Surrounding yourself with the best people is the best way to build a successful business coaching firm. Learn from the best, recruit the best coaches and attract the best clients. This takes time so, don’t just jump in and take shortcuts. Do the due diligence. Take your time. Be strategic.
One of the top Master ActionCOACHES, Ashley Manson has built one of the strongest and most successful firms in Australia.
What are his three key success points?
Learn from others – and don’t stop
The best people to learn from are those who have tread this path before you and made a success of it. As part of the ActionCOACH family, you have immediate access to a global community of professionally certified experts who can offer tremendous support, advice and mentorship.
If you haven’t tapped into this wealth of knowledge and experience, you are selling yourself short. Reach out to ActionCOACHES with whom you can identify in your region and internationally. Take the time to observe them in action and don’t be shy to ask them what they did to grow their successful firms. By observing them and hearing their stories, you can acquire invaluable foresight into what works and what doesn’t. It’s so much better than learning from hindsight!
It is never too late to get professional training, enlist your own coach or find a mentor. The very best ActionCOACHES enjoyed the mentorship of senior coaches when they first started out and continue to seek guidance from them.
Don’t forget that ActionCOACH’s training is unparalleled, the ongoing support is unmatched and the access to the library of ActionCOACH’s proven systems and process will put you ahead of the competition. Leverage these to the maximum.
Strive for continuous learning and development. Make sure that you have qualifications behind your name and continually grow your list of credentials. We love Canadian-American motivational public speaker and respected author, Brian Tracy’s “3 Percent formula”. He advocates investing 3% of your take home income into personal development. The beauty of this scalability is that the more you earn, the more you can invest in your learning.
As a business coach, you should be encouraging your clients to self-educate and invest in their personal development. Walk the talk and make sure that you too continue to invest in your own development.
Employ the best people and pay them well
We all know the term, “you get what you pay for”. The same can be said about the people and the level of skills you employ. To build a strong firm, you need a strong team with members that have the relevant length and breadth of skills and experience to support your clientele. You should also pay them well. Salaries or commissions should be commensurate with qualifications and experience.
By shortchanging good coaches, you will ultimately short change your firm because you will not be able to attract or retain the calibre of coaches you need to build the successful firm that you envision. Remember, your firm’s success hinges on the results your coaches get for your clients.
Allow your coaches the freedom to use their talents, experience and skills. Acknowledge their credentials and recognise the value that their past and current experience brings to your firm. You want to retain good talent.
Have a formula for recruiting coaches
Look carefully where you have skills gaps in your team and seek to close those gaps with people who have the right skills and attributes. For instance, you might need someone who is strong in finance or sales, or someone with experience in specific industries such as hospitality, information communication technologies, or mining. This is especially important if your firm services clients in a diversity of industries. No single person can be a specialist in all fields. Always make sure that you correctly match your needs with the most appropriately skilled coaches. As your business grows and evolves, so will your needs for coaches and support staff.
When recruiting coaches and support staff, keep in mind the reason that you decided to go into business coaching. It is the dream to help others achieve their business ambitions and the impact that you want to make on their lives. The people you employ as part of your team should share this purpose.
So, in addition to credentials and experience, which are undeniably important, you must look at personal attributes. Ask yourself; does the person share your passion for coaching people to business success? Is the person a good fit within your company culture? Do you see the person working well within your existing team? Would your clients feel secure and inspired by having the person as their coach?
The next steps
Building a successful business coaching firm requires vision and a strategy. Envision your ideal business, the model that best fits your personality and goals, the clients you want to serve, and the people you want in your team – then work backward to make it happen. You have to be strategic about this. Everything you do, the people that you employ, and the clients you serve should be aligned with your vision.
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