The world of business coaching is dynamic and full of opportunities for those willing to learn and grow. This article presents valuable advice for aspiring business coaches, drawing from the experiences of seasoned professionals in the field. From finding your niche to developing powerful questioning techniques, these insights will help you build a strong foundation for your coaching career.
- Work With the Willing
- Help Others Discover Their Path
- Focus on Your Niche for Maximum Impact
- Systematize Before Scaling Your Coaching Business
- Find a Mentor to Guide Your Journey
- Trust Your Unique Coaching Style
- Take Action to Gain Clarity
- Ask Powerful Questions Instead of Giving Answers
- Validate Market Demand Before Filling Gaps
Work With the Willing
You can’t want it more than your client does.
When I started coaching, I thought if I just brought the right strategies, tools, and energy, I could fix any business. I’d stay up late thinking through their problems, reworking their org charts, writing emails they should’ve sent themselves. I was giving 110% to people giving 60%—and burning myself out in the process.
What I’ve learned is this: you can bring the truth, the plan, the experience—but if they’re not ready to face hard decisions or take real action, it doesn’t matter. You’re not there to rescue their business. You’re there to coach it. There’s a big difference.
If I could go back, I’d tell myself this: work with the willing. Focus on the people who show up, lean in, and do the work. Don’t carry the weight for anyone. And don’t mistake effort for impact.
Coaching only works when there’s ownership on both sides—and your job is to guide, not to drag.
Pete Srodoski
Business Coach, Roll With the Punches
Help Others Discover Their Path
If I could go back to day one as a business coach, there’s one core truth I wish I’d known: Your value doesn’t come from what you know. It comes from what you help others discover. I walked into early coaching sessions feeling pressure to prove myself. I thought my credibility hinged on having answers ready for everything: industry trends, growth strategies, leadership frameworks. I tried to be the expert, the fixer, the go-to source.
But here’s the plot twist: clients aren’t looking for someone to tell them what to do. They’re looking for someone who helps them think more clearly, make better decisions, and feel ownership over their path. The most transformative moments don’t come from handing someone a brilliant answer. They come from asking a better question.
To my younger self, I’d say: Drop the performance. You are not the star of the show. You’re the mirror that helps them see themselves more clearly. The quieter you are, the more they’ll talk. The less you try to sound smart, the more space you give them to feel seen. Your job is to challenge their thinking, not replace it.
Also, don’t chase perfection. The perfect framework or ideal business plan won’t move the needle if your client is stuck in self-doubt. You can’t strategy your way out of a mindset problem. What they really need is a coach who sees their blind spots, holds their feet to the fire, and reminds them of what they’re capable of. The technical side of business? That’s the easy part. The human side is where the real work happens.
Here’s a piece of advice that took me years to accept: It’s okay to not have all the answers. In fact, it’s better that you don’t. Your greatest power as a coach is your ability to listen with intention, ask with curiosity, and reflect without judgment. Clients will remember how you made them feel more than what you told them.
And finally, don’t underestimate the ripple effect. One honest conversation can shift someone’s entire approach to leadership or growth. You won’t always see the impact right away, but it adds up. Stay steady, stay curious, and keep your ego out of the room.
“You don’t need all the answers. You just need the right question at the right time.”
Aldrich Obach
Icf Coach & Enablement, Aldrich Obach
Focus on Your Niche for Maximum Impact
One thing I wish I had truly embraced earlier as a business coach? The power of niching down.
I knew early on that career coaching was my passion—helping people navigate transitions, step into leadership, or redefine success on their terms. But like so many entrepreneurs, I started out saying yes to everything. Any client who would pay, I took on. And while that built experience, it also diluted my energy and impact.
If I could give my younger self advice, it would be this: get crystal clear on who you serve and why. Focus on the clients who light you up and whose values align with yours. When you define the right niche and trust it, your business doesn’t just grow—it becomes magnetic. People will find you because you’re the go-to for them.
Clarity breeds confidence. And confidence builds the kind of business that’s both profitable and deeply fulfilling.
Adriana Cowdin
CEO and Executive Coach, Be Bold Executive Coaching
Systematize Before Scaling Your Coaching Business
If I could go back to when I first started as a business coach, I wish I’d known the power of systematizing before scaling. As a quick-start entrepreneur, I launched several programs without proper back-end systems, which created messy situations I later had to clean up.
I’d tell my younger self to document every process before hiring team members. When I created my “Bill Like A Boss” membership and insurance billing course, I initially skipped creating proper SOPs and training materials. This meant constantly answering the same questions instead of focusing on growth.
Looking back, I would have followed the “create and delegate” approach from day one. Create the container before filling it—get everything out of your head, document it in Google Drive, and then hire someone to maintain and execute those systems. This shift helped me scale to serve over 950 clinicians while traveling full-time.
The most transformative realization was understanding the one-to-many business model. As therapists, we’re trained to work one-on-one, trading time for money. When I pivoted to speaking engagements, courses, and group programs, I could serve more people while making more money—going from $175 per therapy hour to $5,000-$10,000 for the same hour speaking to a group of therapists.
Kym Tolson
Therapist Coach, The Traveling Therapist
Find a Mentor to Guide Your Journey
I wish I knew how important it is to have a mentor. There are a lot of coaches out there and a lot of coaching programs. Not all of them are created equal. To be an effective coach, you have to have patience and learn your craft. A mentor will help you through the pitfalls they experienced and help you reduce feelings of imposter syndrome. They will also help you by holding you accountable to ethics, continued growth, and staying true to yourself and your brand. A seasoned coach is also not afraid to work with you. They do not see you as competition. They see you as another person on the playing field of a very large and diverse game of life where people need all kinds of coaches to support their journeys.
Aleasa Word
CEO & Executive Coach, A. Word & Company
Trust Your Unique Coaching Style
I would advise my younger self that other people’s timelines and ways of doing business are not my own. Of course, it’s a great idea to get help and wisdom from a coach, mentor, or guru—but be careful when trying to recreate other people’s versions of success by attempting to reverse engineer their glow-up story as your own. We are here to help the world with our own unique genius and gifts.
By copying and pasting other people’s formula for success, you’ll find yourself facing a lot of resistance because you never questioned whether their style of doing business aligns with your own values, needs, and ways of working. We are here to lead from our center, and until you learn to trust that you have your own secret sauce of coaching, you will not be able to attract fully committed clients, because you’re still trying to be like others have told you to be.
Melissa Johnston
CEO Coach, Speaker, Author, Intuitive Abundance Healing
Take Action to Gain Clarity
One thing I wish I had known when I first started as a business coach is that clarity doesn’t just come from thinking, but also from doing. The real magic happens when you stop overthinking and start trusting what you already know.
I spent too much time trying to “get it right.” Perfecting offers, tweaking messaging, waiting for some kind of cosmic green light. But here’s the truth:
The version of you that builds the thing you dream of only shows up once you begin.
So if I could give my younger self any advice, it would be this:
Move. Serve. Speak. Trust yourself.
Every step creates momentum. Every action brings more clarity, even the failures. Every yes sharpens your purpose.
You don’t need more skill. You need more faith.
Jennifer Maher
Soulful Prosperity Coach, Prosperous Jenn
Ask Powerful Questions Instead of Giving Answers
Stepping into executive coaching, I thought my worth came from knowing everything. Big mistake. If I could give my past self a heads-up, it’d go like this: “Your strength isn’t in the answers you give, but in the questions you ask.”
I’ll never forget my first big-time client, the head honcho of a booming tech business. I did a ton of prep, scared stiff that she’d pop a question I couldn’t tackle. I showed up armed with heaps of game plans and tactics, all set to show I was the real deal.
What I missed at that moment was that she wasn’t looking for my spiel. What she needed was room for her own smarts to kick in.
It all clicked during a real tough talk with a CFO on the ropes. I’d been tossing out plans for ages that flopped, and then I just owned up saying, “I’m stumped on this one.” What came next threw me for a loop—the guy chilled out right before my eyes and goes, “I’m so over folks acting like they’ve got all the answers.”
I figured out the real magic in coaching isn’t when I come up with amazing fixes, but when I help clients find their own. Instead of asking, “What should you do?” the question with the most punch turned out to be, “What do you already know you’re ignoring?”
Chatting with my younger self as a coach here’s what I’d share:
Put faith in the method over your prep work. Your clients will have big aha moments not because of what you know, but because you’re there with them.
Get cozy with taking a pause. Hold back on trying to break the quiet. Often, that’s when folks will spill what they’ve been keeping secret.
Your weakness turns into your greatest strength. Saying “I don’t know” builds stronger trust with clients than showing off your skills.
Mostly, I’d remind my past self of this: It’s not about you when it comes to your clients winning. The second you get that is the second you’ll turn into the coach they need.
Justin Donne
Executive Consultant
Validate Market Demand Before Filling Gaps
Just because there is a gap in the market, it doesn’t mean there is always a market in the gap. This lesson was learned by working with many startup founders who thought the idea and execution were all that mattered, so they never bothered to think about demand. The reason I wish I had known this lesson sooner is that I could have helped those founders pivot earlier.
Shah Dudayev
Founder, Frootful Ventures
