Running and growing a business is a significant undertaking. You want to do it right. Is it beneficial to hire a coach, or simply a waste of valuable resources? Will a small business coach give you the push you need to succeed in starting and growing your business, or can you achieve success on your own? Many entrepreneurs wonder if strategic business coaching is right for them.
Ways Strategic Business Coaching Moves You Forward
The International Coach Federation (ICF), a support network for professional coaches, states that 86 percent of companies who invested in business coaching earned back at least what they put in, if not more. Additionally, 96 percent of those companies would hire a coach again. Through its research, ICF also found that working with a business coach increases productivity.
Here are other ways business coaching benefits you:
- It keeps you on track. With regular, structured conferences, business coaching provides a source of accountability to help you stick to your goals.
- It offers an avenue for sound advice. Professionally trained coaches know the ins and out of the business world, and can use their expertise to guide you in the right direction.
- It produces attainable goals. One of the biggest mistakes many entrepreneurs make is not clearly defining their goals. A business coach helps you set short and long-term goals, and create a plan that is manageable and effective.
What Happens Without Business Coaching
Starting and growing a business is not impossible without the assistance of a strategic coach, but it is certainly more difficult to grow it alone. Too often we get stuck in our own heads and end up going around in circles, never achieving our ultimate goal. Ugh! While this can be discouraging, all it takes to stop spinning is a little outside perspective.
Someone who is not as emotionally invested in your business venture can often see your business with greater objectivity. It's good to have a head in the game who can tell you - from an unbiased point of view - how your target audience will respond to your marketing strategies.
Certainly success is achievable without the guidance of a coach. There's a great deal to be said for hard work, dedication, and dreams. You'll reach your goals, so don't give up.
Just keep in mind that working with a business coach can get you there more quickly - and with much less stress.
This article first appeared on Synnovatia's business growth blog, Bite Size Chunks of Wisdom.