Deciding to have a business coach for your small business is a step in the right direction. Your business maybe small, but it is still your baby and you want it to go in the right direction. The coach will guide you and help you to achieve your aims. But before you trust your business into the hands of another, you must know exactly what you are getting into. Study the small print, research well and make sure that all your queries have been answered before you put your faith in a coach.

The first thing you must look for in a business coach is his credentials. See if he has had proper training. There are a lot of people out there claiming to be experts in small business coaching, but on what do they base these claims? A good training is of great essence in this field, because only then they would have the right techniques to coach you. There are also federations like the International Coaching Federation, see if your coach is affiliated with it. This would indicate that he is known and accepted member of the coaching community and also that he keeps abreast with the techniques his cohorts apply and tries to be updated with the changes in the coaching community.

Select the business coach to suit the size of your organization. For this, look at their experience. Checking out the experience helps in two ways- 1. It serves as an indicator of whether the coach is all that he claims to be and 2. It gives you insight into the kind of firms he has experience dealing with. Notice that “small business” could mean a business that has nearly 100 employees and also a business that has less than half dozen employees, it could even be a business with just one entrepreneur running the entire show. Thus needs of each of these may vary.

Also enquire whether the business coach has business skills too. While a coach with only coaching skill can guide, a coach with business skill can advise on various other platforms too. Thus if you want to fine-tune time management, marketing etc, you can seek help from your coach. Such a coach would also be comfortable in the gray areas where business and coaching skill overlap. Taking the same thread ahead, it will also be helpful if the coach himself owns a small business. With combined expertise in both the fields, they can help you work towards your goals better.

Besides this, look at the over-all personality of the business coach. Does he come across as someone too eager to please? Does he come across as someone downright rude? Both these extremes could be detrimental to your business. The ideal would be somewhere in between. Before finalizing on a coach , discuss money. See if there are any additional offerings like books or CDs etc. Check to see the availability of the coach. Be clear about the money and time issues right from the start. Be sure that you find an experienced and dedicated person that meets all these criteria to make a success out of your business.

“Financial Freedom” the word means various things to various people. Some conjure up images of piles and piles of cash over which they rest blissfully while others daydream of the contented retired life, living in the countryside, fishing and enjoying nature with no worries whatsoever. When I think of financial freedom, I think of having enough money to meet all my needs and yet having enough saved up for a rainy day. I think of true freedom where I can face any finance-related crisis without having to seek anyone’s help.

No doubt all of us want financial freedom. None of us wants to spend the last days of our lives living on charity. We want to have enough for our future- we want to give our children a good life and provide them with proper education; we want to be able to live life today without worrying about not being able to meet sudden medical emergencies; we want the good clothes, the fancy rides and the appetizing food and yet we want enough stacked up for the future too. Financial freedom helps us obtain all this.

There are many ways to get rich and the Internet abounds in get-rich-quick schemes too. But making money is not only what is important, it also saving money and making good use of the money you get.

Be Willing to Save: This is step one to financial security. It does not matter whether you make money in hundreds or millions. But what matters is your willingness to keep a part of your income untouched. Do not spend all the money you get. Always keep a small portion of it or the future. You might feel that there are other, more important; things for which the money could be used right now, but always remember that the future is equally important.

Have a plan: Do not just go about your life without knowing what you are doing with it. Of course, not everything in life goes according to plan but it is important to have a rough plan for your life and see that you set financial goals for each stage of your life. If circumstances don’t let you meet the goals, be ready with a plan for the situation you find yourself in.

Budget: You need to save but you need to live your life too. A budget will help you balance the two. You can even afford to indulge yourself if you have a budget and stick to it.

Keep Debts to a Minimum: As far as possible, do not take loans, if you do take loans, be sure to repay them at the earliest. With no weight of debt on you shoulders, half your financial worries are reduced.

Remember that every penny you save brings you that much closer to financial freedom. You need not stop living life or become a scrooge to get there. All you have to do is have a little control over your expenses and keep an eye towards the future.

There are many new trends entering the business world. One of the most hyped among these is the business coach . Suddenly every business enterprise worth its name seems to have a business coach. Who exactly are these coaches? Do they truly serve any purpose? Let’s try to explore all this and more.

To put it simply, a business coach guides the owner of the business to improve the business. Let me try to make it simpler by comparing a business coach to any other coach – say, sports coach. A sports coach would try improving the sports person’s performance by motivation. He would point out the sports person’s positives and give tips to hone these positives. He will point out the competition’s weaknesses. He would help device strategies for victory. Business coaches are very similar. They would device plans to lead the company to success, they would help improve upon the company’s strengths and point out the weaknesses; they would compare the company’s merits vis-à-vis the opponents and thus ensure that the company progresses along the right path.

Business coaches need not necessarily cater to this wide spectrum of needs. There are coaches that help refine a certain area for the client – for example, public speaking. So if you were to ask me how important these coaches are, I would say they are pretty important. But this statement comes with a warning- it is essential to find a good coach or else you might not be able gain the full benefits of hiring one.

In my several years of experience, I have come across many self-proclaimed magic- makers who promise the moon and deliver nothing. If you are seeking a coach for your business, keep these suggestions in mind:

Do not go for a sycophant: If the business coach praises you to the skies and finds nothing negative about you – he is not there to guide you. He should motivate you, definitely, he should also applaud your achievements but he should also be equally willing to criticize when needed.

Steer clear of the name-dropper: If the coach keeps referring to one person or the other he worked for, it could indicate 2 things: 1. He likes to boast about the people he helped out or 2. He enjoys to gossip. Either way it is a bad sign and indicates lack of professionalism.

Know exactly what you want: Many coaches have many “additional packages” or services to offer you and will try to sell you services that are of no real value to you. They are just salesmen and not real coaches, so keep your distance!

Trust the professionals: A true business coach will draw a line between personal life and professional life and will not let his own personal life dictate his judgments in professional life. No matter how close he gets to you, he will keep the two separate. Besides this he will not try to direct your life or run your business for your. His role is only of the guru or guide and he will never forget this.

By
Shafi Farooqui Entrepreneur, Internet marketing Expert & Business Coach