Can Hiring a Business Coach Be The Difference?

Whether you’re just starting a business or you're well into your venture, the idea of hiring a business coach may have come to mind, but you may be wondering if a business coach can really make a difference for you. To answer this question, you need to understand what a business coach does, and how to choose the right one for you.

Business coaching provides a way to interact with a professional who has your best interests at heart. They can help you be more effective building your business and balancing your life. Business coaches are a good mixture of accountability partner, sounding board, motivator and even emotional support. The business coach specializes in ensuring that all aspects of your life work together with the ultimate focus on ensuring that your business is profiting.

Even the process of hiring a coach can be beneficial to your business. The coach will want to assess where you are right now with your business and find out where you want to go. An effective business coach will help you determine not just the direction you want your business to go, but will also identity actionable steps to take to achieve the goals you and your coach set.

* Accountability – Checking in with someone else on a regular basis to tell them and show them what you’ve accomplished since the last meeting will give you someone besides yourself to be accountable to. For many people this helps them act in their own best interests and not put off anything, since most people don’t want to disappoint others. 

* Sounding Board – Talking plans and proposals out with a third party who is also well versed in your type of business will help solidify each plan you make so that you’re not going down the wrong roads to start with.

* Motivator – Running a business is hard and some business coaches make excellent support systems and offer the right motivation. In this way, you not only have a good plan of action to make your dreams come true but also someone to share your success with as you accomplish each milestone.

* Emotional Support - Many business coaches understand how home life can affect your business. They can often help you deal with even personal matters when it comes to pushing your business forward. 

If you need help identifying holes in your business plan, ways to fill the gaps, and how to create an actionable plan to push your business forward, then a business coach can definitely make a difference. The trick is finding the right business coach for your particular business. 

In order to find the right coach for you that fits your business type and personality, ask the right questions of any potential coach. Plus, ask others for referrals before hiring any business coach. Finally, buy some of the coach’s products and services and try working on a short-term project with them first. Like a workshop or private session. This can help you ensure that they are the right coach to push your business to the next level.

One of the reasons to produce and share content that you've created is to become an authority in your niche. As an expert in your niche you will get a certain amount of respect, which leads to more traffic due to your perceived expertise. But, in order to become an expert you must start at the beginning.

Blog Often

Shoot for blogging on your own website at least twenty times per month. Blog about much focused topics, starting from a beginner's perspective and working your way up over the next year to a more advanced perspective. Also, guest blog strategically on websites that market to your audience. Blogging often is the best way to get traffic to your website.

Write Articles

Write and distribute articles about your niche on topics your audience would be interested in. Find online and offline magazines in which to contribute as an expert in your niche. If you submit a compelling article, it's likely your submissions will be used. Whether online or offline, this type of content helps establish you as an expert to the public.

Become a Resource

Let the local and national press know that you're a resource they can call on when they need a quote about your niche. You can do this in a variety of ways, such as sending email to reporters when they write about your niche, making blog comments, and using a service like HARO (Help a Reporter Out). HARO is a way that you can sign up to be a source to qualified reporters on any topic you choose. There are free and paid opportunities.

Set up Consistent Profiles

No matter whether it's Facebook, LinkedIn, or your blog, your profiles should be very consistent. You want to be very careful about contradicting who you are across accounts. Ensure that you essentially say the same thing on each social media account but in different ways based on the type of social media account. For instance, LinkedIn is more business and buttoned up, while Facebook is more social - more like an after-hours business event. Of course, be businesslike and professional on all accounts.

Send Out Press Releases

When you do something exciting in your business, whether it's publishing a book, having a webinar, or conducting an interview for a radio show or podcast, send out a press release. Press releases are a good way to get online back links to your website but they're also a good way to get in print. 

Form Partnerships with Other Experts

A really good way to get your name out there is to form a joint venture with another expert. Perhaps you know an expert who markets to your audience but performs or creates a complementary service or product. Seek to do something with that person such as a webinar, podcast show, or jointly write an informative eBook.

Finally, it's important to work on yourself and your knowledge of the area you want to become an expert in. Malcolm Gladwell, in his bestselling book, Outliers: The Story of Success, surmised that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert on any topic. Seek to keep learning as you become a true expert. You don't have to wait until you've spent 10,000 hours to start presenting yourself as an expert. If you start now, by the time you are truly recognized as an expert you'll be close.