Financial coaching or business coaching?
Both are real options. They differ most on who signs the cheque, which decides almost everything else: the fee, the sales cycle, and what you have to prove before anyone pays.
Financial coaching
Bounded above by regulation.
- Hourly
- $100 to $200/hr
- Crowding
- Lightly worked
- Who buys
- A household or sole trader trying to change financial behaviour, not to pick investments.
- Where work comes from
- Referrals, Employer wellbeing programmes, Content
- You need first
- Clear separation from regulated financial advice. Comfort with other people’s numbers.
- The catch
- Regulated neighbours set your ceiling: clients compare your fee to an adviser’s, and the line you must not cross is narrower than it looks.
Business coaching
Crowded, but the buyer has a budget.
- Hourly
- $150 to $400/hr
- Crowding
- Heavily worked
- Who buys
- A founder or owner-operator spending company money on a revenue problem.
- Where work comes from
- LinkedIn, Referrals, Speaking and podcasts
- You need first
- A track record buyers can verify. Fluency in the client’s numbers.
- The catch
- Very crowded at the entry end, and clients measure you against revenue, which is both the opportunity and the exposure.
The short answer
Business coaching pays about $33,000 more a year at the midpoint. That gap is real, but it is not free: it usually comes with a harder entry and a longer sales cycle.
Financial coaching is easier to enter. Clear separation from regulated financial advice is the main gate, against a track record buyers can verify on the other side.
Financial coaching is less crowded. That matters more than most niche advice admits: being the hundredth entrant into a well-paid seam is usually worse than being the fifth into a moderately paid one.
If your background already points at one of them, take that one. Credibility you already have is worth more than a slightly better band you have to spend three years earning.