If you’re a life coach working a 9to5 and building your business on the side, this is the conversation you didn’t know you needed.

Whether you’re sneaking in content creation between meetings or feeling guilt bubble up every time you open Canva at your desk, this blog is here to shift your mindset, expand your capacity, and reconnect you with your power.

Welcome to the Build Your Coaching Business Around the 9–5 podcast. I'm your coach, Pamela Pritchard, and I help you go from employee to business owner. Whether you're creating your first client or learning how to create clients on repeat whilst holding down your day job, I'll help you make your business dreams a reality.

Can You Really Build a Coaching Business During the 9to5?

This episode is for my coaches who are still in a corporate job. And this has come up recently with some of my clients, and honestly, it’s something that almost always comes up at least once when we’re working together.

My clients come to me because they have a 9 to 5 and they want help maintaining momentum, implementing a strategy, and upgrading their mindset so they can build their business around the 9to5 — usually with the goal of going full-time. Even if full-time for you doesn’t mean working all hours. I don’t even work full-time anymore — but I still work hard in my business. That’s a different conversation.

My Experience Building a Coaching Business in Corporate

Let me tell you about what my day looked like when I was in corporate. I started my business in January 2020. COVID hit in March/April. I was very blessed because my role allowed me to work from home occasionally even before the pandemic, but I wasn’t full-time remote.

Back then I worked in a beautiful open-plan office in Blackfriars, London. We were a trendy workplace. Laptops, phones, credit cards — all of it. I never did business stuff at my desk. But I’d book a meeting room… or stay after meetings to work on my business: content, training, coaching calls — you name it.

Then COVID happened. And unlike a lot of coaches I knew who got furloughed and had more time, I got busier. I sold HR services to the C-suite in billion-dollar companies — redundancies, furloughs, work-from-home policies… all of it went through me. I was busy. But I still made time for my business.

Is It Wrong to Work on Your Coaching Business During Corporate Hours?

Before we go any further, let me say this clearly: you are your own responsibility. You don’t have to do anything I did. I’m just sharing what I did and the mindset I had around it.

This episode is especially for you if:

• You’re in a job where building your business during work hours isn’t an option (like in healthcare) — and you're curious.

• You are doing it… but you feel guilty and shit about it.

• You’re doing it, but maybe there’s an integrity piece we need to address so you’re not dropping the ball on your 9–5.

Listen to the full episode HERE:

What Happens When You Build Your Business Out of Alignment

If you’re building your business while feeling like you’re cheating on your job, if you’re constantly worried you’ll get caught, if you feel like you’re on “stolen time” — it shows.

And not just in your energy. It shows in your content, your creativity, your confidence, your visibility. You can’t expect yourself to produce your best work when you’re secretly afraid of being found out. That’s incongruent. And that misalignment will drain you.

A Corporate Horror Story (And The Boundaries It Taught Me)

Once, I was in a meeting with a Nordic client (if you’ve ever worked with Nordic companies, you’ll know how consensus-driven they are). I had PowerPoint open… and Canva.

I shared my screen and accidentally flashed a Canva page that said something like “You deserve fulfillment in your career.” I swear it was up for a millisecond — but I was dying inside.

After that, I implemented strict rules for myself:

• Keep 9–5 tabs completely separate from business tabs.

• No training, Facebook, Kajabi, or Canva open when I was doing corporate work.

• Separate desktops or even separate laptops if needed.

Because integrity matters to me. That moment taught me to build my business without compromising my professional standards.

Your Value Isn’t Measured By Constant Productivity

This is especially important for my clients who are in senior roles — managers, VPs, C-suite. Your job isn’t just about time. You’re paid for your experience, your strategy, your leadership.

So when you have quiet periods, let them be quiet. You know that when your job needs you, you show up fully. So if you have moments where you can pour into your business, do it from integrity, not guilt.

Most employees aren’t even working constantly. They’re chatting at the coffee machine, scrolling, taking long lunches. If you’re choosing to use that time to build a mission that lights you up — that’s powerful.

You’re Allowed to Be Good at Both

You were hired for a reason. You’re effective. You’re good at what you do. Stop telling yourself you’re not. That creates more inner conflict and less energy for everything else.

If you’re going to stay in your 9–5, choose to make it work for you. That might mean:

• Changing your story about your job

• Bringing your coaching skills into tough work situations

• Reconnecting with what you used to love about it

• Giving yourself permission to do a good job — without having to give more of yourself than necessary

Your Coaching Business Isn’t Your Saviour

It isn’t your business’s job to save you from your 9–5. If your job really isn’t tolerable, deal with that directly.

Ask yourself: If I didn’t have a business, what would I do about my 9–5?

Would you look for a new job? Do it. Would you change your attitude? Great, do that. But don’t put all that pressure on your business to “rescue” you. It’s too sacred for that.

How to Hold Both — Without Burnout or Guilt

When you maintain integrity, everything shifts.

You suddenly have more energy, more focus, more capacity. You’re not drained by resentment or guilt. You can hold both — your job and your business — with clarity and power.

And when you do steal those pockets of time in your day job, it comes from alignment, not avoidance.

Final Thoughts for Life Coaches in a 9to5

I know a lot of life coaches in corporate after years of coaching Coaches with these circumstances and most of them are building their businesses during work hours in some way.

If this is what you’re doing, and you're choosing to do this, you get to do it from empowerment and integrity. Or you can do it in a way that eats away at your energy and joy.

But your future, your mission, your clients — and YOU — deserve better than that.

Want more? Listen to this episode next:
Episode 9. Overcoming the guilt of building your coaching biz around the 9to5 with Roz Bacon

Find out more about the Exit Plan HERE