Should You Hire a Business Coach? Questions to Ask Before You Commit

Hire a coach if you are early and need fundamentals. Skip one if you already have the answers and just need to execute.

Most owners ask the wrong question first. They ask "how much?" before they ask "for what?"

Start with your stage

If you are under roughly $1 million in revenue, a one-on-one coach is usually the right call. Your problems are narrow and a single experienced person can work them with you. Past that mark, your problems get complicated enough that you need more than one brain on them, and a peer board starts to pull ahead.

I say this as someone who runs peer boards. I would rather you pick the right tool than the one I sell.

Five questions to ask yourself

1. What specific problem am I hiring for? "Grow the business" is not a problem. "I cannot get past five clients without burning out" is.

2. Will I take feedback I do not like? A coach who only agrees with you is a very expensive friend. If you will argue every point, save your money.

3. Do I follow through without a reason to? Part of what you pay for is accountability. Someone to answer to next week. If that does not motivate you, a coach will not either.

4. Have I tried the cheaper options? Free and low-cost resources can take you further than most people expect. Read, ask other owners, sit in on a roundtable. Pay for help once you have hit a wall those cannot get you past.

5. Can I afford to be wrong about this? Treat it as a business decision, not a hope.

Questions to ask the coach

• Who have you worked with at my stage, and what changed for them?

• Have you run a business yourself, with payroll?

• How do you handle it when you disagree with me?

• What does the first ninety days look like?

• How do I know it is working, and what happens if it is not?

The last one is the test. A confident coach has an answer. A vague one changes the subject.

A note on the word "coach"

I call myself a business owner consultant, and what I run is a peer board. That is on purpose. A board is not one person telling you what to do. It is a group helping you see your own situation more clearly. The best coaching, board or one-on-one, works the same way: the answer comes out of you, sharper.

Not sure which route fits? Talk to me for twenty minutes. I will tell you honestly whether a coach, a board, or neither makes sense right now.