Having general terms and conditions drafted for a coaching or training agency: costs and process

Having general terms and conditions drafted for a coaching or training agency typically costs €250 to €750 for custom terms from a specialized SME lawyer, with a turnaround time of approximately one to two weeks. You pay for a set that fits *your* services — individual sessions, programs, open training courses, or in-company training — and that covers industry-specific risks: the duty of care, no-shows, and cancellation of prepaid packages. Below is an explanation of what the process entails, what determines the price, and when outsourcing makes sense.

The short answer

• Costs: €250 – €750 for customized terms and conditions with an SME lawyer.
• Lead time: approximately 1 – 2 weeks.
• Process: intake regarding your services, concept, one revision round, final set.
• Price-determining factors: number of service types, consumers or B2B only, sensitive topics.
• Doing it yourself is possible for simple, exclusively business services.

Having general terms and conditions drafted for a coaching or training agency: the process

Outsourcing proceeds in a few clear steps:

1. Intake: the legal expert maps out your services — which forms (individual coaching, team training, open enrollment, in-company), whether you work with packages or individual sessions, and whether your clients are consumers or only businesses.
2. Concept: you receive a set tailored to your practice, with customized industry articles (obligation of effort, cancellation, no-show, confidentiality).
3. Correction round: you read along, ask questions, and point out what is incorrect; the lawyer incorporates that.
4. Delivery: the final terms and conditions plus a brief explanation of how to declare them legally applicable.

What determines the price?

The costs depend on how complex your services are:

• Number of service types: individual coaching only is simpler than a mix with open training courses and in-company programs.
• Consumers or B2B only: stricter rules apply to consumers (grey and black lists), which makes the cancellation and payment articles more complicated.
• Prepaid packagesrequire a careful refund and cancellation policy.
• Sensitive topics: coaching regarding burnout, reintegration, or youth requires extra attention to the liability and referral provisions.

A simple, business-only set with separate sessions sits at the lower end of the bandwidth; a set covering all service types as well as consumers sits above it.

Why not just a free template?

Free examples on the internet are rarely written for coaching and training. They specifically lack the articles that matter in this industry. Recurring shortcomings:

• No explicit obligation to make best efforts, meaning a customer can request a refund because a “result” was not achieved.
• No no-show or cancellation scale, meaning cancelled sessions remain unpaid.
• No confidentiality arrangement for in-company courses.
• Clauses that are unreasonably burdensome towards consumers and are therefore voidable.

A generic set provides a false sense of security: it looks complete, but does not cover your biggest risks.

What do you provide yourself?

A smooth turnaround starts with your input. List the following in advance:

• Which services you offer and at what rates or packages.
• Whether you request prepayment and how you handle cancellations now.
• Whether you work with consumers, businesses, or both.
• Whether you provide in-company training and what you share with clients regarding progress.
• Which material (workbooks, models) you want to protect.

With this information, the lawyer can usually hit the mark in the first draft round, which keeps the revision round short.

Have it drawn up or do it yourself?

Doing it yourself is justifiable if you exclusively provide standalone business sessions at an hourly rate, without upfront payment and without sensitive topics. A good sample set, tailored to your situation, will suffice in that case. Having it drawn up pays off as soon as more is at stake: prepaid programs, open training courses, consumers, or coaching at the intersection with healthcare. The price difference between doing it yourself and outsourcing does not outweigh a single dispute regarding a refunded package fee.

Example: A coach expands from individual sessions to prepaid packages of ten sessions. Upon the first early termination, it turns out the old template has no refund policy. For approximately €400, a custom-made set would have prevented that dispute.

Honest recommendation

Are you just starting out, conducting only standalone business sessions, and running little risk? Then you do not need to hire a lawyer for this — simply adapt a reliable set of sample terms and ensure that you declare them legally applicable. Is your offering expanding to packages, open training courses, or consumers, or do you work with sensitive topics? Then have the terms and conditions drafted to measure or at least have the industry-specific articles (duty of care, cancellation, liability) reviewed. The investment of a few hundred euros will pay for itself with the first dispute you prevent.

More background: what are general terms and conditions for a coaching or training agency and, if you prefer to write them yourself, drafting them: this is what should be included. Want to start immediately with a custom set? View the general terms and conditions for a coaching or training agency.

Frequently Asked Questions