Beverlee Rasmussen It’s almost New Year’s Eve, which means your clients are likely feeling two things at once.
Tired, and hopeful.
Small business owners carry a heavy pack. They have poured their time, money, pride, and heart into what they have built. They solve problems no one sees, carry stress quietly, and keep going when it would have been easier to stop.
If your small business coaching client made it to the end of this year, they have already done something hard.
Your opportunity in 2026 is to give them more than encouragement. You can help them build structure that reduces pressure, improves decision-making, and creates stability.
This is where small business coaching becomes practical. Not hype. Not instant fixes. Not fantasy.
The shift your clients need in 2026
Small businesses rarely unravel in one dramatic moment. They get worn down by quiet leaks:
- Reputation leaks, inconsistency, missed expectations, unclear promises
- Money leaks, pricing drift, rework, inefficiencies, waste, discounts used as a band-aid
- Time leaks, constant interruptions, no documented process, no owner space to think
- Knowledge gaps, guessing at numbers, guessing at marketing, guessing at capacity
Your job is not to diagnose and prescribe.
Your job is to help the client see what is happening, choose what matters most, then build a simple system that changes the outcome.
That is coaching.
A coaching stance that works with small business owners
Small business owners do not need more advice. They need a thinking partner who can stay steady when the business feels messy.
Anchor your work in the ICF Core Competencies in a way that fits the realities of small business:
- Embodies a Coaching Mindset, stay curious, grounded, and out of the rescue role
- Maintains Presence, slow the moment down so the client can think clearly
- Listens Actively, listen for constraints, patterns, and recurring pain points
- Evokes Awareness, connect facts to decisions
- Facilitates Client Growth, turn insight into action and accountability
This is what separates coaching from advising, mentoring, and managing.
The 2026 move that changes everything
Help your client protect five hours a week to work on the business, not just in it.
Not someday. Not when it calms down.
Every week.
This becomes the stability engine. Most owners are running without enough reflection time to build structure. When you help them claim that weekly appointment, you create the space where change becomes possible.
Coaching prompts to protect the five hours
- What consistently pulls you away from working on the business?
- What must be true for five hours to be protected on the calendar?
- What boundary, conversation, or decision would make that time possible?
- Who needs to know this time is protected, and how will you communicate it?
The “Bug List” exercise that creates immediate direction
Ask your client to create a list called:
Everything that is bugging me about this business
Nothing fancy. Just a running list. Every frustration, every recurring issue, every task they avoid, every customer problem, every number they do not understand.
Then coach them to sort the list with one question:
Where is the system missing, unclear, or broken?
Now you have a build list. This is how you move a client out of vague overwhelm and into practical progress.
Coaching prompts for the bug list
- Which three items cost you the most time each month?
- Which three items cost you money, even if you cannot see it clearly yet?
- Which item is damaging trust with customers or the team?
- What is the smallest system you could build to reduce this by 20 percent?
Three focus areas that create traction early in 2026
These are the places where small business owners often get momentum quickly.
Customer fit
Not every customer is a good customer, even if they pay.
Prompts:
- Which customers leave you with healthy margins and clean delivery?
- Which customers create rework, stress, and exceptions?
- What do your best customers have in common?
- What would you change in your marketing if you were only trying to attract your best customers?
Marketing clarity
Marketing feels discouraging when nothing is being tracked.
Prompts:
- Where did your last ten customers come from?
- What is working, and how do you know?
- What are you doing out of habit, not results?
- What is one simple metric you can track weekly that would reduce guesswork?
Operations and delivery
Owners cannot scale chaos. They can scale consistency.
Prompts:
- Where do things break down most often during delivery?
- What gets repeated, explained, or fixed again and again?
- What would be easier if it were documented once, then taught?
- What is the first process you want to make repeatable?
A simple coaching cadence for Q1 2026
If you want a structure that feels steady for you and your client, use this weekly rhythm:
- One clear focus for the week, based on the bug list and the missing system
- One system build during the protected five hours
- One metric to track progress
- One reflection at the next session, what worked, what did not, what to adjust
This keeps the client in ownership, and it makes progress visible.
Your role in 2026
Your clients have heard plenty of slogans.
Your differentiation is that you help them build a business that can hold them.
In 2026, the most valuable coaching you can offer is:
- clarity over chaos
- facts over fantasy
- systems over heroics
- small weekly action that compounds
Find out what 15 years of research gets you as a small business coach.
If you are a coach, or you are becoming one, and you want to coach small business owners with structure and skill, that is exactly what we teach inside Small Business Coach Training.
Start with the Foundations course, and if you want steady, practical support throughout the year, watch for our Skool community launching in 2026, built around the tools and thinking in Small Business, Big Opportunity.
Imagine having this tool as your guide and me, Beverlee Rasmussen by your side!
Wishing you Peace this New Years Eve!
