What is financial coaching?
Financial coaching is regular one-to-one coaching on understanding and running your business numbers: cashflow, margin, pricing and the management information you make decisions from. It is the fourth of our four coaching areas, led by Peter, our Finance Director, and delivered with Buzz Accounting — the same team.
It is coaching, not regulated financial advice. Nobody in a session will tell you what to do with a pension, an investment, a mortgage or a personal debt — that is regulated work, and it is not what this is. The subject is your own business: what the figures say, what they mean, and what you do differently on the strength of them. If something surfaces that needs a regulated adviser, a tax specialist or an insolvency practitioner, we will say so and point you at the right person.
Most owners are not bad with numbers. They are simply running a business on the two figures they can see — what is in the bank and what came in this month — because nobody ever sat down with them and explained the rest in plain words. So pricing is set by feel, a good month and a profitable month get confused, and the year-end accounts arrive nine months late to a decision that was made in March.
Financial coaching closes that gap by teaching the handful of numbers that actually run a small business, in your own figures rather than a textbook, and then building the habit of looking at them on a fixed rhythm. The aim is not more reports. It is four or five numbers you carry around in your head and use — and the confidence to say no to work that does not pay, put a price up, or take money out of the business without a quiet feeling of dread.
Honest about fit, both ways.
This is the right door for some owners and the wrong one for others. Here is the straight version.
This works if the numbers are the gap.
You run a business that makes money on paper and still feels tight. You cannot say what your break-even is, why profit and cash never agree, or which jobs actually earn their keep — and you are willing to look at figures you have been avoiding rather than wait for the year-end.
This does not work if you want someone to do it for you.
Coaching does not raise the price, chase the debtor or cancel the subscription nobody uses. It makes those things visible, decided and followed up. If what you actually want is the work done rather than the capability built, that is bookkeeping, management accounts or a finance director — and Buzz Accounting can do all three without pretending it is coaching.
This is the wrong door for advice about money products.
Pensions, investments, mortgages, personal debt problems — none of that belongs in a coaching session. Those need a regulated adviser or, for debt, a free specialist service, and we will say so plainly rather than book you in. Coaching sits alongside proper advice, never instead of it.
If the discovery call says this is not the right work for you, we will tell you then — not sell you a programme.
Six things that make the numbers usable.
Not a course. Each of these gets worked properly, in your own figures, until you can do it without help.
Understanding your numbers
What a profit and loss and a balance sheet actually say, in plain words, using yours rather than an example. By the end you can open the management accounts, see what changed and know whether it matters — without ringing anyone to ask.
Cashflow rhythm
A rolling forecast you keep yourself, updated on a fixed day, so you can see the tight week six weeks out instead of on the morning it arrives. Plus the levers that move it: deposits, payment terms, standing orders, VAT and PAYE set aside rather than spent.
Margin decisions
Which work makes money and which quietly does not. Gross margin by job, service or customer, and what to do once you can see it — because a business with three profitable lines and two loss-makers looks average until somebody splits it out.
Pricing confidence
What your price has to be to cover the cost of doing the work, the cost of running the place and a wage worth having. Then the harder half: sending it without discounting on the phone, and knowing what a 5% discount does to the sales you need.
Monthly review discipline
One hour, same slot every month, on last month’s numbers. Same four or five figures, same questions, written actions. It is the least exciting item on this page and the one that changes the most, because an owner who reviews monthly is never nine months behind a problem.
Planning ahead
A budget for the year you can actually hold yourself to, broken into quarters, with the big items — a hire, a van, a tax bill, a price rise — on the timeline rather than in your head. Then checking the plan against what happened, and adjusting.
Coaching that runs on real figures.
Buzz Coaching sits alongside Buzz Accounting in the same family, which is what makes this area work: the numbers in the session are current, not remembered.
Peter, our Finance Director, runs the sessions.
The financial area is coached by someone who prepares management accounts for a living rather than someone reading from a workbook. That means the session can go where your business actually is — retentions, work in progress, seasonal VAT, a bad debt — instead of stopping at the general principle.
You do not have to be an accounting client.
Keep your existing accountant if you have one. What matters is that the bookkeeping is current enough for the figures to be real. If it is months behind, the honest first step is getting it straight — with them or with us — because coaching on unreliable numbers builds confidence in the wrong direction.
Where accounting stops and coaching starts.
Accounting produces the numbers and files them. Coaching is the hour where you learn to read them, decide something and get held to it. Owners often buy the first and assume the second comes with it. It does not, which is why a set of accounts can be perfectly correct and change nothing.
Sessions stay confidential.
What you say in a coaching session is not repeated — not to your team, not to other clients, and not to the accounting side of the Buzz family unless you ask us to share it. Plenty of owners use the session precisely to say the thing they cannot say anywhere else.
What a session actually looks like.
A fixed shape, so the hour is spent thinking rather than warming up. Sessions run monthly for cashflow work, and every two months where the focus is understanding the numbers.
Pre-work, a few days before.
A short set of questions and the current figures, sent ahead. You arrive having already looked at them, so the session is not spent reading a spreadsheet out loud to each other.
Ten minutes on last time’s actions.
What got done, what did not, and why. Not to tell you off — the reason something did not happen is usually the most useful thing in the hour, and it is often the same reason the price has not gone up either.
Twenty minutes on the numbers.
What moved, what it means and what it says about the next quarter. On the cashflow side that is the forecast; on the understanding side it is one concept worked properly — margin, break-even, debtor days, pricing — until it is yours.
Twenty minutes on the thing that is bothering you.
Whatever it actually is this month. A price rise you are avoiding, a customer who does not pay, a hire you cannot decide on, a tax bill you have not put money aside for.
Ten minutes agreeing what happens next.
Two or three specific actions with dates, written down and checked at the start of the next session. A session with no actions is a nice chat, and we would rather not sell you one of those.
One number most owners cannot state from memory.
Break-even is the figure that changes how the whole month feels. Illustrative numbers below, used to show the method — not a client.
Take a business with £12,500 of monthly overheads and a 45% gross margin, so every £100 of sales leaves £45 once the direct costs are paid. Break-even is £12,500 divided by 0.45, which is £27,800 of sales a month before the business earns anything at all. Lift the margin to 50% and the same overheads need £25,000.
Five points of margin take £2,800 a month off the number you have to hit — the equivalent of £33,600 of annual sales you no longer need to go and win.
Once an owner knows that figure, two things change. They can tell by the 20th of the month whether it is a good month or a bad one, instead of waiting for the accounts. And casual discounting stops, because a 5% discount is no longer a small gesture — it is visibly several thousand pounds of extra sales needed to stand still.
That is the whole aim of this area. Not more reports, and not a finance qualification. A handful of numbers you know, trust and use, worked out from your own figures in a session and then kept current on a rhythm you can hold.
Financial Freedom is the one this area is named for
All our coaching is pointed at the same three freedoms. The financial work is the shortest route to the first, and it quietly does a lot for the third.
Financial FreedomMoney, profit and control — enabling decisions made from strength, not stress.
Time FreedomSpace, systems and support that keep you focused on what actually matters.
Mind FreedomClarity, confidence and peace of mind, because the numbers are under control.Where this fits in Performance on Purpose.
Performance on Purpose asks two questions together: are you performing well — and is it all serving a purpose that actually matters? At the financial level, performance is what the figures do, and purpose is what the money is for. A business making good profit that never reaches the owner has answered only half the question.
You score where you are on the quadrant, coaching moves you towards Performance on Purpose, and the score is revisited at every session — so the direction of travel is measured, not guessed. On this area the measures are usually obvious: cash in the bank, gross margin, debtor days, drawings.
Explore Performance on PurposeFinancial coaching is one of four.
These are not four separate products. Numbers are where avoidance shows up first, so this area often leads straight into one of the others.
Personal Coaching
Knowing the price should go up and not sending it is not a numbers problem. When what stops you is the conversation rather than the arithmetic, the work is how you think, decide and lead yourself.
Explore Personal CoachingLeadership Coaching
Margin leaks through quoting, buying and time recording — all of which other people do. If the figures only improve when you personally watch them, the next work is leadership.
Explore Leadership CoachingBusiness Coaching
Sometimes the numbers are read correctly and the answer is that the model does not work. Strategy, pricing structure, systems and growth belong here rather than in a monthly review.
Explore Business CoachingStart with the numbers, for free.
Guides, thinking models and a calculator that pair with this area — all plain English, no sign-up needed.
Understanding Your Numbers
The handful of figures that run a small business, explained without the accounting language.
Read the guide
Profit Is Not Cash
Why a profitable month can still leave you short, and what to do about the gap.
Read the guide
The Monthly Business Review
The one-hour monthly habit that stops you finding out about problems nine months late.
Read the guideProfit vs Cash
Two different questions that owners treat as one. Why the bank balance is a poor guide to how the business is doing — in either direction.
Read the mindsetThe Cash Conversion Cycle
The days between paying for something and getting paid for it. Shorten the cycle and the business funds itself instead of your overdraft funding it.
Read the mindsetBreakeven
The day in the month your business starts making money. One number that changes how you price, sell and spend — and most owners have never worked it out.
Read the mindsetWant a number today? The free calculator shows what small improvements to price, margin and volume would do to your profit.
Try the Profit Improvement CalculatorGet the next one in your inbox
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Frequently asked questions
Is financial coaching the same as financial advice?
No, and the line matters. Financial coaching is about your business numbers: what the cashflow is doing, where the margin goes, whether the price is right, and what the management accounts are actually telling you. It is understanding and accountability, not a recommendation about a product. Nobody in a session will advise you on a pension, an investment, a mortgage or a personal debt — that is regulated advice, Buzz Coaching is not authorised to give it, and we will not pretend otherwise. If something comes up in a session that needs a regulated adviser, a tax specialist or an insolvency practitioner, we will name it and point you at the right person rather than have a go ourselves.
How much does financial coaching cost?
The price is agreed at your discovery call, and you leave that call with a specific figure rather than a range. There is no price list here because the work is not the same size for everyone: an owner with current bookkeeping who wants a monthly hour on the forecast is a different commitment from one starting with no reliable figures at all. Two straight points. The fee has to earn its place, so the measures get set at the start — the numbers you expect to move — and reviewed honestly against them. And if the fee would genuinely stretch the business right now, say so on the call. Being told to wait a quarter is a real outcome here, not a negotiating tactic.
Do I have to be a Buzz Accounting client?
No. Financial coaching is delivered with Buzz Accounting because that is where the finance skill sits, but plenty of owners keep the accountant they already have and coach alongside them. What matters is that the figures are current, because sessions run on real numbers rather than impressions. If the bookkeeping is three months behind, the first session becomes a conversation about what the numbers might be, which is worth considerably less than what they are. Where that is the situation we will say so and suggest getting the records straight first, with your existing accountant or with us. Coaching on unreliable figures builds confidence in the wrong direction, which is worse than having none.
How is this different from business coaching?
Financial coaching is specifically about the numbers — reading them, trusting them, and using them in a decision instead of deferring to whoever produced them. Business coaching is broader: strategy, sales, systems, the shape of the model and how the business runs day to day. The useful test is what happens when you open the management accounts. If you cannot read your own profit and loss with confidence, or the cash position is a surprise every month, start here. If you can read them fine and still are not acting on what they say, the gap is not the numbers, and business coaching is the better use of the money. Plenty of owners do both, in that order.