What Does a Crochet Business Coach Do – And Is Pam Quitting?

Recently, while reading a conversation in the online crochet community, I was reminded that people often misunderstand the role and value of business coaches. So I thought I this was a good time to clear up some misconceptions about coaching. Specifically, what exactly does a business coach do? And should I quit coaching?

I came across this puzzling discussion on Threads while vetting speakers for our upcoming Increase! Crochet Business Summit. For the sake of brevity, I won’t share the whole conversation here. But essentially, this long diatribe criticized people in the industry who “don’t know what they’re talking about” and “aren’t making money from designing,” and therefore shouldn’t be coaches.

There’s no way to know for sure if this discussion was about me. But regardless, it called into the question the role and value of coaching so I felt I needed to speak up.

Coaching is about more than how-tos and checklists. It’s about people, it’s about growth, and it’s about results.

– Pamela Grice, the Crochetpreneur

Should Pam quit coaching?

What does a crochet business coach do?

Ultimately, a business coach helps the business owner grow by encouraging personal and professional growth. Coaches like to ask provocative questions so that each person can grow based on their own desires and their own understanding of who they are and what they want. So it’s less telling and more asking questions—and a lot of listening.

Coaching focuses on what you are believing right now and what you need to do—to believe—to move into your future self. Coaching doesn’t focus on trauma of the past. It might focus on what messages from the past are you listening to today. But we focus totally on on the present going to the future.

Business Coaching versus Design Coaching

Business coaching focuses on building skills in business, whereas design coaching focuses on these skills as a designer. It’s not about how to design but how to build your goals and your personal growth as a designer.

Business Coaching versus Therapy

Therapy helps individuals learn to live with and reduce symptoms of mental illness. It’s actual clinical medical care, provided by therapists who have at least a master’s degree, as well as state certification in the states where they practice. Coaches don’t necessarily have any credentials, although I have a business strategy credential and credentials from a life a life coaching school. I also have psychotherapy credentials, but do not practice therapy as part of my work at Crochetprenuer.

Unlike coaching, which focuses on the here and now, therapy focuses on healing the past. Therapy treats mental health conditions and helps with personal and family issues. On the other hand, coaching focuses on the present and the future. While we do a lot of mindset work at Crochetpreneur, it’s not exactly the same as therapy.

Business Coaching Versus Mentoring

Generally, mentors share their personal experiences and what has worked for them. Typically, in the business realm, mentors will be more of a volunteer relationship rather than a paid relationship.

These distinctions are not perfectly cut and dried. Coaching, therapy, and mentoring have gray areas which overlap each other. And of course, every type of business development relationship has different nuances. But essentially, Crochetprenuer provides business coaching for entrepreneurs in the crochet and fiber industry.

What is a business strategist?

A strategist helps organizations by developing strategic plans to reach their goals and targets and improve their profitability. A strategist looks at existing business practices and recommends improvements. They also help with product development, marketing strategies, and high level long-term planning and decision-making.

A strategist is more hands-on in the business, where a coach helps clients discern things for themselves. A strategist might say, “Here’s a strategy. How does this fit in with your business?” or, “I think these pieces will work together to get your business where it needs to go.” They apply a wider range of strategic skills than pure coaching.

What’s Changing at Crochetprenuer

After reading that conversation on Threads, I did a lot of soul searching. And what I came to realize is people don’t understand what you do until you’re clear about it. People don’t understand the importance of things until you’re clear about it. And so I think it’s time to clarify my messaging and the terms I use to describe who I am and what we do at Crochetpreneur.

Pam’s Top Strengths

In my work with my strengths coach, I have identified my top five areas of strength. These intrinsic qualities include:

• ideation: fascinated by ideas and able to find connections between phenomena
• strategic: can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues and create alternative ways to proceed
• intellection: introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions
• futuristic: inspired by the future and what could be
• relator: find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal

If you look at the definition of a business strategist above, you’ll see that the first four traits fit in well with the business strategist component. Then relator fits in with therapy or relationship-based coaching.

With this in mind, I’m going to shift into using more of the term “strategist.” There’s such a misunderstanding, even from coaches, as to what coaching is. A lot of people believe coaching is someone telling you how to. Since Crochetprenuer involves much more than that, I feel that strategist better reflects the work that we do.

What we do at Crochetpreneur

At Crochetpreneur, we incorporate practical how-tos, lots of mindset work, and advice on crochet business strategy.

The personal growth piece is essential to building a successful business. But we also recognize that sometimes people want to get right into the nuts and bolts of the business—for example, how to upload a pattern to Ravelry. So we start with the how-tos to get people into our world.

Then, we dig deeper into mindset. We’ll take you and help you grow further as a business owner, as a person, and as you walk into your future self to create the life that you want to create.

Is Pam going to quit coaching?

Can I be an effective coach without actively designing? Yes! To believe anything different is to misunderstand the nature of the work. It’s about more than how-tos and checklists. It’s about about people, it’s about growth, and it’s about results. We are getting results, and we have the testimonials to prove it.

So no, I am not quitting coaching. Whether I call myself a coach, a strategist, or anything else, the goal remains the same: to help 100,000 makers find financial freedom through crochet. I love this work and I’m not stopping any time soon. I hope you will join us on your journey to success!

Resources to Grow Your Crochet Business

• Join my free Crochet Business Chat Facebook group.
• Take your crochet business to the next level by signing up for Crochetpreneur Business Academy.
• Want to connect in-person with other crochet business owners and learn from renowned business experts and crochet industry leaders? Sign up for the Increase! Crochet Business Summit!