Part 5: The Art Of Business Coaching: What Is The Most Effective Way To Learn About Business?
I’ve been in the coaching industry full-time for more than 14 years — and I think it’s so important to have an education about what coaching is and how best to work with a coach. This is the 5th and final piece about business coaching — and it’s an important distinction for all women entrepreneurs. What is the most effective way to learn about business?
In case you missed the first four parts — here they are for reference:
- Part 1: What is a Professional Business Coach? An Explanation of a Business Coach’s Role
- Part 2: How Do You Pick a Good Professional Business Coach? The Six Questions You Must Ask
- Part 3: The Top Five Qualities that Have Made My Clients Successful
- Part 4: Why Having a Professional Business Coach or Mentor is So Important: Letting Go Of The Stories in Your Head
So I think it’s important to understand that when you are learning to run a business — there are two major skill sets involved:
Training & Coaching
Training:
Training is comprised of actually learning how to do things — like being in school and learning a language or a science. Learning how to hire, train and manage a team. How to sell one-to-one. Learning how to write your emails. How to do a webinar. Learning how to network effectively. Business is like a language and you must take the time to learn the skill sets.
The most important aspects of the training process is that you are learning a complete system of skills that you know how to put together to create your business. Where I find people struggling is that they are learning a bunch of disparate skill sets that don’t go together.
For example, you spend $2,000 on a training program for creating FB Groups, but then you aren’t sure how to connect those FB Groups into a source of income for yourself.
Or you spend $1,000 to write a book — but there’s not a way to monetize that book.
When it comes to learning about business — remember that there are really two major categories of things that you are learning:
- How to generate leads consistently and systematically (marketing training).
- How to convert those leads into clients or customers (sales training).
So it’s important to have a training program that is constantly teaching you the bigger picture — how does this marketing vehicle translate into a sale? And how do you do those sales conversations so that you can convert?
I find the best way to get trained, especially at the beginning of your business is to choose one business coach whom you trust and learn her entire methodology and systems. This usually means investing in a 6-12 month training program that really lays out all the skills in a systematic and repeatable way. Being able to learn a framework that you can take and use for the rest of your business.
That way you aren’t dabbling with one tactic here and one tactic there, with no real way to pull everything together to create more money and time for yourself.
Coaching:
Coaching is getting specific advice for your particular business model. For example, once you’ve done a training on how to do a webinar, you might want to get specific advice on the title and content for your specific webinar.
It’s also great to get advice on business basics like branding, strategy, target market and offerings.
Coaching is also essential to help you create a business plan, execute strategies, and problem solve when things aren’t working.
I believe training and coaching are important for every business owner to help them learn about business. And by combining them you get the best of both worlds.
Coaching provides specific advice about your business.
Training fills the gaps in your knowledge base.
So when you are looking to hire a business coach — look for the opportunity to be a part of a training program — whether it be individual classes, a group program, a mastermind opportunity or online classes.
And also look for the opportunity to be individually coached with your specific questions and goals in mind.
When Do You Need Training Versus Coaching?
In my experience — I’ve found that training is the most important at the beginning stages of your business, because there’s a LOT of skills to be learned. Then as you become more advanced in your business, you’ll need more 1-1 support and coaching in order to create your specific plan and scale your business.
Also as you implement the basic skill sets to really build and grow your business — you’ll have a much better chance of being able to pay for a coach as you move forward.
Now I get it — committing to both training and coaching means that you actually have to craft out time for both. And it’s a much bigger responsibility. But at the end of the day — I can tell you that’s it’s totally worth it!
To this day — I create learning time in my schedule each week, combined with time with my coaches to create my plan and help move me forward. It’s been my success combination for years and has allowed me not only to grow but to stay on top of the trends.
The key is to create sacred time in your schedule for both and to stick to it. But be aware — as I’ve met many women entrepreneurs who have gotten too caught up in the training. And then they’re so busy learning that there isn’t enough time doing!
So keep the training to a minimum — 1-3 hours a week. And make sure that you are implementing the skills that you learn in the training. That will allow you to come to your coaching calls with actions that you have tried and questions that need answering — which will move you forward that much faster.
Here’s to doing both: coaching and training — and creating major breakthroughs in your business — one week at at time. For more support and resources to get you on your way join our Facebook group.
