Consider subscribing to my blog's RSS feed. It's sticky
Coaching or consulting or training or otherwise trying to provide services to small business owners can be simultaneously the most rewarding and the frustrating work you can do. Small business owners have the same needs as their much larger counterparts, they just don’t have the same budgets and, perhaps equally as challenging, the same attention spans.
An entire industry, called coaching, is steadily discovering the small business beast and looking for ways to work with, provide service to and make a living doing it. I have even created my own coaching network, called Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coaches armed with a true small business system to address the growing demand for small business marketing help.
In a recent episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast I visited with Diane Brennan, coach and president of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the largest coaching industry group with over 14,000 members and 150 local chapters. The ICF certifies coaches in core methodologies and helps individuals and businesses find coaches to work with.
In this session Brennan acknowledged that there are differences between coaching and consulting, but that the same individual could succeed doing both. My experience tells me that is very true. In fact we often refer to Duct Tape coaching as hybrid coaching - marrying a success system with the accountability of a coach.
One final note of truth - the best coaches hire coaches too.
Comments
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at Apr 08, 08 | 9:42 am and is filed under Coaching, Duct Tape Marketing, Entrepreneur, Marketing Coach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Good posting.
I’ve been considering getting a consultant, but the cost has been prohibitive. Maybe a coach is the way to go! Thanks!
It doesn’t matter whether a person calls himself a coach or a consultant. The important things to look for (in addition to a fit for your budget) are someone with experience working with businesses like yours, someone committed to seeing you succeed, someone with impeccable business ethics and someone who can share their expertise while still giving you the flexibility and the responsibility to make your own decisions and live with them. The other thing to look for is someone with whom you get along. This is just as important as everything else because a coaching arrangement with someone you don’t like or trust personally will be a waste of everyone’s resources.
Coaching from experienced professionals can mean difference between success and failure. It is worth the money to be a success. A business owner can also seek advice from SCORE and the small business development center in their state.
I enjoy already the thrill of coaching small business owners - I love the joy of introducing concepts to them that are practical, simple and effective. That’s why we call it DUCT TAPE MARKETING! It’s a great job to have. I am thankful to enjoy the DTM value to my marketing practice. John, you are a big help to so many small business owners - including myself. I just have to figure out how to juggle time and spend as much time marketing my own practice as I do on helping other clients to do the same thing! If anybody is wondering about the DTM network - it’s great! And I can certainly second the value that small business owners can receive from reasonably priced marketing coaches. In terms of VALUE, using a DTM coach will never be a question of WORTH - you will see early on the value of what you are getting! Great stuff!
Yes, consulting and coaching are two very different things. When it comes down to it, a business coach doesn’t even necessarily need to know TOO much about growing a business… it’s more important that they know how to motivate and keep their clients on track.
On the other hand consulting comes down to giving the best advice/services to the clients and then it’s mostly “hands off” and you hope your client follows through with things.
While someone could prosper as both… it can be challenging for a consultant to become a coach because of the skills needed besides for the expertise in the field.
Good post, keep up the great work.
To Higher Profits,
Dave Ryan, Consultant
Higher Profits Marketing
The best coach is the one who is ready to admit he (or she) doesn’t know anything and is prepared to be coached themselves. That’s the only way to stay on top of the pile.
Small businesses need all the help they can get, and the nature of the entepreneur is such that formal training in marketing / business management / etc is usually lacking, creating the need for specialist coaching.
Kudos to you for creating your own coaching network, as it is a service that is sorely needed.
Indeed, considering that much of the time, starting a small business is the answer to not having formalised tertiary education, basically a way the driven individual makes his way upward in the world. But all the drive in the world will only get you so far if you don’t know what you’re doing..
“The best coach is the one who is ready to admit he (or she) doesn’t know anything and is prepared to be coached themselves. That’s the only way to stay on top of the pile.”
So true SEO Snyman.
To be a coach, you need to be coachable.
We have worked with some small business that required more time but the returns for their business were increadible. The success can be much greater for those smaller businesses.