Should You Fire Your Business Coach?

Posted by David Chism | Thu, Sep 18, 2014

 Should You Fire Your Business Coach?

Work­ing Out

Note: Last Novem­ber, I joined a 3‑day a week intense work­out pro­gram (12 weeks) at a BJJ & MMA stu­dio called Clinch Acad­e­my. I sort of went into it think­ing I’d do the 3 month chal­lenge and go back to my old rou­tine of light exer­cise when I had the time! One of the rea­sons I had to do some­thing is that I was not doing much phys­i­cal exer­cise. I was play­ing bas­ket­ball 1 – 2 times a week and that was about it. It was around that time, just before I joined, that my blood pres­sure was quite a bit high­er than nor­mal. I was told by the doc, You’ve got to do a bit more exercise.”

As I write this, I am fin­ish­ing my 10th month at Clinch and still enjoy­ing every class, 3 days a week. It did not take me very long to real­ize that for me, I had to stay at Clinch. I could not quit and go back to my old way of life. I knew that with­out my coach fol­low­ing up on how I was doing, I would not be suc­cess­ful. Oh, maybe for a time, but I know myself. I knew where I’d head after a few weeks. I am the type of guy who needs a coach. It has been one of the most reward­ing things I’ve done, and it has helped me in more ways than just stay­ing fit. I am more alert and focused in my busi­ness too.

Don’t Fire Your Busi­ness Coach

I did not write this to focus on my work­out pro­gram. No, I am writ­ing this because I’ve seen a lot of small busi­ness­es who start­ed out with a coach and let them go after a short while. I have seen paint­ing com­pa­nies get to a cer­tain point with a coach­ing firm and then say, I think I can do it on my own now.” Yet when they cut the ties, it is very nor­mal to see these com­pa­nies fall back into old habits.

I think small busi­ness own­ers should look at a busi­ness coach almost as a busi­ness part­ner or ongo­ing advi­sor. You know many mid to large com­pa­nies have advi­so­ry boards. These folks are very sim­i­lar to busi­ness con­sul­tants and coach­es. Many of them get paid on a reg­u­lar basis to give ongo­ing feed­back on how the com­pa­ny is doing and where it is head­ed. If those advi­so­ry boards were not in place, those com­pa­nies would not be successful.

Let me put it this way, many of the con­tract­ing com­pa­nies I work with who have a good busi­ness coach are doing very well. They have all been sur­viv­ing and thriv­ing through some of the tough­est years the con­struc­tion indus­try has faced. Not only are they mak­ing mon­ey, they are mak­ing their com­pa­nies more stream­lined and effi­cient as well.

When To Fire a Busi­ness Coach

Now, there are times that you should look at fir­ing a busi­ness coach. In the mid 1990’s I remem­ber my dad spent over $25k for a busi­ness con­sult­ing firm to give him a few point­ers on run­ning a suc­cess­ful busi­ness. I still remem­ber the dis­ap­point­ment when after a few days, the con­sul­tants left his office and my dad was scratch­ing his head won­der­ing, Now what do I do?” They came in, gave him some fan­cy paper­work and advice and left. Well, in that sit­u­a­tion, those busi­ness con­sul­tants were def­i­nite­ly not act­ing like coach­es. They did not have the best inter­est of my dad’s com­pa­ny in mind, nor did they care if it flourished.

So if your cur­rent busi­ness coach does not have your best inter­ests in mind to see you grow, to help you meet your per­son­al and busi­ness goals: it is time to let that per­son or firm go. A good busi­ness coach should real­ly be no dif­fer­ent than the coach I have at my gym. He is my men­tor. He wants me to meet my fit­ness goals and main­tain them.

I’ve had the priv­i­lege of work­ing with some great busi­ness coach­es over the years. It might seem expen­sive at times, but remem­ber, a good coach is irre­place­able. He/​She is part of your team!

How have you seen a busi­ness coach help your busi­ness? Let me know in the com­ments below or anoth­er social outlet!

About David Chism

David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.

     
   
       

Subscribe to the Blog

           
       
                               
   
Please provide a short summary of why you are reaching out today.