Relationship coaching or life 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.
Relationship coaching
Deeper than it looks, heavier to work.
- Hourly
- $100 to $200/hr
- Crowding
- Steadily worked
- Who buys
- A couple, or one partner, usually late rather than early.
- Where work comes from
- Referrals, Content, Therapist networks
- You need first
- Training in holding conflict. A clear referral route to therapy.
- The catch
- Sessions are longer and emotionally heavier, so the per-hour figure understates what delivery actually costs you.
Life coaching
The surface seam: easy to reach, worked by everyone.
- Hourly
- $75 to $200/hr
- Crowding
- Picked over
- Who buys
- An individual paying from their own pocket, usually at a turning point.
- Where work comes from
- Instagram, Referrals, Word of mouth
- You need first
- A specific transition you can name. Testimonials more than credentials.
- The catch
- The easiest niche to enter and the hardest to monetise, because the outcome is the least measurable. Almost everyone who struggles to price coaching is competing here.
The short answer
Life coaching pays about $5,000 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.
Life coaching is easier to enter. A specific transition you can name is the main gate, against training in holding conflict on the other side.
Relationship 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.