I’m writing this article on Business Coach vs Business Consultant from my own perspective and opinion on this subject after 10 years (almost) working alongside Nick James growing a number of expert businesses from zero, to seven figures, and everything in-between!
I’ve also been around world class coaches and consultants, and have invested in both (well, Nick has for me).
So I’d like to think I’m kinda qualified to have an opinion that holds some weight.
Well, I think so anyway.
So, what is a business coach?
In my mind, it is someone that has two very specific areas of expertise…
Firstly, the coaching element – of course.
And by that, I mean a super high level of skill, and wealth of hands-on experience.
Secondly, experience in business.
The experience can be from playing a significant role in a business and its development , or indeed from running a successful business themselves.
As an example, I have been working alongside Nick since the spare bedroom days, and so my experience in business growth is quite vast – but, I haven’t run my own business.
You see, you need your business coach to fully understand what you’re going through and what needs to happen to move things along.
This is really important, because just a coach (without the business experience one way or another) won’t know what troubles could lay ahead from the decisions you make.
It’s for this reason you need someone who’s going to ask you the tough questions, and most importantly…
Challenge you at every stage!
You have to be challenged in order to make sure your decisions are solid – you don’t want a coach that just agrees with everything you say without doing some digging.
The coaches’ experience in business will flag things up that could cause problems, and knowing these pitfalls before they occur is certainly preferred.
A great coach will help you become much more of a critical thinker and thus uncover more potential than you thought possible.
Essentially, what a business coach will do is guide you down the right path to help you uncover the answers you’re looking for within yourself – this is how you personally grow and develop as a business leader.
It’s not simply being told all the answers.
It’s an amazing feeling when you’re on the receiving end of truly world class coaching.
Business Coach vs Business Consultant continued.............
I (and everyone else in the team and part of the Mastermind family) am incredibly blessed to have regular coaching with Tony and Nicki Vee.
If you don’t know who they are, in my opinion (one supported by hundreds) they are the best coaches in the world.
And, after building their own 6 figure coaching business; they have a wealth of real life business experience.
So, not only are they world class at coaching on a more personal, deep level; but also the business side of things too.
Tony is more of a walk with you through a meadow hand in hand kinda coach, and Nicki…
…Will kick your ass!
But only when you really need it kicking…
Which I do, often.
The other thing about truly, truly world class coaching (like Tony and Nicki Vee) is that they will work on your own personal performance.
In our experience, most of the business problems you will encounter are not even related to the business at all, it’s all the personal stuff getting in the way.
Which is why we’re so lucky to have the Vee’s.
It’s actually quite rare to find such high quality personal coaches who have the wealth of business knowledge too.
Which is why you see personal performances coaches, business coaches and many more.
Business Coach vs Business Consultant – Here’s the Consultants Job…….
Essentially, a coach is there to extract the very best from within you.
A consultant on the other hand basically tells you what to do, to get the result you’re looking for.
This advice obviously comes after a significant amount of time getting as much knowledge about your business as possible.
In the consultations I do with Mastermind Members (as the first step in their journey), the first 2 hours is spent with me asking questions, digging and digging more, until I have extracted all the possible data.
Then, based on all that data I say: “here’s what you need to do in the next 30, 60 and 90 days to get [whatever the result they’re looking for]…” (this is completely bespoke, but it’s usually about building authority and credibility in a crowded marketplace, generating more leads and making more sales etc).
Business Coach vs Business Consultant
This consulting element is not about me asking questions for them to uncover possible solutions themselves, it’s purely fact finding – there is ZERO coaching in this session.
It’s creating and handing over the plan, to then be coached through executing the plan, successfully.
Then (after 90 days) we consult again to get the plan for the next phase, and so on.
So I guess the difference between coaching and consulting, is assisting someone to come up with the solution, vs directly advising what you should do.
As a business owner, it’s probably good to have a bit of both if you can.
There’s huge long-term development in the thinking required to uncover the solutions yourself, but sometimes you just want to know what to do!
If I think about how we get the best results for experts, it’s certainly both consulting and coaching, but the majority of it is coaching.
Once you’ve worked with a consultant to create your strategy, it’s all down to being coached through it – which is why it’s important for your coach to have business experience; they need to understand how strategy unfolds and what questions to ask to ensure you get the result.
If you already have a banging strategy and you just need help executing it, then finding a good business coach will be all you need.
If you don’t already have the solid strategy to generate leads, increase sales etc., then in my opinion, you need some consulting to kick you off.
So that is it.
My thoughts on the business coach vs business consultant debate.
For me, they are very different, and there’s a need for both skill sets at certain stages of business growth.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Head over to the Expert Empires Community and let me know what you think to business coach vs business consultant (make sure you tag me in your post).
