Perhaps you’re an entrepreneur or a new business owner. Or maybe you’ve been in business for a long time. Either way, if your company is not returning the results you desire, you may be wondering: Should I hire a business coach?
Why should you consider hiring a business coach? What are the pros and cons of working with a business coach? What do business coaches do? We’ll dive in and answer all your burning questions about business coaching.
Just as you can use online tools to help you build a resume, there are also many websites that allow you to hire a business coach or take classes or courses from a business coach. But what is a business coach, anyway?
Business coaches are mentors that have years of experience that they can leverage to help new business owners fast-track growth. The role of a business coach is to serve as a critical colleague, someone you are accountable to. Their goal is to encourage you and push you out of your comfort zone, helping you to set goals for your business, equip you with tools and knowledge, and eventually meet or exceed those goals.
What are the benefits of business coaching? What will you learn?
Business magazines such as Forbes and Inc. agree - a business coach can help you meet your goals. Here are six reasons why.
As a business owner, you’re probably used to telling others what to do. But hiring a business coach is like having a coach on a sports team - he or she will watch you, tell you what you are doing right or wrong, and correct you when needed. This is an excellent way of checking your ego and helping you to grow as a person and a leader. You’ll receive unbiased opinions from a third party who is not directly accountable to you or otherwise invested in the company.
As a business owner, you likely have a lot of ideas - ways to expand your business, new products or services to sell, methods of advertising, and the like. Sometimes, you may have too many ideas to pursue at present. It can also be difficult to sort good ideas from the bad - after all, they are all your ideas. That’s where the business coach comes in. He or she will evaluate your ideas and help you to determine which are realistic and which ones you should pursue first.
Confidants are trusted friends whom you can talk to about your concerns. Because they’ve been in business, they may understand you in ways that other people in your life do not. Your coach can be a sounding board for ideas, fears, and complaints.
Since they’ve been on the business scene for many years, business coaches have a lot of connections. Since they are now advocating for you, you gain access to those connections as well.
As a new business owner, there is no way to know everything about your industry. You can draw on the knowledge of your business coach to fill those gaps. Since your business coach has years of experience, he or she may observe “blind spots” that you hadn’t noticed - something in your planning, business strategy, or operations that you haven’t given much thought to, for example.
As you gain knowledge and see good results, your confidence as a leader will grow as well. You may also see increases in profit or business growth as you cut out the time it takes to learn things “the hard way.”
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day actions of running a business and forget about your long-term goals. Your business coach can help you make small changes throughout the year to keep your goals on track.
This is especially the case when challenges arise. Your business coach can help you keep both setbacks and successes in perspective.
Business coaches are experienced business people who use their knowledge and expertise to help new business owners grow their companies. They can help you avoid mistakes and explore new ideas. They are a sounding board and confidant. Increases in profits can more than make up for the fees incurred when hiring a business coach.