Structuring
Creates clarity in complex situations by sorting information, identifying priorities, and giving the next decision or action a workable frame.
Research-based framework
The SMART Model in Entrepreneurial Coaching
The SMART model describes five functions through which coaches and mentors can support founders. It focuses on what support does in an entrepreneurial process—not on judging whether a venture will succeed.
Definition: The SMART model is a process-based typology for entrepreneurial coaching. It makes support needs and coaching contributions visible across Structuring, Motivation, Access, Reflection, and Transfer.
Authorship and origin
The model was developed by Dr. Anja Hagedorn from research on social capital, venture creation, and entrepreneurial coaching. Its empirical foundation originates in qualitative research using semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurial coaches in Germany and was subsequently examined across anglophone contexts.
SMART Compass operationalises the framework as a diagnostic tool: founders reflect on their current situation, receive a structured SMART profile, and translate the result into a coaching roadmap.
The five SMART dimensions
Motivation
Strengthens confidence, persistence, and the ability to keep acting when progress is uncertain, demanding, or emotionally difficult.
Access
Connects founders with relevant people, knowledge, resources, opportunities, and networks that they cannot reach through reflection alone.
Reflection
Challenges assumptions and enables founders to examine decisions, behaviour, blind spots, and competing interpretations more critically.
Transfer
Turns insight into action through experiments, commitments, routines, and follow-up that carry learning back into the venture.
Application example
An early-stage founder is unsure whether weak customer response reflects the offer, the target group, or the sales approach.
A generic recommendation to “improve sales” would be too broad. Reflection can first test the founder's assumptions and interpretation of the evidence. Structuring can then define the central decision and priorities. Access may connect the founder with relevant customers or sector expertise. Transfer turns the resulting insight into a concrete interview or market experiment. Motivation may be important if repeated rejection is beginning to reduce the founder's confidence or willingness to act.
Not the SMART goals framework
The SMART model in entrepreneurial coaching is not the familiar goal-setting mnemonic commonly expanded as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The two frameworks share an acronym but address different questions.
SMART goals help formulate a goal. The coaching model asks which function of support a founder needs to make progress. They can be complementary: setting a precise goal may be part of Structuring or Transfer, but it does not replace the other coaching functions.
Scientific sources and citation
- Hagedorn, A. (2017). The Impact of Social Capital for Venture Creation. Doctoral Dissertation, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management.
- Hagedorn, A. (under review, 2026). A Process-Based Typology of Entrepreneurial Coaching Functions: The SMART Model. Submitted to the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing.
Suggested citation for the applied framework: Hagedorn, A. (2026). The SMART Model in Entrepreneurial Coaching (Version 1.0). SMART Compass. https://www.smartcompass.app/smart-model-entrepreneurial-coaching/
Make your support needs visible
SMART Compass turns reflection across the five dimensions into a structured profile and an actionable roadmap.