Why should business owners consider coaching?
Here are eight reasons why business owners should consider coaching:
- Planning and strategy
Business coaches are often more beneficial in areas of strategic planning. A key difference between a business coach and consultant is that a consultant will often focus on one specific area such as succession planning, whereas a coach will guide owners to strategically plan their business in its entirety.
2. Developing your skills as a business owner
Most business owners can identify specific skills they could improve upon. Could you be a better communicator? A better negotiator? A business coach can help you work in specific areas, developing skills that will help you succeed not only in this current business but in whatever venture you take on in the future.
3. Accountability
It is often easy as a business owner not to be held accountable to anyone. This means that you never face the consequences of failing to complete actions. In contrast, a business coach will hold you accountable to ensure that you and your business are always moving forward.
4. New ideas and approaches
Because a business coach doesn’t work in your company, they will be distanced from most of your opportunities and challenges. This means they can provide an outside perspective with new ideas, strategies and approaches.
5. Learning from others’ experience
Often, business coaches are previous business owners or have worked for big corporates and in business for a long time. Over the years, they will have experienced many common and unique business issues. This means that when you approach them with an issue, they’ll more than likely have an experience they can draw on to guide you through it. This isn’t just the case with business coaches. There is lots that business owners can learn from each other too.
6. Your personal development
Business coaches also often take on a business mentoring role. This is where they focus on you, the business owner, on a person. In coaching sessions, they can be available to listen to any emotional needs or concerns you have. Or they can enable you to ensure your business is working for your personal life. In fact, there are a few ways that business coaching and mentoring is good for your personal development.
7. Support – You’re not alone
Another great benefit of business coaching is the support they it gives. A business coach can help you combat the loneliness of entrepreneurship. They can be your sounding board, your go-to listener and your trusted advisor.
8. Business growth
And ultimately, a benefit of a business coach is that they can help you achieve business growth. By providing business owners with all the benefits mentioned above, business coaches can sometimes be the ticket to streamlining processes and increasing profitability.
What business coaching is not
A business coach is not the following:
Getting a business coach does not mean that all your business challenges will be solved through those coaching sessions. The coach is there to guide you through and empower you with the right tools and knowledge to help you find those solutions. Inevitably, challenges will also come your way, but a coach is there to hold your hand through them.
A business coach is not there to get involved in your personal life and aspirations but will consider how your personal goals might line up to your business ambitions.
Counsellors are specifically trained in dealing with specific personal problems such as mental health or family relationships. A business coach is not trained to deal with these issues and therefore should not be expected to address them.
A consultant focuses on a particular area of expertise and projects in those areas such as a marketing consultant or finance consultant. They seek to fix specific problems within a business, a business coach however, provides more generalised advice and insights. At TAB, we do sometimes provide consultancy services as each of our coaches have their own niche areas of expertise.
Why TAB business coaching?
Here are three reasons why you should consider TAB’s business coaching and why 98.9% of our members said it adds real value to their business:
- Our UK business coaches have experience
60% of business owners look for experience in a mentor above anything else. All our facilitators are seasoned business professionals with at least ten years’ experience as a business owner or in senior leadership. They come from a range of different backgrounds and sectors, but they all have one thing in common – the desire to help local business owners lead better lives and run stronger businesses.
- Coaching tailored to you and your business
Many business coaches have specific processes they take their clients through. Whilst we have a structure at TAB, the coaching sessions are tailored to your needs and what you need at any given time. So, although there is a difference between business coaching and consultancy, your TAB coach can sometimes fall into both these roles if required.
- Works alongside our advisory boards
Our business coaching is so powerful because of its combination with our business advisory boards. These bring together business owners and leaders from non-competing sectors in a group setting – like a board of directors. As part of a monthly TAB Board meeting, each member helps one another identify opportunities and solve the challenges they each face in their businesses. This means, in a way, you get several business coaches in a TAB membership.
