A business coach helps you find your own answers, mostly through questions, and doesn’t need to have run a business like yours. A business mentor has run a business like yours and shares what they’ve learnt from doing it. If you know what to do and need help doing it, look for a coach. If you’re doing something for the first time, look for a mentor.
Updated November 2026
It’s a question that’s asked often, by creative founders weighing up what kind of support they need. The two words get used as though they mean exactly the same thing, and I don’t think they do. I think they’re two very different things, so I’d love to explain how I see the difference, and help you work out which kind of support would move your business forwards right now.
What’s the difference between a business coach and a business mentor?
The simplest way to put it, and this is very much my point of view, is that a coach helps you find your own answers, and a mentor shares what they’ve learnt from having done it themselves.
Coach and mentor get used almost interchangeably, on websites, in programmes and in conversation, and plenty of people describe themselves as both. I can completely see why it gets confusing when you’re looking for help.
And the confusion matters, because the two give you very different things. If you’re expecting one and you get the other, it can feel as though it isn’t working, when really it was just a different kind of support from the one you needed at the time.
What does a business coach do?
A good coach works mostly through questions. They help you get clear on what you want, notice what’s getting in the way, and hold you to what you said you’d do.
They don’t need to have run a business like yours, because the answers come from you. Many have trained in coaching, and the good ones are brilliant at it.
What does a business mentor do?
A mentor has been there. They’ve run a business like yours, made the mistakes, found what works, and they tell you.
They’ll say this is what I’d do, this is what happened when I tried it, and this is what I’d steer well clear of. The relationship usually runs over a longer stretch of time, and it’s built on their experience as much as on your goals.
Both are good. I’ve worked with coaches and with mentors over the years, and both have made a real difference to my business. And plenty of good support has a little of both in it.
Business coach or mentor, at a glance
| Business coach | Business mentor | |
|---|---|---|
| How they help | Asks questions, so you find your own answers | Shares what they’ve learnt from doing it |
| What they need to have done | Trained in coaching; hasn’t necessarily run a business like yours | Has run a business like yours |
| Best when | You know what to do, and need help doing it | You’re doing something for the first time |
| What you hear back | Your own thinking, made clearer | What they’d do, and why |
Do I need a business coach or a mentor?
There are three things I’d look at to work out which one you need right now.
1. Whether you already know what to do. If you do, and what’s missing is the confidence or the follow through to actually do it, a coach can be brilliant.
2. Whether you’re facing something you’ve never done before. Pricing in a completely different way, a new kind of client, a business that’s grown past what you can hold in your head. That’s where somebody who has already done it saves you a huge amount of time, and a fair few wrong turns.
3. How much you’d like somebody to tell you what they think. A coach will usually hand the question back to you. A mentor will tell you what they’d do, and why.
What does that look like in a creative business?
If you make and sell products, and you’re wondering whether to go into wholesale, a mentor who has done wholesale can tell you what the margins really look like, and what she’d do differently the second time round.
If you run a service business, and you’ve reached the point where you’re fully booked but your income has stopped growing, somebody who has run a service business and been through exactly that can show you what they’d change, from your prices to the kind of clients you say yes to.
If you create experiences, events or workshops or retreats, and you’re trying to work out how to grow without being at every single one yourself, that’s usually something you want to learn from somebody who has been through it.
And whatever kind of business you run, if you know exactly what you need to do but you keep putting it off, that’s often more of a coaching conversation… somebody to help you see what’s in the way, and keep you to it.
Why I’m a business mentor rather than a coach
I’m not a trained coach, and I’ve never pretended to be. Nothing I teach comes from a book.
Everything I share comes from building my own design business from my kitchen table to seven figures, working with the Royal Family, Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Dior and Vogue, and from getting a great deal wrong along the way. And then from working with hundreds of creative founders since.
So when somebody asks me about pricing, or the right clients, or how to shape their year, I’ll share exactly what I’ve seen work, and what I’d do in their position.
And I know what it takes, because I’ve lived it. I know what clients are like in a creative business, and how to work with them well. I know what it’s like to run a business alongside a family, and what it’s like when the business is your creativity, so it’s never just work.
There’s a little of the coaching side too, because so often the answer is already there in somebody’s business, and they just can’t see it on their own. Seeing it for them, and showing them where it is, is the part I love most.
And every single thing I do is there to make sure you’re the one in control… making the right decisions for yourself, and leading your business completely. Because I also know that you’re far more capable than you realise.
How to work out which you need, in five minutes
Write down the one thing in your business you’d most like help with right now. Then next to it, write whether you already know what to do, or whether it’s something you’ve never done before.
If you already know what to do, you’re probably looking for a coach. If you’ve never done it, you’re probably looking for a mentor. And if it’s a bit of both, that’s completely normal, and it’s worth looking for somebody who can do both.
Once you know, it’s much easier to find the right person. I’ve written about exactly that in how to find a good business mentor for your creative business, and about the different kinds of support and what they cost in how much a business mentor costs.
Where does The Bright Line fit?
The Bright Line, my six month programme for established creative female founders, is mentoring at its heart. I share what I’ve learnt, alongside a room of creative founders all over the world who are working through the same things at the same time, and every member has a monthly one-to-one check-in with a member of my team. You’re never on your own with a decision.
It’s application first, I read every application myself, and new members begin on the first of each month. You can read more about how I work on my creative business mentor page.
So, coach or mentor?
A coach helps you find your own answers, and a mentor shares what they’ve learnt from having done it. Neither is better than the other. It simply comes down to what you need right now.
When you’re doing something for the first time, learn from somebody who has done it.
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