How You Can Benefit From Coaching If You Are A Small Business Owner

The benefits of coaching are endless: it brings clarity, provides accountability, keeps you on track, helps you discover the right direction, etc. However, different segments of customers benefit from coaching in different ways, and there are naturally some specific benefits for small business owners or even "solopreneurs".

Firstly, let me say, I can easily relate to your struggles and challenges, having been a small business owner for over 6 years. Therefore, I am going to walk you through the aspects of coaching that can be specifically helpful to you and hopefully by the end of the article you will be convinced that hiring a coach is an investment well worth making.

1.) Whether you are a seasoned, successful business owner or a start up, one thing is for sure - throughout the process of running your business you will constantly be questioning your next steps and the decisions you need to make. Sure, you will probably discuss these with your family, friends, or even colleagues if you have any, but the truth is nobody will be able to give you the right answer better than a coach. Why? Because the coach will not give you any answer. The coach will make you think for yourself, to dig deep for the right answer which you have known all along; you just didn't trust yourself enough to take YOUR answer, as opposed to the answers you received from others, as the right one. Imagine how much time you waste by asking around, hesitating and deliberating. One laser-sharp coaching session on the subject will leave you clear and convinced about the best next step.

2.) I have already touched upon the issue of trust in the point above. Being able to trust yourself and have confidence in your business when things don´t look rosy is a very rare feature amongst small business owners, especially those who are new to this business group. One of the major objectives of any honest and experienced coach will be to help you operate from a place of self-belief, positivity and motivation. The coach will help you to approach each and every project from the perspective of "happy anticipation", meaning expecting a positive outcome rather than stressing over self-induced doubt and insecurity.

3.) When talking to various small business owners, I often hear the impact that their responsibility has on them. And it is overwhelming. Being a business owner is not for the faint hearted. The complexity of it all is never ending. There is the need to sell and generate the revenue. To achieve that, there are numerous (and not always successful) marketing and promotional efforts involved. There is the accounting, the networking, the admin, and a lot of interpersonal and team dynamics, if you have a team. Through it all, all you want to do is be as good a leader as you possibly can and put in place the vision that brought you originally to your business. And that is exactly where a coach fits in. He will always, I repeat always, be able to bring you back to your initial dream and enthusiasm.

She will help you to find the way through your numerous responsibilities and assist you in understanding what is important and what can wait or be delegated. Your coaching session will allow you to relax into who you really want to be while remaining accountable for all you want to achieve.

You can look at having a coach as like having a personal spring board where your opinions are heard, challenged but not diminished. You can also view it as a time when your intuition is allowed to flow and when no ideas are too crazy, too ambitious or flat out outrageous. During a coaching session, you are assisted and supported but not allowed to get away with excuses. And remember, a coach is a small business owner too, so he/she understands you really well.

Natalie Ekberg is an international Career Transition Coach and author. She coaches business professionals through turning points in their career, including the transition towards starting and running their own business.