What is a Business Coach?

The goal of coaching is to help the business person move from where they are to where they want to be.

A Business Coach serves many roles. They are your partner in achieving your personal and business goals, your trainer in communication and life skills, your sounding board when making choices, your motivator when strong actions are called for, your unconditional support when you take a hit, your mentor in personal development, your co-designer when developing an extraordinary project, your beacon during stormy times, your wake-up call if you don’t hear your own, and most importantly, your trusted advisor in living the life you know you’re ready for, personally and professionally.
Business coaching enables the business person to be in a position to grow and achieve goals that they consider important. Business coaching is an interactive process that expands business people’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.

Business coaching sessions are a series of conversations between the 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. Business Coaches coach owners toward steady, sustainable improvement. They provide a much-needed, outside perspective and provide the discipline needed to march toward sustainable, improved performance.

Why hire a business coach?

It’s a fact that most small businesses fail. Why? A recent study by the National Federation of Independent Businesses found that 70% of small business owners turn to spouses or other family members for the majority of their business advice. Obviously, this is not the best approach.

By hiring a business coach you will receive help with:

• Setting goals
• Creating strategy
• Following through
• Measuring results
• Refining strategy
• Much, much more

Our goal is to help you improve your bottom line through a process that promotes the best in you and your business.

What happens at the coach/owner meetings?

In the beginning the meetings will focus on the coach getting to know you, learning your business strengths and weaknesses and determining areas of untapped opportunity. As a result of this information, you and your coach will determine an action plan to move forward. You will be assigned specific tasks to complete before the next week’s meeting.
At each meeting you will discuss the prior week, determine how successful you were in carrying out your tasks, exchange ideas about upcoming projects and put in place the next action plan.

Is coaching the same as consulting?

Absolutely not! They are very different. Consultants do not coach. A consultant is typically someone who is a specialist that will help you make improvements in a specific area. Usually they make determinations and create a report.
A coach does not concentrate on a single area; they are generalists. Coaches look at all areas of the business and support you through a process. They evaluate, guide, motivate and help improve both you and your business.
A coach DOES NOT:

• Necessarily prepare formal reports
• Concentrate on ONLY the business
• Leave once a specific project is completed
• A coach is there for you — 24 hours a day — to help you, guide you, motivate you, and improve you and your entire business.

Improve me and my business. What does that mean?

Your coach focuses on both your business life and your personal life. The business world has seen thousands of great leaders that are miserable with their personal lives and the effects are disastrous. The line between your business and personal life is too closely connected to ignore the effects on each other.

As the owner, it is up to you to lead your company to where you want it to be. However, you may not be conscious of all of the areas of your business that, if addressed, can have massive results. Very often, business owners like you are too busy doing the everyday tasks.

We will help eliminate your dangers and fears, capture opportunities and maximize your strengths. You will be trained on leadership, relationships, strategy, motivation, productivity, and organizational skills.

What is Group Coaching / The Mastermind Group Experience TM?

The Mastermind Group Experience TM consists of peer advisory groups facilitated by one of our professional business coaches. The groups are composed of 5 or 6 business owners and meet for two hours every other week. The focus of each meeting is on each participants’ most pressing issues.

These powerful groups give you a fresh perspective on your business and allow for high levels of collaboration and brainstorming.

I’m already successful, why do I need a coach?

Every top performer uses a coach to bring out their best. Award winning actors, professional athletes and high level executives use mentors, coaches and advisers to help them achieve greatness.

Studies of successful individuals have shown that they are always goal-oriented, persistent and have a person or a group of people that they meet with regularly to brainstorm and learn from.

How long does the coaching process last?

We have all been to seminars that get us charged up and ready to put into use what we learned. Usually most of what was learned is forgotten soon after the seminar is over. Coaching is a process that takes time, with a minimum commitment of one year. It’s about creating real change that lasts. Creating lasting change is a process of acquiring skills and developing positive habits. Coaching is NOT a magic wand.

What about the rest of my team? Do you offer anything for them?

We have seminars and workshops that are designed to build every area of your business depending on your needs. We offer topics such as:

• Team and morale building
• Developing the mission, vision and culture
• Marketing effectively
• Customer service excellence
• Leadership
• Goal-setting
• Sales effectiveness

Getting input from your employees in each area of your business goes a long way to them taking a level of “ownership” in the success of the business and it empowers them. Since they will have ownership in the ideas that develop, they will have a personal interest in the success. The results can be incredible.

In addition, we are available to work one-on-one with some of your key people in areas that challenge them!

Is coaching expensive?

The return on your investment in coaching should far exceed how much you invest. Keep two things in mind: #1 — You, as the client, are solely responsible for the results you obtain from coaching. The coach cannot do the work for you. #2 — Some of the improvements you witness in your personal and business life as a result of your coaching experience are not easily quantifiable. How much is less stress worth? How much is working fewer hours while making more money worth? How much is a better spiritual life worth? Or what is the value of getting home to see your family every night? The improvements made in your business through the coaching process should pay dividends for many years into the future. Think of it as your “coaching annuity”.

A study conducted by Michigan-based Triad Performance Technologies, Inc. cites an average 10:1 return on investment in less than one year! Another study conducted by Forbes Magazine found that the average return on investment for coaching was 600%.
I’m not sure that it applies to my industry.

Coaching only applies to your business if you want:

• more prospects inquiring about your service or product.
• to sell a higher percentage of these leads.
• to serve your customers so that they buy more often.
• better control of your profit margins.
• to be a better leader.
• better systems to run your business.
• more effective, engaged employees.
• to make more and work less.