Skip to content
ADLBusiness Coach

Tools

Do I need a business coach?

It’s 10 questions about your hours, your team, your numbers and how you take being challenged. At the end you get a reading of where the strain actually sits, and a straight answer on whether a coach is the right next spend or whether something cheaper comes first.

It takes about 3 minutes, it’s free to use, and there’s no email address to hand over before you see the result. The scoring runs in your browser, so nothing you answer leaves the page unless you decide to make an enquiry afterwards.

Coaches pay me a fee for each enquiry I pass on. That's how this free service is funded, and it means I introduce you to coaches in the network rather than every coach in Adelaide. How this works

What this scorecard measures

There are 6 signals here, scored across 10 questions, out of a maximum of 40. Your hours. How much of the business runs through you. How clearly you can see your numbers. Whether there’s a written direction. The pressure on your people. And whether the things you decide actually get done.

Then 3 situations override the total, because some answers settle the question before the arithmetic gets a say: books that are behind, a decision already made, and a business that can’t fund the spend. Of the 7 readings the scorecard can give you, 4 point somewhere other than a coach, and 3 of those show no enquiry form at all. The raw score is always shown, whichever reading you get.

0 of 10 answered

About 3 minutes. No email address, and no sign up.

Question 1 of 10

In a typical week, how many hours do you work in the business?

1 of 10

Answer all 10 questions and the reading appears here. The scoring runs in your browser, so nothing you pick is sent anywhere unless you decide to make an enquiry afterwards.

When a coach is not the answer

There are 3 situations where hiring a coach is the wrong first move. The scorecard treats each of them as an override, so any one of them decides the reading whatever the total says.

The most common reason a coaching engagement goes badly in Adelaide isn’t the coach. It’s that the numbers weren’t visible when it started. If the books are 3 months behind, the early sessions get spent reconstructing last quarter instead of deciding anything, and reconstruction is work a bookkeeper does for a small share of a monthly retainer. Get the books current to this month, ask your accountant for a monthly profit and loss statement on 1 page that you’ll actually read, and build a 13 week view of what’s coming in, what’s going out and the week the gap appears. Then the same money buys a conversation about pricing, margin and where the work is really going, rather than data entry with a more expensive person doing it. That’s why 1 answer in this scorecard, books behind or you couldn’t say what the business made last month, overrides the score entirely.

The second situation is the owner who already knows the answer. If you’ve decided what needs to happen and what you’re short of is capacity, a coach is the wrong purchase. A coach’s job is to ask what you think and hold you to what you said you’d do, which is worth paying for while the decision is still open and irritating once it isn’t. What you want is somebody who takes the brief and does the work: a consultant, bought as a project with a scope, a deadline and a fixed end, not as a monthly retainer with no finish line. Write the brief before you price anything, and if you get halfway through and realise you aren’t actually sure what the answer is, that’s the moment coaching becomes the better fit. The coach, consultant or mentor selector separates the 3 properly, and business advisory covers the middle ground, where somebody experienced looks at the whole business and tells you what they see.

The third situation is money, and it’s the one owners are least comfortable saying out loud. Fortnightly coaching at $1,500 to $2,800 a month ex GST is a real commitment for a business turning over under $150,000, and stretching to it out of a business that can’t carry it for 6 months is how owners end up resenting a service that was never wrong, only early. South Australia has free and subsidised business advisory support, and for an early stage or very small business it’s genuinely useful. Start at business.sa.gov.au for the state service and business.gov.au for the federal listings, both checked September 2026, and come back to the paid market when the business can fund it without strain. Both are standing entry points rather than a named scheme, so check on the day what’s open to a business your size.

The 6 signals that matter

Each of the 10 questions feeds 1 of 6 signals, and each signal comes back as working, under strain, or the constraint. A single signal under strain is a job to do. All 6 pointing the same way is a different situation, and it's the one coaching is built for.
  1. 01

    Hours

    How long the week actually is. Hours on their own prove nothing: plenty of owners work 55 hours and are perfectly in control. The number only means something next to the other 5 signals, which is why a long week on its own won't push you into the highest band.

  2. 02

    Delegation

    What happens to the business when you switch the phone off for a fortnight, and how many people there are to hand anything to. This is the signal that most often turns out to be the real constraint, and it's the one a coach is most often bought to work on.

  3. 03

    Numbers

    Whether you can see what the business is doing without going and reconstructing it. Live margin by job at 1 end, books 3 months behind at the other. The bottom answer overrides the score, because nothing useful gets decided from figures nobody can see.

  4. 04

    Direction

    Whether there's a written plan for the next 12 months that somebody other than you could follow. A plan in your head isn't a plan the team can act on, and it's the cheapest gap on this list to close without paying anybody.

  5. 05

    People

    Whether the team is stable enough to build anything on. Short handed but coping is a very different problem from losing people over and over, and the second one usually points at how the business is run rather than at the labour market.

  6. 06

    Follow through

    Whether what you decide survives contact with the week, and how you take being challenged on a decision. Wanting to be pushed scores high here on purpose: it's the difference between somebody coaching works for and somebody who wants a contractor.

None of the 6 is a verdict on you. They’re a way of working out which conversation to have first, because owners very often buy help for the loudest problem rather than the binding one. Long hours are usually the loudest. Delegation and follow through are usually the binding ones, and both are what small business coaching in Adelaide actually gets bought to work on. If you want to know what a coach does with them week to week before you spend anything, that page and how the matching works are the 2 worth reading next.

How this is worked out

Every question is worth 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 points. Nothing is weighted, nothing is scaled and no question counts twice, so the highest reachable total is 40 and the lowest is 0. Every question carries at least 1 answer worth 0 and at least 1 worth 4, and that’s enforced by a unit test rather than by good intentions: without it a question could quietly drift and move every band threshold below it without anybody noticing.

The 3 override readings are checked first, in the order listed below, and the first match wins. Only if none of them fires does the total decide the reading. That order is the published rule, not an implementation detail: an owner whose books are 3 months behind gets the same answer whether they scored 14 or 34, because the honest answer doesn’t change with the total.

The 3 overrides, checked first

  1. Start with the free and low cost support first

    Shown whatever the total says. No enquiry form: this reading points somewhere else on purpose.

  2. Get your numbers visible before you pay anyone by the hour

    Shown whatever the total says. No enquiry form: this reading points somewhere else on purpose.

  3. What you're describing sounds more like a consultant

    Shown whatever the total says. The enquiry form is still offered, framed honestly.

The 4 score bands, if no override fires

You probably don't need a business coach right now
0 to 11 points
Fix 2 things first, then revisit
12 to 19 points
A coach is likely to be worth it, and here's the type
20 to 28 points
You're the bottleneck, and that's a coaching problem
29 to 40 points

The lowest band tells you that you probably don’t need a coach right now, and it offers no enquiry form. It exists on purpose, and it stays.

Why 2 of the answers score 0 when they look like they shouldn’t

“Just me” on the staff question scores 0, not 1. A sole operator has no team to delegate to, so the delegation signal isn’t the thing holding them back, and scoring it as though it were would nudge solo owners towards a purchase their answers don’t support. “I’ve decided, I want execution” on the coachability question also scores 0, and it raises the consultant override at the same time: wanting execution isn’t a weakness, it’s a different purchase.

Another 2 of the 10 questions, what the business can fund and its turnover, shape the reading without ever appearing as 1 of the 6 signals. Neither is a constraint a coach would work on, so neither is scored back to you as one. What they decide is whether the paid market is the right first stop at all, and on 1 of the answers they decide it isn’t.

Every figure the scorecard quotes comes from the published Adelaide bands, ex GST, checked September 2026. The site doesn’t set coach fees and can’t honour any number on this page: each coach in the network sets their own and quotes you directly. The cost calculator and the written guide at what business coaching costs in Adelaide both work from the same bands.

All 10 questions, and what every answer is worth

Published in full so you can see the scoring before you answer anything, and so this page is still a complete document with JavaScript switched off.

  1. Q1. In a typical week, how many hours do you work in the business?

    • Under 350 points
    • 35 to 451 point
    • 46 to 552 points
    • 56 to 653 points
    • More than 654 points

  2. Q2. If you took 2 weeks off with your phone switched off, what happens?

    • It runs fine0 points
    • It slows down but survives1 point
    • There would be real problems3 points
    • It stops entirely4 points

  3. Q3. How clearly can you see your numbers right now?

    • Live figures, I know my margin by job or product0 points
    • Monthly profit and loss from my accountant, and I read it1 point
    • Books are current but I don't really read them3 points
    • Books are behind, or I couldn't tell you what I made last month4 points

  4. Q4. Do you have a written plan for the next 12 months?

    • Yes, written, with numbers, reviewed monthly0 points
    • Written, but I haven't looked at it1 point
    • It's in my head3 points
    • No plan4 points

  5. Q5. How many staff or regular subcontractors do you have?

    • Just me0 points
    • 1 to 43 points
    • 5 to 194 points
    • 20 or more3 points

  6. Q6. Which is closest to your staffing situation?

    • Fully staffed and stable0 points
    • Short handed but coping2 points
    • Can't find the people3 points
    • I keep losing people4 points

  7. Q7. When you set yourself a business goal, what usually happens?

    • I hit it0 points
    • I hit most of them1 point
    • It starts well then slides3 points
    • It never really gets started4 points

  8. Q8. How do you react when someone challenges a decision you've made?

    • I go looking for it4 points
    • Open to it if there's evidence3 points
    • I'd rather someone just did the work for me1 point
    • I've decided, I want execution0 points

  9. Q9. Could the business fund $1,500 to $2,800 a month for 6 months without putting itself at risk?

    • Comfortably4 points
    • Tight but yes3 points
    • Only something smaller, $500 to $1,0002 points
    • No0 points

  10. Q10. Roughly what is your annual turnover?

    • Pre revenue or under $150,0000 points
    • $150,000 to $500,0002 points
    • $500,000 to $2m4 points
    • $2m to $10m4 points
    • Over $10m3 points

Common questions

Will this scorecard ever tell me not to hire a coach?
Yes, and it does it in 4 of the 7 possible readings. Score 11 or under and it tells you coaching would be a nice to have rather than a fix for anything. Answer that the books are behind and it sends you to a bookkeeper first. Answer that you've already decided and you want the work done, and it tells you that's a consultant. Answer that the business couldn't fund it, and it points you at free and subsidised South Australian support instead. Of those 4 readings, 3 show no enquiry form at all.
Do I have to give an email address to see the result?
No. There's no email gate, no sign up, no account and no half of the result held back until you hand something over. The reading appears as soon as the 10th question is answered. The scoring runs in your browser, so the answers aren't sent anywhere at all unless you read the reading, decide you want an introduction, and fill in the enquiry form yourself.
Why does it ask what the business can afford before it gives me an answer?
Because affordability changes what the honest recommendation is, not just whether you act on it. A business that can't carry $1,500 to $2,800 a month ex GST for 6 months without strain shouldn't be told a fortnightly retainer is its next step, however high the rest of the answers score. The question about turnover does the same job from a different angle, and either answer at the bottom end sends the reading to free and subsidised support rather than to the paid market.
I scored high but it told me to sort the books out first. Why?
Because 1 answer overrides the total. If the books are behind, or you couldn't say what the business made last month, the score is describing strain that nobody can measure yet. Coaching sessions spent reconstructing last quarter are the most expensive bookkeeping in Adelaide, and a bookkeeper catching up 3 months costs a fraction of a monthly retainer. Get the numbers visible, then take the scorecard again and the reading will be worth something.
Is the score a diagnosis of my business?
No. It's a reading of 10 answers you gave about yourself, scored the same way for everybody, and it says nothing about what happens next. It can't see your market, your contracts, your bank balance or your team. Treat it as a way of working out which conversation to have first, and treat any tool, any coach or any advisor that claims more than that with suspicion.
What happens to my answers after I close the page?
The selections sit in your own browser under a single key, so the scorecard still has them if you come back, and the visible Start again button clears them. Nothing is written to a server, nothing appears in the web address, and no answer is attached to you as a person. If you go on to make an enquiry, the values carried across are shown to you as editable fields on the form before you send anything.

If you already know a coach is the next step

Tell me what's going on in the business, how many people work in it, and roughly what you can spend. I read every enquiry myself, and I'll tell you what I find in the network, including when the answer is that nobody in it works on your problem.

  • You'll hear from me within 1 business day.
  • You'll be told a coach's fee band before any introduction is made.
Get matched with an Adelaide coachHow the matching works

Coaches pay me a fee for each enquiry I pass on. That's how this free service is funded, and it means I introduce you to coaches in the network rather than every coach in Adelaide. How this works

Where to go from here