Why Do I Need a Business Coach?

Any­one who watch­es sports knows that a group of great play­ers is noth­ing with­out a great coach. Even super­stars like Michael Jor­dan and Tiger Woods have paid train­ers and coach­es who guide and direct them to excel and achieve to their utmost. No one would claim that hav­ing a coach implies that you are any less of an ath­lete. Despite this clear anal­o­gy from the sports world, many busi­ness own­ers bris­tle against the idea of hir­ing a busi­ness coach or con­sul­tant. ​“I don’t need a con­sul­tant! I know how to run my busi­ness! Everyone’s a ​‘con­sul­tant’ these days! They don’t know my clients! They don’t know my field! It’s too expen­sive, and it doesn’t pay!” Hir­ing a busi­ness coach does not mean that you are inca­pable, or don’t know how to run a busi­ness; in fact, some of the smartest peo­ple I know have busi­ness coach­es! Hav­ing a skilled advi­sor on your side real­ly can pay, and it has many advan­tages. Most con­trac­tors are so busy work­ing in their busi­ness that they have lit­tle or no time to work on their busi­ness. They need to be so focused on the day-to-day oper­a­tions that it becomes impos­si­ble to ana­lyze the big pic­ture of trends, mar­ket and com­pe­ti­tion. The mul­ti­ple crises that you deal with each day dis­tract you from the big­ger changes you may need to make to excel. Some­times you get a chance to look at the trends and make a new plan, but then you are too busy to put the plan into prac­tice effec­tive­ly. A good busi­ness coach can help with all of these issues. A coach watch­es the game from a fresh per­spec­tive and can point out things you might not be able to see when you’re on the court. He works with you to devel­op cre­ative strate­gies and plans, not just for suc­cess in a sin­gle game or sea­son, but through­out a career. Your coach is your biggest fan, push­ing you to suc­ceed and hold­ing you account­able to achieve your goals. A good coach will encour­age you in your strengths and help you min­i­mize or cov­er your weak­ness­es. Since I began my busi­ness I have lost sev­er­al mar­ket­ing clients, and almost every one of them did not have a busi­ness coach. I tried to keep them on track and give them sim­ple busi­ness advice, but in the end, each one refused to seek out­side help from a pro­fes­sion­al con­sul­tant. But think about it from this per­spec­tive: your clients hire you because they know that you can do a bet­ter job. You are an expert, and you will achieve supe­ri­or results for more last­ing val­ue than they could if they tried it them­selves. Sure, you can brush your own teeth, but you pay a den­tist to drill cav­i­ties. Yes, you can dri­ve and pump gas, but you pay a mechan­ic to rebuild your trans­mis­sion. Isn’t it wise to apply these same ideas to your own busi­ness? Hir­ing a coach is not cheap, but a good advi­sor will help you achieve results that will more than jus­ti­fy the expense. If you are work­ing too many hours with too lit­tle result; if your plans for improve­ment nev­er come to any­thing; if you are a pro­cras­ti­na­tor when it comes to mar­ket­ing and busi­ness strat­e­gy; or if you don’t have the time you need to rethink and refo­cus, then you need a busi­ness coach. Whom to hire? Whom to fire? How to mar­ket and whom to mar­ket to? How much to invest in this? How to min­i­mize expense on that? How to get more accom­plished with less time and headache? A good coach will lis­ten to your sit­u­a­tion and con­cerns and help you to cre­ate and car­ry out a plan, so that you can man­age your busi­ness, instead of your busi­ness man­ag­ing you!