Business Coaches vs. Consultants
We are often asked about the difference between Consulting and Business Coaching. These terms are often interchanged, and people frequently ask for one when they need the other. As a provider of Business Consulting services (not coaching), here’s how we define the two terms.
Consulting
Business consulting refers to the practice of helping organizations improve their performance, primarily through the thorough analysis of existing business problems and development of plans for improvement. Organizations hire the services of management consultants for a number of reasons, including, for example, to gain external, and presumably more objective advice and recommendations, to gain access to the consultants’ specialized expertise, or simply as temporary help during a one-time project, where the hiring of permanent employees is not required.
Because of their exposure to and relationships with numerous organizations, consultancies are often knowledgeable of industry ‘best practices’. Consultancies often provide organizational change management assistance, development of business management skills, technology implementation, strategy development, and operational improvement services.
Business consultants generally bring their own proprietary methodologies and frameworks to guide the identification of problems, and to serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing business tasks.
Coaching
A business coach assists and guides a business owner in running a business by helping them clarify the vision of their business and how it fits in with their personal goals. Business coaching is a process used to take a business from where it is now to where the business owner wants it to be. A coach assists the owner in goal planning and keeps them accountable so that they achieve success.
After clarifying where a business owner would like to take their business, business coaches help plan and prioritize what goals and strategies are needed to help progress the business closer to its goal. A business coach will meet with the business owner regularly, either weekly or monthly, to keep them on track to the commitments made during the past coaching session.
