Gleaning wisdom from seasoned professionals, this article offers unvarnished advice for aspiring business coaches. It distills key strategies and hard-earned lessons to guide newcomers through the complexities of coaching. Discover actionable insights that can make the difference between a fledgling practice and a thriving consultancy.
- Under-Promise and Over-Deliver
- Never Stop Learning
- Listen More Than You Speak
- Build Authentic Trust
- Keep Building Businesses
- Tell People Things They Don’t Want to Hear
Under-Promise and Over-Deliver
Starting your own business coaching service will test your confidence, no matter how much experience you have. You’re stepping into a space where you’ll need to punch above your weight, and that means working as hard on yourself as you do on your clients. Growth, resilience, and adaptability aren’t just lessons for your clients—you’ll be living them firsthand.
One of the most valuable habits you can build is to under-promise and over-deliver. Surprise and delight your clients at every interaction. The smallest details—listening fully, providing thoughtful insights, or following up with an unexpected resource—can make all the difference in building long-term trust.
You’ll work with people from all walks of life and at all levels of business, but at the core, everyone wants the same thing: kindness, courtesy, and respect. Never judge a book by its cover. Approach every interaction as your best, most authentic self.
Be prepared to never stop learning. Staying on top of industry trends, new strategies, and emerging challenges is crucial, and it can be overwhelming at times. Use every tool at your disposal, but don’t spread yourself too thin trying to do everything. Know your strengths, and when something isn’t in your lane, have a network of trusted coaches and consultants you can refer clients to. Trying to serve everyone at a mediocre level just for a paycheck will cost you your reputation. Referrals and integrity, on the other hand, will build it.
Most of all—this isn’t easy. You may have to work twice as hard in the beginning, but the rewards can be deeply satisfying. Stay focused, stay learning, and above all, stay committed to delivering value.
Melissa Mohr
Founder, Mohr Coaching and Development
Never Stop Learning
You can’t help someone work through their blind spots if you’re not working through your own. Yet, many coaches fall into the trap of believing they have all the answers. After all, if you’re coaching others, shouldn’t you have it all figured out? Shouldn’t you already be the expert?
But here’s the truth: the best coaches never stop learning. They don’t position themselves as the all-knowing authority—they stay open, evolving, constantly refining their own mindset and skills. They have mentors, seek guidance, and surround themselves with people who push them to think bigger, challenge their assumptions, and stretch beyond their comfort zones. And most importantly—they have their own coach.
I’ve seen coaches who struggle to help their clients overcome fear, self-doubt, or limiting beliefs—while privately wrestling with the same struggles themselves. They guide entrepreneurs on pricing their worth while undercharging themselves. They help leaders navigate tough decisions while avoiding the difficult ones in their own business. They coach clients on delegation, scaling, and setting boundaries, yet find themselves overwhelmed, doing everything alone, afraid to say no.
You can’t take clients to places you’ve never been. If you’re not growing—not working through your own resistance, not challenging your own mindset, not actively investing in your own development—your coaching will stagnate. Clients feel that. They sense when advice is theoretical rather than lived experience.
So my advice? Be the kind of business owner you’d want your clients to be. Invest in yourself as much as you expect your clients to invest in you. Work with a coach. Be willing to ask for help. Coaching isn’t about having arrived—it’s about constantly moving forward, so you can bring others along with you.
Sylvie Di Giusto
Keynote Speaker & Author | Helping Professionals Lead Better, Sell Faster, Persuade Instantly, Sylvie di Giusto
Listen More Than You Speak
If I could give one piece of advice to new business coaches, it would be this: listen more than you speak. I know it sounds simple, right? But it’s so easy to get caught up in sharing your expertise and offering solutions. What’s more, the real magic happens when you truly hear what your clients are saying, both the spoken and the unspoken.
Here’s what you need to know: it’s not about having all the answers. It’s about asking the right questions, the ones that help your clients uncover their own answers. Trust me, they already have them inside. Your role is to guide them, to create a safe space where they can explore their thoughts and ideas. The most important thing I’ve learned is that coaching is less about telling and more about empowering. When you listen deeply, you build trust, and that’s where real transformation begins.
Cindy Cavoto
Founder – Cindycavoto(dot)com
Build Authentic Trust
As a life coach, just like in business coaching, I’ve learned that building authentic trust comes before anything else because real transformation and progress only happen when people genuinely believe you’re invested in their success.
No matter how insightful your coaching techniques or strategic frameworks may be, clients won’t fully embrace your guidance unless they feel safe, respected, and truly heard. Trust begins the moment someone senses that you genuinely understand and care about their unique goals, struggles, and motivations.
For new business coaches, it may be tempting to focus strictly on results, metrics, or strategies at first, but sustainable success always starts with a relationship rooted in genuine care, respect, and transparency.
In practice, this means actively listening without assumptions, consistently showing empathy, being transparent in your communication, and keeping your promises. Clients intuitively recognize when a coach prioritizes their personal growth alongside tangible business outcomes; this foundation of trust allows for deeper sessions, stronger engagement, and real breakthroughs.
Bayu Prihandito
Psychology Consultant, Life Coach, Founder, Life Architekture
Keep Building Businesses
Don’t stop building businesses. It may be tempting to be a coach full time, but entrepreneurship, in today’s technological landscape, is fast-paced and things change rapidly. What worked great 5 years ago doesn’t work well today, and that’s happening faster as new channels, formats, and trends get introduced.
If you want to be a valuable business coach, make sure you’re still building businesses. Otherwise, your advice will become outdated fast.
Shah Dudayev
Founder, Frootful Ventures
Tell People Things They Don’t Want to Hear
Advice for new business coaches is, “You must be able to tell people things they don’t want to hear.” Don’t be so hungry for money that you compromise your principles just to maintain a good relationship with clients.
The most important thing I’ve learned is to explore what really motivates the people you are coaching. I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that improving quality of life is high on the list and often far more important than making more money.
Mike Loughrin
CEO and Founder, Transformance Advisors
