Have you just started a business coaching service?  If so, you should have a step-by-step guide for your clients.  This guide will focus on the various components of running a successful business, including marketing, sales, conflict resolution, leadership development, organization, and communication.  Your step-by-step guide will cover all of these topics and in great deal.  However, there are some important points you need to make and stress.  What are they?

You are just a business coach.  Some business owners do not understand what a business coach is or expects them to do more.  Explain that you are just like a football coach.  You will teach your client and other team members plays.  You will practice these plays with them and then watch them perform alone.  At the end, you will provide feedback, just like a football coach does.  Make sure your client knows that action is required on their part.  You will not do all the work.  Otherwise, everyone’s time is wasted.

All employees must be responsible for their actions and held accountable.  You will see the biggest problems with small business owners.  They have developed close relationships with their employees.  They want a healthy workplace environment, so conflict is avoided.  This is good, but many poor performing employees are able to slide under the radar.  Everyone has excuses and sob stories; your client will have one too if they do not start turning their business around.  Stress this point.

Management must handle poor performing employees.  With small businesses, the company owner is typically the manager.  They handle the day-to-day management tasks.  With medium sized businesses, these tasks are delegated to trained professionals.  In these instances, stress the important of management, accountability, and leadership development.  Management should handle all poor performing employees, not let them get away with poor productivity and performance.  Yes, this may involve letting someone go, but management must be trained in and know the importance of putting the company first.

Sales must increase.  To make money, a business sells either a product or a service.  To run a profitable business, sales must increase.  Stress this importance to your client.  Once again, you are a business coach, so feed them ideas.  In a retail setting, encourage multiple sales and a knowledge staff; this should lead to increased profits.  Also, focus on marketing.  No one will buy a product or service if they do not know it exists.  This is important for new business owners, as most mistakenly believe that if they have something for sale, people will automatically buy it.  As a professional in business management, you know this is not true.

Cost must be lowered.  Increased sales generate increased profits.  With that said, it is important to look at the whole picture.  Making $25 from the sale of a handmade toy is nice, but could that profit be higher?  It can and should be.  Stress the importance to your client of low operating costs.  Plainly state it will increase business profits.  Give them ideas to get started, watch, analyze, and provide suggestions.  Make it known that you do not always have to use poor quality building materials or terminate employees to lower costs, there are additional ways.

If you want to start a career as a business coach, you are in luck.  Unfortunately, today’s economy is in trouble.  Consumers are reducing their spending and some businesses are finding it difficult to stay afloat.  These are usually small to medium sized businesses.  Since the industry needs a professional like you, you are already at an advantage.  There are, however, ways that you can improve your chances of success.  What are they?  A lot easier than you might think.

Be polite.  When working as a business coach, you must first analyze a business.  You examine their profits to see how short they are falling short.  Look at their marketing practices to see what they are doing wrong, and so forth.  Your job is to take the bad, educate a business owner or operating manager, and transform it into good.  Unfortunately, that means criticizing.  Yes, it is your job, but remember that we are all naturally offended.  Insult a business owner and they will get upset.  It is all about delivery, be polite.

Be positive.  As previously stated, your job is to take the bad and transform it into good.  You do so by providing suggestions, showing by example, and by offering feedback.  No business owner is so bad that they never do anything wrong.  Their doors would have closed by this point if that were the case.  You need to focus on the bad, but also focus on the good.  For example, if a retail manager has a well-organized office, but a poor organized sales floor, commend them for their effort.  Let them know they did a good job in their office, but that they should have extended the organization to the sales floor.  You let them know there is a problem, but still provided positive feedback.  Your client will be more receptive.

Offer praise and encouragement.  As a business coach, it is your responsibility to teach business owners and operating managers how to run a successful business.  The keyword is teach.  You do not do the work.  You can display a few examples, but let your clients do the brunt of the work.  Like a sports coach, sit back and watch.  Analyze the situation and provide feedback.  Throughout the task, offer praise and encouragement.  It sounds silly, but some people just need a positive push in the right direction.  In addition, since you are treating your client like a human being, you score extra points.

Offer to work with the entire staff.  When providing business coaching services, business coaches usually work directly with the company owner or manager.  There are others onsite though.  These staff members, their actions, their results, and their productivity are important to the company’s success.  You can educate your client and they can retrain their staff members, or you can offer to do it.  You should charge extra for this service, but offer a low rate or discount and you should get some takers.

Offer to come back and help.  As a business coach, you can spend one day working one-on-one with a client or one week.  No matter what steps you take to educate them on the importance of all business components, your advice may be ignored.  So, always offer to comeback for a review or to answer a few simple questions.  Let them know that advice is free, but retraining will cost extra.

You want to work as a business coach.  Great, you chose a profitable career path.  You created a website to highlight your education and training, and outlined how and why you can help business owners, but now what?  If no one sees your website, you will not get any clients.  So, now you need to develop a marketing plan.  What should that plan include?

Article directories.  You may be surprised how many people want to work-from-home or start their own business.  You may also be surprised how many people turn to the internet to make that happen.  Each day, thousands of men and women search the internet looking for small business ideas, ways to make money from, home, and so forth.  If you write articles for article directories, they may find your content.  Include a link to your website at the end of those articles and they will find your website.

The key to writing articles for article directories is to write on related subjects.  You want to target new business owners and struggling business owners.  Write articles on how to start a home based business, how to start a small business, how to run a profitable business, and important keys to running a smooth business.  At the bottom of each article, remember to place a link back to your website.  If they can use your services, they will.

Message boards for work-at-home parents.  As previously stated, a lot of men and women want to work from home or be their own boss.  For most, this is because they are tired of having someone else to answer to.  For parents, this is to spend more time with their kids and eliminate the need for costly daycare.  A stay-at-home mom may have a great idea to sell handmade toys online, but there are thousands of others doing the same.  You can help her improve her products, create good sales pitches, and market her website.

To get clients from work-at-home message boards, you need to rely on posts, signatures, and your profile.  Interact in the community.  Even if you aren’t a parent yourself, you are free to join.  Does a parent ask about business ideas or marketing tips?  Offer a few suggestions, but avoid from outright posting an advertisement.  In fact, some message boards have an “Advertise Your Business Here,” section.  If signatures are enabled, create a catchy phrase and make it clickable and leading to your website.  That signature will appear below each of your posted messages.

In addition to targeting work-at-home communities, you can also do the same with small business communities.  There are many online message boards where small business owners get together to share tips and tricks.  Insert yourself in these types of communities.

Online business directories.  If your business isn’t already listed in a number of online business directories, get it.  Perform a standard internet search with the phrase “business directories.”  Those searching with the same phrase will get the same results.  Start at the top of the list and work your way down.  Most are free and you can add your business right away.  When doing so, be sure to include a link to your website.  The search engines and readers will pickup this link.

Search engine optimization.  If you don’t know what search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is, it is time to learn.  You are hurting your business by being unfamiliar with the phrase and practice.  When you created content for your website, did you use a keyword tracker tool to see what internet users are searching for?  No?  Go back and do so.  You will find that people want to learn how to start a small business, how to open a storefront store, how to market and online store, and so forth.  Take these exact phrases and incorporate them into your website content.  The search engines will pick them up and list your website in related search results.

Searching engine optimization is a very important part of internet marketing.  It can help your business or greatly hurt it.  Your goal as a business coach is to teach others how to market their business.  You need to be able to do the same with your own.  If a reader searches for “business help,” “business coaches,” or “business coaching services,” and your website does not appear until the 10th page on Google, you are out of luck.

If you want to sell your services as a business coach, you need to have a website.  Part of running a profitable business is having a website and internet marketing.  You teach your clients the importance of the internet, so make sure you use it yourself.

If you have never created a website before, you may be a bit nervous about the entire process.  After all, you want to get it right and the first time.  You have two main options.  These are to hire a web designer or do the work yourself.  If unfamiliar with HTML, do not fret.  Opt for a web hosting package that includes a site building tool.

Before you get started, you must know some important things.  A website should be professional and easy to navigate.  You run a professional business, so your website should have the same look and feel.  As for navigation, fewer pages are better.  No one wants to visit 10 different pages on your website before finally finding your contact information.  Chances are, they will give up after the 5th and turn to a competing business coach.

As for what you need to get started, you need a web hosting package, good domain name, pictures, and content.  Continue reading on for a further explanation of each.

Web hosting.  Choose an affordable package.  Most hosting companies offer discounts if you pay for a year or two or advance.  Do this.  Remember, if you don’t know HTML, opt for a package that includes a website building tool.  You should gain access to hundreds of templates, colors, pictures, and fonts.

Domain name.  Your domain name is important.  Most clients will find you with a standard internet search, but some may key in your website address directly.  Make sure it is easy to spell and short.  You can use your name, your business name, or a phrase related to business coaching or help.

Pictures.  All business owners should have a picture of themselves on their website.  This is important for you because you will be working one-on-one with clients.  A picture speaks a thousands works.  Make sure it is a professional picture, but that you also look like a real person.  Always smile.  This picture needs to show your clients that they can entrust you with their business and feel comfortable working side-by-side with you.

Website content.  You should divide your content into different sections and pages. 

Start with the main page, also known as the home page.  When internet users type in your address at SAMPLE.com, this is the first page they will see, so make it good.  Your picture should be somewhere on the page, like in the upper right-hand corner.  Welcome visitors to your page and then start with a catchy tag line.

“Have you turned your dream of running a business into a reality, but does that reality feel like a nightmare?  Let me help you improve your profits and get your dream back on the right track.”  This phrase is best if catering to small to medium sized business owners.

Underneath your tag line, use bullet points to highlight how you can help.  This can include team-building exercises, time management exercises, business communication exercises, sharing marketing tips and more.  Make each of these clickable links leading to a new page.

At the new page, focus more on the service offered.  For example, communication building exercises.  Stress the importance of etiquette, listening to clients, and summarize methods of communication.  Then, state the consequences for not having good communication skills.  For example, a customer who doesn’t feel like they are being heard, is likely to take their business elsewhere.

Then, highlight a few examples on how you can help management and employees improve communication in the workplace.  Don’t give away too much information.  For example, state that you can have employees write sample letters to each other and clients.  You can dissect them and give suggested improvements.

At the bottom of each page, you must include your contact information.  This includes your name and business name, business address, phone number, and email address.  Remember, you want to make this easy for potential clients to find.  Put it at the bottom of each page.  Also, have a separate page that you can list on your menu bar labeled “Contact Us.”  Nothing will appear on this page, but your picture and contact information.