Should You Use a Business Strategy Coach? (What They Do + How To Find Yours)

Picture of Julia McCoy

Julia McCoy

Creator and Co-founder

business strategy coach

For a new or struggling entrepreneur looking for some clarity on next steps, a business strategy coach can be a fantastic option.

Nearly 16% of entrepreneurs were hiring business coaches just a few years back. Fast-forward to today and even more business creators are turning to strategic coaching for guidance and growth.

But when the word “business coach” comes up, you might picture:

…Sterile board rooms with dry, impersonal consultants.

OR maybe you’re imagining:

…A cringe-worthy motivational speaker who borrows sunshiny life coaching quotes straight from throw pillows.

(I’ve seen them, too.) 😬

But I’ve also watched as the business coaching industry has made massive strides toward a real-world approach – skills you can actually apply in this booming digital era.

They’ve also become more authentic. More passionate. And more accessible.

This new personalized strategic coaching model is exploding right now.

And the reality is:

Hiring a business strategy coach can be the most transformative decision you ever make for your business and life.

Because with the right teacher who knows your industry in and out, making a significant investment in this type of leadership coaching will open doors to an existence you thought was unimaginable. 🚪

How? Business coaches for entrepreneurs let you tap into a strategy that would otherwise take years (if ever) to learn. They’ll set you on a path to more revenue, more freedom, and more clarity.

Gaining this kind of strategy was life-changing for me and my business, and it’s available to you, too… Whether you’re just starting out on your small business journey or have been stuck for years.

In this comprehensive guide, I’ll cover what a business strategy coach is, does, if you should hire one, and exactly how to find the right entrepreneurial training for your unique business.

What Is a Business Strategy Coach?

In one study, the executive coaching ROI for one Fortune 500 firm was a staggering 788%.

For both individuals and teams, it’s wildly valuable — yet a huge misconception still exists about what a business strategy coach really is.

And that’s because the definition has changed so much.

Gone are the days of snooze-fest meetings with outdated methods that no longer work in the 2020s.

Enter: Strategic business coaches that personalize their systems and emphasize teaching impactful skills and repeatable, automated systems that help you see your business soar (without burning out). 🥵

A business strategy coach is a real-world expert that helps business creators, agencies, and new or struggling entrepreneurs get their skills, systems, and strategy down to achieve short and long-term goals, make more money, free up their time, and make an impact.

Their role is to listen to and learn about their students, and then help them flourish through creating their own customized strategy around the coach’s proven methods.

Coaches don’t do all the work for you – instead, they’re next to you on the front lines to listen, share, and support you as you apply their techniques to your own business.

Want to see an example of this? All of the above is exactly what I offer in my 1:1 mentorship program, the Content Transformation System. You get personalized strategy coaching to help you be the best entrepreneur you can be. Find out more here.

content transformation system

Why Have a Strategic Coach? (+What They Really Do)

Stuck in the day-to-day grind of your business? Ready to make a real impact on the world? That’s usually where people are when they decide to hire a business strategy coach for entrepreneurs.

You’ll want to hire a strategic business coach if you’re ready to accelerate your progress and see exponential results and revenue.

Here’s what students should expect to get out of a solid coaching program:

1. Win Huge ROI

Enormous and consistent revenue, clarity on next steps, increased productivity…these are just some of the reasons modern entrepreneurs keep hearing about the astronomical ROI from strategic coaching.

business strategy coach

But a legitimate business coach doesn’t come cheap. So maybe you’re wondering… is business coaching actually worth the investment?

Yes, it is. The long-term impact of getting your business strategy in place is life-changing.

BUT there’s a caveat.

Investing in strategic coaching is going to be well worth it only if your coach focuses on strategy (it’s in their title, right?).

Because your coach needs to give you a system that will permanently improve your business, because the long-term impact of getting your business strategy in place is astronomical. ✨

What it looks like: You get your procedures locked in, rolling, and repeatable to create the foundation you need for long-lasting and explosive success in your business.

2. Gain Clarity On Your Business + Future

Maybe you’re stuck and struggling to get out of the weeds of your business. Or maybe you’ve simply been toying with that radically awesome business idea, dreaming of the kind of revenue and success that frees you up to leave a lasting legacy.

Truth bomb time: 💣

Wherever you are on your entrepreneurial journey, you cannot make long-term success a reality without getting brand clarity and a business vision.

This is why you should hire a business strategy coach for entrepreneurs.

They’ll guide you through a process to build complete clarity in your business. Because once you’re up in the treetops and managing your business strategy vs. down on the ground floor doing all the work, you will never, ever look back.

You’ll have the skills, confidence, and knowledge to know exactly what the heck you’re doing up there – and where you’re headed. 🛣️

What it looks like: You finally break free from the frustrating feeling of “drowning” in your work, learning skills and systems to help delegate and automate specific tasks that are weighing you down and stopping you from confidently knowing exactly what to do next to grow (like hiring a content writer to create blogs for you — OR, if you’re moving with the times, hiring an AIO writer).


What exactly goes into getting business clarity? Watch a breakdown in my FREE class.

free webinar

3. Step into a Boss Mindset

Yes, mindset matters. And your business strategy coach needs to cover this. I know this can feel intangible, but self-awareness, a strong self-worth, and a positive mindset are absolutely crucial in business strategy.

This is one of the soft skills that has opened so many doors for me and helped me land my dream clients. It also helped me get a VP role at Content at Scale AI, which in turn led to a promotion to President a month later! 🤯

Believe me, had you asked me a few years back if I thought I could be in this position, I’d have laughed you off. But because of a growth mindset, when the opportunity came, I knew I could add value to the Content at Scale team and their customers.

A business strategy coach brings out the boss in you, resulting in you being a force to reckon with in your industry.

You need to develop a deep understanding of yourself – your motivators, your passions, your deepest desires – to weave into your business strategy. This is key 🔑 to a sustainable business you LOVE running.

What it looks like: Your rewired brain and newly established routines help you feel more confident and calmer, make better decisions faster, and propel you into the professional and personal success you always knew you were capable of. 🚀

4. Increase Productivity

We live in a culture that has normalized procrastination and being unproductive.

It’s so bad that employees reportedly spend less than 60% of their time being productive. ⌛

productivity and work stat

Source: Atlassian

Your time is precious. If you’re not being productive 40% of the time you’re working (heck, even 1%) then it’s going to impact you… negatively.

There’s a strategy for that.

A good business coach will know how important your productivity is – their job should be to help you learn, based on your unique self, life situation, and business, what wastes your time vs. what’s genuinely worth your time.

Business coaching helps you develop a strategy that includes being productive 100% of the time you sit down to work (or step onto your treadmill desk and walk, as a student of mine does). 💪

For example, if you run a content writing business (or if you create content for your business) you can increase productivity, efficiency, and ROI by leveraging a great AI content writing tool. You can also streamline your content creation by hiring and training AIO writers.

FYI, I’m an AI speaker if you need me to speak to your team or at your event about leveraging the power of AI. 😁 I used to be strongly against AI until I discovered its power. Now, not only am I an AI proponent, but I’m also President of an AI company called Content at Scale.

Back to business coaching…

No matter your niche or industry vertical, the whole point of hiring a business coach is to help boost your productivity and profits.

What it looks like: You end each workday in fewer hours than ever before. You get more done. You’re feeling proud, accomplished, and like you’re a mile ahead of your to-do list. You can actually relax and enjoy your life outside of work because you know exactly what the next steps are for your business and the next tasks you’ll be tackling tomorrow to get there.

5. Learn the Right Skills to Scale Effectively

As a business grows, it requires more resources. But yours are limited. You’re only human.

Ready to ditch the antiquated (and unsustainable) “rise and grind” attitude of #hustleculture?

Hire a business strategy coach.

Business coaches should be helping their clients grow their businesses, yes… but top coaches teach only the skills that matter, ones that let you scale without burning out and bursting into entrepreneurial flames.  🔥

What it looks like: You’ve learned the right skills you need to work less yet still grow your business by focusing on strategy. No more late nights and weekends away from your family “hustling.” No working yourself to death. You’re on the other side of it, and it feels amazing.

I’m a big fan of content strategy skills for a reason. Content that attracts your audience is THE way to sell in the 2020s. Buyers are reading 3-5 blogs before interacting with a sales team nowadays. Watch my YouTube video for a beginner’s look at content strategy. ↓

6. Get Exposure in Your Industry

You’ll likely locate your entrepreneurial business coach because they are well-known and visible online, whether you discover them yourself or someone tells you about their program.

For example, I have a well-established presence via my website, Content Hacker, but also through my social profiles, like LinkedIn:

Getting known is a huge piece of business strategy in today’s digital world, and your coach should be showing you exactly what they did to get there – plus building a clear pathway for you to follow within their system.

What it looks like: You’re lauded as an expert in your niche. You’re a published author with a book under your belt, a strategic guest poster, and an authentic leader who has built the kind credibility and authority that brings a consistent stream of hungry leads and customers who deeply trust and connect with you.

7. Access Proven Strategy + Systems

A good business coach will help you create your own strategy based on their proven systems. This saves you so much wasted money, energy, and time trying to figure everything out yourself.

For example, in my coaching system, I offer a library full of pre-built templates that you can literally plug and play into your own business. The exact free payroll doc I use, editable email campaign sequences, job listing templates, and so much more are completely at my students’ disposal.

So if you know you’re missing a skill set (like strategy), and you find a coach that offers it – it’s going to be worth your investment to fill in that gap so you can move forward on your path to success.

What it looks like: You have everything you need to get your business successfully up and running in the next 90 days. You’ve put your new clarity and systems in place to sustain your business success and grow it to thrilling heights over three to five years.

Profitable Content Marketer Skills Cheat Sheet

What Makes a Good Business Strategy Coach Program?

Before I started The Content Transformation System, I extensively studied not only the top 5% of business coaches in the world, but the data and content trends that were fueling their success. My goal? Build the best business training program out there (and scale)… and it’s exploding.

Why? Because I’m addressing the biggest pain points for digital marketing entrepreneurs NOW… in today’s world. The strategy coach you invest in should be teaching this too.

Here’s what to look for in your business strategy coach.

1. Personalization

Your business coach should be able to adapt their program to fit not only your brand and business…but you.

Passion-fueled entrepreneurs who sometimes get (extremely poor and dated) advice to “tone it down” aren’t going to connect with a business coach who doesn’t value leading with your heart or following your calling. ☎️

When in fact, this emphasis on “dry professionalism” may be the whole reason you left previous situations to start your own business – your craving for authenticity in this world is not a flaw…

It’s your gift.

Accepting and leaning into that gift is how you’ll attract and retain an audience that devours your products or services.

Many strategy coaching systems aren’t adaptable to fit different personalities, brands, and ideas. Make sure to choose one that offers personalized coaching, not some cookie-cutter lecture that won’t really speak to the intricate depths of who you are and what your business stands for.

The level of personal help my coaching students get is one of the biggest differences in my business strategy coaching. I’ve been told this is one of the most impactful differences for my students’ investment.

Inside The Content Transformation System, I host live Q&A coaching sessions where students can ask any questions that pop up for them and get a personalized answer from me — because I’m familiar with and emotionally invested in each student’s brand and goals.

cts students group call

2. Strategic Coach Worksheets

Your business coach should be offering you more than just videos to watch – make sure they are bringing extra course materials to the table. For instance, do they offer strategic course worksheets so you can tap into the power of writing exercises?

Writing goals and notes down increases memory retention by 23%. 🧠 It may feel tedious, but it’s important in business strategy. Especially if you’re going to build a rock star team to help you put your business on autopilot.

3. An Organized Pathway

Before you invest in a business coach, make sure you’re crystal clear on what the entire system involves.

There should be a clear pathway for you and your team to follow including realistic timeframes, different phases, and milestones.

Make sure your business coach isn’t selling a “too good to be true” business model, and ensure they lay out exactly what you can expect from the program, including how much of your effort is needed. (If they say it’s not a lot, that’s fishy. Managing a sustainable online business isn’t always easy, but it can be simple.)

4. A Real-World Practitioner

Look out for business coaches without real-world experience. There. Are. So. Many. 🤯

It’s relatively simple to make a business coaching system look super shiny on the outside. Tactics like effective SEO, persuasive copy, and a hip website can entice leads and get students to hand over cash —but if your coach has never been in the trenches of what they’re teaching, can they really speak to the heart of your perspective?

So, it’s going to be up to you to do the outside research (not just by reading their blogs, emails, or their other content types) to make sure your business growth strategy coach has tangible experience in the field they’re teaching.

Platforms like Upwork offer a slew of results if you search for business strategy coaches. But many are using regurgitated information that trickled down from an actual expert who has indeed walked the walk at some point – so skip those non-practitioner coaches and go straight to the source.

It’s easy to research this – simply check out their about page – their experience should be listed there, and if it’s missing, that’s a big red flag that they were never actual practitioners of business strategy.

julia about page

I was a decade-deep in running an 80+ person content agency that offered strategy services before I even considered packaging up what I’ve learned to coach others as my main focus.

Please don’t settle for anything less from your business strategy coach.

5. Brings in Experts

No one business coach is an expert at every single thing. If they claim to be… run, baby, run. 🏃

I taught myself skills to know HOW to do the most impactful business tasks (and I coach people to do this as well by always staying involved in your strategy). But I truly believe I’d be doing my coaching students a disservice to speak in-depth on every single topic that needs to be covered in entrepreneurial coaching.

As a business strategy coach, it’s our job to compile the most impactful information from relevant experts and share it with our students. And that’s exactly what I do.

Some of the experts I’ve brought into my coaching program specialize in things like:

  1. Business automation processes and tools (to get your processes down, streamlined, and accessible to your entire team through software)
  2. Professional online video production (to teach you how to make YouTube videos like the pros)
  3. Guest blogging for maximum impact (to get you and your site visible)
  4. Business tax structure (a living, breathing CPA)
  5. Content writing, branding, and strategy (hand-picked by me and with years of real-world experience)

You’re making a big investment in coaching. So, you deserve a coach who is humble, connected, and wise enough to bring in an Avengers-level team for you to learn business skills from!

 

6. An Emphasis on Strategy

Take a look at your potential coach’s program syllabus. If someone’s business coaching services aren’t truly focusing on building a strategy (Meaning, it’s one of or THE central theme to their program) then it’s not going to be sustainable in the long run.

Everything else falls apart without strategy. And your content marketing strategy will be the backbone of the growth you can absolutely achieve through building a sustainable brand that brings in massive revenue.

Why I *Really* Sold My Thriving Business to Become a Business Strategy Coach

When I started my content writing agency at 19 with just a $75 investment, I was living in my father’s cult. Being told exactly who to be — what to do, think, and wear (among other abusive atrocities).

It’s true – I’m not blowing smoke when I tell you I literally started with less than nothing.

It was bleak, and at times I didn’t know any better (this was simply the reality I was born into) but I kept going. I kept writing for my life (literally).

I even spent my 21st birthday unwillingly locked inside my room.

In that moment I couldn’t imagine a future where I’d grow that tiny business to have 80+ people on payroll, serve 5,000+ clients in every industry by overseeing 40,000 projects, and ultimately gross $5M+.

I couldn’t imagine that just ten years later, I’d successfully exit that business with a 13,000x ROI ($1M+ in a private sale).

I had no idea that, just a short year after that success, I would become the President of an AI company and shout about the benefits of AI content from the rooftops and even on stages at major blogging conferences. 🤯

But I did. It’s my new reality.

In February of 2012, I drove away from my father’s house in the middle of the night and escaped the reality he created for me.

Looking back, I’m so incredibly thankful I believed in a beautiful future for myself even when it felt unimaginable. A future that was completely defined by the true me, my passions, my instinct, and my expertise.

And within that self-awareness a refined dream has been born — I realized I love helping people succeed and the magic that comes with being invested to do so. That is why I became a business growth strategy coach, which is now my sole focus in business.

Since leaving agency life, I’m delighted to walk in a calling that feels important, personal, and impactful to me.

A calling that lets me help others completely transform their businesses to create a life they once thought was utterly unimaginable.

Next Steps: Get Started With Strategic Business Coaching

I’m no unicorn. 🦄

I decided to invest in myself and learn the strategies, skills, and systems that allow me to have repeatable success day in and day out.

And you can, too. I mean this.

If you’re looking for a coach who’s been in your shoes, offers personalized live coaching, and has a single proven methodology that builds businesses that last, I’d love to be your transformative coach and watch you thrive.

Your keys to this success are inside The Content Transformation System. The Midas touch is literally what I’m offering you. ☀

It’s the culmination of everything I’ve learned and used to grow through content (pulled from my real-world experience and tons of trial and error). A practical program I built from scratch that will teach you the skills, systems, and rock-solid strategy to inject into your own business for lasting online growth.

You’re not alone on this journey – apply now and let’s see if we’re a good fit to work together.

I can’t wait to see what new reality you create for yourself.  ❤️

Whether you’re scaling your business through content or ready to hire a content marketing writer, my free class will guide you through what to expect at all levels of the program. Check it out today and get instant access!

free class for entrepreneurs

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