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Guest post by: Shafi Farooqui Become an Author

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Deciding to have a business coach for your small business is a step in the right direction. Your business maybe small, but it is still your baby and you want it to go in the right direction. The coach will guide you and help you to achieve your aims. But before you trust your business into the hands of another, you must know exactly what you are getting into. Study the small print, research well and make sure that all your queries have been answered before you put your faith in a coach. The first thing you must look for in a business coach is his credentials. See if he has had proper training. There are a lot of people out there claiming to be experts in small business coaching, but on what do they base these claims? A good training is of great essence in this field, because only then they would have the right techniques to coach you. There are also federations like the International Coaching Federation, see if your coach is affiliated with it. This would indicate that he is known and accepted member of the coaching community and also that he keeps abreast with the techniques his cohorts apply and tries to be updated with the changes in the coaching community.

Select the business coach to suit the size of your organization. For this, look at their experience. Checking out the experience helps in two ways- 1. It serves as an indicator of whether the coach is all that he claims to be and 2. It gives you insight into the kind of firms he has experience dealing with. Notice that "small business" could mean a business that has nearly 100 employees and also a business that has less than half dozen employees, it could even be a business with just one entrepreneur running the entire show. Thus needs of each of these may vary.

Also enquire whether the business coach has business skills too. While a coach with only coaching skill can guide, a coach with business skill can advise on various other platforms too. Thus if you want to fine-tune time management, marketing etc, you can seek help from your coach. Such a coach would also be comfortable in the gray areas where business and coaching skill overlap. Taking the same thread ahead, it will also be helpful if the coach himself owns a small business. With combined expertise in both the fields, they can help you work towards your goals better.

Besides this, look at the over-all personality of the business coach. Does he come across as someone too eager to please? Does he come across as someone downright rude? Both these extremes could be detrimental to your business. The ideal would be somewhere in between. Before finalizing on a coach , discuss money. See if there are any additional offerings like books or CDs etc. Check to see the availability of the coach. Be clear about the money and time issues right from the start. Be sure that you find an experienced and dedicated person that meets all these criteria to make a success out of your business.

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Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com

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