Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a Business Coach?
Why is business coaching growing at a phenomenal rate in the United States and international markets?
In three words: RESULTS….RESULTS….RESULTS. With coaching, business owners have achieved significant growth in sales, revenue, business value, employee satisfaction and a tremendous improvement in their quality of life.
As the business markets have become more and more competitive, highly profitable corporations, highly effective executives, highly successful athletes, government officials, career seekers, and many others have found coaching to be their catalyst to achieving desired goals and attaining higher levels of performance. Business Owners are deploying the same secret weapon used by the mega organizations – Business Coaching.
Business coaches have been compared to personal trainers for your life, your champion, cheerleader, advocate, partner, mentor and sounding board. Coaches have helped untold numbers of individuals like you get their businesses on track and live their passions.
Coaching is a rapidly growing profession with its roots in personal effectiveness. Business coaching is a much newer phenomenon. A good business coach has:
- A successful and dynamic business background
- Has been extensively trained in all areas of business
- Has an assortment of tools to help you with your business challenges, all in addition to the traditional coach training.
How do I select a qualified business coach?
A VAST majority of coaches that you may meet are trained as personal coaches. While they may be fine personal coaches, this does NOT make them good business coaches.
Don’t be fooled! The typical response from a personal coach who is posing as a legitimate business coach is this: “All of your business problems are personal or emotional problems. If you just do what you know you should be doing, you will improve your business.” Unfortunately, that’s not true! Simply because you own a business does not mean that you are an expert on all aspects of marketing, sales, customer service, financial management, human resources, systems design, information technology, management and leadership. A REAL business coach will help you fill in the gaps. Simply making you, only, more personally effective won’t!
If you are interviewing coaches, simply ask them:
• What resources are available to help me with my business challenges?
• How will you help me in marketing?
• How will you help me increase my sales successes?
• How will you help me improve my customer service?
• How will you help me hire and train my employees better?
• How will you help me motivate my staff more effectively?
• What programs do you have to help me systemize my business so that I can work less?
• Where were you trained to be a business coach?
• How often do you get additional business training?
How can a good business coach help me improve my business?
You probably use some advisors now. You probably have an accountant, a lawyer, a banker, financial planner, project consultants and perhaps even a family member that you share your challenges with. These other advisors help you in many important areas, such as compliance with tax laws and financial statements, compliance with employee and health and safety laws, and all of the other legal things that are simply a pain to deal with… But the frustration, boredom, anxiety, and pressure is still there. Sure – there are good times, but you probably still think about the business constantly – even when you get time to take a vacation!
So…who helps you with all of the other MORE important areas such as:
• identifying more prospects
• getting more customers
• serving them better so they come back
• improving your revenue
• controlling your expenses
• maximizing your profits
• hiring and training great employees
• systemizing your business so that you don’t have to be everywhere…?
For most business owners more than likely the answer has been NO ONE up to this point! Small and medium-size businesses are failing every day.
What results can I expect working with ThistleSea Business Coach?
As a trusted advisor, your ThistleSea business coach stays with you to coach, advise and mentor you to reach your desired outcomes for your business. Your ThistleSea business coach is that trusted advisor to assist you to deliver positive results for your business and to improve your life.
A ThistleSea business coach will help you make your business better. Your ThistleSea coach will help you become the business owner that you know you can be. Your ThistleSea coach understands the relationship between marketing, sales, customer service, leadership, human resources, systemization, controlling costs, and financial management so they can help you build a better business. A ThistleSea business coach has access to hundreds of tools that you will use to defeat all your challenges.
Why does good coaching always work?
Coaching works for many reasons. The synergy between the coach and business owner creates a certain momentum and in many cases this one plus one can truly equal three, four or more in results.
As the business owner learns new skills, measures the results, gains more information to accurately set goals, ones that naturally pull the business owner toward the goal rather than goals that require the client to push themselves to the goal. A clear and authentic understanding of the current realities is revealed. All of this translates into more success for the business owner while improving the value of the business.
What is expected of me as the Business Owner?
Business owners qualify for coaching if they desire to make their business more successful, engage in an open and honest relationship with the business coach, are willing to put 4 to 6 hours of work each week working on their business, make all scheduled coaching meetings and put their action plan into play in their business.
What type of return on investment should I expect?
An investment in a relationship with a ThistleSea business coach will provide you the opportunity for an unparalleled return. With the annual cost typically less than a clerical associate employee, in case study after case study, it has been proven that coaching provided ample return on investment. Studies show from 500% ROI to 1000% ROI for the executives and businesses that are being coached!
In addition, the coaching process requires the investment of time by the business owner, typically one hour a week meeting via phone or face-to-face with the ThistleSea business coach and 2 to 4 hours each week working on practical homework. This time spent working ON the business instead of IN the business pays huge dividends.
How much does coaching cost?
In most cases – nothing! In fact, you should be able to make more than enough in the growth of your company to pay for the coaching. And, the results last for years after the coaching process has ended. It’s the greatest investment that you will ever make!
But if that’s not a good enough answer, we’ll tell you this: It would cost you more to hire a receptionist to answer your phones for a year than it will cost you to hire a coach. Think about that.
One important question Business Owners need to consider, is the cost of not getting started more painful than making an investment for a far greater return?