Business coaches are a great tool for any business but picking the right coach can be quite a daunting experience. Are you wondering what type of business coaching packages are available? Or what might be included in a typical business coaching package? Well, us kind folks at MaxMyProfit have good news for you! In this article, we will run through Seven things that you should expect from your business coach.
Before we dive straight into these Seven aspects, let’s have a quick chat about gyms. Why gyms? If you’ve ever joined a gym you will know that there are two paths that you can go down. No matter what path you take you’ll have to put the effort in to get the results. Ok, so the first path relies on you to do all the work, you have to figure out what to eat, what equipment to use, when to use it, why to use it and how long to use it for. You can pop into the gym any time you like but it’s up to you to figure out what you are doing. Now the second option that you have is to go out and get yourself a personal trainer. With a personal trainer, you still have access to all the equipment and you still have to do the exercise to get the results. But now you have someone that can help you understand when and how to use the equipment to get the best results. They can give insight into diet and tweak and track your progress along the way.
When you think about it, business coaching is quite similar. You can be in a group environment where you self-serve. You might have access to various tools and resources which you can use when you want but you have to work out when and how to use them. Another option is to get yourself a one-to-one business coach that can guide you, help put your plan together and help you to tweak it along the way.
So, as you can see there are two options, group coaching or one-to-one coaching. Here at MaxMyProfit, we believe that people who opt for a one-to-one coach typically get better results. This is because most of us know what we should be doing, but we don’t necessarily have the discipline to carry it out by ourselves. With that being said, let’s have a look at what seven things you should expect from a business coach.
Group Sessions
The first thing that you may expect from a programme is Group Sessions or Group Coaching. Group Coaching is a great placed to start, especially if you have a small business that can’t afford one-to-one help. Now, the only thing is Group Coaching can actually turn out to be the more expensive type. This is because the group can only move as fast as its slowest participant. Some people just don’t move as quickly, they may not adapt as fast as you do. There will always be someone slower than you in the group, and this is the main downside to group coaching.
This can be overcome by ensuring your group is like-minded to ensure you can move at a similar pace. Or move to a different group as you progress.
Group coaching also has its upsides. Think about it, you are in a group of like minded entrepreneurs that are all on a similar journey. You can feed off each other or you might even get ideas from each other. There is also a lot of accountability for buddy coaching and its positive impacts. So, you might find a group aspect included in many coaching programmes.
One-To-One Coaching
Most programmes will include group coaching as one option and one-to-one coaching as the other option. What we have found is that most people prefer to work one-on-one with a business coach. With a one-to-one coach, you meet with that person either weekly, fortnightly, or monthly and review a plan that you put together in the beginning. For example, you might review plans and KPIs ad talk strategy on how you can take your business to the next level.
Another great thing about having a one-to-one coach is that you have someone to call or email when you need some advice. You can get an outsider’s perspective on things; they might see things that you might not necessarily see as your in the business every day.
Planning
Whether its group coaching or one-to-one coaching, planning is a huge part of any coaching programme most coaches will have some sort of 90-day plan or planning mechanism. This allows you to sit down every quarter and focus in on what you want to do over the next 90 days. You can implement a highly focused plan that will get you results. If you’re looking at business coaching programmes, make sure to ask if they have some sort of planning tool or. You need to ask these questions because the reality is if your business coach doesn’t sit down with you and create these plans, then they aren’t going to know what it is you’re meant to be working on. And this means that they won’t be able to help you achieve your goals as quickly as you should.
Tools
As you go through your business coaching journey, you will have to do things in your business to ensure that you get results. You will have to implement different strategies. A really good coaching programme will give you the right tools to make that really easy. for example, if you need a cash-flow forecast, a good programme will give you the tools to generate your forecast quickly rather than you having to learn how to do it from scratch. You might need a recruitment system or some sort of checklist that helps you to work out what to systemise in your business. Whatever it may be, a good coaching programme will give you access to tools that will help you get things done easily and efficiently, saving you both time and money.
Templates
In addition to tools, business coaching programs should also offer templates. Many things that happen in one specific business can and will eventually happen in almost every business. it doesn’t matter what type of industry you’re in, you will find that there are a lot of similarities across every single business. This could be something as simple as an incoming phone call script or even a blog post template. It could be a Facebook Ads Template or a LinkedIn profile template.
These are all things that can be made into templates, the only thing that you have to change are the names and a few words here and there. This will give you something that is highly effective in your business. Any good coaching programme should have good templates on offer.
Community
We spoke about group coaching at the beginning of this article. One of the benefits of group coaching was the fact that you are in a group of likeminded individuals or a community. Any good coaching programme will have some form of community involving all the clients that the business or organisation is working with. The more clients they have, the bigger and better the community is going to be. It’s likely that there will be clients that you can network with, create strategic alliances with and relate with. This community can be an online community like a Facebook Group or a private group on some form of online software. But it is also very good to get offline groups as well.
This was a difficult task in 2020 with COVID and the madness that it brought. But in 2021 in Australia, there is an opportunity for us to start meeting dace to face again. You definitely want to look for a programme that has some sort of community as an aspect of it. We have seen many of our clients get great results from the relationships that they have built at our live events. A community is a vital aspect that should be included in any coaching program that you are considering.
Training
Let’s imagine you decide that you want to learn how to play the guitar. So you go out and find yourself a teacher, but this teacher only gives you a few words of wisdom, a few sheets and a tuner. They never showed you the basics or gave you any tips. They never gave you any actual training! You wouldn’t expect to come out too successful as a player after this would you? Without proper training, you won’t get to where you want to be as quickly as you should. A good coaching programme will have a training element to it. this could either be online training, one-to-one training, or group training, who knows? If you’re looking for a program that’s going to give you everything you need, then training is a huge part of that as well. You need to learn the new skills that are required to build an amazing business.
So, there you have it, 7 things that should be included in every business coaching program. If you’re thinking about getting a business coach it’s very important that you understand what is included in the program and how it is going to benefit you. You must ask the questions, find out what the program offers you and what it entails. Here at MaxMyProfit, these 7 things are part of our coaching program. They’re all included in our business coaching programs and every single aspect of that adds value to different people in different ways. We’re all individuals after all.
You may not access everything…maybe you’re not interested in being in the community, you might not like groups. That is totally fine, but at least you know everything is available to you if you need it. So if you’re looking for a business coaching program, we highly recommend that you at least have a chat with us and see if there is something that we can help you with. Because we’re all about helping you build the business that you imagined!
About the Author
Ben Fewtrell is a sought-after Business Coach, Keynote Speaker and trainer who has featured in Virgin’s Inflight Magazine and Entertainment Portal, SKY Business and “Secrets of Top Business Builders Exposed”. He is also the host of the popular Business Brain Food Podcast where he interviews leading experts on anything and everything business.
