Executive Life Coach
The shortcut: Get your ICF PCC before you chase corporate contracts. Without it, HR will not put you in front of a VP, no matter how impressive your prior career was.
Industry: Consulting & Coaching | Investment level: Small — $3,000-$10,000 | Time to launch: 6-18 months (PCC credentialing + assessment certs are the gate, not the LLC)
Best for: Someone with 15-25 years of senior corporate or founder experience who is willing to log 500 paid coaching hours and earn ICF PCC before pricing like a peer to the executives they coach. What you'll likely make: $2,000-$4,000 month 3, $5,000-$10,000 month 6, $12,000-$25,000 month 12 once one or two corporate engagements close. Math is in Section 4.
Market Opportunity
It's 11pm on a Sunday. The SVP just closed his laptop after an eight-hour day that felt like treading water. He's not struggling with strategy — he's struggling with something he can't name, something between leadership and the rest of his life that nobody at work gets to see. He can't talk to his team. He can't talk to HR. He could talk to his spouse, but he's done that enough that even she's running out of things to say. What he wants is an hour every two weeks with someone who has been exactly where he is — and who is not going to tell anyone.
The market is real. Global executive coaching sat at roughly $4.9 billion in 2022, projected at $6.3 billion by 2026 at a ~7% growth rate per the Grand View Research executive coaching report. The 2023 ICF Global Coaching Study put North American coaches around $330/hour average, PCC executive coaches at $400-$700/hour, MCC coaches at $600-$1,500/hour in corporate engagements (ICF Global Coaching Study 2023).
Two buyers fund this work and buy very differently. A corporate sponsor — usually a CHRO or head of talent — pays $15,000-$60,000 for a 6-12 month engagement with a VP or C-suite leader. A self-pay founder or late-career senior leader pays $500-$1,500 a session out of pocket because they won't put marriage trouble or a meaning crisis on the company tab. Both pay well. Neither will hire you without ICF PCC at minimum.
Start with this idea — free signup, no card required.
