If you are looking for a business coach here in the San Francisco North Bay Area, it may be confusing trying to sort through the professionals you come across to find the person who is the best fit for your unique situation. In the coaching profession, there are people with a wide variety of talents and backgrounds and there are nuances to the services they offer. To select a coach, you’ll want to be aware of the differences in style and areas of focus that make each one a great fit for some people, but not for others.
Business Coach or Life Coach
Within the larger category of “coaching”, these are very distinct professions calling for different qualifications! If you’re looking for help, the first question you should ask yourself is “Business coach, life coach… which should I choose to work with me?”
What is Business Coaching?
Business coaches work as mentors with other business owners in a B2B (business-to-business) relationship who are entrepreneurs, business owners, or people who fill a role in the organizational structure of a larger business. A business coach’s primary goal is to help you get your business performing the way you want it to, helping you manage it more easily so you can devote energy toward growing the business rather than constantly scrambling just to maintain it. This kind of advisor thinks of their service as a “coaching business” that helps individuals run satisfying and profitable business ventures.
Traits of a Good Business Coach
A great business coach is usually someone with some extraordinary business experience that qualifies and inspires them to share the secrets of their success with others. Ideally, you will find a business coach with a sense of the balance and personal relief that getting a business under control provides any entrepreneur or busy manager. When your business stress is reduced and efficiency increases, your life quality improves along with it. Although the business coach’s focus is on improving your ability to create a successful business, there is a personal transformation that occurs as you develop new skills and more confidence.
Do You Need a Business Coach?
If you frequently complain about these situations, you probably need a business coach:
- I’m stressed out and overwhelmed trying to run my business!
- I have a general sense of unease in my business that I can’t shake
- I can’t seem to grow my business
- I’m never able to get away for a vacation
- I’m constantly responding to unexpected emergencies, putting out fires
- I make up the way I do things on the fly as I go each day
- My workplace is a mess — I can’t find anything
- I don’t have written goals or a longterm plan
- I’m not sure what the future of my business will be
- None of my procedures are written down — they’re all in my head
- I never get my to-do list done
How a Business Coach Helps
An expert B2B coach will be able to mentor clients in building new skills and creating new ways of working to help them succeed, like:
- Good time management habits
- Techniques for efficiency
- Productivity workflow systems
- Good business relationships and business practices
- Realistic goal setting
- Accountability
- Confidence building
- Strategies to grow your business
What is Life Coaching?
Life coaches work with people on a personal level, outside of any business affiliation, in a B2C (business-to-consumer) relationship. Their clients can be anyone who wants to pursue a more fulfilling day to day experience. A life coach’s primary goal is to help you become the person you want to be and live the life you want to live in very broad terms. This kind of advisor thinks of their service as a “practice”, similar to people in healing professions, that helps individuals achieve happiness and fulfillment.
Traits of a Good Life Coach
A great life coach is often someone with a depth of personal experience that they want to share. They may want to save others from the pains and mistakes they’ve experienced and share their sense of joy. Life coaches may or may not have training. They enjoy helping individuals find themselves in some meaningful way. A good life coach will be observant, a good listener, and be respectful of people of all kinds and stages in life.
Do You Need a Life Coach?
If you frequently complain about these feelings, you probably need a life coach:
- I’m generally unsatisfied in my day to day experience
- I’m not reaching my personal potential
- My relationships aren’t supporting the best me
- I pictured my life much different than it is, and it bothers me
- I don’t know how to transform myself into who I want to be
How a Life Coach Helps
An expert B2C coach will be able to help clients develop their personal potential along these lines:
- Discover their true desires
- Create a life in alignment with their values
- Find happiness and balance
- Build good relationships
- Feel more confident
Ready to Pursue Business Coaching?
If you are living to work rather than the other way around, you might need a business coach! I am truly on a mission to help people make the most of their precious time, so they have energy to devote to a fulfilling personal life. If the time is right for you to get some expert help in untangling those business problems that are holding you back, please contact me for a 30 minute complimentary consultation.