Most new coaches start without a written agreement. The first few clients are people they already know, the work feels informal, and asking someone to sign something seems like it will break the mood. Then a client disappears for six weeks and comes back expecting the sessions they paid for. Or cancels an hour before and assumes there is no charge. Or tells you something serious and asks whether you are going to keep it quiet.
None of those are dramatic situations. They are ordinary ones. And every one of them is easier when both of you already agreed, in writing, what happens.
An agreement is not there to protect you from your client. It is there so neither of you has to guess. Here is what belongs in one.
Who is doing what, and for how long
Start with the shape of the engagement. How many sessions, how long each one runs, how often, and over what period. Whether there is contact between sessions — email, voice notes, a shared document, or none — and how quickly you answer when there is.
Then the part people leave out: what the client is responsible for. Coaching does not work if only one person is doing anything between conversations. Say it out loud in the document.
Give the engagement an end. A coaching relationship with no end date drifts, and drifting relationships are the ones that end badly. An end date is not a goodbye — it is a point where both of you look at what happened and decide on purpose whether to keep going.
Money, in the order it actually happens
Say when payment is due, not just how much. Before the block starts, session by session, or in instalments on named dates. Say what happens if a payment is late — the usual answer is that work pauses until it clears, which is kinder than chasing and far kinder than resenting someone quietly for a month.
Then refunds. Decide the answer now. Do unused sessions come back? Is there a point after which they do not? How fast do you pay? A refund policy written after somebody asks for a refund always reads as improvised, and you will be writing it while upset.
If you are still working out what to charge in the first place, price from your own floor rather than from what other coaches say they charge — that calculation is here.
Cancellations, reschedules, and no-shows
Four decisions:
- How much notice you need, stated in hours.
- What happens to a session cancelled inside that window — rescheduled, or used up.
- How many reschedules a client gets inside one block, so an eight-session engagement does not stretch across a year.
- What you owe them when you cancel. A one-sided policy is obvious to everyone who reads it.
Write the rule so that it produces the same answer whether or not you find the reason sympathetic. That is the whole point of writing it down in advance. A policy you apply only to the clients who irritate you is not a policy, it is a mood.
Confidentiality, and its limits
This is the clause people get wrong, because the generous version is also the dishonest one.
Say what you will keep private: the content of sessions, anything they share, the fact that they are working with you if they would rather that not be public.
Then say what could force disclosure. Coaching generally does not carry the legal privilege that conversations with a lawyer or a licensed clinician can have. A court order or a subpoena may be able to reach your notes, and some states place reporting duties on people in certain roles. You do not need to explain the law in the document — you need to stop promising something you cannot deliver. Ask an attorney in your state what actually applies to you.
Two more: if you want to use their story in a testimonial or a case study, that needs separate written permission, asked for later, not buried here. And if you take your work to a supervisor, mentor coach, or peer group, say so, and say that details are anonymised.
What coaching is not
Put the boundary in the document rather than leaving it to a difficult conversation later. Coaching is not therapy, medical care, legal advice, or financial advice. You do not diagnose and you do not treat. If something a client brings belongs with a licensed professional, you will say so and help them find one — there is more on how to recognise that moment and how to say it.
And say plainly that there is no guaranteed outcome. No coach can promise a job, a promotion, or a raise, because none of those are inside your control. An agreement that implies otherwise is a problem for you, not a selling point.
Ending it early
Write the exit while the two of you still like each other. Either side can end the engagement with notice. Say how much notice, what happens to sessions already paid for and not yet used, and that you will point them toward other options if the work stops being the right fit.
Most engagements never need this clause. The ones that do need it badly, and by then nobody is in the mood to negotiate.
Records and messages
Say what you keep — notes, intake forms, message history — where it lives, and how long you hold it before you delete it. Pick the retention period on purpose and write it down rather than keeping everything forever by default. Keep it all in one controlled place with a unique password and two-factor authentication, not scattered across a personal inbox and three apps. And say whether a client can ask for a copy of what you hold about them.
The boring parts that still matter
- Which state's law governs the agreement.
- How a disagreement gets handled before anybody goes anywhere near a court.
- That changes to the agreement only count in writing, signed by both of you.
- Full legal names on both sides, and the business name you actually operate under.
An electronic signature is fine for this. Use a tool that timestamps it and emails both of you a copy.
Before you use it
Have an attorney licensed in your state read it. Check whether your insurer requires particular language. Then read the whole thing aloud to yourself — if a sentence needs explaining when you say it out loud, rewrite it until it does not.
Send it before the first session, not during. A client who reads it calmly on a Tuesday evening signs it. A client who is handed it as the call starts spends the session wondering what they just agreed to.
This article is general educational information, not legal, tax, financial, or career-counselling advice, and reading it creates no professional relationship. We make no promise that you will earn any money or reach any particular result — that depends on your own work, skills, and market. Certification requirements, fees, and rules are set by the issuing bodies and change; confirm the current terms with the body itself before you rely on anything here.