Is coaching right for you? How to decide.

A guide to deciding, before you spend a penny.

Coaching can be a real help when your business has become the boss. It’s also a significant investment, typically anywhere between £200 and £2,000 a month is common, so it’s worth deciding carefully.

Treat it like any big business decision, such as taking on staff or signing a lease. You’ll get a better return if you know what you want from it, choose something that fits, and check that it delivers. You’re the expert in your business, so don’t leave it to chance.

My three tips

1. Know what you want it to do.
Before you speak to any coach, work out how your business would be different if coaching worked, and what that’s worth to you. Fewer hours? A higher salary? A week away with the business running? If you can name it, you can measure it, and you’ll have a business case for the cost.

2. Choose a fit, not just a name.
Look for someone who has solved your kind of problem themselves, whose process you can understand in a few sentences, and whose price works for you. Ask what working together actually looks like. If you can’t picture it, keep looking.

3. Check it’s delivering.
Agree at the start what success looks like, and review it as you go. After a few sessions you should be able to point to something that has changed, not just something you’ve talked about.

Coaching works best when...
You can give it 3 to 4 hours a week. Coaching is a powerful way to hold belief for you until you can hold it yourself, to give you a deadline that brings a task to the top of the list, and to help you see a stuck problem differently. You still have to do the work.

Coaching isn’t the answer if...
You need a quick fix in an emergency, you’re looking for a cheap solution, or you’re hoping it will make a hard thing easier or do it for you. (It might help you work out how to hand a task over, though.)

Still not sure? Try the free worksheet below
It takes about 20 minutes and helps you see what’s working, what isn’t and what would make the difference.

Offer: If you’d like to talk it through, the worksheet includes details of how you can send me your completed worksheet and get a complimentary session, with no obligation.