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LOU CHEEK, AN AUDIOLOGIST in Tucson, Ariz., had been working at a large medical clinic for nine years when it filed for bankruptcy. Instead of scanning the want ads, she decided to open her own practice. Branching out on her own was exciting at first. Her clinic, the Adobe Hearing Center, would test patient's hearing and fit them for hearing aides. But after signing a lease and setting up her office, Cheek became beset with uncertainty.

"I was learning as I went," says Cheek of her first entrepreneurial foray. "I was making it up as I went along, and I was sort of overwhelmed."

Fortunately, there was no lack of patients. But the work was soon taking over Cheek's life, leaving little time for her family. She couldn't decide whether to continue on as the practice's sole audiologist or hire someone else. The indecision was paralyzing and she knew she needed help.

Reaching a frustration point, Cheek called Diane Brennan, a business coach she knew from her days at the Tucson clinic. Their initial meetings focused on the basics. Brennan had Cheek determine her goals for the practice and ask herself some seemingly obvious questions: Do I need another audiologist? How will I know when I need another one? Do I need a larger business model?

After about three months with Brennan, Cheek felt confident that she was in control of her business. "I felt like I could have an impact on my practice instead of it owning me," she says.

Even would-be entrepreneurs — who, say, want to run their own dog-grooming shop — may know plenty about dogs and clipping fur, but might also be overwhelmed by the business part of the business, unsure how much to grow or how to hire and retain the right employees. That's where a business coach comes in.

"There may be some barriers which are hard to see when you're in it. We work on business strategy, exploring ideas and managing the stress that can occur," says Brennan, now president-elect of Lexington, Ky.-based International Coach Federation, a nonprofit group that runs an accreditation program for business coaches.

A business coach's function can run the gamut from creating a recruitment plan to helping a client better delegate work; but in general, they are there when business owners feel stuck. "The best time for a small business to come to coaching is if they're feeling overwhelmed, if they're not profitable and they're really looking to make a change happen in their business and not sure how to do it," says Michelle Payne, an ICF board member and chief operating officer of Beyond Point B, an executive coaching and leadership skills firm based in Sacramento, Calif.

A New Perspective

Of course, there are skeptics who question how someone who doesn't know anything about your specific industry — or who may have never run a business themselves — can help you improve yours.

Payne counters that a coach's greatest asset is the objectivity that he or she brings to the client. She argues that coaches provide a big-picture approach to business owners who are too immersed in the daily slog of meetings, personnel management, sales numbers and marketing strategies to be objective. For example, someone who may not know much about the dog-grooming business may offer a fresh perspective and challenge the owner's long-held notions about the way they conduct business. Perhaps the coach suggests that the owner staggers shifts or change their store hours to better accommodate for the weekend rush or advises them to visit veterinary clinics to look for experienced part-time workers.

That's where a business coach differs from a consultant, explains Brennan of ICF. Usually, a consultant has had experience working within the small-business owner's industry and offers a recommended course of action based on that expertise. "In coaching, the coach is not the expert in the client's business, but is expert in the partnering and asking thought-provoking questions," she says. "A good coach helps the business owner see beyond his or her immediate problem, see the solution, and create the plan and processes that they can be comfortable with."

Business owners should also understand that coaching is not about giving clients specific or predefined answers, adds Marti Benjamin, president of Business Energetix Success Coaching based in Reno, Nev. Benjamin, for instance, spends a lot of her time helping clients envision their idea of success and then figuring out the specific things they need to do to attain it.

"Coaching is more tailored to the individual business— that owner or manager — and specifically what they want to have with their outcome," says Benjamin.

Your own personal cheerleader

The local bookstore or economic development center may provide good resources for wannabe entrepreneurs to learn the fundamentals of starting a business. But in some cases, that pales in comparison to the psychological and strategic benefits of having someone personally vested in your success.

For Julia Rhodes, a former grade-school teacher in Sonora, Calif., who invented attachable erasers for dry-erase markers, having a one-on-one connection with a coach was "like having a cheerleader on your team."

Knowing nothing about what it meant to actually sell her invention, in 2001 Rhodes hired Payne, of Beyond Point B, to help her take her new product to market. Payne guided her through the basics of starting and managing her own business: how to deal with cash flow, how to price your product, how to negotiate with potential customers.

"My job was to understand the industry," says Rhodes, whose KleenSlate eraser system now sells at Staples and Office Depot. "[Payne's] job was to help me understand what it takes to form a business and how to relate in the business world. That was difficult for me. I had been relating to kids all those years."

Seven years later, Rhodes still consults with Payne when she has specific concerns about her business.