Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Business Coach?
Many people toy with the idea of becoming a business coach as they progress in their career or want to have a change of pace. However, you may be hesitant if you think you don’t know enough. There are always people that know more than you do, so it’s difficult to consider yourself an “expert” that can coach others. If you are thinking at all about becoming a business coach, read on to find out if you have what it takes.
What is Your Expertise?
Everyone is an expert at something, whether you realize it or not. Being an expert just means that you know more than someone else does about a subject. While you may think there is still so much to learn, which there probably is, there are others who know nothing at all about your subject.
Think about what you know a lot about. Have you already been online for a year and know how to do keyword research and optimize a website? There are local businesses or newbie internet marketers who don’t even understand what these terms mean and need to learn. Are you a writer who knows how to find good subjects to write about and structure an article for marketing on article directories? There are many people who wouldn’t know where to begin. You can coach them through the steps.
What Other Skills Do You Need?
While you may have identified a subject that is perfect for you as a coach, there are other skills you need in order to be successful. Just being able to tell someone your knowledge doesn’t mean they’ll learn it.
One of the first things you need to be able to do as a coach is to find out exactly what your learner already knows. You have to put together a series of questions that tests their knowledge in your subject area. This will give you a sense of not only what they already know, but also what they will need to learn.
While finding out what the other person already knows is the first step, identifying what they need to learn is the most critical part. You won’t necessarily have to coach them in everything you already know. Instead, discuss what their ultimate goal is. A local business person may only need to know how to post information on a blog, so there’s no point in trying to teach them how to add widgets.
You have identified what your learner needs to be coached in, but how will you teach them? Find out about different methods of coaching, and then work with the other person to figure out which one is best for them. Some people learn best through visual examples, some with text, and others with audio. You’ll have to learn to use all different methods of coaching.
Just because you don’t know everything there is know about a subject doesn’t mean that you can’t coach another person. Being a successful business coach is all about identifying the knowledge you have that other people can benefit from, and developing a way to share that knowledge.