A referral income guide for business coaches: from introduction to commission statement

A 90-minute coaching session surfaces things a tax return never will. The founder who admits she wants out within three years. The owner-manager whose entire retirement plan is the phrase the business is my pension. The client who just banked £400,000 from a partial sale and is quietly terrified of it.

These are financial-advice moments dressed up as strategy conversations. You are often the only professional in the room when they happen — and the only one the client trusts enough to say them to. But coaching is not a regulated activity, and the moment you suggest a specific pension, investment or protection product, you have crossed the FCA's perimeter with no authorisation and no insurance behind you.

The answer is not silence. It is a clean hand-off: name the issue, normalise getting advice on it, and offer an introduction to someone regulated. That keeps the momentum you built in the session without carrying risk you cannot hold.

A referral arrangement has four moving parts, and they run in a fixed order. One: consent — the client agrees to be introduced, and you confirm it in writing. Two: the advice process — fact-find, risk assessment, recommendation, all owned by the regulated adviser. Three: the fee event — if the client proceeds, the adviser charges an initial fee, commonly a percentage of assets or a fixed project fee. Four: your share, paid under a pre-agreed introducer arrangement and evidenced by a commission statement.

Realistic expectations help. Introducer shares typically run 20% to 25% of the initial fee. A case involving a £400,000 investment decision might produce a four-figure initial fee, so the introducer share is meaningful but not life-changing per case. The compounding comes from consistency: a coach with twenty active clients who surfaces even five genuine advice needs a year builds a steady, zero-delivery-cost income line.

Coaches worry that taking a referral fee taints the trust. The evidence points the other way — provided you disclose. Tell the client, plainly and in writing, that you may receive a payment if they proceed with the adviser, and that they are free to choose anyone else. Concealment corrodes trust. Disclosure rarely does; most clients read it as professionalism.

Two further habits protect you. Refer to vetted advisers only — check the FCA Register yourself, it takes two minutes — and never let the fee shape the referral. If the honest answer is that free guidance from MoneyHelper covers it, say so. Networks like SmartPeer exist to handle the tracking and generate the disclosure letter for each introduction, which keeps the admin invisible to the client. The referral should feel like part of the coaching. Because, done well, it is.