Having been a Business Coach for over 12 years and being on the “inside” we have seen some rather scary facts about most business coaches.
Business coaching is not a new industry. Boston Consulting Group, a mainstream big business consulting firm, has been around since 1963, that’s almost 60 years ago. Business coaching specifically for small business has only been developed over the last decade or so. It is now accessible and affordable. But buyer-beware, whilst there many business owners getting awesome results with their great coaches, there are other so-called coaches who leave a trail of destruction.
Here’s what’s going on in the business coaching industry:
1) There is a whole industry of coaches selling coaching programs to aspiring coaches.
Some entrepreneurs have realised there is a wave of people coming into the industry who have no idea or experience in business. Being an unregulated industry, anyone with a heartbeat and a wallet can call themselves a business coach. The people who train the aspiring coaches recognise this gap in the market. All they do is pull together a collection of generic business principles and sell them to the new coach. This will explain why you keep on seeing the same marketing strategies being used by these aspiring coaches as they all have the same or similar coaches. This makes it very difficult to work out which coaches are the real deal and those that are looking to make a quick buck.
Here are some of the sales pitches used by “Coaches for Coaches” on why they should become a coach:
- High Returns
- Not regulated: You don’t any qualifications.
- Low Overheads
- Low / No Set Up Costs
- Quick to Set Up
- Done for You Templates
- Flexible Hours
- Lifestyle Business
- “How to sell coaching to business owners” scripts and proposals.
- You don’t need the answers just good questions? Yes, can you believe that is a pitch used by a person who claims to help aspiring coaches become better coaches.
2) The wrong people become coaches.
Because of the reasons above we end up with most coaches with little or no experience as successful business owners. Many of the business coaches we see enter the market are:
- Failed Business Owners – claiming they can teach all the lessons they wish they had known BUT never practised themselves.
- Retrenched Managers and Employees – many of these people have “big business experience” and do not truly grasp the concepts of the relationship between getting the work, doing the work, and keeping the cash.
- Life Coaches – Your mindset and your personal life have a massive impact on your success as a business owner. However, without the right experience and tools most life coaches lack the ability to make an impact within the business. They simply do not have the right experience.
- “I Read Lots of Business Books” Types– There is a massive gap between theory and reality. You cannot learn to play golf or tennis by reading books or watching it on TV while sitting on the sofa. You need to play the game. This is true for business as well.
3) These coaches lack the experience, resources, and results in their own coaching business
Most business coaches:
- Have less than 5 Clients.
- Their business is not sustainable, so they have other businesses to support their coaching.
- The average retention of clients is less than 9 months. The have little depth and run out of steam. They can get a new client, but don’t add value and the client leaves. They have a massive client turnover which is why many of these coaches claim to have coached 1000’s of businesses.
- 80% of business coaches that start out, go back to getting a “job” or “contract” in less than 12 months, or do it as a “side hustle.”
- Of those that remain less than 10% are still coaching after 5 Years.
- Less than 10% of coaches have their own coach.
This is why we developed 12 Questions to Ask Your Potential Business Coach to make it easier for you to find a good coach and a coach that is right for you.