So, you’re all set up as a business coach and you’re wondering what to do next. What kinds of business people should you work with?
If, like many coaches, you take a broad brush stroke to what you do you’ll probably say something like, “I work with any business owners!” and that will eventually translate in to “Hmmm, I don’t seem to be working with any business owners!”
So instead, get smart and start thinking about who your target market is. I mean, isn’t that what you do with your business clients?
So here are 7 categories of “business owners” you might work once you have become a business coach.
New start-ups
New start-ups are on the verge of starting a business or they are in the very early days of their business. People often assume that they have “no money for coaching” but that’s by no means true. Any start-up will need to spend money to get going and if you can show the value of what you do, you can easily become a part of their strategy for success. When I first started in business in 2001, I made £11,000 in my first month and £44,000 in my second month with a conference company. Do you think I couldn’t afford a business coach? So don’t make assumptions. Instead, work out what the core needs of a start-up are and seek out your ideal clients in that niche.
Sole traders
The needs of a sole trader are hugely different from a business owner with fifty staff and premises to look after. Yet both might be considered to be “small business”. The sole trader is not worried about leadership skills and might never have thought about a marketing budget or business plan. They might simply want more leads, greater lead-to-client conversion, a dominant local market position, consistency and growth, or the ability to step away from their business occasionally. They almost certainly aren’t helped by anyone other than their accountant or peers and yet they represent the vast majority of businesses in the UK. They may not have the spending power of the bigger businesses but the market is huge and the work you can do for them simple to leverage through outsourcing and systematisation.
The professions
Solicitors, accountants, dentists, GPs, vets all started off learning the skills they practise on a day to day basis. None started as business people with marketing skills and a tactical nous for growing their practice. Yet, that’s what many of them spend much of their time doing. Sometimes well, sometimes poorly. It doesn’t take much imagination to find your local professionals and knowing in advance the challenges they are facing locally lays the foundations for simple client acquisition.
Independent hotels and B&Bs
These business owners are concerned with occupancy and the profit margin on their rooms and extras. Understand this market and how to help them achieve higher occupancy and per person income and you will hit a goldmine. It’s a competitive market well served by the internet but it’s absolutely possible to find a space where you help hotel owners take advantage of what online but also marketing can bring.
Struggling businesses
It might not be where you expected to end up coaching but, with the economy as it is, there’s a big market for helping small business owners who are struggling get back on track. Often small business owners bury their heads until it’s too late but with coaching around rapid financial rescue, a focus on the sales funnel and a strategy to become more consistent, a small business can find its way back to rude health.
The High Street
Just look around you as you walk down the high street and potential clients are everywhere for the discerning small business coach. Butchers, florists, bakers, framers, bars, restaurants, cafes, print and copy shops, bike specialists…independent shops of every type just waiting to have help on growing their business. Many such owners have become complacent, bored or hopeless. But usually this is simply a symptom of frustration. They are hungry to find their passion and hope again and you can be part of that for them.
That’s just six kinds but it doesn’t stop there. Here are just a few more:
- Selling the business
- Manufacturers
- Opening overseas
- Import and export
- Franchise coaching
- Multi-Level-Marketing
- Freelancers
- Creative industry
The fact is that the opportunities are only as limited as your imagination, determination and ability to learn what you need to know.
So, get smart and choose a field to really understand rather than simply being a generic business coach.
