Is Business Coaching Right For Me?
Business coaching is a highly collaborative, supportive and long-term partnership and like any successful relationship, it’s a good idea to know what’s involved before you commit.
So if you’ve been asking yourself “is business coaching right for me”, here we share our most asked questions about business coaching with us, ActionCOACH Cheltenham.
How Do I Know If I Need a Coach?
It’s great you’re thinking you might need one. Coaching isn’t for everyone and the best way to find out if business coaching is for you, is to schedule a time to speak to a business coach. Having an initial chat, with no obligation or strings attached, is the perfect opportunity to have a confidential chat about your future goals.
What challenges are you facing at the moment? Have you got ambitions to grow the business and would like an independent sounding board to talk to? What can’t you achieve on your own? What support might you need?
It might be that it’s not a question of do you need a coach, but “what type of coaching is best for me”?
Don’t forget that all great athletes and sports people have coaches too. To support, inspire and hold them accountable to their goals. And a business coach is no different.
How Do You Know If I’m Coachable?
Without getting to know you first, we don’t. The first step on any business coaching journey is to have a conversation. By booking a complimentary session with one of our business coaches, you’ll be able to discover more about what’s involved. At no risk to you and entirely confidential.
Together we’ll learn more about your business and lifestyle goals. We may ask you to complete a questionnaire, so we understand more about your aspirations for the business.
Once we get to know you and we feel we can help and support you, we can decide together the right sort of business coaching programme for you.
What’s It Really Like Having a Business Coach?
It should feel like having a new team member in your business. Someone who is there to support you to reach your business and lifestyle goals. To be alongside you to offer advice through challenging times, hold you accountable to your goals and aspirations and be there to champion you and celebrate your successes.
What Can I Expect From Business Coaching?
You can expect to have someone with you on your business journey.
You’ll still have to do the work yourself of course, but if you feel you can’t do it on your own, your business coach will be there to support you.
Together, you and your coach will work on ActionCOACH’s proven strategies and techniques. Regularly aiming to reach your goals with a clear strategy for how and when you can expect to achieve results. Those might be financial and hitting turnover and profit targets or advising you on how to recruit the best team around you.
It may be working on new markets for your business and a sales and marketing strategy to find new clients. You and your coach will establish clear key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets to keep you on track and to monitor your progress.
As a business owner or leader, you’ll be using our award-winning techniques, educational tools, plans and strategies so you gain better mastery of growing your own business.
Ultimately to take your business to the next level. To create a business which can work without you!
What Exactly Will I Have to Do?
In partnership with your coach, you will create a vision for your company and what you want it to look like in the future. Then you’ll plan how you want your business to grow. What are your aspirations for the next year, 3 and 5 years?
Once you’ve established your business and lifestyle goals, then you’ll be working towards these – 90 days at a time, in a written plan, with achievable and realistic targets, together with your coach.
Business coaching should be a highly-rewarding, fun, inspiring and collaborative process; whereby an independent growth expert, who is “on your side” is supporting you to succeed.
Won’t This Mean More Work?
Yes and no! A huge benefit of getting advice from your business coach is how to manage your time better. To work smarter to give you more free time and ultimately an improved work life balance.
An ActionCOACH principle is about working “on” your business and not “in” it. By working to daily disciplines (which you and your coach will establish at the beginning of your coaching contract) you will work to a default diary. This has revolutionised the impact of business coaching for a lot of our clients. They not only discover a renewed energy to spend time working on their business, but discover they have more time for their lifestyle goals too. More travel, family time and enjoying hobbies and pastimes are cited by our clients as to one of the main differences business coaching has made to them.
What Facts and Figures Do I Need to Know About My Business?
You will need to be able to access your financial figures so that you can work together with your coach to create a realistic and achievable growth plan.
Together you will analyse the opportunities within your existing business by looking at and understanding your business turnover figures, sales and marketing statistics, management plans and staff information.
If you have a great business which you think can grow and you have an ambitious growth mindset, we’re here for you. Together, we will take a look at your business paperwork and get you started on the road to success.
What Areas Will You Be Coaching Me?
Time, team and money are key areas which can change the trajectory of most businesses.
Here at ActionCOACH Cheltenham, we have literally hundreds of strategies around these 3 core areas to share with you, including sales strategies, marketing plans, finance, mindset, staff recruitment and retention, leadership skills, beliefs, values and planning.
How Soon Can I Expect To See a Difference in My Business?
Immediately. We have award-winning strategies for success, techniques and growth plans which you can start implementing in your business straight away.
You may find that because of this initial success, your own ambitions for the business will grow. And you will have a renewed energy and determination to see your business succeed.
Depending on the size and turnover of your business, you and your coach will work on your own individual goals with constant testing and measuring of your results to make sure you are on track to succeed.
So if you are a relatively new business and with a turnover of less than £250K or your want to take your £500K business to the next level or need support with your multi million pound business, we have coaching programmes to support you.
We have helped companies with management buy-outs, funding opportunities, exit plans and major growth strategies.
Whatever you’re hoping to achieve with your business, we have a roadmap to help you get there.
Can You Guarantee Business Coaching Will Work For Me?
Yes. We have a money back guarantee, so you can be confident of investing in yourself and your business with the reassurance of results or your money back.
How Much Time Do I Need For Coaching?
It depends on the programme you sign up for, but between 1 hour a week, 2 hours per fortnight or join a fortnightly group coaching session.
Outside of those hours, you’ll also be encouraged to work “on” your business rather than “in” it. To achieve the goals you’ve set out to reach with the support of your coach.
Can I Choose My Coach?
Yes. Business coaching is a very personal relationship built around strong principles of transparency, trust, mutual respect and openness. You should feel comfortable to share your ambitions for your own business, so having the right coach for you is key. Come in and talk to us and you be the judge. See if business coaching is right for you and which coaching programme and coach will best suit your needs.
Can I Contact My Coach Between Your Scheduled Time?
Yes, as long as you have agreed the parameters with your coach. You can decide between you what you both think is acceptable about have access in-between your sessions.
Do I Need to Be in the Cheltenham Area to be Coached By You?
Not necessarily. We have clients around the UK and they are happy to be coached via Zoom, Teams or Skype and still benefit from our coaching programmes.
As part of ActionCOACH UK, an award-winning UK-wide franchise there may be other Action coaches in your area. Why not give us a call to chat about your business aspirations and we can help you choose the best business coach for you.
Would You Ever Let a Coaching Client Go?
Yes, we would consider that if the agreed work was not being done. Hopefully with a trusting and transparent relationship with your coach, it would not come to being let go, but if any behaviour that did not sit with our values and principles or changes in the running of your business meant that we could not bring any value to the coaching partnership, then a discussion about ceasing coaching would take place.
How Can You Know More Than Me About My Business?
We don’t. Our support is to offer you our expert, independent advice based on our years of achieving exceptional business growth. The team here at ActionCOACH Cheltenham offer a variety of skills and business acumen which you can benefit from by joining our coaching programmes. To support YOUR business.
What Will My Coach NOT Do?
We won’t run your business for you. We’ll be there to hold you accountable to your own goals and aspirations. To offer our award-winning, tried and tested techniques and strategies to realise your own ambitions for business growth and success.
What Results Have Other Clients Seen?
Anything from working 60 hours a week to just 10, from recruiting more staff, to increases in revenue in 100s and even 1000s of percent, to buying their dream homes and spending more time with their family.
You can read more about our clients and their experience of business coaching with us here on ‘Our Clients’ webpage. These are real people, with real businesses, getting real results.
Is My Information Kept Confidential?
Our contract together will honour your confidentiality and we are discreet at all times.
You can choose to share your experience of business coaching or not.
Will You Share Things About My Business on Social Media?
Only if you agree to. We love nothing more than being the champions of our clients’ success, so we sometimes share news of them winning awards, reaching their goals, recruiting more staff and smashing their financial targets. You can choose if you want us to share your own success stories.
Can I Speak to Any of Your Clients?
Please do! Feel free to contact any of our clients and ask them about their business coaching experience with is. We’re proud of all our clients and love working with them and we are delighted to share stories of their success with you.
Can I “Try Before I Buy”?
Yes, we’d love you to join one of our gifted coaching programmes. Feel free to sign up for one of our complimentary sessions and if you enjoy it, see the value we could add to your business, let’s talk afterwards about the best sort of coaching programme to benefit your business.
What Else Do You Offer?
As well as business coaching, you will have access to our ActionCOACH UK educational programmes, including our podcast, complimentary online business seminars, gifted books, quarterly 90 Day Planning workshops and lunch and client-only networking events.
You can learn new leadership skills, get recruitment advice and build a better team via our free DiSC profiling service analysing personality and behavioural patterns in your workplace.
There are also opportunities for us to coach your team members and executive coaching, so please get in touch if you’d like to discover more.
Can I Chat to You in Person?
Yes! We’d love to meet you and learn more about your business. Feel free to make an appointment with one of our coaches or come and see us in our offices in the heart of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
What’s your 90 Day Plan I Keep Reading About?
Only 2% of business owners work regularly to a daily written plan.
When you sign up for business coaching with us, you’ll be expected to complete, implement and action a regular 90 day planning document.
Writing down your goals and plans means that you are 1000% more likely to achieve them.
That’s why our clients consistently smash their targets, achieve their financial goals, recruit the best teams and enjoy their new-found lifestyles as a result of successful planning and goal-driven tasks.
If I Join You, Will I Meet Other ActionCOACH Clients?
Absolutely. Throughout the year, we host face-to-face client events. These are a great way to network with other like-minded business owners.
How much does your coaching cost?
You can choose to invest in our powerful 1:1 business coaching programme from £995 per month.
We also offer group coaching and quarterly workshops which range from £495 per month.
Our Executive Coaching programmes start from £1,495 per month for individual executives and £2,995 per month for executive team coaching.
How Do I Pay?
You will pay on a monthly retainer system
How Much Notice Do I Give To Stop Coaching?
Just 1 month. So you can be reassured that if you sign up as a client of ActionCOACH Cheltenham you are not tied in to a long term commitment and you can stop as soon as you believe you are not getting good value for your business growth.
Is Business Coaching Tax Deductible?
Yes, coaching can be a business expense. If you’re unsure how to process this, please speak to your accountant or us and we can advise you.
When Can I Start?
Firstly, let’s meet to see if we are a good match! We’ll chat about your business and future plans. Then we can talk about a coaching programme to suit your needs and aspirations.
Once that’s all agreed, we’ll arrange a mutually convenient date to start your business coaching. Once you’re signed up, which is really easy to do, a monthly invoice will ensure you are on board as one of our valued clients.
If there are any more questions you have regarding ActionCOACH Cheltenham that we have not answered here, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to make an appointment with one of our coaches and come and see us in our offices in the heart of Cheltenham, we’d love to meet you!
