Frequently Asked Questions - Business Coaching

Business coaching combines the key elements from a wide variety of disciplines to provide a means for personal and professional growth for an entrepreneur, executive, managers and owners. Your digital business advisor and coach seeks to enhance your capabilities to increase your effectiveness, satisfaction and financial well being. It is a one-on-one relationship between you and your business coach.

How does the coaching process work?

One of our business coaches will contact you and conduct a thorough discovery meeting. Based on the information gathered at your discovery meeting a coaching plan will be developed and presented to you at a follow-up meeting. We employ a combination of traditional business coaching, consulting and an online learning portal to deliver our programs. Your business coach will invite your feedback at each session to ensure that they are on track to helping you achieve your business goals.

What is your coaching style?

David A. West, Senior Advisor & Business Coach worked in Corporate Canada before becoming an entrepreneur. The foundation of corporate experience combined with 25+ years of business lends itself to a professional manner. Our associate coaches are all handpicked because of their professional nature and niche areas of expertise, such as law or finance.

What results can I expect?

Results are driven by actions. If you apply yourself to the business coaching process you will achieve your goals. If you do not work your program then sadly the results may not be favourable.

What work will I need to do between sessions?

During your business coaching sessions, your business coach may assign you exercises to complete before the next session. We embrace the concept of an upside-down or flipped classroom. This implies that we may ask you to participate in a prescribed online learning course, a seminar or a webinar to prepare for the next coaching session. By employing this methodology the actual time you have with your coach can be more productive.

How long does coaching take?

Business coaching sessions tend to be between one and two hours in length. The length of your coaching sessions will vary depending on your goals. Factors that might impact the length of a session include an individual's own skill levels. An example of where a client's skills could impact the session length is their computer literacy.

I know you have specific expertise with marketing and advertising, but I have other things I want to work on as well.

Traditional coaching methodologies do not necessarily require a business coach to know everything about everything. That being said, you don’t get to retire at 52 after selling your own businesses without an astute acumen for business. CONTINUUS has associate coaches that are called upon when very specific niche skills are recommended. For example your business coach may call upon an accountant or lawyer to assist you to achieve your learning objectives.

What types of clients do you work with?

Our clients tend to be business owners or their staff looking to improve their skills. A large portion of our clients have the common goal of growing their business. A great number of our clients want to better manage their own social media, marketing and advertising. We have coached personnel from large marketing agencies, commercial food producers, real estate agents through to front line service staff.

How are your coaching fees calculated?

Learning plans are quoted based on a flat rate. Ongoing business coaching is quoted based on a set number of meetings each month. We never send our business coaching clients an invoice that they are not expecting.

What do business coaching fees cover?

Business coaching fees cover pre-meeting preparation, the actual coaching session and post-meeting administration. Your business coach will invite you to contact them between sessions if you run into any issues that you want to overcome prior to your next session.

I’d love to work with you but don’t live anywhere near you!

Covid-19, as nasty as it has been, has demonstrated that business can be done quite effectively leveraging technology. We use Google MEET [https://meet.google.com] as our video conferencing platform of choice. When necessary we do travel to our clients locations. Travel is typically reserved for longer meetings, group sessions or events. We have worked with clients in Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Phoenix, Southern California and across Canada.

How do you onboard new business coaching clients?

New clients receive a series of brief emails to prepare them for their first business coaching session. We set up tools that we use during our sessions and will create a private portal that your coach will use to communicate with you throughout your business coaching engagement.

What technology do you use to provide coaching services?

We are huge fans of Google Workspace [https://workspace.google.com/intl/en_ca/] (previously G-Suite). We also love mindmaps! Your coach will introduce you to mind mapping as an effective way to track your progress. Each of our business coaching clients is given their own private portal specific to their program. Last, but not least, you will be given access to specific online learning sessions at our proprietary learning management system.

What is the difference between coaching, training and consulting?

In a coaching relationship, your coach will guide you to developing your own informed decisions, goals and objectives. In a coaching relationship, you have to do the work. A trainer, on the other hand, presents a pre-planned curriculum.

A consultant is someone that has specific knowledge and expertise that you leverage. A consultant will often do the work for you.

CONTINUUS takes a blended approach to help clients succeed. This is why you may see us use the term “Coach/Consultant” in our materials.