Running a business can be lonely and terrifying. If you’re stuck feeling alone and overwhelmed by the prospect of running your business, you may want to consider working with a business coach.
Business coaching is a relatively new concept that has really exploded in recent years. Learn more about how it works and how to take advantage of it for your business.
What Is Business Coaching?
Business coaching involves supporting, educating, and motivating business owners to grow their respective businesses. Much like a health, parenting, or relationship coach, business coaches are experienced professionals in their respective fields who can provide knowledge, insight, and guidance to their clients.
Business coaches work with business owners to set realistic goals and implement effective strategies to achieve these goals.
How Does Business Coaching Differ From Business Consulting?
To some people, business coaching and business consulting may sound like the same thing, but that’s a common misconception. While many successful business owners have benefitted from both coaching and consulting, in reality, these are two unique concepts that need to be differentiated.
As you now know, business coaching essentially acts as a sounding board for business owners to gain insight and advice from experienced professionals.
This can take the form of career coaches, executive coaches, leadership coaching, or a variety of other categories. Successful entrepreneurs may even employ a strategic coach or spirituality coach to inspire breakthroughs when they plateau.
On the other hand, business consulting involves experienced professionals actually working for the business to implement specific solutions to achieve desired results.
Essentially, coaching means that you’re doing most of the work as the business owner, whereas consulting means that the consultant is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Coaching is also more focused on developing you as a business owner rather than specific aspects of your business. This may take the form of defining a mission or life purpose, shaping yourself as an effective leader, or defining your business’s core values and ethics. This transformation can even involve personal goals or changes in your home life.
Why Do You Need Coaching for Your Business?
If you’re still not convinced that you need coaching for your business, here are some potential benefits to consider:
- Unbiased sounding board: Business coaches act as an unbiased sounding board for your business ideas. They won’t be afraid to tell you the truth based on their knowledge and experience. An outside perspective can help you inact positive changes in your professional and personal development in a way your team members and employees cannot.
- Close knowledge gaps: Business coaches can help you close knowledge gaps in specific areas. For instance, if you know nothing about marketing, you should consider working with a marketing expert like Greg Gillman to help improve your marketing efforts. The same goes for human resources, financials, or even effective leadership.
- Hold you accountable: Business coaches also help hold you accountable. Knowing that there’s someone you’re accountable to—outside of your investors, of course—drives business owners to work hard to get things done.
What to Expect From a Business Coach?
Despite knowing more about who business coaches are and what they do, it’s hard to know what to expect when working with a business coach.
The truth is, it varies a lot from coach to coach. Generally speaking, here’s what you can expect when working with a business coach:
- One-on-one coaching sessions: Most business coaches offer one-on-one coaching sessions wherein they can troubleshoot issues with you to come up with effective and efficient solutions.
- Educational materials: Some coaches provide you with educational courses and materials to help you learn more about the ins and outs of running a successful business. Some of these courses are life, while others are pre-recorded and can be completed on your own schedule.
- Collaboration: Many business coaches promote collaboration between their clients — allowing them to build a truly supportive and innovative space for business owners looking to be the best in their respective fields.
How Much Does a Business Coach Cost?
The cost of a business coach varies a lot depending on the individual coach and the specific services they offer. Business coaches also offer different pricing models. For instance, some coaches charge you per hour with an average range of $75 to $200.
Other coaches may offer subscription-based packages where you pay per month or per year for the features included in a specific package.
Finally, some coaches have niche training classes or programs that you can purchase separately from hourly, monthly, or yearly packages.
For instance, a coach might charge $1,000 for an eight-week course on how to secure beneficial financing for your business.
It’s always important to do your research to make sure that coaches you’re considering actually work with your budget. Business coaches should always be clear and upfront about their pricing models, so it should be easy to determine while also comparing different coaching services and programs.
How to Find a Business Coach That Works for You?
There’s really no one-size-fits-all approach to finding a business coach because every business has unique needs and requirements for a coach. A small business coach will have uses than a mentor for a large corporation, and vise versa. Nailing down these clear goals—and asking the right questions—can be a good place to start looking for a business coach.
Think about what you want to get out of a coach, whether it’s business growth, learning new skills, or ongoing mentorship on how to become a better leader. Also, think about what you’re able to spend on a coach. This will help you have the best experience with whichever masterful coach you choose.
From there, you can really start your search by asking friends, family members, and business colleagues if they have any personal recommendations for a good business coach.
If so, you can investigate these candidates further before adding them to your list of contenders.
If not, you’re on your own to build your list of contenders, and the Internet is a great place to start. Simply conduct a search for business coaches in your area if you’re looking for someone local to meet with in person or in general if you don’t mind a virtual coaching relationship.
Make sure to check out the websites of your contenders to get a clear vision of what they’re all about, their expertise, the business coaching services and resources they offer, and their fee structures. If you have any important questions, feel free to reach out to them directly for answers.
Finally, check out any online reviews of the coaches on your list before you make your final decision to make sure they’re the real deal.
How to Really Benefit From a Business Coach?
Now that you’ve found the right business coach, the work really begins. After all, a business coach isn’t there to do all the work for you — in fact, it’s just the opposite. You have to put in a lot of work to make this partnership worthwhile. Here are some tips to help ensure that you really benefit from working with a business coach:
- Invest the necessary time to make it work: Working with a business coach requires a time commitment, and while coaches understand that entrepreneurs and CEOs are short on free time, you need to learn to prioritize your coaching meetings. Often, the biggest challenge when working with a coach is prioritizing this work.
- Do your homework: Business coaches often provide you with actionable “homework” items. And while this may bring you back to your school days, it’s important to actually complete the tasks assigned to you as your coach is unlikely to accept the “dog ate your homework” excuse. It’s your passion and enthusiasm for your business that led you to seek out a talented business coach—you only stand to benefit from your full participation in the coaching experience.
- Be flexible and reasonable: You also need to be willing to consider the new perspectives and mindsets given to you by your business coach instead of writing them off right away. If you really have an issue, bring it up with your corporate coach to come up with alternative action plans. Trust is an important factor in building a better business with a coach.
You also need to have reasonable expectations in terms of your return on investment and your turnaround timeframe. Your business won’t reach the next level overnight, but coaching helps create the roadmap to success. With consistent effort over time, you will begin to see real business results.
The Bottom Line on Business Coaching
Business coaching could be the missing piece you need to achieve greater success (and greater profits!) in your business venture. So before you get frustrated or worse — give up — reach out to experts like Greg Gillman.
Greg Gillman has tons of experience working with D2C brands on marketing and business strategies — and he can work with you too. Reach out to him to get started.
Sources:
What Does a Business Coach Do? | Indeed
10 Great Reasons to Hire a Business Coach for Yourself | Forbes
What You Should and Shouldn’t Do When Hiring a Business Coach | Inc.
