How to choose the right business coach for you, as a self-employed trainer or animal behaviourist

If you've ever thought about working with a business coach to help move your dog training or animal behaviour business forward, you've probably also worried about investing in something you end up regretting.

That's a reasonable concern… and I say that as someone who has been there.

I'll be honest: I used to think business coaching was a lot of hot air. People being paid to answer every question with "Well, what do you think the answer is?" I mean, I don't bloody well know... that's why I'm asking you.

I once worked with a coach like that. It felt like a complete waste of time and money.

I've also had the opposite experience: a one-off session where the coach barely let me finish a sentence before pushing me towards decisions that felt completely out of alignment with my values and with how this industry actually works. I came away frustrated, and implemented precisely none of it.

These experiences (and hearing plenty of others like them) made me reluctant to offer coaching/ mentoring myself, even as more and more people started asking for my help. But eventually I realised that those experiences were exactly why I needed to offer something different.

Before we go any further: this isn't an article about why I'm great and everyone else is rubbish. That would be arrogant, and also untrue. I'm not the right fit for everyone, and I think it's important to be upfront about that.

What I want to do instead is walk you through three things worth thinking about carefully before you decide who to work with.

#1 - What do you actually want to achieve?

Being clear on this first will help you figure out whether someone is genuinely well-placed to help you… or whether they just work with anyone who shows up.

Most coaches (even the good ones) are better at helping people achieve certain kinds of goals than others. That's not a criticism of them; it's just how expertise works. A trainer who is brilliant at reactivity cases might be less in their element with separation anxiety. The same principle applies here.

Business goals aren't right or wrong… they're just different. And some of them point you in quite different directions when it comes to finding the right support.

Here are three very different examples of people who might be looking for a business coach:

Person A wants to build a large training facility, take on staff, run classes, daycare, grooming, the works. An ambitious, entrepreneurial path with a specific kind of growth in mind.

Person B is already established and self-employed. They want to earn more or improve their work-life balance, without the complication of hiring staff or managing venues. They want a better-functioning version of what they've already built, not necessarily a bigger one.

Person C is just starting out and wants guidance on everything from the ground up — legals, pricing, services, how to actually get clients. (If that's you, my online course First Steps to Success might be worth a look before anything else.)

All three could technically work with the same coach. But they actually need quite different things. It's worth finding someone whose work is specifically designed to help people at your stage, with your goals… not someone who'll give you a generic framework and hope that you middle your way through

Some questions worth asking before you commit to anyone:

Do they have a clear sense of who they work best with or will they take anyone on?
Do you fit that picture?
Do they have a programme or approach that's actually been built around the thing you're trying to do?
Do they have proven success with clients who are similar to you being helped to with similar issues/ goals?
And have they done it themselves… in this industry (ideally more than once!), not just in the abstract?

#2 - How do you like to work?

This matters more than people usually think when they're in research mode and it's the thing that often gets overlooked in favour of focusing on outcomes.

Coaching vs. mentoring. These aren't the same thing. Coaching in its purest form is based on the idea that you already hold the answers… the coach's job is to help you find them. Mentoring takes a more directive approach: the mentor uses their own experience to guide and advise you. Some people find the pure coaching model genuinely frustrating if what they actually want is practical, actionable guidance. Others find a more directive approach too prescriptive. Most coaches do some combination of both; it's a good idea to check where they sit on that spectrum. (For what it's worth, I work across both and adjust to the person in front of me… partly because that's what I find most useful myself and partly because it's where my background in teaching and school leadership genuinely helps.)

Group or 1:1. Group coaching tends to be less expensive, which matters. But it also means the focus is shared and if everyone is working on different priorities, the support can feel less targeted than you'd like. (This is why in my group coaching programme, I ensure that the cohort is a good fit and everyone is working through the same programme, just personalised to their starting point and needs). One to one coaching means that the work is built entirely around you but it's a bigger investment. Neither is automatically better; it depends on where you are and what you need.

What's included between sessions. Some people want reassurance that they can ask a question mid-week without having to wait until the next scheduled session. Others want resources or courses to work through in between, so they're making progress all the time rather than treading water. Others want feedback on their actual work… their website copy, their service descriptions, their pricing… not just a conversation about it. And some people want none of that; they want one session a month and to be left to it. All of these are fine. Knowing which one sounds most like you will help you avoid paying for something that doesn't actually fit how you work.

#3 - How do you feel about them?

This is the one people are sometimes slightly embarrassed to mention, as if it's too soft a criterion for what should be a practical decision… it isn't.

To get anything useful out of business coaching, you need to be able to be honest…. about the bits of your business you're not proud of… about the things that feel stuck… about the goals you haven't quite admitted out loud yet. That's hard to do with someone you don't trust, or someone who makes you feel like you're being judged, or someone whose whole energy just puts you on edge. The relationship needs enough safety for you to say the difficult thing.

There's also the fact that good coaching will, at times, be a little uncomfortable. Part of the job is helping you see things differently… and sometimes differently means in a way that requires you to do something you've been avoiding. That process goes much better when you trust that the person doing it is genuinely on your side.

The values piece really does matter too. Not because you need a clone of yourself but because you do need someone who can actually see through your eyes. There's a real difference between a coach who challenges you constructively and one who keeps pushing you towards things that feel fundamentally out of alignment with how you want to work. The first moves you forward. The second tends to make you want to disappear.

In practical terms: someone who is all about scaling fast and building a personal brand that dominates on social media is probably not the right fit for a thoughtful, ethics-driven behaviourist who wants a business they can sustain without burning out. They're just different things… and they don't always translate across very well.

You don't need to love your coach... but you do need to feel like they understand your world, respect your values and are actually invested in what success looks like for you, not just in a version of success that happens to suit their methodology.

What next?

I hope that's useful as a starting point. If you're wondering whether I might be a good fit, the honest answer is: maybe. It depends on what you're looking for.

The best place to start is probably A Fresh Perspective, my mini business diagnostic, where I take a close look at your business and send you a short personalised video with three specific actions: one to drop, one to tweak, one to test. There's no commitment attached and it gives you a clear outside view of what's actually going on before you decide whether you want to go further.

If you already have a sense that more structured support is what you need, you can find out more about Unleash Your Potential, my six-month coaching and mentoring programme, available as 1:1 or as a group edition at different price points.

And if you have questions before taking either of those steps, you're welcome to drop me a message.

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