How does payment work?

Below are payment details for:

• Each of the ways you can make money through Coach.me: chat coaching, group/cohort programs, custom coaching packages, calls
• Each of the payment situations a client can be in: your own client, a client referred to you, a client you referred to someone else.

A huge number of clients on Coach.me come through referral as part of the affiliate network. In order to join the network you must pass basic quality controls and agree to share revenue in exchange for referrals.

The Coach.me affiliate system works on a revenue share that places a premium on the value of user acquisition. To receive clients through the affiliate network, you need to be willing to share 50% of your initial billing (capped at $1k).

When To Expect Payment

We calculate payments at the end of the month and send you a report on the 10th of the following month. Payments are processed electronically through Gusto that same day and generally available within 4-5 days. (You will be onboarded in Gusto after the month you earn your first $25 in income.)

How We Handle Refunds

In the unfortunate event of a refund request or disputed charge, you will be responsible for the refund and potential bank penalties (typically $15/charge). However, we will handle contesting the request as long as there was a record that you provided the requested services. Thankfully, refunds for good coaching are quite rare. 

Our payment processor takes disputed charges out of our bank account as soon as they receive the dispute. And it can take 90 days or more for that money to be returned if we dispute the dispute and win. 

If a large dispute has already been paid out to you, we will place an immediate charge on your credit card to reclaim that payment. To date, this has never happened. But it's more likely with coaches charging hundreds of dollars per month. 

Direct Chat Revenue

If you are using our tools with your existing clients, we simply charge a payment processing fee of 5% + 0.30 per transaction. These clients do not count toward any affiliate bonuses below.

Chat Affiliate Share: 50%

For affiliate clients (Coach.me or another coach referred the client to you), we do a 50/50 revenue split. 

Habit chats are typically sold between $25/week and $87/month depending on the length of subscription. Additionally, some coaches offer custom packages as high as $1,000 per month. Generally, we also offer a variety of discounts and trial periods in order to get new customers to sign up for you (we do experiment with different prices and subscriptions, so pricing may change). From that net revenue, we share 50% with you and then give out an additional referral bonus to the affiliate network.

Chat Affiliate Bonus

If you are referring clients to other coaches then we will give you an affiliate bonus that is a percentage of revenue that we generate from that client.

The affiliate bonus for custom packages is 25%. The bonus for habit chat referrals is based on the chart below.

Chat Details

Here are a few more points that you may want to know.

• We handle payment processing fees out of our end. There is no additional 5% payment processing fee in the event of a referral.
• Philosophically, we consider refunds to be a cost that should be shared by the coach. The most common case where a refund will come out of your earnings is if you request a refund to fix a coaching mistake or if you stop coaching your client without alerting us.
• There is one promo code that is meant to allow you to offer your coaching for free. You should refuse to coach anyone who uses this code with you without your permission.
• Referrals to yourself do not count toward the affiliate bonus system. This case is covered above under Direct Coaching Fees.
• Referral counts add up no matter which coach you refer to. So, you could get into the 25% category by referring six clients to one coach or by referring six clients to six different coaches.
• To allow for pro-rated refunds, net revenue is calculated based on days coached and is pro-rated for mid-subscription cancellations. 
• The monthly payment only includes payment for days coached during that month. Subscriptions that span two months will be pro-rated between those two months (in case the client cancels).

Direct Call Revenue

If you are using our tools with your existing clients, we simply charge a payment processing fee of 5% + 0.30 per transaction. You set the price of your calls and also offer the option for us to sell call packages at a discount (10% for 3 and 20% for 5).  Beyond that, we don't give any promo codes for calls. We pay out coaches for the month where the call took place, not the month where the call was booked. So please make sure to mark each call as complete as they happen.

Call Affiliate Share: 30%

For affiliate clients (Coach.me or another coach referred the client to you), you share 30% of the call revenue with the affiliate network. 

Call Affiliate Bonus

If you are referring clients to other coaches then we will give you an affiliate bonus that is a percentage of revenue that we generate from that client.

We offer a higher base revenue share to coaches for calls simply because we don't think we're providing very much infrastructure (you have to schedule the calls yourself). The base rate is 70% and the referral rate is 20%. Because of the higher base rate we don't offer higher referral bonuses for volume.

Call Details

• We handle payment processing fees out of our end.
• Philosophically, we consider refunds to be a cost that should be shared by the coach. For disputed calls, we check the chat history for proof that the call took place. If we can see a clear history, then we will try to side with the coach.
• Referrals are paid to the person who introduced the client to the coach. We don't give referral bonuses for upselling a call to an existing client.

Plan Revenue Share: 50%

You set the price of your plans and can change that price at any time. Some purchases may be discounted based on use of a promo code. From that gross revenue, we share 50% with you and then give out an additional referral bonus according to the chart below. 

Base Revenue Share: 50%

Fine Print

• We handle payment processing fees out of our end.
• Philosophically, we consider refunds to be a cost that should be shared by the coach. For plans, we almost always give unhappy customers a refund and deduct that from the revenue share total.
• Referral counts add up no matter which plan you refer to. So, you could get into the 25% category by referring 26 clients to one plan or by referring 26 clients to 26 different coaching plans.

How to Qualify for Affiliate and Referral Bonuses

Your coaching dashboard has a referral code that you can use to promote any coaching on Coach.me. Just add it to the end of any coach.me URL, like so:

https://www.coach.me/tony?ref=DbvXq

If a client purchases a coaching product after following that link, you will receive referral credit for that purchase (but not follow on purchases). That credit is good regardless of whether the purchase is for your own coaching service or for another coach's services. 

You are free to act either as a self-promoter, referring clients to yourself, or as an affiliate, referring clients to other coaches. We credit each identically and will pay out to you for the life of the purchase.

We give credit to referrals that:

• Are trackable via cookies. Basically that means we can only credit what we can see. A visitor that follows your link and then comes back the next day from another computer isn't trackable by us.
• Are purchased within 30 days of following the link. 
• Are the most recent referral. A client following multiple promotions, including our own, will give referral credit to the last referral link that they followed.

Example of Referral Bonuses

We're aiming for simple payment terms. But there are all sorts of edge cases or questions that crop up. Here's an example to help make it more clear.

Imagine, you referred in 26 clients on June 31, 2019. 

You make 20% extra on each of the first five clients for as long as they are being coached. You make 25% extra on the next five clients for as long they are being coached. You make 30% extra on the next 15 clients. And for the 26th client, you make 40% extra. 

Those are your referral bonuses that get higher as you refer more people.

On June 30th, 2015, you referred in one more client. This is your 27th referral in the span of 12 months. So this client is in the 40% bonus range.

On July 31, 2020, you refer one more client. This is your second referral in the last twelve months. The other 26 were 13 months ago so they are out of range. So for this client you’ll get a referral bonus of 20%. If the client from June 30th is still active then you’ll still get the 40% bonus on that client.