One of the most frequent questions we receive at Business Coach Academy is whether you can combine business coaching and consulting.
The first thing to understand is that in the most research survey done by the International Federation of Coaching, it showed that 94% of coaches also provided other services. The most popular of which was consulting.
It thus absolutely works to be both a combination of a coach and a consultant. We do however believe that consulting is a good add-on to coaching, whereas coaching is not necessarily a great add-on to consulting.
Why do we say this?
When you set up a consulting agreement it is usually to do with a fixed amount of time, around a specific project, and you are the one doing most of the work. If you try and switch that to coaching, and try and faciltate the generation of the owners own ideas they might not appreciate it.
With consulting you are mainly working on the business, whereas with coaching you are working on the person. So it’s hard to go from consulting to coaching, but it’s easier to start with coaching and add in the consulting aspects later.
The coaching relationship is also set up for a more long term period, whereas consulting is a very time-specific business relationship.
In our Coaching system, you learn how to create transformation in any type of person. We also help you get business owners to do the things they need to do. The eventual execution is one of the most important steps. You will learn specific questions to ask owners to assist them, and strategies to implement to help your clients achieve success.
You will often see an overlap between consulting and coaching, it just depends on your personality style and what the client needs. The most important thing to remember is to start off with a coaching offer, that provides the potential for a long-term relationship and you can then add-on some consulting practices if needed.
