Coaching is a major part of many entrepreneurs’ lives because it helps small businesses map their goals and objectives with direction. Many people may not understand the purpose of small business coaching, but the true value lies in the coach’s experience.
That’s right – we learn best from people who have already been through the experience of running a business and being successful at it. Business coaches for entrepreneurs are there to help you understand your pain points, create solutions to these issues, and absorb as much information and advice as possible from them.
It is quite common to see many entrepreneurs with excellent ideas and creative thoughts for their business, but they’re not eager to invest in themselves. These types of entrepreneurs have thoughts like, “I can take care of my own business” or “I don’t need a business coach near me to succeed.” But they couldn’t be more wrong. The first lesson in entrepreneurship is to acknowledge and realize that you need as much help as possible to avoid mistakes and run your business as smoothly as possible.
Remember that learning is an integral part of our lives, no matter where we come from or our occupations. It’s no different for entrepreneurs. This is where small business coaching comes in.
Business coaches have chosen a teaching path because they’re passionate about using their experiences to help others succeed in their organizations. But, like most things in the world, online business coach numbers are rising, and entrepreneurs have to choose one coach out of hundreds of options.
So, how does a business owner know how to choose the best small business coach for themselves?
Easy – you look for specific traits and qualities that a business coach has and then choose based on how many boxes they check.
In this article, we’ll share ten essential qualities a business coach should have to give entrepreneurs a collaborative and successful experience.
10 Indispensable Qualities Every Business Coach Should Have
1. Experience
Did you know that 1 in 6 entrepreneurs have turned to coaching in order to improve their performance? For some driven individuals and entrepreneurs, business coaching seems to be just what they need so they can generate greater achievements within their businesses.
With business coaching having such a positive impact on small business owners – it’s fair to say that their experience is the primary quality to look out for.
Having a small business coach who has paid their dues and can speak to entrepreneurs about real-life experiences is the most valuable thing. It allows coaches to use past experiences as examples when explaining concepts, solutions, and points of view.
You should ask yourself these three questions when trying to determine how experienced a business coach is:
1. How many years of business experience do they have?
2. What challenges have they faced, and how did they manage them?
3. What have they accomplished?
Another way to ensure your business coach is experienced is by asking for testimonials from previous and current clients. What former mentees say about the coach will give you a good insight into their experience, how understanding they are, and what type of mood and style you can expect from them in your sessions.
2. Mindset
Mindset is often a quality people overlook. But entrepreneurs should find a coach they share chemistry with. How do you find out if you’re a good match or not?
Entrepreneurs can conduct interviews with potential business coaches to find out a bit more about their background, processes, methodologies, and general take on coaching. Coaches may be asked questions such as:
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- How do you deal with a difficult situation?
- How do you deal with a client’s pain points?
- Share an example of a success story.
- Share an example of a challenging scenario with a client.
You may think these questions sound similar to employee interview questions, and you’re right. But by asking these questions, entrepreneurs can get a better understanding of how the business coach deals with scenarios. They can also get to see them in person or over a virtual meeting. This means prospective clients can watch the coach’s body language, analyze their tone and style, etc. All these “soft skills” are great ways to see if the coach is a good fit for the client or not.
If there’s no chemistry, the chances are that the sessions won’t be as successful as the coach would like them to be. As a small business coach, it’s important to be open, understanding, and willing to share your experience and values with prospects.
3. Attitude
It’s no secret that a good attitude comes with experience, patience, and time. An ideal business coach will have been through many experiences on their own and with clients. This means they’ve been through the good, the bad, and the ugly.
So, a coach’s attitude is a key trait. Think about this – even though coaches have been through some tough times, their attitude can’t be grim every day. They need to be welcoming to clients and have a warm attitude. Let’s take it to the next level – business coaches should even have a sense of humor now and then.
Light-heartedness helps clients understand that getting their business acumen right from day one isn’t always the most important thing. Sometimes it’s important not to get too upset and let coaches be a pillar of support through tougher challenges.
Remember that being patient, persistent, engaged, and fun is all part of giving entrepreneurs a well-rounded experience.
4. Trust
Being a business owner means being involved with everyone in the business – from investors to management and team members. It can be overwhelming when people from different areas look to the founder for advice and as a source of inspiration.
Truthfully, sometimes founders can’t confide in anyone in their own business. It sounds a bit over the top – but when people see them as a sense of motivation and drive to do better at work, showing team members a weak side isn’t always what an owner wants to do.
This is where small business coaching comes in. But it’s also a big step for entrepreneurs because they trust a coach with their thoughts, struggles, and biggest fears. And as we all know, once trust is broken, it can never be mended fully.
So, business coaches should be objective when dealing with clients and always show them that there is a circle of trust around each and every one of their sessions, phone calls, and other interactions.
5. Transparency
It’s a common notion that trust and transparency are one and the same quality. But they’re not. While they’re similar traits – they complement one another instead of replacing each other.
Transparency is all about being as open and honest with clients as possible. Honesty is, as well already know, the best policy. It may sound easy to do. But when you have new small business owners coming to you for advice, and you see them making the same mistakes that you or your previous clients have made in the past, you may have to be plainly honest with them from the get-go.
This may cause some friction early in the relationship, but getting over the bump early is good. It will help clients understand that coaching is about change and strengthening your bond earlier in the coaching timeline.
Small business coaches should realize that clients don’t know everything off the bat, but they should also be aware that one solution may not fit every scenario. In this light, it’s vital that coaches listen to their mentees and share early experiences to help find the best way forward for the entrepreneur.
Business coaches for entrepreneurs should aim to be relatable and completely honest with clients at all times.
6. Affinity
For entrepreneurs, it’s imperative that they actually “like” their business coach. You need to get along and feel the desire to converse and engage with each other. If clients find themselves having too many awkward silences with their coach, there won’t be too many brainstorming and solution-finding sessions.
Think about when you attend a session with a psychologist – you have to be able to feel comfortable with them before discussing situations and trying to solve them.
The same goes for business coaches. People want to feel comfortable and admire their coach because coaches should hold qualities that their clients want to emulate. This is relevant even if your goals vary. It’s a way of appreciating another’s viewpoint which may encourage adaptive thinking.
Business owners need to understand that coaches are hugely influential to their business and their life as a whole. Even though the conversation may be predominantly about business goals, objectives, and challenges, the learnings from coaching conversations can also be valid for life scenarios.
Trust and respect are earned as time develops with clients. The more time clients spend with their mentors. More personal and professional development happens because coaches ask the right questions and build on a mentee’s performance and development.
Affinity is all about having a client have their coach’s guidance in their minds even outside of their coaching meetings.
A coach’s presence should be felt in a client’s day-to-day life. That is how you can be sure a coach-client relationship is a solid one.
7. Personalization
Consumers feel more relatable to brands that send them personalized marketing collateral like emails. In fact, personalized emails have 29% higher open rates than non-personalized emails.
What does this have to do with business coaching? Well, coaching is about learning and people. Even though it’s not directly selling to a consumer – coaching does deal with influencing clients.
This is why personalizing each client’s experience is absolutely critical to your business coaching success. We know that no one client is the same as another – even if they’re identical twins, there would be differences. So, treat each client uniquely.
The treatment of clients can be different due to a number of things; their personalities, reactions to change, willingness to practice coaching exercises, etc.
Business coaches need to realize that each reaction and emotion should be analyzed and dealt with exclusively. This allows clients to feel like they’re getting “VIP” treatment and for coaches to feel they’re helping their clients progress in the best way possible. It’s a win-win situation.
8. Passion
Passion. The definition is “a strong emotion or feeling.” Small business coaches need to be passionate about what they do because if they’re not passionate, their clients won’t be either.
Being a small business coach also means that the coach will be working with many entrepreneurs and new business owners. The first five years of owning a business are the toughest, so that’s when coaches need to have the most patience and determination with their clients.
This can only be achieved if they’re passionate about what they do and how they do it. Coaching is all about long-term goal achievements, and business coaches should be there through thick and thin.
Coaches and entrepreneurs must be aware of this before they begin any coaching relationship.
9. Mentorship
You may have heard the term, “Mentor, don’t coach.” It’s a valid point.
Good mentors are eager to help others and teach them from the beginning. How business coaches choose to treat clients from the start of any interactions is an intelligent indicator to the mentee of how they will act over time.
The small things count here – how coaches react to a client’s responses, how good of a listener the coach is, how they handle difficult situations, and how they gel with their client.
Mentorship also means that your business coach is a seasoned entrepreneur with experience as a business owner and maybe even has experience in the same industry as the client. This allows the mentor to show clients the ropes and understand the playing field as much as any other business owner in the industry would.
Providing insight from a similar point of view can be indispensable to clients.
10. Accountability
The last trait is one that many people tend to forget about. But it’s such a decisive one. An excellent business coach shouldn’t speak to you for an hour and simply let you disappear into the daylight without wondering what you’ll do.
A great coach will want to hold you accountable because they care about your progress. Coaches should act as mentors and friends because they are there to guide you and help you if you need it.
Checking in on clients is part of the job, but it’s also part of the passion of being a coach. Mentors should bring out the best thinking in a client and be there to watch that client reap the rewards as time goes by.
Business coaching is a long-term process, but it can yield astounding results when the right coach-client matchup is found.
Putting it into Practice: How to Start a Coaching Business
These ten qualities are a helpful list to get you started on the right foot as a client looking for a business coach or a business coach looking to upskill and become a more advanced coach.
For coaches, the secret sauce is simple: You can become a credible coach and attract prospects to your services uniquely and successfully if you invest time in researching, finessing your coaching responsibilities, and crafting the right messaging to clients.
Want to learn more about how to start your online coaching business? Read our article on How to Become an Online Business Coach 2022.
Mastera: First-rate Online Business Coaching Software
Once you’re ready to ramp up your business coaching services, consider using valuable tools like Mastera to help you manage your business online.
Mastera is designed to empower coaches, instructors, and teachers to share their passion and help others using enhanced features. These features include live classes, video hosting, reporting and analytics, email and text marketing, and more.
We know that business coaching services are in demand, and we’re here to help make your job easier. Let us give you the time to help others while we take care of your daily operations.
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Co-Founder, Gleantap & Mastera