PACKED WITH TIPS AND TOOLS TO BENEFIT YOUR BUSINESS
THE BASICS OF ADDING ON A BUSINESS COACH
If you’ve ever thought about using a business coach, you’ve probably wondered where to start. Here are a few ways a business coach can help your business and five qualities to look for to ensure you make the right choice for you.
THE RIGHT STUFF - FIVE GOOD THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A BUSINESS COACH
COMPATIBILITY: The smartest, most experienced coach in the world can’t help you or your business a bit if you don’t have a rapport with them. Sometimes, two personalities just don’t mix. If you don’t feel comfortable really talking to someone, you’ll never dig into the issues you might need to tackle or put a lot of stock in what they are saying.
HONESTY & OBJECTIVITY: Good coaches are fair and brutally honest. That means when you’re bouncing ideas around, they’re going to give you truthful feedback, and they should be comfortable giving you constructive criticism and challenging your ideas. Even if it isn’t what you want to hear, it’s probably what you need to hear and why you hired them. While they should offer encouragement, if a coach is always sugarcoating things or trying to spare your feelings, they won’t be much help.
KNOWLEDGE & EXPERTISE IN YOUR AREA: There are many different types of business coaches, and some get pretty specialized. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, you may want to go with a coach that has a background in your specific type of business or who specializes in the main problem you’re hoping to solve.
COMMITMENT: A good business coach will be dedicated to your success and truly care about the struggles you’ll face as you move through the process of bettering your business. You want a coach who is in the fight with you.
TRACK RECORD: The realm of business coaching isn’t regulated, so just about anybody can take on the title “business coach.” The best way to judge how well a business coach can further your business is to look at what they’ve been able to do for others. A good business coach has a list of testimonials from other clients that they are happy to share.
MAKE THE CALL: WHY USE A BUSINESS COACH?
Working with a business coach is not the answer for everybody, but if you’re just starting a business or feel your existing business is floundering, and you’re searching for objective, knowledgeable guidance from someone outside your current team, a business coach could have what you need. Most small business owners turn to a business coach to:
6 REASONS TO REACH OUT FOR COACHING
- IDENTIFY AND SET GOALS
- HAVE SOME ACCOUNTABILITY
- CREATE A STRATEGIC PLAN TO REACH GOALS AND/OR INCREASE GROWTH
- IDENTIFY WEAKNESSES AND CRAFT SOLUTIONS TO FIX THEM
- LESSEN CONFLICT AND STRESS/STRENGTHEN TEAMWORK
- INCREASE EFFICIENCY
Before you start your search for a coach, decide which of these issues pertain to you and what you want to achieve.
HERE AT HOME
GENE MOORHEAD is a Montgomery business coach who works with a process called EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) that focuses on getting a businesses leadership team moving toward a common vision, making everyone more accountable and getting the leadership to function as a cohesive, healthy team. Moorhead brings decades of real-world business experience to the table. Before he became a business coach, he owned radio stations, an ad agency and even helped franchise a national retail outlet.
According to Moorhead, most business owners who come to him are dealing with five main frustrations:
- THEY FEEL A LACK OF CONTROL
- THEY ARE NOT MAKING ENOUGH MONEY FOR THE TIME INVESTED
- PEOPLE PROBLEMS (staff and/or customer issues)
- THEY HAVE HIT A CEILING WITH GROWTH
- THEY ARE TRYING TO MAKE CHANGES, BUT NOTHING IS WORKING
And he pointed to a key difference between a business coach and a business consultant. “I really act as a coach, and accountability is the key thing I work on with my clients,” he said. “I never tell people where they are going. I’m not a consultant. I help frustrated business owners gain more time, money and freedom.” Learn more about Gene Moorhead and his coaching at davmoor.com.
