How to Become a Business Performance Coach: A Guide

There always has been, and always will be, a need for those who can teach. Advice and guidance are two commodities that are always in demand, and for someone with the skills and the means, you can make a successful business out of coaching others to improve their businesses. Starting your own business can be a daunting process, so let’s look over what you’ll need to do to become a business performance coach.

Defining the Job

A business performance coach is a person who helps businesses build solid operational foundations. They help employees improve their job skills, help managers develop solutions to company issues, and provide tools and methods for problem-solving. Performance business coaching achieves these ends through several methods:

Helping determine accountability for both successes and problems in a company.
Helping business leaders set achievable goals.
Advising leaders on organizational improvements.
Helping business leaders develop improved business plans.
Helping develop marketing ideas.
Providing unbiased and constructive advice on the state of a business’s operations.
Helping improve confidence in a company.
Providing a fresh perspective to business leaders on their company’s procedures and operations.
Helping company staff find good balances between their work and personal lives.
Finding solutions to reduce costs and improve profitability.

The Skills and the Training

Becoming a performance business coach takes more than just knowing the job; it requires cultivating the proper skills and getting training. In addition, successful coaches have a particular mindset. They must be confident in their field of knowledge and passionate about sharing that knowledge with others. Also, good communication and listening skills can help identify areas for operational improvement across departments while being respectful.

In addition to the proper skills and training, business performance coaches must obtain certification to be credible. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) offers the only globally recognized coaching certification, so finding a training program that offers ICF-accredited training and certification is a good idea. Professional business coaches need 125 hours of training, either in-person in a classroom, face-to-face online, or through a combination of both. It also requires 10 hours of IFC mentoring and completing a business consulting training course.

Finally, before you start your business, you should determine your coaching niche. Nobody can be an expert in everything, so it’s good to establish yourself as a coach specializing in advising and guiding businesses to improve in a particular area, whether that’s retaining employees, improving customer satisfaction, or reducing business expenses.

Setting up Your Business

Even with the training and certification, to become a business performance coach, you still need to establish the business itself. Much like establishing many other types of businesses, you need to follow several steps:

Develop your own business plan
Determine your finances and expenses and create a business bank account
Select a name
Incorporate your business
Get certification (if you haven’t already) and the necessary business licenses
Get business insurance
Create the internal policies and systems for your business, like retirement and healthcare benefits
Build your team
Create a list of projections and targets
Buy the recommended software and technology
Develop a plan to leverage your networks and build new networks

Following these steps on top of the requirements just to become a business coach can be a lot for one person to handle. However, when opening your own business, there are other options besides doing it solo. Starting up a franchise location will provide you with a lot of support and guidance from professionals in the industry, as well as training and assistance when establishing your new location.

Guide Businesses to Improve with ERA

As an Expense Reduction Analysts partner consultant, you’ll be able to perform as a business coach while working with a team of like-minded professionals who want to guide companies to improve. We’re a business consulting franchise that specializes in finding savings in our clients’ business expenses. Join our team of experts in a variety of industries around the world to help review your client’s operations and find the best way for them to save on their expenses. You’ll receive top-quality training that includes foundational training, up to six months of one-to-one coaching and in-field mentoring. Contact us today for more information on franchising with ERA!