Before meeting with Paula Crutchley, I was a bit skeptical about the whole idea of business coaching. I mean really, I know that in a cookie cutter corporate situation often times consultants are brought in to fix problems like production, efficiency, sales management, etc., But what could a business coach do for a small business? Or better yet, what about the niche business that someone would have to be in to truly understand how it worked? I just could not grasp the concept, so I was very excited to meet with Paula and fi nd out what her biz was all about.

Paula and I met briefly to discuss the benefits of a business coach and how her services can be implemented in both large and small companies, and after just a few brief moments, it was easy to tell that a business coach can be a vital asset to any company.

First let’s discuss the difference between a consultant and business coach. I’ve dealt with many consultants over the years, and one thing that has always stood out is the very little amount of actually consulting they do. The short of it is that consultants will come in and do a specific job for you, whether it is to fix your sales team’s shortcomings, or increase your production lines downfalls. Consultants can be extremely beneficial; however, they can be extremely expensive too. Now a business coach is going to ultimately achieve the same goal as the consultant, with a key difference. The business coach will not do the job for you, rather they will show you how to do it. A business coach will give you the tools you need to fix whatever problem you may have. In showing you how to do it, you are learning and growing as a company and are able to apply those lessons to other areas of your business. Of course there is a whole lot more to it than that, but youget the point.

Now that I knew what a business coach was, I was curious to know more about Paula and her ties to our community and her experience in the area. I may have jumped to a conclusion or two, but with her English accent, I naturally assumed she was not a native to the area, boy was I wrong.

Paula was born in Manchester England; however she has lived in our community for over 25 years. Like most of us, she moved here and decided it was too good to leave.

With an under grad in business and an MBA in business, Paula is obviously more than enough credentials to be a business coach. Paula has more than just a degree to back her up though. She has over 20 years in sales and marketing for various companies, the last 10 of which were spent in the medical field. So naturally, I was now curious about her current clients, and what she has been able to do for them; because to be honest, I may have started our meeting as an interview for her story, but the more I got out of her, the more it turned into an opportunity to discuss hiring her for ourselves.

Paula’s list of clients is quite impressive having only started on her own since January. They range from artists which sold $300,000-$500,000 pieces, and after Paula’s work, now sell million dollar pieces, all the way to agricultural clients that have never marketed in the past. When asking her how she can have such a broad range of clients and how she could possibly know about all those different industries, she put it to me quite simply, “Business is business”. No matter the industry, marketing is marketing, and sales are sales.

Speaking with Paula it is easy to see the passion in what she does. She not only enjoys her work, but just by looking at her you can tell it is what she wants to do for the rest of her life. No matter what industry you are in, you can not pay for that kind of passion, and it was refreshing to speak with her. Paula’s mission statement sums it up best, “To leave every client with integrity and value”.