Business woman uses her laptop to attend a small business coaching session.

What is Small Business Coaching?

June 28, 2022

Bob Lobos

What is a Small Business Coach? – How Small Business Coaching Helps You

Whether you run a small, local, or large national company, the importance and benefits of hiring a business coach cannot be overlooked. Running a business can be stressful, and when you have responsibilities piling up, you can forget to maintain the critical operations of your business.

If you are a small business owner, this is where a small business coach would come into the picture. But what is a small business coach? How exactly does small business coaching benefit your organization? How do they differ from business consultants?

If you are looking into small business coaching for your organization, Wolf Creek Business Growth Institute has business coaches that can provide expert insight and actionable advice for business growth. Improve productivity and profitability today when you call 225-219-8866 and schedule a consultation with us!

[Related: What Are the Next Steps in Growing My Business?]

What is a Small Business Coach & What Do They Do?

When determining whether you need small business coaching, it is important to understand what coaches do to avoid confusing them with a consultant. A business consultant tells a business owner how to proceed with their organization. A coach guides a business owner and improves their leadership, so the owner can provide the solutions for their business and accomplish them.

A consultant provides the answers for the owner or executive, while a small business coach does not give all the answers because they believe the owner has them somewhere deep in their subconscious. Small business coaching helps owners discover their own talents and desired outcomes by directing them to that result.

What to Look for in a Small Business Coach

The first thing you want to look for in a coach is someone willing to listen to you. They have to work closely with you to understand your business inside and out. If you do not have a coach willing to listen to how your organization operates and your ideas, thoughts, and concerns, they are not the right fit for you.

They are a good coach if they ask challenging questions about your business after you start small business coaching. A good business coach will look at what is possible, prepare you for what could happen, and provide creative and innovative solutions. Essentially, good small business coaching should open your mind and thought process to new ideas.

You want small business coaching to push you out of your comfort zone and to ask yourself questions like:

  • Am I aiming for the right goals and objectives?
  • Are my staff members suitable for my business and workplace culture?
  • Have I lost the vision?

Since your Wolf Creek BGI coach will be challenging you, you have to remind yourself to be comfortable with receiving helpful critical feedback. You also have to be open to being held accountable for your actions. Small business coaching is a two-way street. Some owners are not comfortable with being challenged and are unwilling to be open to following the design crafted by a coach. Healthy disagreements are necessary, but you must be prepared to have yourself and your business under a microscope.

It should go without saying that a good small business coach should know the principles of a small business. They don’t necessarily have to be familiar with your industry, but they should know what makes a small business successful, such as excellent customer service, a defined brand, strict fiscal discipline, etc.

The small business coaches at Wolf Creek BGI will help you feel comfortable with coaching while providing valuable industry insight. Contact our small business coaches today if you need small business coaching.

[Related: Picking the Best Business Coach]

The Benefits of Small Business Coaching

The main goal and benefit of small business coaching are to improve productivity and profitability. A small business coach wants to look at those areas where your business is struggling or underperforming and bring solutions to solve the issues.

For example, if your company has a high turnover rate and you cannot keep good people around, it is the coach’s job to analyze and craft a strategy to improve employee retention. A small business coach can also help you look at buying habits, expense items, employee overtime pay, and more to increase profitability for your organization.

Another benefit of small business coaching is getting help with challenges involving team members. If you have any issues with accountability or decreased productivity, a coach can provide different solutions, such as introducing a plan to make accountability a core value in your business or reallocating staff members to different roles.

Small business coaching can also help business owners define their business’s purpose, or the “why.” Your business’s why informs every owner’s decision, such as employee engagement, customer service, fueling the bottom line, and more. If a business owner does not have a clear why or purpose, or if they need to redefine it, it can halt or damage progress and growth.

[Related: How to Make Personal Accountability a Core Value]

You can benefit from small business coaching if you need help engaging your team or finding your business’s purpose. Coaching can even help with redefining your purpose. Wolf Creek BGI has coaches that can analyze your business to start tackling your challenges from different angles. Start increasing productivity and profitability when you call our experts at 225-219-8866 today.