Every year, more than 627,000 small businesses open their doors for the first time. That first year is often the hardest and most business owners encounter challenges they’re not prepared to handle.
If you’re one of them, you know that finding solutions to those issues can be harder than coming up with a successful business idea in the first place.
Hiring a business coach can help take the strain out of addressing those challenges. But what is business coaching and how can it truly help your company? Here’s what you need to know.
What Is Business Coaching, Exactly?
Think of a business coach as an expert in running businesses. They can look at the way your company currently operates and help you identify ways to improve your business.
Though their primary focus is on helping you streamline your operation, they also help you identify ways to better make your business meet your personal goals. If you’ve had trouble maintaining the passion that helped you come up with the initial idea, a coach can help you reconnect with that passion.
They’re familiar with helping small businesses like yours overcome the most common challenges you’ll face.
How a Business Coach Can Help Your Business
Though business coaches are experts in helping businesses, they’re not necessarily experts in your specific industry. At first glance, this might make it seem like they won’t be able to help you improve your operation effectively.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Remember, just because they’re not familiar with every nuance of your industry doesn’t mean they won’t be able to help you grow your business. The core principles of running a business are the same in almost every industry.
Here’s what you can expect from your coach once you establish a working relationship with them.
They Bring a Fresh Perspective to Your Company
As a business owner, it’s easy to get sidetracked by the goings-on at your company. You create habits and those habits can end up holding you back. But since you’re so comfortable with them, you end up turning a blind eye to the parts of your business that need improvement.
This makes it hard to grow over time.
Your coach brings in an outside perspective and a set of fresh eyes to your company. They’ll be able to identify the problem areas that you can’t see and can point them out quickly. This makes it easier for your business to make targeted improvements rather than guessing at the types of improvements that will benefit your brand.
They Help You Create a Solid Plan of Action
Identifying problem areas is just one part of the process. You need to address those problem areas if you want to keep your company on track for growth.
If you knew exactly how to do that, you would’ve implemented those improvements on your own.
Business coaching services can help you figure out ways to successfully make those improvements without hurting your bottom line in the meantime. They’ll look at your current processes and your daily tasks to find ways to switch things up without making the changes so drastic that your team struggles to be productive.
Once you have that clear plan in place, you’ll be able to overcome the challenges you faced strategically.
They Help You Evaluate Your Goals
Creating a solid plan of action that helps you eliminate certain struggles is just one part of the equation. Business coaches help you look at your plans for your company’s future, not just the here and now.
They’ll help you evaluate the goals you’ve already set and identify new goals that will help your business grow and thrive. Your coach can even outline a plan of action to help you achieve those goals as quickly as possible.
They Hold You and Your Partners Accountable
As a business owner, it’s easy to shift the blame to the market, flaky employees, and even poor supply chains. Though those things are often a contributing factor for your business’s performance, they’re not the only factors at play.
The chances are good that there are things you and your partners set in place that are hurting your opportunities for growth.
Hiring a business coaching team can help you and your partners accept responsibility and be accountable for your actions. When you are and you accept full responsibility for the things you’re doing right and the things you’re doing wrong, you’ll be better able to make changes.
How to Choose a Business Coach You Can Trust
There are hundreds of business coaches out there and finding the right fit for your needs isn’t always as simple as you might think. You need to do your homework and make sure you’re hiring the best coach possible.
Before you start looking for coaches in your area, think about why you want to hire a coach in the first place. Identify the goals you have and what you want to take away from the experience.
Schedule consultations with several coaches and see if you mesh well with them. The best coaches will show interest in your business, your struggles, and your concerns. They’ll take the time to get to know you so they can create a custom approach to help you improve your company.
Once you speak with several coaches, choose the professional that you’re most comfortable with. Remember, when you have the right expert at your disposal, you’ll be able to tackle both current and future challenges with ease.
Is Business Coaching Right for Your Company?
If you’ve been asking yourself, “what is business coaching, and is it worth it?” you’re not alone. For many business owners, making the decision to hire a coach can feel like admitting defeat. It shouldn’t.
Hiring a coach doesn’t mean you’re bad at running your business. It means that you care about your company’s future and the happiness of your employees.
No matter what industry you’re in, hiring a business coach is a great way to take control of your company and set it up for future success.
Looking for extra advice to help you improve your new company? Check out our blog for more tips and tricks to help you create a profitable and successful company.
