I wish I had a coach help me when I first started my business back in the early 1990′s. The pot holes I got tripped up in wouldn’t have been so deep nor would the learning curve have been so steep, if I had someone on the sidelines giving me point on advice on how to best run my event planning business (as well as the other things I had going on on the side). In looking back, I didn’t know these kind of coaches existed quite frankly, and I probably would have thought, “What can someone teach me that I don’t already know?” Or even better: “Why would they want to??” I was a pretty self assured business person and out to conquer the world. And then reality set in.

Just like Tiger Woods has a golf coach and Bill Gates’ uses a mentor (yes, he has one…), the best and brightest have come to realize that if they want to be the best both personally and professionally as well as maximize their potential, they can’t do it alone. Outside, objective guidance from experts who have paved the way, are singularly able to give insight and guidance that can make the difference between winning The Masters or making $50 billion dollars by the age of 50. Need I say more?

I have found that many small business owners and boards of directors of large companies alike, believe that a business coach or consultant is called in only when the organization is going through extraordinarily difficult times and things need to immediately change in order to stave off serious financial conundrums. But if you think about it, why would you wait until then? If there aren’t processes in place and the proper checks and balances instituted, there is no reason that smooth transitions from one fiscal year to the next will take place.

With that in mind, business coaches assist in:

1. Creating strategies aimed at generating new business
2. Creating processes for job costing analysis and profit potential
3. Increasing business productivity
4. Maintaining effective leadership skills
5. Reaching business goals
6. Acting as unbiased and objective sounding boards

The fastest growing companies have learned that the best time to bring in a coach would be when things are going well. For, it is during these “high” times that a business will expand by hiring new employees, setting up new product lines or divisions and producing new methodologies that will tax even the most seasoned corporate executive no less the a new small business owner. A business coach provides an objective voice with insight and experiences from outside the hiring organization. This person will be able to sit down with the solopreneur or a division of 100 to set out and identify achievable business goals that can be closely monitored and if need be, revamped quickly. At the same time, individual strengths and weaknesses can be assessed and action plans can be implemented based on this information. Note that in 99% of the time it is not the coaches m.o. to hire, fire and slash, but to assist in creating profit growing strategies thus expanding your business to its full potential which includes everything from looking time management issues to what computer applications are in use.

If there are still some doubters out there, let’s expand the community of people who use coaches to include professional athletes such as Tiger Woods, Serena Williams and Eli Manning. These are three of the most accomplished athletes in their sports. You would think that they know everything there is to know about what they do and don’t need any help. Well, you would be incorrect. Like a business trying to grow, each of these superstars strive to get better and smarter against the growing competition that crops up year after year. They know full well that there are techniques taught by others that will help them in their quest for greatness. That is why each of them and most professional athletes, hire coaches to make the stronger, more focused with the attention that only an unbiased eye can give.