As a business owner, there comes a time in the life of your business when you realize you’re in a tough place. You need to move forward. There’s a lot of decisions to make, and you’re not sure which decision needs to be made first. You might not even be sure of what they are. You don’t have someone to talk to and you might be overwhelmed – so you concentrate on doing what you know how to do best and keep going. Keep Calm and Carry On! But still something is not quite right, you know things can’t go on the way they have been much longer, especially if you have dreams to take your business to the next level – whatever level that might be.
You Might Need a Business Coach.
What does a business coach do? First, a good business coach asks many questions about you and your business. The coach should not only have extensive business experience him or herself, he or she has probably helped dozens of businesses see the problems you are facing. You might think your problems are unique, but from the perspective of the coach, chances are they have been seen and solved before. He or she also has various tools that help determine where to concentrate first. Whether you have issues with leveraging your growth, hiring the right employees, managing cash flow, or wanting to sell your business one day, the job of the coach is to help you understand your challenges so you can make decisions faster and with more confidence. As coaches, we focus on getting results quickly, because we know without real success there is no reason to engage with us.
Types of Coaching
Coaching comes in a number of flavors but the two basic types are individual coaching, where you work with one coach on a one-on-one basis, and coaching with membership on a peer board, like with The Alternative Board. Personally, I do both, but see a greater value with the peer board approach – in addition to the focused coaching you as a board member are brought together on a monthly basis with a group of other business owners, each with their own challenges and goals, to work on their issues and opportunities. At the meeting, actionable solutions to the challenges you face are developed after a facilitated group discussion. Quite simply, it works, and as a business owner, you move through your issues and challenges quicker and with greater confidence. Additionally, accountability to the others on the board is a strong motivator to make sure you get things done. TAB members look back only after a short time and marvel just how far they have come.