Small Business Coaches

Small business coaches have become a critical member of the business planning team. In the 21st Century we will see their role expand exponentially in importance, especially among the members of successful family owned companies.

Successful family owned companies, those whose decisions are often – probably too often, driven by non-business issues make up the vast majority of all companies.

Companies with less than 500 employees, 90% of the businesses across North America, are overwhelmingly family owned or privately held by people who, whether they are actually related or not, act like it.

Family feelings, mixed messages, long held grudges, lack of trust, envy, respect, grievances, love, and every other human emotion possible conspire to muddle otherwise straightforward business decisions. Someone has to help them sort it out. And not someone who is deemed to be, accurately or not, on the side of one group, person, faction, or another.

Business coaches, those not brought in by one group or another – each looking for an outsider to validate their position, do not have any baggage when they begin the engagement.

Depending on the reason they were hired and the degree of conflict, or misunderstanding, or disagreement – often business coaches have their  first meeting with all the principles together.

That first meeting is the time and place to clear the air. Everybody will end up knowing what everybody else knows and when the decision to hire the business coach is made – everybody will be on record.

Getting agreement on the way forward right from the start is vital if this is to be a successful engagement from either the coach’s or the business owner’s point of view.

Business coaches are not motivated to make a sale. This is important, but not in the way you probably expect. For some reason, maybe it’s their over-developed BS detectors working overtime, business owners think that their lawyer and accountant are just trying to create more work for themselves and run up their fee. Some feel that their insurance agent is motivated only to sell a policy and make a commission. Generally this is not true in either case.

Business owners often confuse the value of the advice, council, and professional insights with the way their advisors get paid. If you have a trusting relationship with a professional advisor, you really need to get over that. If you don’t have a trusting relationship with your advisors, get rid of them.

In any case, because business coaches are not selling anything, it’s one less thing for the business owner to concern themselves about. Successful well respected business coaches enter every engagement with the objective of working themselves out of a job. Ask your business coach what I mean by that and if they agree with that assessment or not. Typically they do not want to be part of your overhead forever – they want to help you by enhancing your ability, your capability to work things out for yourself.

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