Being a business owner is a lonely journey. Often leaving you to day-to-day dealings and contemplating business growth decisions all on your own. The pressure of making payments, bringing in new business, ensuring your employees can support their families (all while balancing your own work-life balance) is not a foreign concept. And can very easily tip into an overwhelming experience. You need someone who has your back. That’s where a business coach comes in. So what are the five big benefits to getting a business coach?
1. A coach will help you see the bigger picture
It’s so easy to become absorbed into the daily grind of running a business. With customers who need to be kept happy, staff running late and payments that need to be made. This leaves very little time for you to think ‘long-term’. A business coach will help you set short and long-term strategies and formulate goals. Most importantly, a coach will give you all the tools to achieve the long-term business growth you are after.
2. A coach will tell it like it is- even if you don’t like it
You became an entrepreneur because you wanted to run your own show. Being independent is in your bones. But even if you are open to hearing the opinions of others, you won’t often receive an honest answer from someone whose salary you pay. A business coach is an agenda-free advisor who will speak honestly and openly, for your benefit alone.
3. A coach will be your sounding board
Two minds are better than one. Having someone to bounce ideas off and brainstorm scenarios with is a valuable addition to your business. A coach will help you take an idea, flesh it out and create a blueprint that plots out how to make it happen. Says Ryan Cohen of Merchant Capital, “A coach understands how to solve human problems, how to motivate and how to see things for what they are. This is an invaluable investment in your business, but most importantly in yourself"
4. A coach will guide your management style
Uncovering human resource issues and unsuccessful processes is a key role of a business coach. Just as they assist in making your business a success, they also need to ensure that those around you do the same. The right coach will advise on troubleshooting at a staffing level to make sure you have a strong focused team around you at all times. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, swears by business coaching saying that getting a coach was the best advise he ever got, “People struggle to see themselves as others see them and a coach can put this all into perspective.”
5. A coach will bring life and work into balance
As an entrepreneur your work and personal lives are not separate. As much as you may try to disconnect them they will always creep across lines affecting one another in interesting ways. Stress at work doesn’t disappear when you step through your front door and worrying about school fees still sits in your mind when you’re at the office. Your coach can walk you through techniques and goals to focus on what matters, and when. Helping you harness these conflicts in service of business growth.
Business coaching creates business growth
Sometimes as experienced managers, MDs or CEOs, we think we’ve heard and seen it all. But as your business changes, so do you. So finding the right business coach, who can objectively assess your leadership style and add skills to your repertoire, can only help you realise even more potential and increase your bottom line. An entrepreneur never stops learning and a coach can channel all your untapped potential into significant long-term personal and business growth.
