How business advice and coaching works in practice

When people are thinking about getting some help and support for their business, and thinking about getting some business advice, coaching, mentoring or support (whatever you want to call it) they want to know both how it works in practice, and what it actually achieves.  Here’s a little video of me, talking about all the practicalities of business advice, how to get the most out of the process (and out of me).

Watch out for the bit where I reveal the secret of my success…

Julia Chanteray’s video on how business advice and coaching work in practice

A transcription of my video about how business advice and coaching work in practice is at the bottom of the page.

What to do next

If you want some help getting to grips with your business, deciding on your next steps, and being really clear about how to make a real success out of what you do, let’s get together and talk about how I can help you.  Let’s set up a date to meet up for a coffee and chat, either in person or by Skype.  Here’s how.

More about how business advice works

Find out more details about how my business advice and coaching works including how much it costs and what to expect.

What’s the difference between business advice, business coaching, mentoring, consultancy?

Good question.  The short answer is that these are all the same thing, and you should find someone who has a good reputation, knows their stuff, and can help you to grow your business.  But here are my thoughts on the subtle differences between business advice, coaching, mentoring and consultancy, to help you make the right choice.

Video Transcription

If you’re in a crowded office, on the bus with your mobile, or there’s something wrong with my site, you might not be able to watch the video.  So here’s “How Business Advice and Coaching Works in Practice” in good old plain English words

“Businesses come to me because they’re ready to take their business to the next stage. They want to make a change in it. Maybe the business isn’t doing what they want it to do. My job is to help my clients to get where they want to go faster than if they were on their own. And also to make that journey a bit less scary because they’ve got somebody who knows what they’re doing, on their side.

So I’m their guide on that journey. In practice, what people do is they come and see me, or we have a Skype session, twice a month. And we get together for a couple of hours for the sessions. We really get into the detail.

And then, in between those sessions, people talk to me on the phone, by email. They send me things that they’re doing. They talk to me about problems that have come up in between sessions. And quite often that’s the really valuable thing. We work out the strategy for the business first of all. And we work out what’s the grand plan? What are we doing? What do we need to put in place? What changes do we need to bring in? And then, over time, I help the clients to implement those changes.

So the secret of my success, and the secret to my fulfilment is that I’m not a regular consultant that comes along and says, “Right, here’s a report that I’ve written of all the stuff that you already probably knew of how to change your business”. And then you read the report and think, “That’s very interesting”, then put it on the shelf and don’t do anything.

Because I see people over 6 to 12 months, I help them to implement those changes and make things really happen. I don’t have a lock-in, so there’s no minimum time that people need to work with me, no minimum contract. And people can decide for themselves how long they need me for. Some people come for 3 months; some people come for 3 years, depending on what they need. And the average, when I analysed it, was 6 to 12 months. That would be a normal period of time.

I have a sliding scale between £650 per month and £1,200 per month. And I work that out according to where the business is right now, how much money they’ve got right now and how much money they’re going to make, extra, with my help.”

Business advice sessions on Skype

That’s me in action, in a business advice session on Skype.  Just so you know what the office looks like, and my current reading list/monitor stand.