Dr. April Willis, Founder and Principal Consultant & Coach at April Willis Consulting (AWC) and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, shares how she keeps running into the same kind of business owner. This person is skilled and works long hours, but has spent so long inside the daily grind that they cannot see the next move.
Business coaching is often pitched as the fix… and sometimes it is. Just not always. Sometimes it is an expensive detour, because the owner needed a different kind of help all along.
Dr. April Willis tells the two situations apart with a single test. Look at who does the work once the meeting ends.
The Weeds Have a Way of Looking Like Work
Busy and productive feel exactly alike (from the inside, though). An owner answers emails, patches a scheduling problem, and rewrites the website copy, then ends the day tired with the business sitting right where it stood that morning.
Dr. April Willis describes clients who have spent so long in the weeds that they can’t see how to take the company to its next level.
They have plenty of effort to give, but what they lack is a vantage point.
She adds that the most common problem she solves is that people with bold, big-picture visions stall when it’s time to carry out the steps that make those visions happen.
Who Holds the Pen After the Meeting Ends?
People tend to treat “coach” and “consultant” as interchangeable terms.
They are not.
A consultant identifies the pain points, then takes the work off the owner’s plate and carries it out.
A business coach, on the other hand, identifies the same pain points and hands the owner homework instead.
Sessions can happen weekly or monthly. In the gaps, the owner produces the pricing revision, the hiring plan, and the follow-up system. Dr. April Willis sums it up this way: “We essentially teach you to fish.”
A Readiness Check You Can Run on a Tuesday
Coaching usually fits when most of the following conditions are true:
- You can name the problems but not the order.
- You have spare hours each week (homework needs someone to do it, and an owner with no slack ends up paying for assignments that sit untouched).
- You want the skill to stay in-house.
- A consultant feels premature.
Dr. April Willis sees coaching as a sound step for owners who aren’t yet ready to bring a consultant on board. Tasks like grant writing, HR work, and social media management, which are clearly defined, normally belong with a consultant, because in this situation, the owner needs the result more than the lesson.
AWC’s own work follows that pattern: the company has completed dozens of executive search and placement projects for C-level and director positions across the country, and it published another five books on behalf of clients in the past year through its book editing and publishing services.
Dr. April Willis on Paying for Coaching That Coaches
Price deserves its own scrutiny.
In an open letter to business coaches, Dr. April Willis argued that the $10,000 program became the industry standard because of marketing, while outcomes trailed behind. She has spoken with people who left such programs convinced they had failed. They received recycled content, loose frameworks, and group calls where nobody’s actual questions got answered.
Her standard for a premium price is straightforward. Clients should pay for a relationship and a coach who is personally invested in their progress.
Dr. April Willis’ own recent recognition includes a second year in a row on the Longhorn 100 and selection as the #1 Business Consultant/Coach in the Southlake Style Awards. She is also the Treasurer of the Southlake Women’s Club and a member of the Southlake Chamber of Commerce. Her volunteer calendar is full for the school year, with Kingsley, her certified therapy dog, and her visiting elementary schools every week so students can read to him.
Numbers Don’t Flatter Anyone
Homework that nobody measures turns into friendly chats where nothing changes.
Dr. April Willis emphasizes numbers because quantitative data is honest, even when it is dull. Her list includes monthly revenue, projected annual net income, year-over-year growth, client count, and transactions.
A coaching engagement works best in the same way:
- Pick two or three figures before the first session.
- Write down where they stand.
- Review them each quarter.
If nothing has moved after three months of honest homework, that tells you something about the plan, the coach, or the fit.
Dr. April Willis’s Vision: Coaching That Works Itself Out of a Job
A working coaching relationship needs to shrink over time. Meetings will stretch from weekly to monthly, and eventually, the owner will start setting assignments before anyone hands them out. That is what teaching someone to fish looks like in practice.
Dr. April Willis tells owners to start with a discovery call to find out if coaching can move their business forward or if a different kind of help will fit them better.
Connect with Dr. April Willis on LinkedIn to start a conversation about where coaching fits in your business.
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