My 10 Point Checklist to Hire the Right Business Coach

As a business owner, you might always be looking for ways to grow your business but it’s not that simple! If you are looking for a business coach, you are already taking the first step in the right direction. Why do I say this? After scaling 300+ businesses, I can tell from my experience that it is really difficult to scale a company let alone do it alone. 

I’m a business coach myself so I’m going to share the things I personally look for when hiring a coach. It is one of the most important decisions you will be making to build and scale your business.

Having an experienced business coach is like looking at the GPS. You are trying to find someone who has already been to the destination through their own experience and coaching. In short, you are looking for a business partner to help you get where you want to be. 

However, not every successful entrepreneur can be a business coach. It’s important to look for a coach with expertise and talents that match your preferred career path so you can get the finest advice possible.

A business coach for entrepreneurs is an expert professional who helps you improve professionally by cultivating your talents. They talk about their mistakes, and how different decisions might affect your career, ask questions and facilitate talks in order to help aspiring entrepreneurs and established professionals understand their career aspirations and develop better business goals. They focus on developing leadership abilities as well as building their mindset, confidence, and accountability.

Here are the ten most crucial qualities you should look for in a business coach.

Have a Great Personality 

One of the most important things you should look for in a business coach is personality. It may sound small but if you are going to build a relationship with someone, it should be someone you like. 

Even if you don’t like someone at first, that’s totally fine! I have had many coaches that I didn't like at first but we had great chemistry. If you and your coach don't have the right chemistry, it will be difficult for you to have a successful relationship and as a result, difficult for them to build a connection to help you scale your business.

Must Have Experience in Business

It's essential to look for someone who has experience in growing a business. There are a lot of people in the coaching industry today that have no coaching experience. 

To figure out if someone has relevant experience, inquire about the businesses they have built and learn about the specifics of how they achieved it. Ask them about the challenges they faced. Because a coach who has never coached before is going to have a hard time leading you, you need to find out everything about a potential coach.

Understanding their Process

You need to get to know their coaching style and how they go about it. Is it with the help of one-on-one guidance? Is it via a coaching program for groups? Is there some sort of training program involved? Is there a plan in place? Because every coach operates in a unique manner, you should become familiar with how they work. 

Some coaches don't have a procedure at all and you simply meet with them to discuss your business issues. Then there are certain coaches who have a well-defined training plan. It's important that their coaching style and your preferred method of learning align. If you're a visual person who likes to watch videos, you'll want to look for a one-on-one coach. If you're shy and don't do well in a group setting, you should avoid group coaching.

Must be Honest 

A coach has to be honest because, at the end of the day, you are paying someone, to be honest with you. You want someone that is objective, tells you the truth and gives you a clear direction on what you have to do. 

Also, you have to be honest with yourself and willing to be coached. You have to take the feedback no matter how harsh it is. When I’m on a sales call or talking to someone in DM, I can predict from their reaction to my feedback if they are coachable or not.

Have a Community

Usually, in a coaching program, there are a lot of people present. If a coach has a lot of people in their community, this is one of the most important things to look out for. However, it is not a requirement for success. 

My coaching program includes a community that has trainers who specialize in content creation, lead generation, leadership coaching, marketing and sales. For a fraction of the price you'd pay for one coach, you're getting access to ten other coaches who can answer your questions if and when I'm busy.

Should have Strong Ethics

Many things are shared between entrepreneurs and their business advisers, including some very personal information. You have to ensure that your business coach will keep any such information to themselves. For this, your coach must be ethically strong.

When looking for a coach, remember to ask for recommendations and follow up on them. One of your best information sources will be the experiences of other entrepreneurs. Look for a business adviser who has scaled multiple businesses before and also has success stories of their clients.

They have to be able to Hold you Accountable

One of the reasons why entrepreneurs hire coaches is to hold them accountable. When looking for a coach, you should see how they will hold you accountable? Do they have a CRM to track your progress? Do they have a system where you can track your progress? 

Accountability is important because as business owners, we struggle to manage our time. If there is no system in place to hold you accountable, you will never do the work.

Talk About their Strengths

If technology and automation are your forte, you don't want to hire a coach with similar strengths. If your weakness is leadership skills, you may look for a coach who is an expert in teaching leadership skills. Before hiring a coach, understand what are your strengths and weaknesses so you can hire a coach who can help you cope with your weaknesses. 

That’s why we have so many different coaches in our coaching program. We have accountability coaches, mindset coaches, lead generation coaches, and many more. We have different types of coaches purposely because we want to help you with different things.

Understand Your Goals

Before hiring a coach, understand your goals and expectations from yourself. If you want to grow your business in 90 days or in six months, you really need a business strategist. But if you hire a mindset coach, you aren’t going to have the right growth strategies because it’s obvious! They can only help you with your mindset. 

Understanding your goals is important if you want to achieve your goals. When looking for a business coach, make sure to find someone who makes more money than you. If you are already making 6 figures, you should hire someone who has scaled businesses to 7 or 8 figures.  

They must be motivators

Look for someone who is really concerned about your success. Rather than talking about their own achievements, your potential coach should be questioning you to get a better understanding of where your business is standing and where it needs to be.

A coach can be a mentor, but we frequently advise people to roll up their sleeves and collaborate. A coach can help, but ultimately, the entrepreneur is the one who does the job and deserves the credit.

Conclusion

Hiring a good mentor is an investment in your business's long-term success. Engaging with a business coach provides you with a professional perspective on your business abilities, which you may use for a variety of professional and personal benefits.