Small Business Support: How do I Choose between a Coach, Consultant, and Strategist?

Before we begin today, I want to say: thank you for being with me during this series. It’s a bit different than our normal deep dive on a specific topic, and I enjoy forcing myself to think critically about this meta-education, of sorts. It’s good for us to hold the mirror up and ask ourselves pointed questions about why clients hire us (and why they don’t). Asking ourselves tough questions is what ups our game! So to that end, last week I answered: What’s a Small Business Advisor? And today, I want to go deeper, to give you some practical steps and tools when you’re considering small business support. I hope to also help clarify: How do I choose between a Coach, Consultant, and Strategist?

When is the right time to seek (paid) Small Business Support?

I think in its simplest form, there are three times when it makes sense to pay for help.

1. You feel like you’re on the hamster wheel.

In other words, you’ve been doing the same thing over and over, and you haven’t leapfroged forward. However, I do want to clarify something: often when we’re working with clients for multiple years, they go through phases (as does Ellevated Outcomes; afterall, we’re a small business too!). And every year or couple of years, you do reach a (new) stage and then feel like you’re on a hamster wheel. The reason is: if you’re growing well, you’ll implement a new strategy, get to a new level, and then it’ll all start to feel like same old, same old again. This is totally natural. The key question to ask yourself is:

“If I zoom way out, have I moved forward? If I feel at this moment like I’ve taken a step (or two) backwards, have I taken a total of three steps forward?” Meaning: “I’ve moved the big picture forward; I’m just currently in a superficial setback.”

Last week, a prospect said to me:

I don’t want to look back one year from now and be in the same place.

BINGO.

2. You’ve reached maximum capacity.

In this sense, when I say “maximum capacity,” this could be in literal workload. There’s no more time in the day, your machinery can’t handle more volume, or your team is maxed out in hours. On the other hand, it could mean: you’ve reached the capacity of what you know or feel the energy to take on, alone.

And more on that point: if you know the exact thing you need to learn or have done for you, this could be the place for a Coach or Consultant. Our experience is that people often don’t know what they need to know, and that’s where a Strategist is helpful (more on all of this below). But if you’ve pinpointed the thing where you need help, go the Coach or Consultant route! I’ve done this for myself and/or Ellevated Outcomes in the areas of money mindset, setting up specific technology tools, and product launches. I do strategy for a living (duh), so it’s easier for me to articulate: “Here’s where I/we need help.” And I’m thrilled to pay for it!

3. The opportunity is so vast and large, that you’re overwhelmed by it.

This is linked to the capacity point above. If this is how you feel, it’s likely that you’re at capacity, and there’s more coming your way. Or you know there’s an adjacent opportunity that you can’t even tap into yet. You feel overwhelmed when you start to think about it. If this resonates with you, you’re going to want some help sorting your way through the opportunity. Because you will go further, with the right partners by your side.

What should I know, before I begin my search?

Here are some questions to ask yourself before you begin your search:

What do you need?

You may know what you need, and you may not. The clarifying guidance I’d give you is: be able to talk about the problems and pain you’re experiencing. Then, the right coach, consultant, or strategist should be able to ask you clarifying questions – or pose challenges – to help here.

What am I willing to put in, time and energy-wise?

You will get out, what you put in.

How do you like to learn?

Classroom style, in a group, or personalized 1-1? There are pros and cons to each of these, so you need to know yourself well. As an example, personally, 1-1 will work well for you if you value bespoke business or first class service, customization, and high accountability. And then on the opposite end of the spectrum, classroom style may be a good choice for you if you are disciplined and hold yourself accountable. So you just need to know yourself, to know where you’ll get the most bang for your buck.

What qualities are you looking for?

What’s most important to you? Examples may be: deep technical understanding of your business problem… or personal connection / chemistry… or experience of working in your field.

How will I measure success?

This is where I see most people go wrong with a Consultant (and it’s not the consultant’s fault!). The prosepctive client isn’t able to clearly state what success will look like and how they’ll measure it. When you walk into an engagement with that ambiguity, you’ll likely leave dissatisfied.

How do I find the Small Business Support that’s a great fit for me?

When you have some answers to the above questions, talk to businesses and people you admire. Ask if they know anyone – or have worked with anyone – that can help you with those specific things. Your answers from above will give you clarity and direction when you’re asking your network for help / referrals. The more specific you can be about your request, the more pointed direction you’ll receive. It’s like the old computing adage: “garbage in, garbage out.”

Once you have some names of coaches, consultants, or strategists that you’re interested in, follow their thought leadership. I believe that anyone who “sells” information, should share free and meaningful content with the world: podcasts, IG, or blogs (they’re not dead, right? Right?!). Afterall, it’s the generous thing to do, and its their (our) product. It’s our obligation to show you that we know what we’re talking about!

What should I ask during a prospect meeting?

If you go the route of a personalized 1-1 service, get the most you can from that prospect meeting. I’m a big fan or preparing well to get the most from anything you do. And if you’re about to make a sizeable investment in yourself / your business, you should do everything you can to prepare!

First of all, know this: there should be plenty of room for you to do the talking. (So being able to answer the above will be a major help to you). In our business, we say that a successful prospect meeting is when the prospect does 60-75% of the talking.

We have 1 hour to deeply understand your issue and ensure that we can help solve it. So we – or anyone you speak to – should be a keen listener and sharp question-asker. If you get on a prospect call and the Coach, Consultant, or Strategist is talking at you, you both walk away unsure if they can really solve your unique needs. Plus, it just feels ick (technical term).

Alongside sharing your responses to the questions you’ve asked yourself, here’s what you should ask during the meeting:

• Do you have a process? How boilerplate is it? Will there be enough room to customize this to my business and goals?
• Do you think I should choose a specialist in my field? If you’re a specialist in my industry, how will we ensure that this isn’t a copy and paste model that makes me blend in with my competition? If you’re not a specialist in my industry, do you have some examples of work or clients that you think applies to me?
• What does accountability look like? What does my participation need to look like, to get the bests results?
• Where would I stack up on your roster of clients? In other words, would I be on the “advanced” or “entry level” side of the spectrum? Or in the middle of the pack? (What you’re looking for is: is there room for me to grow with your business, 1 project or year, down the line?)
• When is your next opening and what is the investment?

And here are a few things to ask yourself internally, during the meeting:

• How’s the chemistry? Do I like this person? Do I trust this person?
• Did they say something new or challenge me in a way I hadn’t considered? (This is a good thing!!)
• If you have objections, don’t keep them in your head. Say them! A good Coach, Consultant, or Strategist wants you to challenge them. If you do end up going with them, it also gives them a line of sight into areas where they should really (over)perform for you. Our team LOVES it when someone poses an objection. It doesn’t hurt our feelings; it’s helpful information and insight into them and lets us rise to the challenge. It’s another chance to up our game.

Finally, set yorself a deadline to decide.

For prospects where we think we’re a good fit and vice versa, we tell them that we’ll follow-up in 48 business hours. And please don’t get me wrong. It’s certainly not an ultimatum or anything like “This price expires…” (if someone says that to you for a 1-1 engagement, run). And if someone explicitly says: “I’m talking to my spouse over the weekend” or “I have a couple calls lined up” – by all means, that’s no problem at all.

But here’s why we set a deadline for our Strategist services: pyschologically, humans (all of us) need deadlines to get things done. So when we give a prospect a deadline, it’s for 2 reasons:

1. This is simply how a decision will be made, plain and simple. We humans are not as smart as we think we are, ha.
2. For us, because client experience is such an important part of our process, we manage our client capacity and hiring schedule very carefully. So we actually do need to know if/when someone wants to work with us so that we can hold their spot (I promise it’s not a scarcity tactic!).

And the same idea should be true for you too. If you’ve decided (per #1) that it’s time for some help, don’t leave the indecision hanging over your head, taking up mental bandwidth. Even if your decision is “no” or “not now,” that’s totally fine. Decide and move on!

So: elephant in the room, of course we think that small businesses should hire a Strategist (Business Advisor) when the time is right for them. And actually: a Coach and Consultant can have a home with you too, at the right time for the right reasons. And we’re happy to help discern that, to ensure you’re getting the best bang for your buck. So assuming that the timing, requirements, etc are all in line, we say: it’s best to just begin.

Here’s how I always think about it: once you see something, you can’t unsee it. If I’ve identified a problem that’s taking up brain space, and someone’s shown me a solution, I can’t wait. The real estate in my head is far too valuable to be consumed by something that I know, someone can solve for me. It’s like starting a new movement or eating regime. If you wait until Monday… or next week… or next month… you know that you’re not actually going to do it. Once you know, you know. Just begin.

PS – if you’d like to trial any of these techniques 😉 we will be filling our calendar for summer consultations and kickoffs soon. We’d love to speak with you, if you think you’re ready for a Business Advisor. You can complete this form to get on our consultation list.