But the real problem runs deeper than simple arithmetic.

The Expertise Penalty

Here's what the coaching industry won't tell you about hourly billing. The better you get at solving problems, the less money you make.

I know a coach who's been working with clients for almost twenty years. When she started, she needed ten to fifteen sessions to solve a client's problem. Ten years ago, she needed five to eight sessions. Today, she solves the same problem in one or two sessions.

Her expertise has grown exponentially. Her income has shrunk.

Research on hourly billing confirms this counterintuitive reality. Hourly rates don't incentivize you to deliver results quickly, and they do nothing to communicate the value you bring.

You get penalized for being good at what you do.

The Comparison Trap

When you charge by the hour, clients compare you based on price alone.

They shop for the cheapest option instead of looking at the quality and outcomes you provide. You become a commodity in a race to the bottom.

Everyone loses except the coaches willing to work themselves to death for minimum wage.

The industry has normalized this broken model. We've been taught that hourly billing is "the way to do it." Even when coaches bundle hours into packages like "buy ten hours, get two free," they're still trapped in the same flawed system.

What People Actually Buy

No one in the history of the planet has bought hours from a personal trainer because they enjoyed buying hours.

They wanted to lose weight, build bigger biceps, or get stronger abs. They wanted an outcome.

The same applies to every coach and every business. People want solutions to problems, not time on your calendar.

When you focus on outcomes instead of hours, everything changes. You stop being compared to other coaches based on price. You become attractive to the people who actually need help.

The Value Mathematics

Consider the middle-aged dad looking out his window at his kids jumping on trampolines, climbing trees, running around the garden. He's so unhealthy or in so much pain that he can't play with them.

How much is it worth for him to solve that problem?

Emotionally, it's priceless. Financially, you can calculate the cost of inactivity. What does diabetes cost over a lifetime? What about other diseases that come from neglecting health?

The cost of not solving the problem is often tens of thousands of dollars in future medical expenses, lost productivity, and reduced quality of life.

You're not solving problems that can be fixed in a few hours. You're addressing symptoms. The deeper problem you solve is worth far more than your time.

The Transformation Business Model

Successful coaches sell outcomes, not hours. When you become specific enough about the problem you solve and clear enough about the outcome you provide, the right people gravitate toward you.

Instead of chasing clients, people show up to work with you.

Research shows that consultants using value-based pricing can increase their fees dramatically. One consultant raised her price from $65,000 to $300,000 and won the project.

When you step away from being a commodity service, you become attractive to clients who value transformation over convenience.

The Specialist Advantage

You have to dare to step away from being a generalist who sells time to being a specialist who sells transformation.

Most coaches resist this change because they fear they won't get any clients. They worry that specializing will limit their opportunities.

The opposite happens. When you become the go-to person who solves one big problem, you become more interesting to people. They realize what you're really good at.

I meet coaches who are extremely skilled at what they do, but they never dared to become specialists. Years later, they're in the same place with the same struggles because they didn't change this one crucial business mistake.

The Choice You Face

You have to accept that the industry is broken. Anyone telling you to sell time or serve anyone with anything is lying to you.

By becoming an expert on the things you actually love doing, you become infinitely more interesting to the people who need your help.

The sooner you accept that you need to change, the faster you reach your goals. Within weeks and months, not years, you can have increased revenue, higher profits, and a waitlist of people wanting to work with you.

You have two choices. Keep selling hours and stay trapped in the $100 poverty ceiling. Or start selling transformation and build the practice you actually want.

When you make this shift, everything changes for the better.

By: Joel Iverlöv