Change State - Business Coaching

Running a coaching business has taught me as much about myself as it's taught my clients about their business.

Here's what I mean.

Part of the job is seeing potential in people before they can see it in themselves, and holding that belief for them until they catch up. It's powerful work. But it made me realise I needed to do the same thing for myself.

Running a business is hard. And I'll never pretend otherwise, because if it was easy everyone would be doing it and cleaning up. The hard parts are actually the point. They show you exactly where your weaknesses are, so you can improve or find strategies that work for you in those areas.

And the biggest one? I also have a coach. Someone who points me in the right direction and has my back, the same way I do for my clients.

As I say to my clients - life’s a mirror, and it's no different for me.

Almost every business owner when they first walk through my door says they have no choice but to work the crazy hours they do. Here's the thing though. I've sat across the table from owners doing 70 hour weeks who are barely breaking even, and owners working half that who are walking away with real profit.

Same industry.

Same tools.

Completely different results.

Busy does not mean you’re profitable.

The truth is you don't need to work harder. You need to work on the right things. That means knowing your numbers well enough to see where the money actually leaks out. It means having a team that can run jobs without you standing over them. It means spending your time on the two or three decisions that move the business forward, not the fifty small fires that just make you feel productive.
Working harder was never the problem. Working on the wrong things was.

If you stripped away everything you did this week that felt busy but didn't actually move your business forward, what would be left?

One of the comments I hear most often is...

"Oh... you're actually human!"

I always laugh and reply,

"Of course I am!"

Just because I'm a business coach doesn't mean I've got everything figured out or that life is picture-perfect.

If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd be running my own business coaching company, I probably would've laughed... and then immediately questioned whether I was capable enough.

The truth is, I know what it's like to carry the weight of responsibility.
- To have goals that excite you and terrify you at the same time.
- To lie awake wondering if you're making the right decision.
-To overthink.
- To doubt yourself.
- To keep showing up anyway.

It's a lot.

I've been fortunate enough to sit at tables helping shape global strategies and to coach business owners through growth, cashflow challenges, team issues, and some incredibly tough decisions.

But I've also been the one lying awake at 2am wondering...

Am I good enough?
Am I doing enough?
Is this crazy dream actually going to work?

I'm no different from the business owners I work with. That's exactly why I coach the way I do.
Not from a pedestal.
Not pretending I've got all the answers.
Not because I'm perfect.

I coach from experience, with honesty, empathy, and the ability to see potential in people and businesses long before they see it themselves.
I'll celebrate your wins, challenge your thinking, call out your blind spots, and back you every step of the way.

Because behind every successful business is a business owner who has someone in their corner.
Even I have an incredible coach in mine.

When I'm not talking business, you'll usually find me on adventures or with my beautiful dogs training for agility or obedience or learning a humbling life lesson… dogs are great teachers lol
I also love good food, so if you know of a good spot I need to try, send your recommendations my way!

If you're ready to build a business that gives you more profit, more freedom, and more confidence…not just more work, I’d love to help you get there.

Here's to discovering what's possible.

Your Coach, Chané x

💜

Your team will rise to the standard you set or fall to the one you allow.
Most owners think they're setting a standard. What they're actually doing is allowing one.

Every time something slips and nobody says anything, that's the new standard. Every time a job's done halfway and it still gets signed off, that's the new standard. You don't get the standard you talk about in the team meeting. You get the standard you let walk out the door.

This isn't about being harder on people. It's about being honest and providing feedback both positive and negative, versus what you say you expect and don’t follow through..
A good business coach doesn't just help you write the standard down in black and white. They help you notice the fifty small moments a week where you quietly lower it, often without realising you've done it.

So have a closer look this week at your team and how you are responding…
Is the standard you're setting the one you'd actually be proud of, or the one you've just gotten used to because its too hard to give the feedback.

Are you a Fixer, a Mate, or a Leader?
Swipe through, answer honestly, tally up your letters.
Most owners get a result they don't expect.
Drop yours below 👇

Most business owners don't get blindsided. They get warned, and miss it.
Two quiet months with no profit. A team that's busy but not productive. Reviews that have gone a bit average. A client journey with more bottlenecks than anyone's willing to admit.
None of that is a crisis. It's data. Your business talks to you constantly, mostly through numbers, not words.
The owners who stay ahead aren't the ones working the hardest. They're the ones who know what to check and when. Net profit, not just revenue. The hours they're personally putting in, and whether the business could run a week without them. What their team is actually getting done versus what they're being paid for.
That's the real value of working with a business coach, not someone telling you to hustle harder, but someone helping you read the signals before they turn into problems.
Once you know what to look for, your business stops surprising you. That's how you turn the ship in time to miss the iceberg.
Which of these five could you actually answer right now, off the top of your head?

"If I want it done right, I have to do it myself."
Every business owner has said this at least once. Most still believe it.

It feels true because it's worked, for a while. You catch the mistakes. You hold the standard. Nothing slips because nothing happens without you checking it first.
But here's what's actually happening on the other side of that.

Every time you step in and redo someone's work, you teach them not to bother next time. Why think it through if you're going to take over anyway?
So they stop. They wait. They ask "what would you like me to do?" instead of telling you what they'd recommend.
That's not a weak team. That's a trained one.

Dependency. Hesitation. People second-guessing decisions they used to make fine on their own. Nobody owns the outcome because you'll own it for them eventually.
And the business? It stops growing past what one person can physically carry.
Control isn't leadership. It's a ceiling.

This isn't about lowering your standards. It's about building a team and systems that hold the standard without you holding it personally, every time, for everything. That's the work a good small business coach actually helps you do, not just delegate tasks, but let go of control in a way that doesn't blow up the quality you've worked hard to build.

So here's the real question: is it actually that no one else can do it right? Or is it that no one else's been shown how you do it, and why?
What's the one task you're still doing yourself that you know, deep down, someone else could take off your plate?

A client called me last week. Letting me know she'd been admitted to hospital.
For most business owners, getting sick means one of two things: working through it anyway, or watching everything quietly fall apart while they're out.
This time was different. She got sick, and for the first time since she opened the doors, she didn't worry about not being there, because she knew her team could run the business without her.
That's not luck. That's not having "good staff," either, plenty of business owners have good staff and still can't take a sick day. It's what happens when the systems, the training, and the trust have actually been built, not just hoped for.
This is the real marker of a healthy business. Not how busy it looks from the outside. Whether it can suddenly survive a week or two without the owner in it.
If you got sick tomorrow, what would actually happen to your business?

This is what happens when you stop winging the client experience and actually design it.
One of our clients done some great work on the tools. Brilliant, actually. But the customer experience around the work? A bit Patchy. Clients didn't know what was coming next. The team didn't either.
So we mapped it out. Every touchpoint. Every handover. Every step "what happens now and next" moment answered before the client even had to ask. It’s called positioning!
The result? Clients are clearer. The team is more confident. And the feedback has been flowing in.
This is the stuff that separates a business that's good at what it does, from one that's genuinely easy to deal with.
Your technical skill got you here. Your processes and systems will take you further.
What does your current client journey actually look like… Is it mapped out, or is it still living in your head and pretty inconsistent from one client to the next?

Most business owners have played all three.
The OTT boss who micromanages because they don't trust anyone to do it right or the way they want it to be done.
The business owner who wants to be the good ol mate, avoiding the hard conversation like a plague because they don't want to be the bad guy.
And the Leader, the one their team actually follows. Not out of fear. Out of respect. The one that manages with clarity and provides timely feedback… the good and the bad.

Here's the thing nobody tells you when you're growing a team in the trades:
Being liked and being trusted are not the same thing.
You can be everyone's favourite and still have a team that falls apart the second you're not watching.
Real leadership isn't harsh. It's not cold. It's just clear.
Clear on the standard. Clear on the expectation. Clear on what happens when things go sideways.

That clarity…

That's what makes a business actually run.

Which one shows up most in your business right now: Boss, Mate, or Leader? Drop it in the comments.