After years of running my own businesses while maintaining a corporate career and raising a young family, I’ve started moving into small business coaching.
My focus is on helping small business owners who are parents strike that balance of being entrepreneurs who provide for their clients and employees while also providing for their families.
Here are the most common questions I get asked, along with my honest answers based on real experience.
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Common Questions About Coaching Costs
This seems to be everyone’s first question, and the typical salesperson answer is “it depends.”
Are you pretty good with where your goals are at?
Are you accountable for yourself?
If that’s the case, then coaching is honestly cheap.
I’ll check in with you on a regular basis and give you a hard time if you’re falling behind on your goals.
However, if you need more hands-on guidance, more intensive coaching, or are just starting out with significant challenges, the investment will be higher to match the level of support required.
Why My Background Matters for Coaching
This question comes up especially from friends who know I’m branching out into coaching.
My answer is straightforward: I run a portfolio that does $35 million in revenue a year for my company.
I oversee the healthcare regional payers, like the Blue Cross accounts at our company.
We’ve got people in billing, legal, and other departments doing their thing.
The strategic questions come to me about which way we’re steering the ship and how we’re going to market.
Beyond that, my wife and I run two small businesses with 10 employees that will do half a million in revenue between them this year, plus income from our building.
We’ve acquired, grown, and systematized these businesses while maintaining corporate careers and raising two boys under three who are only 15 months apart.
This juggling act has taught me valuable lessons about time management and priorities that inform my coaching approach.
What You’ll Actually Get From Coaching
The truth is I can only take you so far.
If you tell me your goals are to have six-pack abs, and you want your business to do a million dollars in revenue this quarter, that’s great.
But if you’re currently at 50% body fat, I can’t take you there in a year.
Similarly, if your business isn’t even launched yet, going from zero to a million is very difficult.
That zero-to-one stage is the hardest.
It comes down to how much you’re actually dedicated to this and how much you’re willing to sacrifice for it.
Then we’re going to strike that balance because we don’t want to sacrifice nonstop for something that may not materialize.
Practical Solutions: The Website That Built Itself
A recent coaching client struggled with a common small business challenge.
He ran a successful irrigation and landscaping business but had no online presence.
“I just don’t have time to build a website with all these client calls,” he explained.
I asked him to consider what would happen when those calls slowed down.
“Where are you tracking customer information? Do you have any system beyond your phone contacts? How are new prospects finding you?”
He admitted relying entirely on word-of-mouth referrals – a viable but unstable growth strategy.
Even satisfied customers won’t continue referring you if their problem is solved and your business doesn’t remain top of mind.
Our conversation shifted to practical data management: “If your phone breaks today, where’s your customer list backed up?”
When he couldn’t answer, we explored how easily he could export his contacts to a simple CRM system.
Then came the breakthrough moment:
- What if your website wasn’t complicated at all?
- What if someone requesting a quote simply entered their contact information, which automatically fed into a free HubSpot CRM through Zapier?
He was stunned by the simplicity.
When he mentioned not knowing how to code, I pointed out that for his straightforward service business, a platform like Carrd.co could create a functional one-page website with a contact form in under an hour.
By guiding him through these questions rather than prescribing solutions, he discovered an approach that fit his specific situation and capabilities.
Parents in Business: Being Present for What Matters
A significant part of my coaching focuses on helping business owners who are also parents.
Many entrepreneurs I’ve met share the same concern: they don’t want their children to grow up saying,
“Dad was always on the phone, always in meetings, always traveling.”
With thoughtfully designed business processes and boundaries, you don’t have to make that painful trade-off.
You can build an enterprise that supports your family financially while still allowing you to attend those T-ball games and be present for meaningful moments.
This determination to help others find this balance comes from my own experience of running multiple businesses while being a dad to two young boys.
When you have money, pay for time, because time is what we are constantly trying to buy back.
That’s why people can sell services – they’re selling time.
You can pay someone to clean your house so you can spend two more hours with your child instead of doing laundry.
Why I Reject “Hustle Culture” Coaching
One thing that sets my coaching approach apart is my firm opposition to the “grind culture” that dominates so much business advice today.
I don’t believe that success requires sacrificing every other aspect of your life.
Many coaches push the idea that you need to document every process, track every metric, and optimize every minute.
They recommend complex tools and endless documentation. I take a different approach.
Some of my most effective business planning happens in a simple paper notebook.
I don’t always need fancy apps or extensive databases to run successful projects.
What matters is having the right system for the specific situation – not the trendiest or most complex one.
My coaching philosophy centers on finding the easiest, most straightforward solutions that work for your specific situation.
Sometimes that means using technology, but often it means simplifying rather than complicating.
Conclusion
The conversations that lead to the biggest breakthroughs often start simply, with a few targeted questions that help you see your own blind spots.
If you’re a business owner who’s also juggling parenthood, and you’re trying to find that balance, I’d love to help you build systems that serve both your business and your family.