May 30, 2022
Sometimes it isn’t sufficient to work hard and apply all of your knowledge to make it in business. Occasionally, we all need some help and maybe an extra pair of hands. To be successful, you need to make sure those hands know what they’re doing when you have a business to run and grow. That’s why you have to be very careful and selective when selecting the person who will serve as your business growth coach. This person should be able to contribute both to your personal development, as well as to the growth of your business as a whole. Here are a few guidelines to help you select the right coach and make the right decisions and improve and accelerate the growth of your business:
1. Finding a Coach
A marketplace-style website is a fantastic resource for locating a business coach in your local region, since you will be able to browse profiles for appropriate skills, read client ratings and reviews, and get a pricing estimate. This approach makes it simple to determine if a company meets your needs and if previous customers were satisfied. Location is another important factor if you want to work face-to-face. For instance, if you’re located in Melbourne Australia, it would make sense to look for a life coach in Melbourne to help you out. When searching for a coach, recommendations from past or current clients can give you a good idea of the coach’s skills and effectiveness. Additionally, you can inquire about their coaching model and whether the referrer thought they were able to achieve their goals with this coach. LinkedIn is an excellent resource for locating business coaches due to its focused on connecting business-minded professionals. You can request referrals from your connections or explore coaches’ profiles to learn about their their expertise, request introductions, search for testimonials and endorsements.
2. Deciding Between Private and Group Coaching
Group coaching programs are more standardized in comparison to private coaching – it is one of the most significant distinctions between the two types of programs. If you’re seeking more individualized attention, time and a bespoke experience, private coaching is probably best for you.
One-to-many relationships are modeled after group coaching programs. This gives the coach a chance to assist more individuals while optimizing their time. This may be more efficient for the coach, but not be best for you and your needs.
On the other hand, private coaching involves a greater degree of customization and will likely be more expensive. It’s important to be aware of these differences before you make your final decision.
3. Understanding How Your Coach Can Help
If you run a complex business with 50 employees, would you want to hire a business coach whose only experience is coaching a business owner who’s a sole proprietor with a couple of employees? Probably not. A coach with only those limited skills doesn’t know much about the problems of a big company and has limited experience to draw upon. They may be able to think rationally about goals, aspirations, and problems, but they don’t have the right experience to help solve more complex problems.
Also consider whether the coach be able to figure out where your business is in its development maturity. Do they focus on startup businesses that just want to get off the ground? Or do they have experience with established business looking to accurate growth into a new sector? The problems and challenges a business faces depend on where it is in its growth maturity. So, if you’re the owner of a small business, make sure that the business coach knows how to help small businesses like yours and has done so before. Likewise, if you run a business that does business across the country or around the world, make sure the coach can handle that level of complexity.
4. Being Diligent and Asking Questions
At this point, you need to evaluate the tradeoffs associated with different coaches or coaching companies.
A professional business coach won’t mind if you ask them about their experience. You can usually find that kind of information on their website before you interview them. Check out each page because you might be surprised at how much information is there. You need to find out more about their goals, how they measure progress, and their past client successes (or failures).
Keep in mind that this is a big step for you and your business. Make sure that the coach is a good strategic fit not only for your business but also for you as a person.
5. Requesting a Welcome Session
You won’t know if a coach is a good fit until you meet them, so take advantage of a free working session if it’s offered. A “welcome session” will help both sides test fit and determine if their is a good match. Ideally, the coach will model what a typical session might feel like while they are learning more about you, your goals and your business. This should be a deliberate and serious match-making session. So, avoid coaches that limit a welcome session to five or ten minutes – that’s just not enough time for you to assess the coach and for you both to decide whether to continue.
The Takeaway
Hopefully, you now feel more confident in finding the business coach that will guide you to make better decisions both for yourself and for your business. Again, it’s worth emphasizing to check their qualifications and credentials. Protect yourself from scammers since this field is quite large and saturated with different people with a variety of backgrounds.
If you’d like to learn more about how to choose the right business growth coach or consultant for your business, subscribe to the TopRight blog! Or connect with me on Twitter and on LinkedIn. You can learn more about how to bring simplicity, clarity, and alignment to your brand’s story, strategy, and systems in our best selling book: Marketing, Interrupted.
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