Want to grow your business? Here’s how a small business coach can help you!
Coaching has become a sought-out profession in recent years.
What’s the reason? Well, it has been noted that over 90% of new business ventures fail within their first year.
Despite this statistic, people are still venturing into entrepreneurship. It is therefore, understandable that new entrepreneurs would require small business coaches to increase their chances of success.
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What do small business coaches do?
Small business coaches perform a variety of functions based on their expertise and specialisation. Individuals can specialise in management, financial, motivational or operational coaching for small businesses. More specifically, these roles can be categorised according to:
Inspiration
Starting a business is often a great leap of faith as it involves fluctuating revenues, uncertainty, rejection as well as the anxiety that comes with trial and error. Small business coaches serve to help aspiring entrepreneurs overcome these uncertainties and transform these fears into a desire to achieve, despite the odds.
Instruction
Coaches have to be knowledgeable, not necessarily in their client’s field, but must possess the ability to help their client push through obstacles, brainstorm ideas and provide guidance to build their clients’ energy, fortitude and drive.
Inspect
Small business coaches are usually self-motivated individuals who can recognise when an organisation, brand, product or strategy is not performing at its optimum. With these insights, coaches also ‘inspect’ business owners for discrepancies between their current performance and what entrepreneur could be achieving.
Incitation
Coaches do not typically provide their own solutions as consultants do. Their primary role is working with clients and inciting them to discover solutions through their own innovative capacity.
Ways a small business coach can help you
Small business coaches benefits include:
- Motivating you to take that initial leap of faith to start your own business
- Defining your business vision, mission, core values and performance objectives
- Acting as an accountability partner to track your progress and working towards your business objectives
- Continually pushing you out of your comfort zone when the entrepreneurial journey gets tough.
- Encouraging you to learn new skills that could make you a better business leader
- Helping you capitalise on your strengths to benefit your business
- Managing your weaknesses to avoid costly business mistakes and failure
- Guiding you towards lucrative opportunities that could provide profitability or growth for your small business
- Working with you to identify threats that could harm your enterprise,
- Preparing you mentally and emotionally on how to respond when problems arise.
- Providing an external perspective – Sometimes an external opinion is necessary for feedback and to spot areas for business improvement.
How to know if you need a business coach?
Despite the varied benefits of small business coaching, an entrepreneur must have a specific need for a coach. A person may require coaching for their first business venture or if a strong (or any) entrepreneurial background is lacking. Other important reasons to enlist a small business coach include:
Feeling overwhelmed or frustrated
Building a business involves long hours, periods of uncertainty, patience and being risk averse. However, the work can take a toll on physical, as well as mental health. If you as an entrepreneur, experiences extreme frustration, fatigue or overwhelm, it may be time to recruit a coaching resource.
Two heads are better than one
The reality is, no two entrepreneurs are the same. While some individuals are highly self-motivated and thrive on the ‘lone wolf’ lifestyle, other small business owners require collaboration and support. In such instances coaches can be a valuable asset to a business owner who needs a healthy support and guidance system to successfully manage the demands of entrepreneurship.
Lots of work, no results
Sometimes, being a small business owner can feel like shooting in the dark, particularly, when sales revenues, client acquisition or business growth figures are disappointing. It can be beneficial to invest in coaching to improve the business and achieve desired results.
Help managing success
Great success can be a scary thing. With added business growth comes the need for refined strategies, policies and even management style. A small business owner may not have much expertise in these areas and thus hire a business coach to guide them.
Failure is no longer an option
Businesses often fail multiple times before a great idea is achieved. For an entrepreneur who has a history of failure, coaching is an effective tool to break this cycle. Coaching can help small business owners learn from past mistakes and attain necessary guidance to make the next venture a success.
Where to find a business coach?
When you’re investing in a small business coach, some ideal considerations are:
Determine what type of coach you need
Granted you need guidance, but what areas of the business seem to overwhelm you and requires external assistance. Is your motivation low? Do you need a coach to guide you when developing strategies? Or dealing with people? Do you need a coach to help manage your time or stress levels better?
Embrace diversity
Coaches can come in a variety of ages, genders, ethnicities, income levels and geographical background. Remember, just because someone is different than you, does not mean you can’t learn from them or they can’t contribute to your business.
Search within your network
Take a close look within your network and identify if any of the people fit the profile of a coach. Are there highly accomplished people in your life that you trust, admire, can see yourself working with and would be a valuable asset to your business? The search does not have to be exhaustive. A previous mentor, teacher, boss or someone you know as an established business owner can be an effective coach.
Take your search online
If a suitable coach is not found within your network, you can perform a Google search for business coaches within your local area. When researching, there can be legitimate coaching resources as well as the fake “snake oil salespeople”. Not everyone who parades as a “business coach” or “specialist” is worth their salt.
Take the time to evaluate your online options on legitimate, professional platforms such as LinkedIn or Clubhouse. Evaluation of their expertise includes examining their portfolio, reaching out to clients they’ve worked with and gathering recommendations to determine if this coach is worth their salt and your time.
