When to Hire A Business Coach: A Chat with Emily and Ankita of My Founder Circle
When Do I Bring In Help?
Running a business is no easy feat. There are so many facets to running a business, and no single person is an expert in it all, I promise you that. And, that’s OK. It’s OK to ask for help in an area that you are not well versed in!
In many of the businesses I’ve started & run, there have been many instances where I’ve brought in external help to aid in areas of the business I’m not strongest in, did not have time for, or where I just needed a different set of eyes and approach for. I’ve also taken separate courses and masterminds with business coaches and external resources and I don’t regret a single one.
But, you might be asking yourself: how do I know when I need to bring in help?
This can be at any part of your entrepreneurial journey. There’s no timeline. It could be as you’re starting your business and need help to create a framework, or you could be well established but need help growing your business, or maybe you’re a few years in and am struggling with areas of your business.
Q&A with Emily & Ankita
So, I’m here today with business coaches, Ankita Terrell and Emily MacDonald, who run My Founder Circle along with their own businesses to answer a few key questions as to when you should hire a business coach. I’ve been a part of one of their mastermind groups previously and absolutely loved the outcome from it.
Q: Tell me about My Founder Circle and what you both do!
Emily: My Founder Circle is a space where we help female founders build the lives and businesses of their dreams. We are both coaches in different capacities! We have one-on-one clients that we work with and decided to join together to start My Founder Circle. Overall, we wanted to see more female founders have access to high level coaches and support and a community that, you know, helps them build the companies that they dream of building but also helps them feel less alone.
Ankita: Our goal with My Founder Circle is to give a structured environment in which founders can build their businesses with a very clear, strategic, and also internal roadmap in a community with other people who care.
Q: You both have a huge background in business and entrepreneurship! Tell me a little bit about that and why you both chose to start My Founder Circle together — what is the problem you seek to help solve for clients?
Ankita: So, I have a very varied background. I started out my career in venture capital, worked in analytics and start-up and then lived in a meditation retreat site, like in a meditation ashram for three and a half years, after which I went to business school.
As I was connecting the dots after graduating and in my job, I realized that my entire life, I had been choosing to either make money or do good in the world, and I did not think that choice should be so binary. I really wanted to work with other women and with businesses and to build businesses that were doing good. But, as I got trained as a coach, I realized that it’s both strategy and mindset in how we build businesses that are good for the world and profitable.
Emily: For me, I started my first company 15 years ago. It’s a fashion company that still exists today called the Stylist LA — I had two retail stores, scaled it to seven figures and raised VC. I was killing it. You know, by the way things looked on the outside, but I was dying on the inside because I was so burnt out. It was very toxic and hard, so when the pandemic first hit, I took a step back and actually hired my first coach. I was really struggling with burnout and mental health, but the coach was so helpful and changed my life. So from there, I started coaching female founders.
And one of my biggest goals has been to help female founders really, like really make money, build the business they dream about building and feel less alone, which is what brought Ankita and I together!
We wanted to figure out how to help more female founders succeed. Success is different for every founder, right, so it’s important to identify what that means to you. What do you want to build, how can we provide support, community and resources to help you build that?
Q: One of the things you offer as a service is the Co Founders Lab. I’m a huge fan of your mastermind and obviously have been a part of it before. What is the Co Founders Lab Mastermind and what makes this different from other programs?
Emily: You’ll see more stuff to come from us in the next few years, but our Co-Founders Lab is our signature program for early stage founders. It’s been revamped since you took it, but it’s for early stage founders who are looking to hit a consistent 5 to 10K revenue months. It’s a ten week mastermind that takes you through the foundations you need to master to hit consistent revenue in your business.
It’s very different from other programs in that we’ve worked really hard to streamline it to the relevant information and things you need to master in your business to hit those revenue goals. We won’t waste your time with stuff you don’t need to know. It’s all based on our work, our deep work with early stage founders.
Another reason this program sets us apart is that a lot of coaches are focused on the sexy parts of the business right now like how to go viral or how to hit 100K months, but do not focus on the foundations of a business. Our program teaches the foundations that businesses have been built on for hundreds of years and have brought in billions of revenue — these are what work over time constantly so you can depend on your revenue, not just something that will work for a split moment for a spike in revenue.
It’s a mix of live coaching calls, accountability pods that we intentionally place you in, and recorded modules.
Ankita: What I think really sets our mastermind apart from others is the level of access to us. We’re very intentional about not overcrowding our masterminds because we want to get to know every single business in there very intimately, and we’re available to them both during the calls but also in-between.
We are building this in a way where these women can feel empowered knowing exactly what they have to do and get going to move forward in their business. The magic between Emily and I is also that we get to bring a very different perspective and help everyone that is part of the mastermind build that life and business that is in alignment with who they are.
Emily: We also both were working with our one-on-one clients before My Founder Circle and part of our vision in starting this too was that everyone should have a business coach, but not everyone can or is in the place to pay for one. So, for the Co Founders Lab, we wanted to be able to offer a price point that made sense for an early-stage founder because it’s so helpful and transformational for businesses!
Q: How often do you host these masterminds?
Emily: This year, it’s going to be four cohorts, which is kind of crazy! We were doing two cohorts previously, one in spring and fall.
Q: Do you find that a lot of your mastermind cohorts continue to work with you post-program one-on-one?
Emily: Yes, they definitely do.
Ankita: Most people that work with us, stick with us. Whether they work with us via the membership we run, or they hire one of us. And we’re very supportive of each other and know exactly the kind of work that should go to who.
Our one-on-one clients typically stay longer where we’re working much more deeply with them, but that isn’t possible for us to offer to every client long-term, which is why the Co Founders Lab has a beginning and an end with the option to continue with us after in a larger capacity. The mastermind is very much a methodology whereas one-on-one coaching is like co-creating with the client for their business that we do long-term.
Q: Women in business are a big part of your business — why this audience and what sets them apart?
Ankita: We’ve both been in the startup world in different capacities. I both worked for a startup and also worked in venture and Emily obviously was on the end of the business where she raised money and ran a startup. Having experienced that as a woman is a very unique experience. Having a space where it’s led by women and for women creates a level of safety and intimacy that is very deep and real that can’t be replicated in a space where it isn’t.
With Emily being a mom of two young ones and me having a baby in a few weeks too, I think that a lot of people we work with are in that stage of life where they need to balance different priorities. They’re balancing who they are and who they’re transforming to be and what that business is and is becoming with motherhood. That experience is so unique to women and we wanted to create that safe space.
Emily: This is a little bit more tactical, but I would add that there are also more women starting businesses than ever before, but there are also more women struggling to make money in their businesses than ever before.
Women are so incredible and are so great at running businesses and coming up with ideas, but why are there so many not making the money they deserve? It’s because no one’s teaching. There’s been a gap.
More people are starting businesses because it’s easier with tools like Shopify or Square. These resources weren’t there ten years ago, but there’s still this whole missing level of the foundations of a business that you need to run a business successfully. So for us, we want to fill this gap and help female founders.
Q: As business owners and coaches, what is your first piece of advice for other female entrepreneurs beginning their entrepreneurial journey?
Ankita: It’s to get clear on your WHY. Get clear on exactly the kind of business that you want to build and who you want to impact. Only once you have that clarity can you create a strategy. But, you have to get clear on WHY you are doing this and be honest with yourself. You can’t replicate someone else’s business model, so with super honesty, ask yourself: WHY are you doing this?
Emily: My advice would be to just start and don’t let perfection get in the way. You can’t procrastinate by trying to have the perfect website to launch or have the perfect logo — just start, because you learn so much along the way!
Q: How does one qualify to work with you? What does the process look like?
Emily: We have a two-week launch that precedes the cohort that qualifies you to get into the Co Founders Lab. You have to be either creating or starting or have already started a business and the biggest ask is that you’re ready to give 100% to the program and do the work. If you’re ready to do that, then you are invited to join the cohort.
Ankita: We also have a waitlist for our Co Founders Lab, which you can join if one has already started and you want to join the next one.
Emily: We want to be there for female founders every stage of the journey. So the Co Founders Lab is our rebranded, reimagined early stage program, but we’re working to build out more programs and tools that follow along further through a founder’s journey!
Whether you are in the early stages of starting a business, or have an established one, Ankita and Emily of My Founder Circle, work with businesses of all stages whether as part of the Co Founders Lab or as a one-on-one client.
Be sure to check out their website for more information and join the waitlist for their next cohort of the Co Founders Lab, or reach out if you need a business coach.
HI THERE, I’M JORDYN
Serial entrepreneur, strategic integrator and financial aficionado.
My mission is to revolutionize the way businesses grow with strategic clarity and implementation. It goes beyond consultancy—as I want to be a dedicated partner in propelling your success with strategy and impactful execution with zest and honesty.