Whether you’re running a small, local business, building a global company or want to start your own business having a business coach makes a huge difference. Running a business can often feel like a very solitary pursuit. Having an experienced business coach that you can rely on is one of the most valuable resources available. Let’s explore what business coaches do and what the benefit of having a business coach can be for you.
What Is Business Coaching?
Business coaches are professionals who use their talents to help business owners to build and grow their business. Sure there’s plenty of information and advice available online on how to start and grow a business. However, the information is often very generic and not applicable to your unique situation. Business coaches are able to provide more personalised advice tailored to your specific circumstances.
Imagine you want to learn a new language. You can do this on your own but isn’t it easier and quicker to find a teacher. Likewise, having a business coach and/or mentor(s) is the quickest route to success. However, it’s often still overlooked when it comes to small and medium size businesses. Hiring a business coach is like having an experienced partner on your team.
For a fee, your coach works alongside you. Together you will define your goals, refine the business vision, define a strategy and set in place a series action steps that will help achieve results. When you face tough questions or run into problems along the way your coach will be able to help you navigate through these.
Whether your business is struggling and you need a way to revive it or you simply want to take your brand to the next level, bringing on board a business coach is one of the most effective options.
What Does A Business Coach Do?
A business coach serves as both a trainer and a mentor. Training you in the skills you need to be successful and serving as a source of information when you have questions. Much like any other coach, business coaches work to refine your talents, reach your goals, guide your decisions making process. Moreover they do everything they can to ensure that you and your business are successful.
A business coach starts by learning about your brand, from its value propositions to its target customers and the challenges it faces. A tool we use to make a snapshot of your organisation is the McKinsey 5 lenses principle. We look at Voice of the Customer, Processes, Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), Organisational setup and People (Mindset and Skills).
Once your business coach has learnt everything they can about your offerings and systems, the next steps is to learn more about your vision and the goals you have defined. Just as every company is unique, everyone’s vision is unique. Your coach will need to know where you want to take the company.
Next, a business coach will work with you to set attainable goals for you and your team. Once these goals are in place, your business coach is there to help you meet them. They can support you in creating a strategy and action plan designed to meet theses goals. In addition to helping you navigate any challenges along the way.
What Can A Business Coach Help With?
Most business coaches offer a variety of services. Meaning whether you want to revive a struggling business or make an already successful business even more successful they can support you. There’s a common perception that business coaching services exist only to help owners with struggling or faltering businesses. While helping get them back on the right track is certainly one thing a coach is able to help with. There are a wide variety of other situations where coaches can help as well.
Business coaches can certainly help you put strategies in place to grow your business if that is your goal. However, growing companies is not the only service that business coaching provides. They can help build a new business from the ground up, advising you as you go through the process of setting up your business. From for example defining its mission and goals to putting in place both long-term and short-term strategies.
Likewise, a business coach is able to help business owners that have hit a plateau in their companies growth figure out how to take their business to the next level. Sometimes it’s more about improving the operation or having a sparring partner when you need to make stuff decisions.
While running your own business can be very rewarding, there’s no denying that it can be very demanding and stressful as well. When you work with a business coach, however, you’ll have someone in your corner. They can assist you through the challenges you will inevitably face and serve as a sounding board to support you. These are just some of the ways a coach is able to support you and make your lifeless stressful. Which is a priceless benefit in and of itself.
Famous Entrepreneurs Who Had Business Coach
It may come as a surprise to know that even some of the world’s most famous and successful business owners have relied on business coaches at some point in their career. Barack Obama, Richard Branson , Oprah Winfrey and Tony Robbins have coaches. Even Buddha had a coach. Eric Schmidt – former CEO of Google – said hiring a business coach was the best professional decision he ever made. He admits that it took some urging at first, as he was already a successful CEO of a rapidly-growing company. Nevertheless, after being convinced by another board member, Schmidt decided to work with a business coach and was amazed by the results. In an interview with Fortune Magazine, Schmidt said, “everyone needs a coach”.
6 Benefits of Having A Business Coach
- Boost Your Confidence
- Help You Gain Perspective
- Expand Your Comfort zone
- Improve Your Leadership Capabilities
- Increase Your Productivity
- Help You Make More Money
1. Boost Your Confidence
A coach supports you, gives you encouragement and provides a safe space to work through challenges on your own. Once you see result this will boost your confidence. They can also can help you handle conflicts, crises and challenges with greater ease.
2. Help You Gain Perspective
Think of the analogy of the iceberg. We don’t know what we don’t know. With a fresh set of eyes, and vast experience, a coach can help you see and mitigate your blind spots. In order to do this they can ask questions that challenge you to think critically and creatively about yourself and your actions. Check you if your actions are aligned with your words. Plus they can act as a sounding board for your ideas.
3. Expand Your Comfort zone
It’s easy to fall into the “we’ve always done it this way” trap. A business coach can push you to try new things, but also help you weigh the risk vs. rewards of a new challenge. What got you to where you are now won’t get you to the next level. This is why you need to expand and venture out of your comfort zone.
4. Improve Your Leadership Capabilities
Most coaches will offer insights and exercises around personality and leadership styles. By assessing your strengths and weaknesses, you know where to put your focus. They will also push you to delegate certain tasks. All of which will make you a better and more strategic leader.
5. Increase Your Productivity
Doing what you do best, and helping your team do the same, increases efficiency and morale. That’s a recipe for massive productivity gains. Plus, a coach will also hold you accountable for the goals you set, which increases the likelihood you’ll meet them.
6. Help You Make More Money
A coach will help you clarify your goals, craft a solid strategy, identify which actions are most likely to increase profits, and hold you accountable for implementation. Increased focus usually adds up to more money in the bank.
Business Coaching Process
Business coaching is a resource that some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs swear by. Let’s explore what the process looks like and what you can expect. Coaching and Mentoring can sometimes be confused since both roles bring years of experience to the table. The biggest difference is that a mentor focuses on advising you while a coach will assist you. You however stay in the driver seat and they help keep you on track.
A trusted partnership
Business coaching is not consulting and it’s not therapy. A business coach doesn’t simply tell you what to do or listen without giving feedback. A business coach is someone you can trust. They are able to diagnose specific issues in your business. Above all they know that in order to get results, you’re going to have to implement the solutions yourself.
They are good listeners but you need to be honest with them and be ready for a reality check. You need to be open and honest with yourself, your shareholders and your team. Their job is to help you get clear on what needs to happen, but they wait for you to take action. And of course, they hold your feet to the fire when needed. A rule they live by is: that you already have the fundamental ingredient to transform your business.
During the first meeting you can expect a friendly discussion to learn more about you and your business. Both parties need to be sure there is a match. If here is a match this will transform into a coaching agreement. Defining the frequency of your meetings and price.
Next, we will identify the areas of your business that are most in need of attention. You’ll also determine the key business opportunity or challenge. Going forward, the coaching sessions will focus on your progress toward achieving these action items that we determined are the key to your success.
Curiosity and courage are key ingredients
A coach brings to the table the key ingredients of curiosity and courage. The curiosity to dig deep and help you find the root cause of why things are stuck or stagnating. Plus the courage to be honest with you. They understand that you need to hear the truth, even if it stings a bit. Therefor sometimes giving you time to reflect before jumping into action.
Together you build actionable plans
Pro-active business owners seek to understand why reaching business growth is important to them personally. Meanwhile acknowledging the impact it will have on their personal life. After all, the business owner ultimately determines the speed and passion in which the goal is met. If it’s not linked to your personal dreams there is no burning reason why reaching it is critical.
After clarifying where you want to take your business, a business coach will help plan and prioritise what goals and strategies are needed to get there. You will meet regularly, either weekly or monthly, to keep you on track to the commitments made during the past coaching session.
Coaches have years of experience that they bring to the table. They help owners figure out what their goals are, and create a road map to reach them. Their perspective on the company can help owners see which items are just tasks and which are long term objectives.
Creates accountability
A critical component of business coaching is accountability. You will never see a football coach run laps on the field for their team. The very same fact is true of a business coach. A business coach is not a consultant. They won’t do the work for you. It’s their role to keep you focused on the end result and remind you why it’s important. They will motivate you to keep your commitments by tracking your progress based on agreed metrics.
Ready to get started?
In summary, a business coach is a trusted advisor you can count on to support you. Like anything else your business spends money on, a coaching engagement is an investment. One that studies show time and time again to deliver significant returns. Many great business owners credit their success stories in part to having a business coach.
It will make you more focused which might also feel like you have more time in your schedule, to sit back and enjoy. The result of your coaching sessions is the freedom to truly live the personal and professional life you desire. Get started now!
