I spent £6,000 on business coaching before realising I needed mentoring instead. The coach was good. The sessions were structured. The accountability was there. But I didn’t need someone to ask me powerful questions. I needed someone who’d built and scaled an agency to tell me what to do next.
That’s an expensive way to learn the difference between coaching, mentoring, and consulting.
If you’re running an agency and looking for outside help, choosing the wrong type of support wastes money, wastes time, and (worst of all) delays the growth you’re paying for. Here’s how to tell the difference and pick the right one.
The Three Types of Business Support
Business Coach
A coach uses structured questioning techniques to help you develop your own problem-solving capabilities. They provide accountability, frameworks, and a process for working through challenges.
A coach asks: “What options do you see for fixing your profitability?” Then they help you evaluate those options, build a plan, and hold you accountable for executing it.
The value is long-term capability building. You develop skills that outlast the engagement. The trade-off is speed. Pure coaching takes longer because you’re working things out yourself with guidance rather than being given answers.
Good coaching also includes structured frameworks. One I use regularly is the Performance Conversation Framework: a 6-step process for having direct conversations with underperforming team members. It turns what most agency owners avoid (difficult feedback) into a structured 30-minute conversation with clear outcomes. One client used it and their team member’s output went from concerning to “night and day” within 24 hours.
That’s what structured coaching looks like. Not vague questions, but specific tools you can use immediately.
Business Mentor
A mentor draws from their own direct experience to provide concrete advice. The relationship is typically less formal than coaching. You’re learning from someone who has done what you’re trying to do.
A mentor says: “Here’s the email template that resolved that exact problem for me last month.” Or: “When I faced that situation at my agency, here’s what I did.”
I helped a restaurant owner negotiate a rent dispute, preventing £30,000 in annual increases. That’s immediate, tactical value from direct experience. Not from asking questions. From having been in that negotiation before and knowing what works.
The value of mentoring is speed. The trade-off is that the advice comes from one person’s journey. What worked for them may not translate directly to your situation, your market, or your service mix.
Business Consultant
A consultant diagnoses problems and delivers solutions through project-based engagements with specific deliverables. You hire them for their answers and their execution.
A consultant says: “Your pricing model is losing you £3,000 per project. Here’s the new pricing structure, here’s the proposal template, here’s the implementation plan.”
Consultants work best for specific technical challenges. Financial restructuring. Operational audits. System implementations. The deliverable is usually a document, a system, or a set of recommendations.
The value is expertise on tap. The risk is dependency. If the consultant leaves and you haven’t developed the capability internally, you’re stuck buying the same expertise again next year.
When Each Approach Works Best
Choose Coaching When:
- You’re at a personal crossroads. You know something needs to change but can’t articulate what. A coach helps you find clarity before you make decisions.
- Your team needs developing. Coaching builds leadership capability across your organisation, not just in you. The skills transfer.
- You need accountability more than answers. You know what to do. You just aren’t doing it. A good coach holds you to your commitments.
- You want to build long-term capability. If you’re planning to grow for the next 3-5 years, coaching develops the thinking and decision-making skills you’ll need at every stage.
Choose Mentoring When:
- You’re stuck at a revenue plateau. If your agency has been at £30k/month for six months and you can’t break through, you need someone who’s already broken through that wall to show you how.
- You’re facing unfamiliar territory. Preparing for your first exit? Hiring your first operations manager? Find someone who’s done it.
- You want compressed timelines. Learning from someone else’s 13 years of mistakes in 12 months is the fastest path to growth.
- You need industry-specific knowledge. A mentor who’s run an agency understands your specific challenges: scope creep, client concentration, creative vs commercial tension. A generalist doesn’t.
Choose Consulting When:
- You have a specific, technical problem. Your cash flow model is broken. Your CRM needs building. Your operations manual doesn’t exist.
- You need execution, not guidance. You don’t want to learn how to do it. You want someone to do it.
- The engagement has a clear end point. “Build us a pricing framework” is a consulting brief. “Help me become a better leader” is not.
- Budget allows for project-based investment. Consulting is typically more expensive per engagement but finite.
What the Best Support Actually Combines
Here’s what I’ve learned from both sides: the most effective business support blends all three approaches. The mix changes depending on where you are.
When I work with agency owners through the Strategic Growth Programme, the first month is mostly consulting: diagnosing numbers, auditing operations, identifying where money is leaking. Right? You can’t fix what you don’t measure.
One client had no idea their December was haemorrhaging cash. Best November ever, then December hit and revenue dropped to about a quarter of what they needed. They’d accepted it as normal. “That’s just how December is.” What a load of rubbish. The diagnostic showed the problem wasn’t seasonal demand. It was client mix. Too many retail clients who shut down spending in Q4. That’s a consulting insight, not a coaching question.
Months two through six shift toward mentoring. I share specific frameworks, templates, and systems from building Kaizen to £2.2M revenue over 13 years. When a client needs to raise prices, I don’t ask “what do you think you should charge?” I tell them exactly what worked for us and why. One client went from £3k website projects to £10k and won the same percentage of proposals. Another moved from £35k to £55k monthly revenue within six months. Same team. Same work. Just positioned and priced correctly.
The longer-term work (months six through twelve) is coaching. Building leadership capability, developing decision-making frameworks, creating accountability structures. Because at that point you don’t need my answers. You need to develop your own. Sound familiar?
Investment Ranges in the UK
Here’s what business support costs in the UK market. These figures are current for 2026.
Business Coaching:
- Group programmes: £300-£500 per month
- 1:1 coaching: £700-£1,500 per month
- Premium programmes: £1,500-£3,000+ per month
Business Mentoring:
- Informal mentoring: often free (networking, peer groups)
- Structured mentoring: £500-£2,000 per month
- Industry-specific mentoring: £1,000-£2,500 per month
Business Consulting:
- Day rate: £500-£2,000+
- Project-based: £5,000-£50,000+ depending on scope
- Retained: £2,000-£5,000+ per month
Higher mentoring and coaching fees justify themselves through avoided mistakes. I tell my clients: the ROI should pay for the investment within the first 2-3 months through pricing and efficiency improvements alone.
Red Flags When Choosing
Watch for these regardless of whether you’re hiring a coach, mentor, or consultant.
No track record in your industry. Someone who’s coached “500 businesses” but never run an agency doesn’t understand scope creep, creative recruitment, or client concentration risk. Find someone who has built what you’re building.
Vague promises. “We’ll transform your business” means nothing. Ask for specific numbers. I can tell you one client improved net margins from 12% to 24% in 12 months. That doubled the value of their business overnight. Another reduced their working week from 60 hours to 40 while growing revenue 30%. Specific results, or walk away.
No framework or structure. If the engagement is “we’ll have a chat every couple of weeks,” that’s not coaching, mentoring, or consulting. That’s an expensive friendship. Look for a structured programme with clear phases, measurable milestones, and defined outcomes.
Guaranteed overnight results. Real transformation takes 12-18 months. At 3 months you’ll see pricing and profitability improvements. At 6 months, systems and team performance. At 12 months, significant revenue growth with reduced owner dependency. Anyone promising dramatic results in 30 days is selling you something.
No accountability mechanism. Regular check-ins, tracked targets, and progress reviews are non-negotiable. Without accountability, advice is just conversation.
10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring
Use these whether you’re evaluating a coach, mentor, or consultant:
- Have you built and scaled a business in my industry? Direct experience matters more than certifications.
- Can you share specific client results with numbers? Not testimonials. Numbers.
- What does the first 90 days look like? If they can’t articulate this clearly, they don’t have a structured approach.
- How do you measure progress? Revenue, profitability, team performance, owner hours: these should be tracked.
- What’s your communication structure? How often do you meet? What happens between sessions?
- What happens if it’s not working? Is there an exit clause? A review point?
- Do you work with my competitors? Important for confidentiality.
- What’s the expected ROI timeline? Honest answer: 2-3 months to see initial returns.
- Can I speak to current or past clients? Anyone who says no is hiding something.
- What do you expect from me? Good support requires commitment from both sides. If they’re not setting expectations for your engagement, the accountability is missing.
Which One Is Right for Your Agency?
If your agency turns over less than £20k per month, start with group coaching or a peer mentoring network. The investment is lower and the fundamentals are the same for everyone at this stage.
If you’re doing £20k-£200k per month and stuck at a plateau, you need a blend of mentoring and coaching from someone who has been where you’re trying to go. That’s the sweet spot where 1:1 support delivers the highest ROI.
If you’re above £200k, you’re likely looking at consulting or advisory for specific projects: exit preparation, M&A support, board development.
The question isn’t “which type of support should I get?” The question is: “What specific problem am I trying to solve, and who has the experience to help me solve it?”
Ready to Find Out What Your Agency Needs?
Take the free Agency Valuation to benchmark where your business stands today. It takes 3 minutes and shows you exactly where the gaps are.
If you already know you need structured support, book a discovery call to discuss what working together looks like. I run a small number of agency owners through the Strategic Growth Programme: 12 months of 1:1 coaching, mentoring, and consulting built specifically for agency owners doing £20k-200k per month.
Or explore what removing yourself from day-to-day operations looks like with the Owner Extraction Method.