What Is a Business Coach

WHAT IS BUSINESS COACHING? Business coaching is a relationship between two (or more) people that facilitates a shift in the thinking, behavior and performance of the business owner. Business coaching enables the business owner to be in a position to grow and achieve goals that they consider most important. Business coaching is an interactive process that can expand a person’s effectiveness at both business and life-skills and allows them to identify obstacles that can hinder them from moving forward and attaining their goals. If you were to observe a business coaching session over a period of time, you would see that it is a series of conversations between the Business Coach and client, moving along a predictable process through identifiable steps. The steps are: establish focus, promote discovery, determine action plan, establish next steps, and follow-up. Business coaches ask questions, listen, and make suggestions; they explore, challenge, encourage, probe, facilitate, focus, stimulate, and hold you accountable. Coaching is: • • • • Centered on the business person’s needs and wants Enabling the business person to reach his/her goals Short term and specific Done in person or on the phone The goal of coaching is to help the business owner move from where they are now to where they really want to be in the future. THE ROLE OF COACHING IN BUSINESS Business coaching is an ideal approach to helping owners improve their business. Business Coaches partner with the business owner and facilitate an environment of self-discovery of key practices that result in improvements in the business as well as in the personal life of the business owner. Most business people are expert at their chosen “trade” but often not proficient at the management skills necessary to run an effective business. The Business Coach focuses the owner on those critical management skills. © 2008 SPM Business Solutions Page 1 www.SPMsolutions.NET THE BUSINESS COACHING RELATIONSHIP • • • The Business Coach takes the time to understand the owner’s business and provides systematic developmental methodologies that help the business owner succeed. The Business Coach respects the confidentiality of information received from the business owner. The person being coached looks to the Business Coach for guidance, encouragement and feedback, but does not place on the Coach the responsibility to produce change. Change is the responsibility of the client. The person being coached must be self-motivated, have a clear sense of need, and be willing to set and accomplish goals. • IS COACHING FOR ME? You can prosper with help from a business coach if you are: • • • • • Too busy putting out fires every day, rather than purposely building a business that will run profitably – WITHOUT you needing to be there! Stuck - and can’t seem to make any progress. Overwhelmed with too much to do, and would like to find CLARITY. Frustrated that your employees come and go – and they don’t have the same passion that you have for your business. Confused that your business has grown – and continues to grow – but you haven’t seen the MONEY. A Business Coach enables you to make progress in your business and grow at a pace that is reasonable for you. © 2008 SPM Business Solutions Page 2 www.SPMsolutions.NET AREAS OF CONCENTRATION The following are the areas that a Business Coach concentrates on to move a business to where the owner wants it to be. Each area is critical to the success of a business - whether the owner’s goals are to make more money, concentrate on the systemization of the business, or prepare the business for either sale, or the transition to future generations. There are three key areas that business owners scream “HELP ME!!!” on a regular basis: Profitability Human Resources Lack of Free Time These three areas are all specifically addressed by a Business Coach by relating them to the following business fundamentals. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. LEADERSHIP SKILLS MARKETING SALES CUSTOMER SERVICE HUMAN RESOURCES FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PROFITABILITY SYSTEMS/PROCESSES WHO WORKS WITH A BUSINESS COACH? Business owners who normally work with a Business Coach are, first and foremost, open to being coached. They are also usually: • • • • • Concerned because they spend too much time working and have little or no time left for family Stressed trying to continuously come up with good, new ideas to build their business beyond where it is today Frustrated about finding and keeping good employees Uptight because work isn’t fun anymore; it’s a struggle Upset because they’re working harder but not making any more money. © 2008 SPM Business Solutions Page 3 www.SPMsolutions.NET GETTING STARTED WITH A BUSINESS COACH Once a business owner decides to hire a Business Coach several events take place: The Business Coach gathers information about the business owner and the business and typically starts with the following items. • First a Business Effectiveness Evaluation is worked on which highlights the current strengths and weaknesses in how the business is being run. An Extended DISC analysis is then given to evaluate the business owner’s observable behavior style to gain insight into his/her leadership and management style. VAK analysis shows the way (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) the business owner learns and/or communicates best. Finally a Business/Personal Life Questionnaire helps clarify the specific areas an owner may want (or need) to work on to meet business and/or life goals. • • • Once the Evaluations and Analyses are completed, then specific (SMART) goals and action items are generated to maintain forward progress over the coming year. The Business Coach and the business owner then engage in on-going, regular coaching sessions to help the business person implement the best practices that will improve their business. In summary; • • • A Business Coach helps business people make their business better; helps them become the business owner they know they can be. A Business Coach understands the relationship between marketing, sales, customer service, leadership, human resources, systemization, controlling costs, and financial management. A Business Coach has access to hundreds of tools that business owners can use to defeat the challenges that are keeping them from achieving the dream they had when they started their business. ********************* “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them. Clients say coaching brings out their best by helping them focus, break down tasks and clarify their values.” - Fortune Magazine © 2008 SPM Business Solutions Page 4 www.SPMsolutions.NET