10 Things a Business and Marketing Coach Can Help You With
If you feel that you’re not making traction in your business, it could be because you don’t have the support you need to achieve and surpass your goals. All successful entrepreneurs, athletes, CEOs, and corporate professionals have someone they can turn to for coaching and advice. If you don’t have a business coach you can turn to for support and guidance, keep reading.
What is a Business and Marketing Coach?
Most often, when you hear the word coach, your first experience takes you back to your childhood days, when you had either an athletic coach, tutor, or musical coach, growing up. A teacher, mentor, guiding you, cheering you on, motivating you until you reached your goals and crossed the finish line. The goal is always to win, to succeed, to be the best version of yourself. To learn all you can to achieve success in that sport or discipline.
A coach represents someone who is a leader, trained to counsel, mentor, and instruct. Whether it’s in sports, academics, music, or business, it’s someone whose mission is to lead you to victory and take you to the next level.
If you’re like me, you have experienced some form of coaching at one point in your life, and you can probably recall those life-changing moments. Moments when you have crossed that finish line, surpassed all expectations you had for yourself, as well as those your coach had for you. Can you remember how you felt when you were coached so well that you won the match, mastered that instrument, or aced that exam?
You need a business coach to help you succeed in entrepreneurship. Let’s cover ten things a business coach can help you with.
1. Defining Your Business Goals
A business coach is a person you hire to assist you in defining business goals and work with you to help you identify things that might be standing in your way. This includes defining your business strategy and S.M.A.R.T goals and the tactics needed to achieve these goals.
A business coach isn’t financially connected to your success or failure. The best coaches know the game better than the players. They know the pain points, understand your industry, and have experience. And they have a good understanding of what business goals you should shoot for and the path to achieve or surpass these goals.
2. Mastering Your Mindset
Business coaches help guide you, instruct you, and coach you on your journey. They present you with self-reflecting questions administered to tap into the mindset blocks holding you back. We all have those self-reflective times of doubt. Perhaps it was a launch that was a complete flop or an account that you lost to a competitor.
Let me ask you a question. Whenever something doesn’t work or go the way you had hoped it to go in your business, are you a warrior who keeps on fighting, win or lose, always willing to get up and battle again? Your business coach can help you keep pushing forward.
Are you that person that plays the highlights repeatedly in your mind, creating incredible anxiety and self-doubt? Do you blame the business climate, the economy, a client, or other factors deflecting any responsibility? It’s what I like to call the should have, could have, would have scenario. It’s healthy to reflect, but it’s not healthy to obsess.
Business coaches can change your thinking. They provide an unbiased view into all the facets of your business, helping you strategize how to fill in the gaps. They can look at you professionally and personally and evaluate what changes you need to make to refocus and get your business where you want it to be.
3. Redefine Your Mission Statement and Your Why
A mission statement is your company’s purpose. It identifies the goals of your operation. It’s your announcement to the world on why you are in business, what you do and how you intend to do it. It’s usually between two to four sentences and less than 100 words. Maybe you’re thinking, “my mission statement is fine; it’s just the way I want it.” Perhaps that might be true, but a business coach can point out where it might not be aligned with other aspects of your company.
A business coach can help you reflect on your why. People don’t buy what you’re selling; they buy why you’re doing it. Why are you in business in the first place? As a business owner, I know that sometimes we get so busy and used to how we do things that we forget the overall big picture, the “why.” It could be that your answer might be, “well, I’ve always done it that way, and it works.” However, as your business grows, things change, processes are added or changed, and sometimes it’s as simple as going back to the “why.”
4. Elevate Your Leadership Skills
Are you an effective leader? Do your leadership skills create a positive environment for both your employees and clients? What are your strengths as a leader? What are your weaknesses? If you’re a solopreneur, who’s providing you feedback on how effective you are as a leader? How do you measure this aspect of yourself?
You may think, I’m not a leader; I’m just a solopreneur. Every entrepreneur is a leader, whether you have employees or contractors working for you. You’re leading your customers and audience, and this takes effective leadership skills.
5. Reflect on Where You’ve Been and Where You’re Going
They help you evaluate your past business experience. Your coach will push you to consider what has worked, what is no longer working, and the steps you need to take to reach your goals. They help define where you are going, where you want to go, and how to help you get there. But let me be clear when I say help. You are not hiring them to make it happen; you are hiring them to help you outline all the things required for you to reach those goals.
6. Tap into the Intuitive Process
Are you making decisions on aspects of your business because it worked in the past? Do you trust your intuition? Are you listening to your confident inner voice or relying entirely on what others are saying and doing? A coach will help you get back to trusting your instincts.
You have obtained a level of success. You think it’s too expensive, and why would someone else know better how to manage your business and help you grow? Because sometimes, we all get in our way. That’s right; we stand in the way of our success. Having someone with an outside view looking in provides you with a fresh perspective and point of view. They see things you can’t possibly see.
7. Provide Guidance on Best Marketing Practices
It’s hard to keep up with all the marketing trends and changes in the industry. A business and marketing coach specializing in online marketing can help guide you on the best ways to attract leads into your business and convert them to paying customers. It’s essential to find a coach who specializes in what you’re trying to achieve.
For example, if one of your business goals is to scale your business with digital products like online courses or memberships, find a knowledgeable coach in this field.
8. Help With Critical Business Decisions
A business and marketing coach can function as your business best friend. When you need to run something by them or get feedback on a new product idea or price your products and services, your coach can help guide you on the factors to consider to avoid mistakes along the way.
Because questions arise almost daily, consider hiring a coach who’s available for quick, let me run this by you, type discussions. This can be coaching via text or a Voxer type system where you can exchange voice mails.
9. Provide Accountability
A business coach can be your accountability partner to help keep you on track with your business goals. You can meet with them monthly or bi-monthly for a quick touch base to cover what you’ve accomplished and where you may be stuck.
Consider hiring a coach who has a formal process for client accountability. This can be a monthly business plan review or a monthly face-to-face Zoom call where you can interact in real-time.
10. Suggest Personal and Professional Developmental Needs
Lastly, a good business coach will point you to resources, books, and training to help with your development, whether personal or professional. They’re able to quickly identify areas where you may need to brush up on skills, whether this is hard or soft skills.
A business coach will ask the right questions and often help you find the answers that might surprise you. They don’t sugarcoat things. Be prepared. You might not get the answers you expected, but a good business coach will be straightforward and not hold back.
Sometimes, telling you things you might not want to hear, so it’s important to let your ego go. They are not working for you to stroke your ego; they are working for you to get results.
In summary, your business and marketing coach:
Offers an unbiased viewpoint
Assists in changing the trajectory of your business
Helps fill the gaps of knowledge
Addresses habits and behaviors that might be getting in your way
Holds you accountable
Serves as your compass to help you navigate through challenges
Keeps you on track
Is not afraid to challenge you
Is a confidante
Increases your self-confidence
Makes you more money
Increases your networking reach
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