Business Coaching Benefits: Why Coaching Results in so Many Incredible Success Stories

It’s not good for man to be alone. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Sending out missionaries in twos, not alone. The Bible is full of exhortation to walk in community and draw strength and encouragement from other believers. So why would running a business be any different? It isn’t.

Business coaching has proven again and again to be the difference-maker for so many businesses, which is why it lies at the heart of how iBAM helps strengthen and expand disciple-making movements in other nations.

No business owner knows everything they need to succeed. No one possesses all the strengths and abilities to running a successful business. Everyone has blind spots, weaknesses, and areas where they need advice and wise counsel. Business coaching delivers all this and more, and in this article we’re going to look at why business coaching plays such a pivotal role in business success.

What Does Business Coaching Have to Do with Christian Missions?

iBAM’s mission is to facilitate the growth of God’s kingdom through business entrepreneurship. Why is this important?

Because when churches are planted and disciple-making movements start spreading in nations that are hungry for the gospel, one of the biggest roadblocks to stability and sustained growth is economical. People still need jobs. They have families that still need provision. Many of these communities struggle economically. This leads new Christians to keep relocating to find work, which makes it harder to build churches and keep funding the spread of the gospel.

By teaching Christians how to start and run their own businesses, you solve all these problems at once. Now there is income coming in for families. The community gets stronger. People don’t have to keep moving. The business creates jobs for others in the church. And on top of all that, the business itself becomes a tool for disciple-making.

Here’s how our process works

Business coaching plays an essential role in this because these new businesses cannot be expected to build and grow all on the backs of one risk-taking entrepreneur. They have the heart and the faith. But they need the skills and support that a business coach or mentor can provide.

iBAM uses a ‘train the trainer’ strategy to multiply the effects of business coaching so it can spread as quickly as the gospel. You go to a new community that hasn’t yet heard about God’s message. People hear and respond. You start new businesses there to solidify the new church community. They you spread to the next one.

Why Business Coaching Works

What do entrepreneurs and business owners need the most help with? They tend to come with three primary needs:

  • Personnel – human resources issues
  • Getting started and building the business wisely
  • Growing and expanding the business

These could be called “presenting issues.” As with any situation with a mentor, coach, or counselor, the issues a person comes with are often just part of what they really need. And as business coaches work with entrepreneurs, the benefits they deliver go far beyond addressing these needs.

Plus, these sorts of issues tend to be much more complex than they may seem at first.

What is needed to produce growth and expansion? What needs to change in how leadership works with employees. What processes and systems need to improve, and how? For challenges with hiring and working with employees, how can the leadership improve their communications? What can they do to make employees perform at their best and feel like a valued part of the team?

Business problems nearly always end up coming down to people. Improve the person, and you improve the business. The business challenges that don’t relate to people usually relate to systems. A business coach will be able to help with both these areas – people and systems.

Lots of studies have been done on the impact of business coaching. You can see some of the most impressive business coaching statistics here.

 

Business Coaching Benefits

Let’s run through some of the main benefits of business coaching.

Leadership Improvement

Business coaching always begins with the business owner. Whether just starting the business or working to improve an existing one, the leader needs to first get help with their own blind spots. After working with a business coach or mentor to find out the ways the owner is impacting the business positively or negatively, they can expect to:

  • Develop more focused strategies
  • Empower their employees
  • Be more consistent in implementing plans, systems, and strategies
  • Change what needs to change and not remain stuck with the status quo

61% of business coaching clients say they improved their business management skills as a result of their work with a coach, and these are the areas where that impact was felt the most.

Increased Self-Confidence

This applies to both the business owner and the employees. Any employee having to interface with customers needs confidence. Business coaching for the owner will produce better employee training and improved communication. This will lead to more confidence for everyone.

The business owner needs more self-confidence too. This will affect their ability to make decisions and stick by them, interact with employees and customers, work with vendors and supply chains, and to simply believe in what they are doing.

Improved Relationships

Business coaching results in better relationships within the business, and between the business owner and the people they interact with outside of it. This matters especially when mistakes happen or goals aren’t met.

When an employee struggles, how the business owner handles that plays a big role not just in that employee’s ability to succeed, but in what they will say to other employees about the owner. Coaching improves the culture of the organization.

Better Communication Skills

Relationships are built on communication. Business coaching can help business owners and employees improve in this critical area. You can get better at listening, learning how to approach a difficult situation, body language, tone, setting policies, getting buy-in, asking questions, and so much more.

Without a business coach, the owner ends up having to figure all this out on their own – the hard way. Usually this ends up costing them in the short run because communication breakdowns can lead to division and strife.

Improved Work Performance

As the business owner improves in their work with employees and develops their systems and processes, work performance begins to rise across the board. This results in higher revenue, fewer avoidable expenses, a better work environment, and greater job satisfaction.

Productivity gains are a direct result of good business coaching. And this of course leads to business growth and expansion – which is what leads many owners come to business coaches for help in the first place.

Business Coaching and Business As Mission

iBAM requires all the Christian entrepreneurs we work with in other nations to have a business coach. And we continue to produce new coaches as more business owners practice what they learn from their own coaches and get trained to coach others.

Just as the gospel spreads through discipleship, which is really just another form of coaching, so also the businesses that become part of these disciple-making movements also disciple new entrepreneurs as the Word spreads.

Again, we use a ‘train the trainer’ approach to coaching, so local leaders train and coach new Christian business owners in their communities. It is not dependent on just a handful of coaches to train everyone. This just produces a bottleneck that limits growth and doesn’t empower as many people to lead.

If you’re a Christian who cares about missions, and you also have a passion for business and entrepreneurship, iBAM might be a great way for you to combine your faith with your work.

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