How to Find the Right Business Coach — and Avoid the Wrong One
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At its best, business coaching can connect you with a mentor and supporter who helps you generate ideas, make plans and execute on them.
But at its worst, a business coaching offer can cost you time, energy and money — without much to show for it.
Here’s what to expect from a business coach, how to find a coach that suits you and how to spot red flags.
What a business coach can do
Business coaches draw on their professional experience to help you set and achieve your own business goals.
“I'm here to help you, and I'm here to raise your level of knowledge in whatever way I can,” says Gary Robinson, who chairs the Memphis, Tennessee, chapter of SCORE. SCORE offers free business mentoring for entrepreneurs nationwide.
Some ways a business coach or mentor might do this include:
Offering feedback on your ideas and suggesting new ones.
Giving you templates and other tools that help you make plans.
Connecting you with resources in your region or your industry.
Giving you deadlines and holding you accountable to them.
Some business coaches may also offer coursework or group training sessions on particular topics, like sales.
Working with a coach should help you identify opportunities you hadn’t seen before or develop new strategies for pursuing those opportunities, says Sophia Sunwoo, who coaches women and nonbinary entrepreneurs through Ascent Strategy, her New York City-based firm.
“[Coaches] don't necessarily have to have all the answers,” Sunwoo says. “But they are the people that know how to maneuver and create a bunch of different thinking paths for their clients.”
What a business coach can’t do
A business coach isn’t the same as a consultant, whom you would hire to perform a specific task. A coach or mentor could look over your business plan, for example, but they wouldn’t write it for you.
“If you were to hire me as a consultant, you would expect me to roll up my sleeves and pitch in and work with you to get things done, and you would pay me for that,” Robinson says. Coaches, on the other hand, “try to show you how to do things so that you can do them [yourself].”
Business coaches are also not therapists, Sunwoo says. Entrepreneurship can be emotionally and mentally taxing, but it’s important that coaches refer clients to mental health professionals when necessary.
Business coaching red flags
If a business coaching opportunity “promises guaranteed income, large returns, or a ‘proven system,’ it’s likely a scam,” the Federal Trade Commission warned in a December 2020 notice.
In 2018, the FTC took legal action against My Online Business Education and Digital Altitude, which purported to help entrepreneurs start online businesses. The FTC alleged these companies charged participants more and more money to work through their programs, with few customers earning the promised returns.
In both cases, these operations paid settlements, and the FTC issued refunds to tens of thousands of their customers in 2021 and 2022.
To avoid offers like these, the FTC recommends that you:
Be wary of anyone who tries to upsell you right away or pressures you to make a quick decision.
Search for reviews of the person or organization online.
Research your coach’s background to see if they’ve accomplished as much as they say.
Sunwoo says to also be skeptical of one-size-fits-all solutions. A coach should customize their advice to your personality and skill set, not ask you to conform to theirs.
“The moment that a business coach pushes you to do something that is really not compatible with your personality or your beliefs or values,” Sunwoo says, “that’s a huge problem.”
How to find the right coach — maybe for free
Here’s how to find a coach that will be as helpful as possible.
Determine whether you need advice or to hire someone. A coach isn’t the right fit for every business owner. If you need hands-on help organizing your business finances, for instance, you may need a bookkeeping service or accountant. And take legal questions to an attorney.
Seek out the right expertise. A good coach should be aware of what they don’t know. If they’re not a good fit for your needs — whether that’s expertise in a particular industry or a specialized skill set, like marketing — they might be able to refer you to someone who’s a better fit.
Consider free options. There may be some in your city or region:
SCORE offers free in-person and virtual mentoring in all 50 states, plus Guam, Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.
See if your city has a Small Business Development Center, Veterans Business Outreach Center or a Women’s Business Center. All are funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration and offer free training and advising for entrepreneurs.
Do an online search for city- or state-specific programs. Philadelphia, for example, offers a business coaching program designed for entrepreneurs who want to qualify for particular business loan programs. Business incubators often offer courses or coaching.
Make sure your coach is invested in you. They should take the time to learn about you, your business and its unique needs, then leverage their own experiences and creativity to help you.
“I’m on your team now,” Robinson says of his clients. “Let’s do this together and make this a success.”
