Can Business Coaching Really Bring Anything of Value to My Small Business?

Written by admin on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

This article brings up and attempts to answer a very important question…. Is business coaching really an investment or an expense? Investments add value, expenses don’t. My take is that it depends upon your mindset…. much more so than what you might feel comfortable with. If you are addicted to certain things, like the need to be needed, or the need for control, then no amount of coaching will get you to do it differently if these needs aren’t addressed. Read on for more about how business coaching can bring value to your small business (or not)

Business coaching is what I’ve done for over two decades now and I still run into the same basic issues. Owners start a business because they’re good at the technical part of the business and assume that they can therefore start and successfully run their own business. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is a typical story of business owners I’ve worked with over the past two decades. If you’re a small business owner struggling with the same issues, you may want to stop and get help.

Maybe they were a framer, electrician, plumber or finished contractor. They had the misconception that the owner they worked for was making a lot of money off of their hard work. They figured that they could start their own business and make all of that money on their own.

In many cases they start the business over the kitchen table, often with their families support, not having a clue with what they just stepped into. They may have a vision of having a lot of time off to spend with the family or making a lot more money that their boss makes now. This would have been the ideal time for a business coaching session.

They may not have a clear vision of what they want the business to look like or how they will build it or run it. All they really thought about was getting out on their own where they call the shots and sign their own paychecks. They often end up signing a lot of checks, but they can’t always sign one for themselves. There may not be enough money to go around.

As the business grows they realize they need to move off the kitchen table into an office. They realize that they need help with the office and maybe their wife is now too busy with the kids so they hire an office manager. They may get too busy to keep up with their finances so they hire someone to do that as well.

As time goes on they are so buried in the day to day activities and demands of the business that things begin to slide. The stress level in the business is climbing. They keep making excuses to their family and their staff and promise that things will get better as soon as this one project gets completed. They have too much on their plate, but are too close to the forest to see the trees.

Things may continue to move forward with too much work and too much stress and all of a sudden the office manager leaves due to the stress. Now the owner realizes that he doesn’t have a clue of what she was doing or how to do it. He goes into the office to try to see what she was doing and finds a lot of paperwork that he doesn’t have a clue about. The business is out of control and headed for disaster unless he does something to turn things around, but what?

It’s time to get some help, and soon. It’s time to find someone that has enough experience to help put the pieces back together. That’s where business coaching can play a major role in helping an owner pull things back together and re-create the business the way it should have been.

Coaching brings objectivity to the business and gives the owner a different perspective. A good business coach can help the owner create a vision for the business and create systems that will allow the owner begin to work ON the business instead of IN the business. Most owners are technicians, not true entrepreneurs and soon discover that they have not created a business at all, but have created a job for themselves.

The key is to be very careful in selecting a business coach. Check around with people you know who may have used a coach or consultant. Make sure you ask for references. For more information on this subject, I invite you to go to my website.

I would like to invite you to check out my blog, http://www.businesscoachblogsite.com This is a blog that is dedicated to the business owner and will offer small business tools and tips that can help business owners have a successful business without giving up their personal or family life.

My name is John C. Bergman and I have been consulting for small to medium sized businesses for over two decades.