How do business coaches differentiate from consultants?

Many owners cannot tell the difference, and the ambiguity costs engagements on both sides.

The conventional distinction: a consultant is hired to deliver an answer or an implementation, and leaves with the work done. A coach builds the owner's capability to make decisions, and leaves with the owner more capable.

In practice most business coaching engagements blend the two, particularly with smaller companies where the owner needs both a plan and the capacity to run it.

What matters commercially is being explicit:

• Say which you are doing, or which parts of an engagement are which. Ambiguity here is the most common source of mismatched expectations mid-engagement.
• If you deliver work, say so and price it accordingly. Consulting deliverables sit at different rates than capability building.
• If you do not, be clear about what the owner will be expected to execute. An owner expecting done-for-you work will be disappointed by good coaching.

The clearest positioning names the outcome rather than the label: what will be different in the business in ninety days, and who does what to get there.