Chances are, if you’ve landed on this page, you or someone you know is on the lookout for a business coach in or near Boston, MA.

If that’s the case, it’s likely you’re an entrepreneur, under pressure and wondering if it truly is possible to find joy in your business again.

The good news is, it absolutely is, and I’m here to help you find your way back to a business you love.

If you stick around for the next few minutes, I’ll answer some of the questions you probably have about coaching, and specifically, what business coaching looks like with me. Here are some of the topics I’ll take you through:

1. What does a good business coach do anyway?

2. Who do business coaches work with?

3. What qualifies someone to be a business coach?

4. Why Boston?

5. What are the qualities of a good business coach?

6. How often should I meet with a business coach?

7. What if I can’t afford a business coach?

8. What questions should I ask when hiring a business coach?

9. How can we work together?

If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re thinking of hiring a business coach, I’m glad we’ve met. I’m a qualified and award-winning business coach based just outside of Boston. My name is Hanneke. I have 18 years’ business experience, and I can help business owners like you take your company to the next level.

1 What does a good business coach do anyway?

A good business coach will simultaneously be your biggest cheerleader, and kick your ass or call you out when you need it.

Yes, that’s what we do. And if you’re serious about wanting to grow your business, it’s what you need.

The best business coaches combine real-world business experience with powerful coaching techniques to unlock your full potential. They should be a great listener, ask thoughtful yet challenging questions, enabling you to get to the heart of the issues you’re encountering in your business.

They will work with you at the highest level, with customized tools, as well as one-to-one or group calls, to enable you to implement systems, make the right hires within your business, and retain a growth mindset. If you want to know more about what a business coach does, check out this article here.

When I work with clients, my process is this:

1. We first do vision clarification and personality tests to align your vision with the way you operate best, and to establish your decision-making process. We do this to ensure we understand the most efficient way for you to lead in your business to grow it faster.

2. Next, we create an action plan. 

3. This is all supported by bi-weekly or monthly calls, as well as Voxer (like voicemail) support between sessions. 

During the engagement, we tackle and co-create solutions while always keeping your vision and the way you operate best in mind, ensuring we’re always aligning your process with your goals.

2 Who do business coaches work with?

Business coaches usually select a niche to specialize in. I’ve personally chosen to work with high-achieving entrepreneurs who started out as solopreneurs, have grown to running a small team, and who are now looking to step out of their day-to-day and gain more freedom in their business.  

They know they’re missing a few key ingredients that will take their business to the next level of professionalism, growth, and profitability.

Specifically, these are the kinds of successes my clients have achieved as a result of working with me:

• Growing from multiple six figures to seven figures and beyond

• Scaling to multiple locations

• Negotiating sale of their business

• Fundraising, buying new businesses.

Talk about upleveling! They are totally badass.

Other coaches might choose to work with a particular type of business, e.g. franchisees, restauranteurs, startups, female entrepreneurs or service-based businesses. They might coach employees at large corporations, high-flying individuals, people right at the beginning of their career, or even people changing career.

There are coaches with expertise in so many different areas, I would strongly encourage you to seek out a coach who has specific real-world expertise in areas you’re looking to develop.

A great resource for finding good coaches is BetterUp.

3 What qualifies someone to be a business coach?

Actually, anyone can call themselves a business coach, but that doesn’t mean they’re credible, or have experience in running a business themselves, or even are a good coach.

I chose to train as a coach and got my Coaches Training Alliance Certification in 2014, which is a well-respected training organization. Since then, I continue to focus on my personal development through regular courses, retreats, and masterminds. Over the years, I’ve spent well over $50,000 and counting on personal development.

I got this qualification as I felt it was important to reassure clients in the early stages of my career that I was a credible coach, dedicated to my profession, when I was transitioning away from running a successful pilates business and career coaching to business coaching. But to be brutally honest, it’s a combination of my real-world experience of running my own businesses over the last decade, along with the tenacity I’ve honed from moving to and living in three countries around the globe and having to start from scratch multiple times. I also draw on my natural listening ability, and strategic thinking. These are the qualities that enabled me to get qualified in the first place, and which make me a good business coach.

It might not matter to you personally whether a coach has a specific coaching qualification or not. What is most important is whether you think a potential coach understands you and your business, and whether they have sufficient relevant experience to be able to help you uplevel.

4 Why Boston?

Because that’s where I live. 

I’m originally from South Africa. I’ve lived and worked all over the world, including on Wall Street.

I ended up in Boston, because waaay back in 2008, I met a New England guy on a beach in Portugal, fell in love, and moved to New York. We got married and settled in Charlestown just outside Boston shortly afterwards. 

Nowadays, a lot – but not all – of my clients are from Boston and the surrounding area and come from referrals from existing clients. However, I continue to work with entrepreneurs all over the US, and there’s no reason I can’t work with you if you’re based further afield (I’ve found time difference is the main restriction there, but I’m yet to work with a client where we can’t make a time-zone difference work!). 

I run almost all my sessions remotely, with the exception of specific in-person events such as my leadership retreats, which happen a few times a year, and generally take place in luxurious surroundings in Boston.

So yes, Boston is my base and I’ve been recognized by The Boston magazine as one of the ‘Best of Boston’ coaches here, so I guess that makes it official. 😊

5 What are the qualities of a good business coach?

A good business coach is intuitive and highly emotionally aware. They also naturally possess excellent leadership qualities. 

Clients often seek out coaches at moments of intense stress or pressure, and are seeking ways to relieve that stress, so they need someone who provides reassurance in the form of calm confidence and focus.

A good business coach is someone who is able to help clients take a step back from the day-to-day minutiae of their business, and strategize about ways to do things more efficiently, with less effort, or to stop wasting their time on busywork.

My cornerstone values as a coach include always being punctual, trusting, and building forward momentum. These qualities help my clients to attain results faster and easier than going it alone.

One of my clients even described me as her business fairy godmother, so I guess a little magic doesn’t hurt either.

6 How often should you meet with a business coach?

There’s no hard and fast rule about how often to meet with a business coach. For some people going through a growth spurt or particularly intensive time with their business, fortnightly meetings might be appropriate. Others, who are looking for more long-term support and strategic growth, a cadence of once a month is more appropriate. In extreme cases, even weekly meetings might be desirable.

How often you meet with your business coach will depends on your particular needs at the time, and your calendar (as well as the availability of your coach).

When I first start working with a new client, we usually meet twice a month to get up to speed, and then transition to monthly sessions. Some clients who are going through a growth spurt stay on twice a month, as I become your business partner and a safe space for you to process everything that is happening around you at the time, that you can’t necessarily discuss with anyone else.

7 What if I can’t afford a business coach?

If you genuinely don’t have the funds available to hire a coach, don’t hire a coach.

Don’t put yourself or your business into debt when you genuinely can’t afford it. That’s the number one rule of business.

If you aren’t yet ready to afford a coach, there are many resources to help with growing your business that aren’t coaching. 

If you can’t afford to work with me yet, here are some of the other ways I can help you:

• Read my blog. Dig deep into the archive. All the articles there are designed to inspire, uplift, or instruct. 

• Sign up for my mailing list and gain access to a further set of exclusive tools to explode your business growth.

• Buy my best-selling book The Uplevel Project.

You can also network with other entrepreneurs, take training courses, and learn a lot from LinkedIn or YouTube if you search the correct terms.

You’ve got to put in the work before you can put in the work. 

And I’ll be here when you’re ready to work with me. I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines in the meantime. 

8 What to look for when hiring a business coach?

So you’ve found someone you think might be a good fit for you as a business coach. How do you know they’re credible and a good fit for you? Here are some things to think about.

• Look for testimonials from real-life clients. A good coach will be able to provide a multitude of references from previous happy clients. Look on their website for evidence of the success of their coaching.

• Do they have a business coaching qualification? 

• What business experience do they have that is relevant to your own business? 

• If you get on a discovery call with them, have they researched your business ahead of time? Do they know who they are talking to?

• Do they listen carefully to what you tell them?

• Do they ask questions about your business?

• Do you enjoy speaking with them? 

• Do you feel you can learn from them? 

Remember, getting on a discovery call is a two-way process. It’s a way for a coach to triage potential customers and ascertain whether they are a good fit for themselves too. If it isn’t a match, a good business coach will – honestly and kindly – tell you that too.

I’ve prepared a helpful checklist for you to download that will help you make the most of your investment with a business coach. Get a copy of it here.

9 How can we work together?

Thanks for stopping by my website and taking the time to read to the end. If you liked what you read here, here’s how you can get more support from me and get more freedom and joy in your business:

• Accelerate your growth with this free handy download

• Read (or listen to) my bestselling book, The Up Level Project

• Join my group accountability program: Business Growth Achievers

• Work with me: Book a 1:1 consultation with me here.

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