The best way for you to understand how business coaching works is to recognise the importance of coaching in sports.

Can you imagine recent football World Cup Winners, Spain; The New Zealand All Blacks rugby team; Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt or Tiger Woods performing without a coach who pushed and guided them? 

Their coaches were instrumental in:
*  Ensuring that the team performs at optimum levels;
*  Devising specific strategies and plays to defeat opponents;
*  Ensuring team harmony and that everyone worked for the benefit of the team as a whole
*  Providing one on one support for each player by encouraging and counselling them, where necessary.

Business coaching is no different.  Many small-business owners often have specific experience only in a limited number of areas and lack the holistic vision and skills to grow their business as a whole.

Business coaching should therefore be seen as an investment, rather than an expense or an overhead. You should therefore evaluate your investment in business coaching in terms of return on investment (ROI). You should also remember that business coaching is a long-term investment that will only pay dividends over a period of time and your evaluation should be based accordingly.

But a word of caution.

A business coach is not a magic solution to your problems and you should not think that just by having one, your problems are going to vanish overnight.  You will have to work very hard to translate the input you will see from your coach into concrete action. You are the entrepreneur and the coach is merely a resource or conduit to make things happen.

Some of the areas in which business coaching works well:

Creating an environment for growth. One of the key requirements for managing change and growth is to put in place the proper organisation and create the kind of work environment that promotes teamwork and encourages people to work with one another. The challenge is to acquire and retain high-quality talent. This is not an easy job and involves a number of areas ranging from job evaluation and appraisal to designing the right compensation packages.

Designing and managing systems. Systems are critical to establishing a backbone and a framework for providing support for all employees. Business coaches will often have extensive exposure to a range of systems for different functions such as sales and marketing, governance and human resource management. The right systems have the effect of improving productivity and quality and the ultimate benefit is increased customer satisfaction.

As I have said above, business coaching is only a helping pair of hands and the responsibility for growing your business is yours; fairly and squarely. To make optimum use of your resources, consult with your business coach frequently and extensively.

Do not implement key decisions without fully understanding what to do and how to do it. The consequences of your action should form part of an integral part of any business coaching process.

Even before you start looking for a business coach, you need to know what to look for. There are many business coaches willing to offer their services. Therefore, being aware of what to expect from a business coach can help you identify the best one for you and ensure better results when you do decide to engage one.

A good business coach is essentially a successful business owner with recognised credentials.  They will be well versed with the nuances of running a business and therefore have the knowledge to share and guide you through your own experience.  

Your business coach will:

Guide you at every step:  They will analyse your business and suggest changes that will improve your business.  Rather than working merely like a consultant, a good business coach will involve themselves by understanding your primary business goals and they’ll suggest using proven to minimise any risk of you failing.

Hold you accountable:  Business, with all its freedom for its owner, can often induce procrastination or a strong belief that a business owner’s strategies will work best. This thinking is surely a recipe for disaster as the owner loses a holistic perspective and gets sucked into believing that nothing can go wrong.  Your business coach will come with a fresh perspective and hold you accountable for your actions; thus coaching and steering you to better performance and inducing a sense of doing things “the right way”.

Inspire and motivate:  Running the show alone can be emotionally challenging. You will need people with whom you can discuss your problems and recommend practical solutions.  Your business coach will listen to your concerns and inspire you to perform better.  They will motivate you when you lose confidence.  They will ensure that you stay focused.

Recommend practical solutions: There are many books on ‘how to run a business’.  But rarely do you find any that suggest practical solutions. With your business coach, you get a ‘talking book’ full of practical solutions for many facets of your business.

Streamline ineffective or inefficient processes:  Your business coach will dedicate themselves to streamline your business processes, define work priorities and devise ways to bring more efficiency and productivity to your business.

Identify Whether Your Business Coach Can Deliver

The simplest way around this is to ask for references.   Ask about their experience with the business coach you are considering.  Ask them whether they delivered what they promised.

Remember, no matter what a business coach promises to deliver, the deliverables should not stay as mere words on paper. They should translate into real success and profits.  Your business coach should be able to help you improve sales, induce better work management and devise ways to streamline your business to give you more time to focus on business development, customers and much more.

How’s your day going?

It’s easy to dream – but it’s hard to follow and achieve dreams.

Dreams, after all, are just goals without a timeline and a definite plan.  Thus, if you really want your dreams, convert them into SMART goals.  Being SMART transforms prayers into plans and hope into action.

Specific
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Have you ever wondered how a coach can change your life or your career or your business? Well, from personal experience and re-enforced by some of my clients I know for sure that there are four ways a coach can transform your life.

Recognise your dreams

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Do you feel like you’re being held hostage by your business? 

Most small business owners start their business because;
a) they want to do something they’re passionate about; and
b) because they think it will give them more freedom in life by releasing them from the unreasonable demands of their boss.

After a few weeks, however, the truth hits them hard.  Running your own business is a whole lot more demanding than a full time job.  Instead of one boss, you now have ten; your clients, your suppliers, your employees, each with a different set of needs and expectations that have to be met by you. 

You are so busy running the business that you hardly have time for anything else. (more…)