Why You Should Hire A Business Coach

Anyone who has started their own business understands what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. The long hours, the stress and worry – and that’s when things go well. What about the time when a small business owner faces the inevitable challenges that throw them for a loop and they are not sure how to overcome them. 

That’s when it’s time to hire a business coach.

No matter how hard you work, business coaching will make you work smarter not harder. They will give you the tools you need to go from zero to hero.

 Here are the key reasons why you should hire a business coach.

A Business Coach Will Push you Outside Your Comfort Zone

Wait a minute you might say, “I’m already out of my comfort zone – why would I want to be pushed even more?”

It’s easy to get enmeshed in your own business world and think you are outside your comfort zone. You might be in the functions you are happy to tackle, but what about the other functions, you know the ones, the areas you have been avoiding.

If you are uncomfortable in the sales arena, therefore you avoid prospecting for new business and networking. You might hate paperwork and avoid this at any cost leaving unpaid bills to fester until they catch up with you. What about performance management, you might not know how to keep underperforming staff accountable so you ignore their behavior because you are afraid of confronting them. It’s those areas that a business coach will push you. Not only push you but also help you overcome the fear of doing the things you put off and dislike.

What a business coach will do is uncover the barriers to success and help you work on the barriers that hold you back.

You Get Personal Attention

Let’s face it, it’s lonely at the top and your best friend, spouse or family members aren’t exactly qualified to give you business advice. They may mean well and certainly don’t want you to fail, therefore they give you advice that they think will help. ‘Join a networking group they say.” Are they professional networkers with outstanding results? Probably not. “Get on social media and set up a business Facebook page,” they say? Just because they have a personal Facebook page doesn’t mean they are social media experts. “You just need to get more customers?” they say. Are they experts in business development and sales management?

Very often when you listen to family and friends, they don’t have the background or expertise to help drive your business whereas a business coach does. You’ll get personal attention from a business coach or executive coach who not only understands business, they know how to coach those in business.

Having a business coach as a trusted confidante, provides you with a confidential quiet space to be a sounding board, brainstorm new ideas and help you with the problem-solving process and challenges you face, all without judging you. In essence, they are mentoring and coaching in the workplace taking away outside pressures that you may not want to share with others.

A Business Coach Will Give You A Reality Check

It’s easy to get so wrapped up in your business that you become blind to your weaknesses and overuse your strengths. A business coach will notice things that you don’t – not because you don’t want to, it’s because at times you don’t see the wood for the trees.

Perhaps your people don’t respond well to your leadership style. Perhaps you aren’t good at delegating and you micromanage your people. Perhaps you come across as gruff with your customers and don’t realize it. A business coach will get you to reflect on the impact you have on others as their leader in chief.

A Business Coach Takes You From Zero to Hero

A primary focus of a good business coach is to make themselves redundant. This may seem counterintuitive however consider this. “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach them how to fish and they eat for a lifetime.” This Philosophy should apply with executive coaching, business coaching, life coaching, and any other coaching style that grows you and your business.

The premise behind this is the coach is there to help you grow in the areas you are not strong at by coaching and mentoring you in what to do differently. They are also there to build on your strengths and with this newfound freedom as a hero, you shouldn’t need them anymore (unless of course, you want to keep them on.)

Business Coaching Transforma Ideas Into Reality

One area many small to medium business owners struggle with is executing their ideas. If you are great at coming up with new ideas, and poor at executing them then business coaching will help transform your ideas into reality. How? They keep you accountable. 

Remember the teacher in school who didn’t follow up on your homework. After a while, you wouldn’t do it because you knew they wouldn’t check up on you. And there’s your mom who says make your bed and tidy your room before school, and of course, you don’t because she too never checks upon you.

Contracting a life coach, business coach, or executive coach, means you do your homework because you don’t want to see your hard-earned cash go down the drain. As Thomas Paine says, “What we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly.” 

You Will Gain New Networking Opportunities

Consider the networks a business coach establishes by working with a variety of businesspeople from small to medium business enterprises. Working with a business coach means they become an advocate for you when they are out meeting and working with new people. In addition to expanding your own network, they help you connect with other like-minded professionals.

While hiring and working with a business coach takes both time and money, what you will find is by taking the leap it becomes a worthwhile investment. With objective feedback, a business coach saves you from getting lost in your head and this alone gives your business a boost.

Does Business Coaching Really Work?

According to Forbes, they report that the success of business coaching services is overwhelming with more than 85% of survey respondents reporting the financial benefits far exceeded the investment they made in hiring a business coach. More than 70% reported a marked improvement in work performance and communication skills. 

One of the most powerful “soft skills” you can develop as a business leader is self-awareness. After working with a business coach additional studies demonstrate business coaching helps you set and achieve SMARTER goals and develop the confidence to achieve the levels of success you never thought possible.

Intangible Benefits of Working With a Business Coach

Coaching activities in the workplace can spill over into your personal life. Entrepreneurs and small business owners tend to be multifaceted with a mountain of ideas and ambitions which can easily overrun their personal lives. Coaches can pull on the brakes to ensure work-life balance and help you stay hyper-focused on the things outside the workplace that matter to you because, in essence, a small business coach is also a life coach.

Why Learn?

Learning to lead, learning to run a business is no easy task. It takes time and education to transform yourself into the leader you want to be. It all starts with learning how to hire and manage people. It is your communication and people skills that separate the wheat from the chaff.

To find out how you stack up as a leader. You never know what others see that you don’t see yourself. This kind of feedback is not always negative, perhaps you have great attributes and talents you weren’t even aware of.