If you love helping other people succeed, then being a business coach could be the perfect vocation for you. You can become a full time business coach, or you could also take on a handful of coaching clients on the side while you continue to work on other business projects.
What Kind of Background Do You Need?
You need a background in whatever kind of business projects you want to be coaching in.
For example, if you wanted to be a communications and team development coach, you’d need to have significant corporate experience or communications experience in other fields.
On the other hand, if you want to be coaching startup entrepreneurs, experience in corporate communication probably won’t translate over. Instead, you’ll want to have experience actually starting your own successful companies.
In other words, in order to be a business coach you should have background and proficiency in one or more areas of business. You don’t need to be an expert on everything, but you should be a clear expert on one thing.
That thing you’re good at should also be in the same field that your target market is in. This will both help you be a good coach, as well as give you inherent credibility.
What Will You Be Doing Day to Day?
It depends on the size of the company you’re working with.
For smaller companies, you’ll usually be working directly with the CEO, COO or president of the company. You’ll be consulting them on how to run their business in whatever your area of expertise is.
If you’re working with larger companies, you’ll often be coaching in teams. For example, you might be brought in to resolve conflicts between the sales staff and the engineering staff. Or you might need to help the chief engineer figure out why people are spending so much time around the water cooler.
With larger companies, you’ll also often be consulting with various executives.
Starting a Business Coaching Business
Most business clients will come to you as a result of word of mouth or reputation. It’s rare that you’ll be able to generate business coaching clients from sources like newspaper advertising or paid search engine traffic.
Your first step should be to build your reputation in a specific space. Take on as many speaking engagements as you can, give away free information on the internet and if you’re really serious even consider publishing a book.
The goal is to have the client already sold before you walk in the door. While learning sales techniques can help, successful business coaches are generally the ones with strong personal brands. You don’t have to pick a big market (like start-ups) to build your brand in; it could be something as niche as being the go-to guy for social media in the electronics industry, if those are two things you’re an expert in.
