How to become a Business Coach

A business coach works with business owners and CEOs to reach their goals. They help business owners with motivation and hold them accountable when assessing their progress in weekly or monthly meetings. Business coaches must have a keen understanding of the workings of businesses and be great inspirational speakers.

Business coaches work with CEOs or business owners to help them improve their mindset and work towards their business goals. Business coaches will dive deep into an individual business and its present status, and work out actionable steps to how they can get to their ideal future.

Business coaches are hugely beneficial to business owners; Eric Schmidt, the ex-Google CEO, has said that hiring a business coach was the best work decision that he ever made. They are so effective because they look at a business from an outside perspective and provide personalised assistance with goal setting and motivation from their expert standing. As an increasing number of people are becoming business owners, there has never been a better time to become a business coach.

Business coaching differs from mentoring; mentors have more of an advisory role whereas business coaches focus on goal setting and mindset when growing businesses. Coaches use key performance metrics (KPIs) that track a business owner’s goals and how they are reaching them; they thus hold the owner accountable for how their business is progressing.

The main duties of a business coach include:

• Meeting with clients and reviewing their business vision in detail.
• Learning everything that they need to know about the specific business that they are working with so they can offer tailor-made advice.
• Working with clients to understand their personal life and how their business goals will benefit them in all areas of life.
• Setting actionable goals for their business, which are always personalised to the individual company.
• Keeping in contact with clients and meeting with them according to a fixed schedule, to re-evaluate their needs and goals.

The first step to becoming a business coach is having an expert understanding of how businesses work. Therefore, a degree in business or management is suitable for someone who is looking to progress in this career; however, it is entirely possible to gain business management skills vocationally. Much more important than a degree is first-hand experience with running a business. Typically, business coaches are entrepreneurs or previous CEOs.

Prospective business coaches will then re-train for their new profession and get a business coaching certification. While obtaining this qualification, they will study fields such as business, professional development, and psychology.

As well as experience and knowledge, business coaches need to be positive people with a ‘can-do’ attitude and a motivational mindset that empowers the people that they work with.

They also need to be good marketers; often they will have to show their customers why they need a business coach and how hiring them can offer a fantastic return on investment. Many business coaches are self-employed.