“Do I Need a Business Coach?” How to Know If You’d Benefit

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain and difficulty.” I wonder if he was thinking about business owners when he said that. 

I also wonder if he would have supported the idea of a business coach to help with  prioritizing, optimizing, and scaling a business.

What Does a Business Coach Do?

A business coach is an experienced, objective, professional mentor; they help executives develop and implement strategic methods to take businesses from where they are to where they want to be. If you have a distinct vision, then finding a business coach with the passion and tools to guide you there can be extremely valuable. 

What Can a Business Coach Help with?

• Providing experienced guidance
• Helping identify key problem areas in a business (and more importantly, constructing solutions)
• Strategizing a workflow and realistic expectations to prevent burnout
• Creating a clear path of action to a targeted goal
• Improving upon leadership skills
• Growing a determined team
• Defining roles and responsibilities of an executive or team

Life Coaching vs. Business Coaching: What’s the Difference?

While both life coaches and business coaches are empathetic, communicative, people-driven people, they are not the same. Life coaching is more specific to an individual’s vision for their personal life. Think of Dustin Hoffman’s character in The Graduate; responsibility-repelling, twenty-something Benjamin Braddock was in serious need of a life coach! 

Conversely, business coaches develop and update business-specific operations and skills, like organization and leadership abilities, while also identifying strong suits and areas for improvement. While a byproduct of the work they do may positively impact your personality, the goal is for you to be more accomplished in all aspects of your particular entrepreneurial path. 

Why Is Business Coaching Important?

Humans, by nature, are incapable of being perfect. However, we do have the ability to be prepared, practiced, and in the constant pursuit of growth. If you’re not actively trying to better your business skills, translating to a more successful endeavor, why not? By focusing on what is currently in need of improvement, there is a greater chance for accomplishment in the future.

Is Business Coaching Worth It?

Benefits of business coaching include:

• More accurately regimented processes: With better processes, you can ensure that the hard work you are putting in is leading to quantifiable results.
• Greater understanding of yourself and your team: A collaborative environment with multiple sources of input can be guided by an outside perspective from someone who sees  the bigger picture.
• Consistent accomplishment of objectives: A coach is an ideal accountability partner, not only ensuring your goals are in alignment with where you want to be, but also providing a fresh set of eyes to help lay the groundwork for getting there.

Who Is Business Coaching for?

Business coaches are undoubtedly helpful for those in charge of a grand plan, like executives and business owners. Coaching is also extremely beneficial to those with colleagues, whether a partner, small startup crew, or a steadily growing team. 

Business Coaching for Executives

Executive coaching builds skills around leadership and seeks to identify and optimize potential. To enact transformational growth, relevant skills including time management, delegation, clear communication, and self-reflection are honed. 

Business coaching for executives is for anyone actively seeking to be their best self for the sake of their business.  That may include identifying and better aligning with the core values of their business, learning how to lead the team they are serving, better understanding the needs of their clients, or determining how to position the business itself to give it the best chance of success.

Business Coaching for Teams

Team coaching concentrates on creating a more unified, cohesive working environment. While skill sets similar to executive coaching will be covered, the entire squad reaps the benefits, creating a more well-rounded, goal-oriented team. 

It can also include utilizing talent assessments, including the Enneagram, to decipher strengths and weaknesses. Understanding each team member’s unique set of interpersonal skills allows for proper task delegation, in addition to having a baseline of expectations regarding work style.

5 Signs You Would Benefit from Business Coaching

Like I said earlier, owning a business can be wonderfully fulfilling, albeit challenging and at times downright frustrating. If you’re reading this article, you may be in need of some help. You’ve made it to the right place, especially if these signs apply to you:  

1. You’re overwhelmed and can’t prioritize or manage time.
2. You’re burned out, feeling exhausted or disconnected from motivation and responsibilities. 
3. You’re struggling to achieve your goals, lacking a decisive, forward-focused framework to tackle relevant issues. 
4. You don’t know what your goals are. 
5. Your team dynamics are suffering. 

5 Reasons to Hire a Business Coach

I may be biased, but business coaches can be a source of invaluable knowledge when it comes to identifying, problem-solving, and reaching goals with sustainable success. With a business coach, you can:

1. Gain clarity and insight: An external perspective offers fresh ideas for problems you’ve been dreading or even actively avoiding.
2. Benefit from honesty and accountability: I am in the business of business coaching for a reason: I want you to succeed. Success is not possible without transparency. Business coaching is not for everyone, but for those putting in the work, it is revolutionary. 
3. Learn how to create an actionable plan to achieve your goals: “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” and it certainly wasn’t built without an innovative, structured system guiding its path to greatness. 
4. Discover your strengths and weaknesses: Knowing what you’re innately good at means you can leverage those areas to strengthen your business. Equally helpful, discerning where you lack finesse allows you to construct a plan on how to manage your weaknesses, whether it is spending time on improving or spending money on outsourcing. 
5. Learn how to cultivate a healthy team culture: Unless you’re a one-person organization, you need to know how to structure an engaged, supported crew.

Learn More About Business Coaching

Ready to find clarity in your business and build better leadership skills? I’d love to make myself available to help. Let’s set up a time to chat about achieving your goals.