Picture this. The best basketball team in the NBA, swearing they will win the title. Easy-peasy, right? But here's the catch; this dream team doesn't have a coach. It's a mission impossible, right?

A business can be likened to a sport, in that, it requires almost the same strategies a team requires to post great results, season after season. A sports team can do without some items, but it cannot do without a coach. Your business is the same way. 

Gone are the days when businesses thought a coach was a waste of time and money. The world over, the most successful entrepreneurs swear that their smartest use of time and money was on a coach, as this one investment increased their success rate. 

With that said, below are 10 reasons why getting a business coach is beneficial for your business. 

10 reasons why getting a business coach is beneficial for your business

1. Advice

Because a coach is on the outside looking in, he or she will most likely perceive things you cannot see while you are busy doing business. Often, when one is running a business, the busyness of the whole process can blind them to some pertinent issues that need to be addressed. 

A coach's business advice can turn around the fortunes of their client, or help them make different decisions to drastically change their business' trajectory. The thing is, the coach does not know it all, and their advice does not come from a know-it-all posture. Instead, the coach is adept in advising and guiding the client to arrive at decisions. Thus, the client can fully own the advice. 

2. Assess strengths and weaknesses

An effective business coach can assess their client's strengths and weaknesses. 

Before setting up a business, many entrepreneurs make a detailed business plan with all the SWOTs - strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. But, in the day-to-day running of the business, the business plan can be put on the back burner. 

This is where business coaching comes into play. The coach will return to the drawing board with the client and, together, they will assess the client's strengths and weaknesses. Thereafter, the coach will guide the client on the way forward to effectively use their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. From start to finish - and throughout the monitoring and evaluation process - this assessment is a partnership. 

3. Analyze opportunities and threats

A coach will guide a client to use a more holistic approach. This means analyzing opportunities and threats and other business challenges and leaving nothing to chance. Often, a business owner may have tunnel vision - especially if they have been running their business without a coach - and thus there are unable to see other opportunities and threats, except the ones in their tunnel vision. 

A coach comes into the game with a fresh set of eyes. The coach can spot opportunities and threats that the client missed, although they were right under the business owner's nose. The coach can also make the client aware of unseen threats and opportunities, thereby preparing the client so they are not caught unaware by blind spots.  

4. Guidance and counseling 

Every business has ebbs and flows, highs and lows. The cyclic or capricious changes can not only strain the business but also stress the business owner. 

An experienced business coach will guide and counsel their client, providing professional advice to address - and redress - specific aspects of the business. The coach will also provide valuable insights for their client's personal development, as a business owner's mental and physical well-being has a direct impact on the performance of their business.

Related Article: 10 Strategies To Help You Get Your First Coaching Client

5. Strategy

No matter how solid a business strategy is, it needs to be reevaluated from time to time to meet the needs and challenges of an ever-changing business space. The business space is fluid and any entrepreneur who is not strategic enough to change will be rendered extinct. Besides, the only constant thing in life is change. 

A business coach helps their client to refine their strategy - not by telling them the exact things to do - but by providing suggestions. They can also help the client to "polish" a rough gem of a strategy. This rough gem belongs to the client - (it is never the coach's) - and the client may not have immediately been aware of it because their vision or judgment was clouded. 

6. Empowerment 

A business owner needs psychological capital as much as they need liquid cash to run a business. Many entrepreneurs go through cycles of feeling high and low depending on, among others, how their business is performing or, generally, the state of the economy. 

A business coach will provide their client with ideas, tools, and strategies to make them feel empowered through every cycle. The coach may connect their client with individuals or organizations, which can provide support systems or if need be, therapy.

7. Find clarity

The job of a coach is not to spoon-feed a client the answers, or to shove their opinions down the client's throat. Rather, it is to guide their client to find clarity. More often than not, the answers and clarity the client is searching for are covered or camouflaged by things they are going through. 

A business coach may already see the answers and clarity from miles away, but they will guide the client through the process so the client can find their way home. As opposed to "medicine" they have been spoon-fed, this process makes the client more easily accept the answers and clarity. 

8. Find answers

There are times when the answers to questions plaguing a  business are within easy reach. But anyone who has been in business long enough knows it's not as simple as that. Sometimes the easy answers are deceptive and can cause the business owner to make wrong decisions. 

A coach can help a client to break down seemingly-easy answers. This is similar to, for instance, a basketball coach not underestimating a team, because they seem to be an easy opponent. Often, in business, catastrophic mistakes are made when overconfidence overrides reason. 

Other times, the answers need more complex formulae. This is when some business owners reach out to a coach. The best way to go about it is to have an ongoing business relationship with a coach. This means the client will not only SOS the coach when they have a business emergency. 

9. Provide constructive criticism 

Destructive criticism can cause a business owner's mental health to spiral down into an abyss. It can also take a destructive toll on the venture. 

On the other hand, constructive criticism has the potential to aid the business owner in making changes. The difference is that, whereas destructive criticism can push an entrepreneur to the edge, constructive criticism gently nudges the entrepreneur to do that which they may dread, or are putting off. 

An experienced coach will be compassionate when offering constructive criticism. They will offer constructive criticism in such a manner and tone to not make the business owner feel like a failure; but that they can make better decisions to get better outcomes. 

10. Highlight “level-ups” to the business-owner

There are times when a business owner is so buried in work that they cannot see the great strides they have made. The growth and change in their business gets lost in the day-to-day operations. 

An effective business coach will make their client see the good things they are doing, and advise them that it is necessary to celebrate the wins, even if they are small. Sometimes, all it takes to pull a business owner from feeling down and out is to point out the great things they are doing.

How to get in contact with a coach?

Are you currently trying to build your business off of product launches and/or 1 high ticket product? Do you spend countless amounts of hours on social media, on discovery calls and in people’s DMs with little to no results?

Visit our coaching page here to learn how to get started with us.