Importance of Finding the Right Business Coach for Success

As your business grows, you’re bound to hear from well-meaning individuals about how someone they knew grew their company.

I’ve been there myself when I was building my first business in custom cycling kits. Everyone at a bike race has an opinion on how you “should” grow your brand, but unless they have accomplished this themselves and are talking from personal experience, you’re better off politely nodding and moving on.

You may have hit a ceiling in your newest stage of business development; it’s a common problem self-starting businesses face. You inevitably reach the point where you’re well out of the start-up phase and things start to take off, you develop a new set of goals but you don’t necessarily know what to do to achieve them and overcome the new challenges that come as part of the deal.

The other part of this progression to consider is the knowledge and skill you have earned on your journey so far. You’ve graduated from “rookie” to the “big leagues”, put in the hard yards and ridden the learning curve, the last thing you need is amateur advice. For this next leg of your journey, you need to find an experienced business coach who can give you real direction and suggestions on how to lift the current ceiling and see your business soar.

Moving past the start-up phase means you’ll need to step out of your comfort zone, something that can seem risky after everything you’ve built your business up to, there is a lot to lose, however, staying where you are is even more costly as you rule out any chance of growth or progression. It’s an essential step to overcome your fear and take action to keep the momentum going. The right business coach will know the right business acceleration approach and have proven strategies that reduce the risk and work to take your business to the next level.

A great business coach is someone who’s been there and done that for themselves, you can count on their opinion to be founded on experience as well as for them to really get where you are coming from and what you are experiencing.

You’ve levelled up and moved beyond the start-up phase, so what now?

There are a million listicles out there telling you to set goals and manifest the life of your dreams, but there comes a point where a business owner outgrows simple goal setting and needs tactical advice on the next steps.

Goal setting has a place, but peak performers need more. Finding a business coach who can motivate and guide you to move from your comfort zone to the growth zone is crucial now that you’ve progressed through the start-up phase and have entered the bigger game.

To leave the comfort zone for the growth zone, you need concrete, actionable strategies that can help overcome your reluctance and reduce uncertainty. Actionable steps are more than fluffy motivational axioms to “dig deeper” or “understand your purpose”, these are demonstrable steps to take and move in a specific direction.

You’re a peak performer who knows where you want to take your business. In order to succeed you need the advice of someone who’s been at your level and moved beyond. To find out if your potential business coach is the right fit, ask them questions to ensure you’re getting the best fit for your personality and future business goals.

It’s good that you’re looking to a coach for advice but keep in mind that this person isn’t a mind reader; you need to be willing to work with them and be prepared to take on their advice and suggestions, especially if these are aimed outside your current skill set or experience. Part of the confidence in following through comes through asking the right questions.

Start the chat with these revealing questions and see where the conversation goes:

• Have you worked with people in my industry? Coaches who understand your industry and your business niche have previous knowledge and experience that can prompt you to see things in a new and constructive way. Problems aren’t problems when they are equipped with proven solutions. Their suggestions and knowledge together with your insights and experience become an unstoppable force.
• How many businesses have you helped create? You need someone with meaningful experience behind their advice. This is a crucial question because the field is oversaturated with people who may not have been successful, even in their own endeavours as a business coach!
• What is your process? The right business coach has a defined process they can easily articulate for how they aim to work toward your goals. They need to answer this question with either a documented, strategic plan to get you where you’re looking to be able to propose the next step in your individual business development.

• How would you tell me I’m wrong? You’re enlisting the help of a business coach to shine a light on any blind spots with the aim of busting through your limitations and turning them into your strengths. Being told you’re doing it wrong can be uncomfortable,  some clients might even get agitated, aggressive and shut down. Your coach needs to be strong enough to highlight mistakes, push you out of your comfort zone and challenge your views but in a gentle enough way that you feel motivated and inspired, rather than destroying your confidence.‍

• How would you know I’m the right client for you? Screening possible coaches to secure the appropriate support for your business is a two-way process. Get to know the coach by asking about their ideal clients and deal-breakers as well as communication and personality types they work best with. Inquire about the type of client their method works best with and the type they avoid or have negative experiences with.

The benefits of finding the right business coach

You’re looking to move on to the next level, so your business coach needs to meet you where you are, take on challenges as they come and journey alongside you towards your goals.

As well as getting your business to the next level rapidly, here are some of the added benefits of finding the right business coach;

1. Your coach will identify your blind spots and guide you through them

A business coach will give an unbiased view and suggestions on how to improve your business and how you can excel as a business owner.

It’s easy to get lost in your own thoughts, moving towards options you think may help your business and failing to target new possibilities outside your experience. This is a dangerous move because your solutions, and results, can be skewed to how well you think you’re doing.

Your business coach will help you identify areas of improvement within your business and provide suggestions on how to address them. They push you to have the necessary but difficult conversations or make sensitive choices you may have been avoiding.

Having a coach that knows your strengths and weaknesses can help you align your business and personal goals and encourage you to hold yourself accountable for your results.

2. Your coach will share the wisdom they’ve gained from their own achievements (and even failures)

It’s important to find the right coach, not just any coach or the cheapest coach available online.

The right business coach is someone who has successfully achieved what you’re now trying to accomplish and has done the work to learn the ropes.

They’re going to get to know you and your business intimately to help you get to where you need to be as well as share their business journey. Having tangible insights about their achievements and failures can help you rapidly accelerate your own business journey by giving you the skills and hindsight needed to make good decisions and cut through costly problem-solving trial and error methods.

3. Your coach can help you increase business revenue and profit

Additional support from a coach means a fresh pair of eyes to look at your current operations and how to improve them. Hiring the right coach can be an asset for your business rather than an expense because their guidance should help increase revenue, far beyond what you are paying them.

Having the desire and humility to be coached can transform your business dramatically by having you take action steps and accept challenges you never would have been brave enough to attempt on your own.

You and your coach can set goals together and develop new and successful strategies on how to proceed in a way that builds a positive mindset for change and problem solving all while increasing revenue and improving your systems and efficiency.

4. You can improve your time management skills

If you are managing your business yourself, your to-do list could definitely be shorter. Your business coach can help you identify which tasks you can delegate to your staff (how to find and employ staff if you have been avoiding this step) and which tasks can only be handled by you as the business owner.

This ensures that your daily operations are running as usual while giving you time to improve your core competencies and develop plans for future growth.

5. You can focus on achieving your goals

Being in the “big leagues” means that you will encounter unexpected challenges and setbacks along the way, so it’s important to have a business coach that can help you stay on track with your goals.

Your objectives need to be as dynamic as you are. Goal-setting doesn’t stop once you’ve reached a certain stage of growth. Your ongoing business development is an important part of working with your business coach.

You’ve made it this far! With the assistance of an experienced and street-smart business coach you’ll keep moving rapidly forward.

Having a coach who suits you and your business allows you to:

• Identify your blind spots
• See things from a new and more constructive point of view
• Learn from their experiences and failure so you don’t have to fail to succeed
• Rapidly increase business revenue and profit through improving systems and putting effective action steps in place
• Enhance your time management skills
• Work smarter, not harder

A mentor who is aligned with your objectives will help you take concrete steps to realise your goals and show you it’s possible to succeed when you stay the course. The right advice can make that crucial difference to bring your business forward.

Get in touch and talk to our proven coaches about how we can work together to take your business to the next level.

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