How to Become a Sleep Consultant (24 Helpful Ways & Tips)

Need ideas on how to become a sleep consultant?

Then you are reading the very right article.

It contains really helpful ways and tips for becoming a sleep consultant and earning money from the process.

 

Importance of Sleep Consultants

There are certain things that the body cannot do without.

Including food and water, the other important necessity of restoring the body’s strength is the need for sleep.

Every organ benefits from the sleep that we receive and without one’s proper rest it can lead to issues such as depression and cardiovascular disease.

There are occasions when we have difficulty falling asleep and we try a number of methods to induce that sleep in our lives.

We may use meditation, calming sounds as we lay our head on the pillow, utilize over the counter products that are designed to chemically induce sleep, etc.

There are many disruptions that can cause sleeplessness which can include being anxious about something, drinking too much caffeine before going to sleep, being an insomniac, and so forth.

New parents know a little about losing sleep as the arrival of a newborn into the family is spectacular, but the baby can create a stir in our routine and be disruptive and can prevent us from getting the sleep that we need.

A career profession, that can help new parents to help overcome the needs of this welcomed new member to the family that causes our sleeping schedule to be changed, is through the occupation of a sleep consultant.

 

24 Helpful Ways & Tips for Becoming a Sleep Consultant

 

1. Know all about what a Sleep Consultant is

A sleep consultant is a professionally trained individual in the area of providing sleep strategies for adults and particularly parents of infants.

The ultimate purpose is to help the individual or the parents to implement strategies to help realize qualitative and restorative sleep.

 

2. Know all about what a Sleep Consultant does

When working with a family of a newborn infant a sleep consultant will provide a variety of exercises and techniques to address a variety of sleep issues for the newborn in regard to naps and nighttime sleeping.

Some of the particular areas that they will assist the family in include:

• Premature wake-up times
• Waking up a number of times through the night
• Inconsistencies with napping
• The infant needing to be held or rocked to sleep
• Time battles
• Etc.

The sleep consultant will introduce and teach a number of sleep-inducing techniques such as:

• Pickup putdown
• Feeding sleep method
• The chair method
• And much more.

 

3. Personal Requirements

To be a sleep consultant especially in the area of working with families and infants there are certain personal traits include:

• Flexibility
• Humility
• Engaging personality
• Trustworthy as it relates to the children
• Patience

 

4. Educational Requirements

There are no specific educational requirements needed to be a sleep consultant.

However, there are courses that can be taken and can be accessed through online sites.

One of those courses offered can be found by clicking here.

 

5. Is Licensing Required?

At this time there doesn’t appear to be any licensing requirements to provide the services of a sleep consultant.

However, for your state of residency, it is always important to check whether your state does or doesn’t require any certification.

Also, this would be classified as a business, and it may be prudent to look at going through the creation of a formal business model and applying for the various permits and licensing requirements.

 

6. Importance

The importance of pursuing a sleep consultant career will help not only the families that you will be involved with but yourself as well as.

In regard to the family, you will help the child to form good sleeping habits that will serve them well in their life.

Also, you will help the family of the infants because if the child is sleeping then it stands to reason that the parents will be sleeping as well.

In addition, being a sleep consultant is a rewarding career that will bring you fulfillment and provide purpose in your life due to the rewards of helping others plus a career that will pay you monetarily.

 

7. How to Charge?

When you are involved with a family and teaching the child good sleeping habits you will earn a good consultant wage.

If you work part-time on a monthly basis you can expect to earn anywhere from $1500-$5000 per month.

If you work full-time on a monthly basis your clients will increase and you can anticipate earning $5000 to $15,000 a month.

 

8. Timing Involved

To become a sleep consultant, and decide to take an instructional course, it would take you anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks to complete the course and earn your graduation certificate.

 

9. Research

When looking to start a sleep consultation company it is important to conduct your research.

Your research can begin with the number of babies that are born over a certain period of time in your community.

You could reach out to maternity doctors, pediatricians, etc. and find out if families have approached them for ideas on how to provide meaningful sleep for their newborns or toddlers.

This can be done through a questionnaire and hopefully individuals would take the time to respond to your interview or questions that you pose with the purpose being of helping their clients and reducing the stress on newborn parents, especially the mother.

 

10. Competition

Another part of your research would include evaluation of the competition and their appreciation by their customers.

Evaluation of other sleep consultants in the area can be accomplished by looking at their webpage to get an idea of their pricing and extent of their services.

You could also look for reviews that may have been posted about these sleep consultants to see what the feedback or reviews are from their customers.

 

11. Have a Business Plan

An important tool to work on as part of starting a business as a sleep consultant is the creation of a business plan.

A business plan is a roadmap for your business that takes you from your starting point and works on through to the inauguration of your business and continued success.

There are a number of components that make up the business plan.

Some of those components include:

• Executive summary
• Marketing plan
• SWOT analysis
• Budget
• Marketing analysis
• And more

 

12. Fees and Permits

Your role of being a sleep consultant and operating a business will require some upfront costs.

Those upfront costs are associated with various fees, licensing and permits that you may need to register for and pay the appropriate costs as required by your state and community.

It is important to do your due diligence as it relates to investigating the requirements to operate as a business and provide this service.

Some of the fees and permits could include:

• Business permit
• Possible home occupation permit
• Possible professional occupational license
• Zoning permit
• Sales tax permit
• And so forth

It is important not to get overwhelmed by all of this and just take it one step at a time.

 

13. Networking

An important way of providing exposure for your business is through networking.

Networking is that action that you take to interact with other business owners and leaders in the community to promote your business, share what your business is all about, and be involved with the services that other businesses are involved with as well.

Networking opportunities would present themselves by joining an organization in the community.

Such organizations would include:

• Rotary
• Kiwanis
• Soroptomists
• Altrusa
• Lions Club
• Chamber of Commerce

 

14. Marketing

As part of your business plan, you probably have outlined a marketing strategy.

Most likely that strategy includes the full use of social media platforms, mailings, connecting with baby-oriented businesses, pediatricians, word of mouth advertising by offering discounts, etc.

 

15. Insurance

Another important consideration to protect yourself and your investment is to investigate business insurance for your company.

You can reach out to a variety of carriers, talk to their agents and find out what policies they would suggest providing the coverage that you need.

By doing this you can also get a quote as to what your monthly premiums will be.

The basic insurance that you most likely will be incurred with would be general liability insurance.

 

16. Banking

When starting your business one of the preliminary action steps that you should take is the creation of a separate bank account.

The purpose of a separate bank account is so that your personal finances and your business finances are segregated and not mangled together.

This is helpful especially when tax time rolls around, and you don’t have to sort out what income and expenses belong to you and what belongs to the company.

It goes without saying that when you open a checking account, you should try to work with a bank that has no or minimal fees as it relates to the various banking services and also how after-hour deposits can be made.

 

17. Pricing

When it comes to pricing and what you charge to your clients the general rule of thumb is what the market will bear.

If there are other sleep consultants in the area it is important to stay within their price range so that you don’t undercut your fees, nor do you overcharge and drive potential customers away.

Also, you could charge by the hour, by the week or offer a package that will take in the whole gamut of your services at one lower rate.

 

18. Budget

An important part of a successful business venture is to ensure that you have a workable budget in place.

The important aspect of the budget, income, and expenses is to determine what your expenses will be as it relates to costs for operations.

Some of the line items that should be addressed with an appropriate amount of budgeted money would include:

• Any rentals of space
• Insurance
• Salary
• Travel
• Utilities
• Phone service
• Technology
• Continuing education
• And so forth.

These amounts should be added up and you can divide your annual budget by 12 representing each of the months.

To determine the income that you need you would need to make sure that all of your expenses are covered plus add in a profit margin for your business success as well as allowing for contingencies.

 

19. Seminars

Another possible opportunity to promote your business would be to provide seminars.

These seminars could be short in duration and present an overview of what a sleep consultant can do with the intent of raising awareness of this profession and possibly engaging customers.

Or you could give a full-blown seminar and teach about the importance of sleep, various exercises and methods that can be utilized to bring about sleep, sleep patterns, and so forth.

Also See: Best Apps to Get Paid and to Make Money While You Sleep.

 

20. Website

An important component of your sleep consultant business is the creation of an engaging website.

The website should include narrative that utilizes keywords that are associated with the sleep consultant business.

Some of those keywords could include:

• Sleep deprivation
• Getting a newborn to sleep
• The various methods that you incorporate
• Postpartum depression
• And so forth

When an individual looking for your service utilizes these keywords in their search engine your website will hopefully populate their screen.

Also, the website should include links that indicate your philosophy, your training, what you can do for a family, testimonials of satisfied customers, contact page, etc.

 

21. Ongoing Seminars

It is important that you continue your education beyond any certification that you may receive.

By attending ongoing workshops or seminars this will expose you to new techniques or processes as it relates to being a sleep consultant and can be part of your educational portfolio.

 

22. Charity

Another way to get the word out about your sleep consultation business is to work with a charity.

Ideally the charity would be involved with women and children with a possible suggestion being a battered women’s shelter.

In addition, often charities conduct fundraisers and one of the aspects of their fundraising is a silent auction.

You could donate a consultant session to the charity so that they can auction the item off, raise money for their cause, and also this donation would help to market your services to others who may have need of your professional sleep consultation expertise.

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23. Blog

Another tool that you can utilize to promote your sleep consultant business is by blogging.

You can blog about everything related to the power and therapeutic need of sleep that the body requires.

Specific items that you could write about could include:

• Natural sleeping techniques
• Teaching children how to sleep
• Relieving anxiety
• Importance of a sleep consultant (how and when to use)
• Etc.

Your blog could be extremely interesting and potential followers may support you through monetary donations as well as affiliate advertising and possibly gaining a sponsor.

Also, it is important to link your blog back to your website for potential customers to learn more and possibly book your services.

 

24. Contract with Hospitals

Another possibility of increasing your services to the community is to work with hospitals.

You could find out who the best individual is, or which department is best to reach out to and indicate to them your sleep consultation business and helping new families to cope with infants that may be having difficulty developing their sleep patterns.

You could also add in the fact that this could minimize any effects of postpartum depression on a mother which may reduce appointments, and involvement of the hospital or the use of insurance.

 

Personal Story

When I pastored a church, I would sometimes interject humor in my introduction on Sunday mornings when delivering a message.

One of my favorite set of jokes that seemed to resonate with the congregation was “you know you’re getting old” jokes.

For example, you know you’re getting old when your back goes out more than you do or you know you’re getting old when everything that works hurts and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work.

One of my favorites was you know the best part of the day is over when the alarm clock goes off.

Little did I know how true that would be in my life today as I find I take naps and go to bed earlier and when I wake up it seems to be the same old grind.

I’m able to fall asleep without any problem which is a blessing, but the problem is when I have to wake up.

 

Make Money Becoming a Sleep Consultant FAQs

 

What Money Can You Make as a Sleep Consultant?

A sleep consultant can charge and earn, depending on their market, around $300 for two weeks of consultation services.

This according to a Wall Street Journal article.

 

How Many Sleep Consultants Are There?

As of this writing there are less than 300 registered sleep consultants.

 

You Can Do It

If you enjoy families, are knowledgeable about newborns and others who have sleep pattern difficulties, wish to be helpful by restoring the re-energizing miracle of the body and sleep, have the personality and needed skill set, then a prime occupational opportunity for you is to become a sleep consultant.

 

Conclusion

Newborn babies welcomed into the family are not disruptive but have their own schedule and set of needs.

The conflict is that the needs of the baby need to be met first before other needs of household members of the family can be addressed.

When it comes to sleeping you cannot program a baby like you can with a computer and tell the cute and cuddly infant who went to sleep and when to wake up.

They are on their own timetable and their sleep is sometimes disrupted through a variety of physical needs such as being hungry, needing a diaper change, etc.

The occupational role of a sleep consultant is a new and cutting-edge service that trained individuals now provide for families to help with all involved so that restorative sleep can be realized.