I’ll probably just be adding on to the other’s input, but here’s my experience:
How many hours? to write plans and review logs - probably 25% of my time. Like others mentioned, owning a business, training when I want, etc - t’s a lifestyle so not really concerned with how many hours. Some days it’s 8 hours of work, other days it’s 18. It just depends. But writing articles, meetings with coaches, athletes, potential sponsors, creating better systems, new projects, and so on take a large majority of time. The easiest part is writing plans. The most fun is meeting with athletes. Like someone else said, I don’t consider any of that work. I’ve been coaching since 1989 and coaching triathletes full time (no other job) since 2001. Another poster mentioned various revenue streams, and this is where you can do well with your business. There are lots of ideas out there to expand your brand professionally (i.e. Training Camps) and not in a cheesy way.
How many athletes: for me, honestly 10-12 athletes. I also have 8 coaches and 3 nutritionists working with us too, so there’s more than just managing those 10-12 relationships. I think of each athlete as a ‘relationship’ and like Ian mentioned, when someone emails you, you need to know all the details of that person’s training. As soon as they become a number, you have too many athletes. And I went that way in the beginning - high volume - and it was too much work and not enough satisfaction. Lower numbers lead to higher quality coaching and long term retention and so on. The more you get to know an athlete, the better the relationship is and the quality factor goes way up.
Typical income - all over the place, depending on how many hours you want to work, how many athletes you want to coach, and how many other revenue streams are out there for you. For some coaches they can gross 1/2 a million and others are happy with $20-40k. It just depends on how hard you want to work and how good of job you want to do. Kind of like asking a stock broker how much money could you make if you want to switch to that career. It just depends. I remember reading an article on Joe Friel where he talked about how much he worked when he started coaching - he didn’t take a day off for like 5 years or something. That sounds about right to me - I started with 18 hour days when I launched my business and worked every day. There are less 18 hour days now - but when I’m working on a new project, like now - there are more of them. Thing is, those days, although long, are fun and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing!
Supplemental income - not if you do it right!
With kids / family: Unless you had a few years saving, I think it would be tough. It takes time to build a solid resume, reputation and to grow your athlete list. If you could start part time and grow your group to say 10-15 at $400/month you’d be doing ok.
Satisfaction: Like Ian, I had a few other jobs that didn’t pan out when I was younger and coaching is the one thing I love to do. It’s an incredible feeling helping someone reach a goal they didn’t think they could attain - whether it takes 6 months, 18 months or 3 years. It’s a career that’s best for folks who love to help others, and aren’t worried so much about being uber wealthy.
I hope that helps.