How To Hire A Life Coach: How They Can Boost Business

Struggling to overcome challenges and meet your goals? It may be time to hire a life coach. Read on to find out what is a life coach and when you should consider hiring one to help with your business.  

What Is a Life Coach?

 Far more than a personal cheerleader, a life coach is a professional who counsels you on how to overcome personal and professional challenges and meet your goals. These goals might be to take a business to the next level, boost your confidence or improve work-life balance.    Whatever form the coaching takes, a life coach usually takes a more holistic approach than a business coach. A life coach focuses not only on your business, but on how business decisions can help you become more fulfilled in your personal life.  

What Are The Benefits of a Life Coach?

Having a life coach is sometimes dismissed offhand as a new age concept. But studies show that life coaches can measurably improve leadership, productivity and interpersonal skills. Among study participants who underwent coaching for the 2009 Global Coaching Client Study:  

   
• 80 percent reported improved self-confidence
   
• 73 percent reported improved relationships
   
• 70 percent reported improved work performance
   
• 67 percent reported improved work-life balance
   
• 61 percent reported improved business management
 

These improvements can benefit business leaders across industries. Once you improve your business and social acumen through life coaching, they carry into your professional and personal life. This means you can make better business decisions, use your time more wisely and create the life you imagine for yourself. Personal and professional fulfillment, is, after all, the reason why many people go into business in the first place. The secondary benefit of a life coach is gaining a reliable partner whom you can trust to objectively advise you. Small business owners, especially solo entrepreneurs, often face everyday challenges alone. A life coach can give you the fresh outside perspective you need for your business to overcome a hurdle and move forward.  

Why Hire A Life Coach?

 Before hiring a life coach, it's important to identify what you hope to achieve from coaching. In the course of running a business, there are a number of situations that could benefit from the counseling of a life coach. These include:  

   
• Starting a new business
   
• Determining your business' mission or values
   
• Growing a business
   
• Setting personal or professional goals
   
• Boosting personal or team morale
   
• Boosting confidence or self-esteem
   
• Improving communication or leadership skills
   
• Making a difficult professional decision that affects your personal life
   
• Dealing with a personal or professional challenge or setback (like a prolonged downturn in sales or the loss of a big client)
   
• Improving time management skills
   
• Improving work-life balance
   
• Identifying a new career
   
• Transitioning careers
   
• Selling or closing a business
 

If you're facing these or other similar situations, consider hiring a life coach. Keep in mind that you should be prepared to honestly express your concerns and shortcomings to your coach and readily accept feedback. This will allow you to put in place meaningful changes in your life and business.