If you are a small business owner, you will at some time need help.  Depending on what you need help with, determines whether you need a business coach or a business consultant.  They have two distinctively different roles in helping business owners succeed.

Your business coach will help you define your goals.  It’s all about you.  Your coach helps you visualize and realize how you want to business as well as your life to go.

Your coach will start with where it is you want to go.  Your coach will ask questions to help you clarify exactly what you want to accomplish and why.  The important take away is clarity.

Next, your coach will help you determine where you are now and what is standing in your way for reaching your goals.  You coach will ask questions to help you determine what is working for you and what is not working for you.

Your coach will help you discover any skills that you are lacking and help you develop a program to gain the skills you need. Your coach will help you make any shift in perceptions and thoughts that may be taking you off course.

And, finally, your coach will help you determine a course of action for reaching your goals.  You will develop a step by step plan to help you move forward as well as aid you in making decisions.

Your business consultant, on the other hand, works on the details and mechanics to help you run your business as smoothly as possible.  Your consultant will help develop policies and procedures to make your decision making easier.  They work at making the day to day operations run as they should.

The consultant’s work should end when you can easily see how and what your business is doing on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.  They will help you establish the reports and benchmarks for measuring your success.

The ultimate goal for your coach or consultant is to make themselves obsolete.  They basically work themselves out of a job by cultivating a good relationship with their clients. Through these relationships you will gain knowledge, confidence, and the mindset to take your business where you want to go.