Book 15 with TomBusiness coaching has a slightly woolly reputation, mostly earned by people who sell motivation by the hour. So here is a plain English answer to what a good business coach actually helps with, and what they should not pretend to do.
In short: a business coach helps owners and leaders see the business clearly, decide what matters, and follow through. The rest is detail, and the detail is below.
The five things a business coach most often helps with
1. Priorities. Turning a long list of good ideas into a few clear priorities, owned by named people, reviewed regularly.
2. People and leadership. Roles, hiring, feedback, delegation and meetings, so the team owns its work and the owner stops being the bottleneck.
3. Sales and growth. A steady, human way of winning work, a clear offer and sensible pricing.
4. Numbers. A small set of weekly numbers the owner understands and uses to make decisions.
5. The owner’s time and energy. What only the owner should do, what can be handed over, and how to stop running on fumes.
What a business coach does not do
A coach should not do your accounting, give legal or tax advice, write your compliance documents or take over running the business. Where you need a specialist, a good coach says so and helps you find one. If you want a specialist to deliver a project, that is closer to consulting. Our guide to business coach vs consultant vs mentor explains the difference.
What it looks like in practice
At Mr Purple coaching follows three steps. Discovery: we learn how your business really runs. Diagnosis: we look past the loudest symptom to the cause, using Mistakeology to treat repeated problems as data. Transformation: agreed actions, owned by named people, checked against evidence between sessions.
A typical session ends with three or four specific actions, not a pile of inspiration. The next session starts by looking at what happened.
Signs coaching could help you
- The business only works when you are in it
- You know what to do but it never quite happens
- Growth has made things messier, not easier
- You have nobody neutral to think big decisions through with
Bring one business wobble
Fifteen honest minutes with Dr Tom Hitchcock. Bring the problem you cannot quite name. No surprise proposal ambush and no hard sell. If coaching is not the right move, Tom will tell you, and usually point you somewhere useful.
What Does a Business Coach Help With: questions people ask
- What does a business coach do day to day?
- Runs structured sessions with the owner or leadership team, helps set priorities and actions, follows up on progress between sessions, and challenges thinking when it drifts.
- Can a business coach help with mindset?
- Partly. Confidence and clear thinking matter, and coaching helps with both. But a good business coach keeps it practical and tied to decisions in the business. Mental health concerns belong with a qualified health professional.
- How long does business coaching take to work?
- Most owners notice clearer priorities and better follow through within the first few months. Bigger changes, like stepping out of daily operations, take longer and depend on how much the business needs to change.
- What does a business coach cost?
- It varies with scope and format. See what a business coach costs in Australia for how to judge value.
We also offer business coaching for particular sectors where Tom has deep experience: business coaching for NDIS providers, business coaching for aged care leaders and business coaching for allied health practice owners.