I am often asked "What is a business coach"? Whatever field you may be in, the principles of coaching remains constant. In that regard, a Business Coach is a professionally trained coach who works with a business or business owner to bring about a dramatic improvement, very similar to how a sports coach drives an athlete to be the best in his or her chosen sport. Every successful team has a coach, even those that are already on top. They rely on their coaches for an objective and unbiased opinion, and for expert input geared towards realizing their full potential. It is exactly the same in business. You may be a novice entrepreneur looking to start your own business, or a highly successful executive searching for new avenues of growth and expansion for your company, it makes no difference, having a Business Coach at your side of the ring may mean the difference between a split-decision win and a knockout.
Sports analogies aside, a Business Coach is someone who oversees, guides, and assists you-the business owner-in starting a business or developing an already up and running one, may it be large or small in scale. There are a myriad of factors that can come into play in any business venture, making each one a unique case, thus, a good Coach will help you draw up objectives and goals that are tailor-made specifically for your business' current standing and future growth. The key to a successful relationship between you and your Business Coach is commitment from both sides. Both parties must be willing to devote time and effort in establishing trust, good rapport, and mutual respect.
Your Coach will meet with you on a regular basis to discuss business and even personal issues that you are currently facing, since problems in the workplace, more often than not, spill over to your personal life and vice-versa. These personal meetings will help the Business Coach get a general grasp of your personality, weaknesses and strengths which will help both of you in painting a complete picture of the situation. It also allows for frequent tweaks in the "game plan", adjusting it to suit current needs and developments as you and your business grows and evolves. This sort of setup will keep you and your business continually moving forward towards the ultimate goal that is success. This is done by forming a concrete idea of what success means to you, and bearing in mind what you need to do in order to make it a reality.
Getting a Business Coach may sound like a panacea for success in business, but having this sort of false expectation benefits no one. It will only lead to disappointment for you, and cause difficulties for your coach. The role of a Business Coach is to coach business owners through guidance, support, accountability and encouragement, not doing all of the work for you.
You can think of your Business Coach as a friend, someone who will listen to you em-pathetically and act as a sounding board. But above all, he or she will be your champion in your fight for success in the brutal and ruthless world that is called Business.