Hit or Miss? 

Business coaching — helpful or harmful? It can cost hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars a week. And while some say it’s worth every penny, others felt like they threw money away. Entrepreneurs who’ve made the investment share their experiences — along with helpful advice for anyone else considering a coach

Nechama Norman, real estate agent

“I found my sessions with my coach… boring”

I started investing in coaching a few years back. My first coach specialized in real estate, which meant he had a lot of helpful background and experience in my field. His focus was on accountability and goal setting. We met once a week over the phone and went through all my stats from the week before: How many calls did I make? How many doors did I knock on? How many new contacts did I save to my phone?

The accountability worked — it pushed me to meet his expectations. But I hated it. Did I need to account for every move I made over the week? Why couldn’t I just do the work and leave tallying the details of what I did aside? I realized the importance of what he was aiming at, but it felt like this was his one and only goal. I’ve never been such a meticulously calculated person, and his method was way too intense for me. Some weeks I worked hard, taking a number of clients to see a number of properties every day, and some weeks I worked less, showing just two or three clients a property or two — and that worked for me. I didn’t want to be made to feel guilty about a morning off.

Eventually, I realized that I found my sessions with my coach… boring.

All the accounting was making my business feel heavy. There was nothing organic and casual, so I didn’t enjoy it anymore.

My coach was a cheerleader — and an amazing one — but that’s not what I needed. My family and friends support me every step of the way. They already celebrate my wins with me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay someone a few hundred dollars a week just to give me validation. What I did need was someone with boots on the ground — someone a few years ahead of me in the field. If I hit a wall, I wanted to be able to turn to my coach and he’d tell me, “Here’s how you climb the wall. Got to the top? Great. Now here’s how you propel down.” I wanted someone who would give me new ideas for excelling in my work and help me approach my business with more confidence.

What I needed, I realized, was less of a coach and more of a consultant.

Coaching and consulting often overlap, but they’re not the same thing. Consulting is when someone trains you in best practices — whether general business approaches or industry specific situations. While a coach does give some ideas and teach new things, that’s only 20 percent of the work instead of all of it.

For example, if a client is struggling with cash flow — a consultant will first audit their business to find the leaks and then teach them how to implement systems like profit first, cash allocation, and more. The coaching kicks in when they hit a bump. Why are you struggling to implement this system? Do you have any unhealthy mindsets that are holding you back? And how can we work through all that?

—Sara Sicherman, business coach