FAQs

Running a business is a roller coaster. One day your day is productive, and things are looking great for your business, and the next, you feel like everything has been derailed and you are falling. Plenty of business owners go through this roller coaster, and many reach certain milestones during their business’s life when they say, “I’m not sure what to do next.”
Hiring a business coach will provide you with objective insights into how to run your business better, increase sales and improve your skills as a CEO. In this article, we’ll lay out five signs to indicate it might be time to hire a business coach.

1. You see no clear path forward.

This can apply to many aspects of your business. Do any of these cases sound like you?

• You are lost in terms of understanding your role as a CEO.
• You don’t know what your day-to-day tasks should be.
• The business’s direction changes multiple times over the course of several weeks.
• You don’t have a clear set of priorities or plans written down.

A business coach can help you establish your role and responsibilities as CEO. Writing out your responsibilities in conjunction with your business’ strategic goals can help you directly connect your activities with the outcome you’d like based on the goals. A business coach can also help you let go of the impulse to do everything in the company.

2. You’re overwhelmed.

A clear sign you’re overwhelmed is when you constantly wonder when the last time you had a vacation or went home on time was. If you’re feeling this way, you need to ask yourself the hard question of whether the tasks you do on a day-to-day basis are moving you towards your goal. More often than not, business owners find they’re spending too much time on activities that aren’t productive, even though they might seem productive in the moment.

Being overwhelmed can also lead to feelings that you cannot turn to anyone else in your organization for answers. You might also start only using your ideas even if you know in the back of your mind that someone else might have a better idea.

A business coach will objectively look at your daily tasks and how you do them. From there, they can list which tasks should be delegated and how you can effectively perform the tasks that need to stay under your purview.

3. You need more personal accountability.

Perhaps you’ve written down your goals for yourself and your business, but you just can’t seem to meet them. Before you think “these goals are too lofty,” you should ask yourself if you’re really pushing yourself to do everything you can to meet those goals.

Everyone knows it’s all too easy to break a promise to yourself.

Instead of calling upon a spouse or friend to keep you accountable to your business goals (and to risk damaging those relationships), you should enlist the help of a business coach to whom you will be accountable. A business coach will not only be your accountability buddy but will also be able to look at your tasks objectively and tell you where you’re losing time and effort.

4. You want to develop new skills.

Whether you have been commended for your natural leadership skills or know you lack confidence when it comes to your ability to lead a company, everyone can find ways to improve themselves. Having strong leadership skills at the helm of the company will only improve your company’s culture and success.

Leadership doesn’t have to be — and shouldn’t be — the only skill you want to develop as a business owner. To keep your business ahead of the curve, you might need to develop skills in negotiating, finance or a new technology.

When you’re looking for a business coach to help develop your new skills, doing your research will be important in finding the right match. If you’re working on soft skills, like leadership or negotiation, you will want to find a coach you’re comfortable opening up to and having a safe space with. When searching for a coach for a hard skill, like a new technology, you should ask for testimonials from the coach’s past clients to see how their skills improved with the help of that coach.

5. You’re in a rut.

Have you been feeling indecisive about growing your business? Even with having an ambitious entrepreneurial spirit, disrupting your operations can be a daunting decision that is difficult to make. Instead of falling into a rut, employing a business coach can give you guidance with brainstorming and implementing a strategic plan to successfully grow your business.

There is a saying that essentially states that nobody is smarter than everybody. With the help of an experienced business coach, you will gain new perspective and confidence in planning and executing strategies.

Conclusion

While there is no definitive answer for when to hire a business coach, a good benchmark for knowing its time is when you say, “I don’t know what to do next.” Just remember, every business owner is different, and everyone’s progression in owning a business is different.
Research by the International Coach Federation has shown that, of small business owners that have hired a business coach, 70% have seen increased work performance, 86% have seen a return on investment and an impressive 99% of entrepreneurs were happy that they made the decision to hire a business coach.

It is important to get help early and often because even superheroes don’t do it alone. Everyone needs collaboration and advice to conquer the world.

As an entrepreneur, you started off as a specialist: You had a great idea for a business, and you launched. As a newfound business owner, you’re now stuck with the job of the generalist. This can work for a while, but you’ll soon realize that you don’t have time to stay on top of all the things you need to do, or challenges too complex for your experience. You can continue to hack it, or you can get some help.

1. Strategy and planning

A coach will challenge you to think differently, stretching your goals. Sure, you have lofty expectations for your business, but to rebound your strategy off someone who’s walked this road before—pointing out pitfalls, areas you need to strengthen—this is invaluable. Someone with a unique, but proven, wherewithal for strategy will push you harder while also keeping your approach on course.

2. Technology

Technology is playing an ever-increasing role in small business, and it can be tough to keep up. Tech helps small businesses gain a competitive advantage by communicating better with their employees, customers and prospects; saving time and improving efficiency by automating their processes; and improving business performance through the use of business analytics. Coaches have the skills needed to successfully deploy new technology, manage integrations, and consult on the best options for your unique situation.

3. Management

Coaches and mentors help improve your management and leadership skills. As your business grows, your role will evolve into a greater and greater management capacity. Coaches will help you navigate difficult business problems and decisions, and will help set a foundation early on to be able to handle some of the big, inevitable, management storms that lie ahead.

4. Marketing advice

Especially in the early stages of a small business, the entire marketing strategy and effort falls on the shoulders of the business owner. Coaches can help you see what you’re not seeing. A seasoned business coach who has experience with branding, marketing strategy, and tactics can lift your sales numbers and keep you from spinning your wheels on what doesn’t work.

5. Grow the business

It doesn’t matter so much where you are now, as long as you’re clear on where you’re headed. A coach will help you address the areas of your business that need nurturing to ensure you stay on track to healthy growth. Perhaps the most important factor to staying on track is having someone to be accountable to. It’s easy to let yourself off the hook. A coach can serve as an accountability partner, helping you push through the challenges to meet your goal.

Bottom line: When you run out of time in a day to “learn while doing,” or when the margin of error for learning from your mistakes is gone, you look for expert help to provide guidance and work through complex problems quickly.

To be clear, coaching and mentoring is a two-way street. You get the most from it when you put the effort into the relationship. You still have to run your business, and you’re responsible for what happens.

As with every relationship, you can’t expect that there will always be a perfect fit. The small business owners interviewed for our report warned that not all coaches or mentors were effective or worth their fees. But they found that the Internet made it easier to find and vet qualified coaches who add value to their firms. These same businesses went on to say that good coaching was extremely valuable—indeed, was more than worth their investments in these areas.

The business environment continuously grows in complexity and at a rapid pace. Keep in mind that as your business moves through stages of growth, your key business challenges will inevitably change. Also recognize those new challenges will require changes in how you manage your business. If you want to stay competitive in the midst of growth and change, don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way.

When you engage with Molokini Consulting for coaching we have built a unique pod system which provides you with a dedicated business coach as well as access to specialists working with you across many areas of business, and personal mindset coaching. 

The best way to understand if I can afford a coach is to consider what you need a coach for? The Molokini program starts with a Discovery Session to assess where your immediate pain points are, and what needs to be corrected before big changes can be made to propel the business forward. This allows us to establish which program would suit you best. 

Ask yourself this question; can you afford not to have Molokini Consulting help you grow your business? 

Our Molokini Programs currently range in investment between $700 – $4000 per month (corporate programs excluded).  

Consulting provides specific services to a company for a period of time for a given result, the services are normally carried out by the consultant i.e.: a Consultant is engaged to provide the answers. 

Coaching is about guiding, directing and keeping business owners accountable to enhancing the performance of their business across all areas. i.e: A Coach is engaged to ask questions. 

Our company name is Molokini Consulting because we do both. We run a lot of training programs which are providing consulting, and we start a client coaching journey with consulting on processes to allow us to coach– confusing we know!