COLLEEN KEENAN
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10 Reasons Women Business Owners Need a Coach
Should you hire a business coach to improve your business results? As a woman business owner, you may find coaching to be a particularly good investment if any of the following are true: |
- You Need Time: Scratch a business owner and you’ll find someone who works too hard. If it’s a woman business owner, she probably works even harder. Women still do more of the work at home and have to add kids, laundry, and taking the dog to the vet to our long list of To Dos for our business. With business coaching, the business begins to function more on its own, and the owner gets the gift of more free time to do the things she really loves.
- You Try to Do It All. Women are used to multi-tasking, so we think we can do the same thing in our business. We tell ourselves “I can’t get good help,” “It’s easier to just do it myself,” or “I have no time to find and train more staff.” So we do the bookkeeping with our right hand while talking to a customer and making the product with our left hand. The result is our feeling harried and overwhelmed, with a business that doesn’t work very well. A coach helps us see where we can and should let go and get the help we need.
- You’re Nice: The desire to be liked can discourage some women from holding their staff, their suppliers and their service providers accountable for producing results for the business. Coaching that focuses on team issue will identify and resolve this issue. Coaching can help us stop “nice”ing ourselves right out of business.
- You Need to Learn to “Talk Money”: Knowing exactly how much money flows in and out of your business is a basic mastery issue any good coach will help you address. When I talk to women entrepreneurs, I sometimes hear “I’m not in it to get rich” or “It’s not about the money”. I meet more women who are uncomfortable talking about money at all; it still seems vaguely “unladylike” even to those of us who know better. Learning to “talk money” comfortably is a clear benefit of business coaching.
- You Want to Succeed for the Right Reasons: People go into business for lots of reasons other than to get rich. Maybe it’s about setting your own hours, or not having to listen to bosses who know less than you, or just being able to work in your shorts with the kids and dog crawling around your feet. But a good business needs to make money, and a good coach will help you tie the financial success of your business to your life goals. Women often find greater motivation to make more money when we see clearly how it will get us the life we want.
- You Need to Get Tough: A business coach provides moral support when owners face hard tasks. Tasks like tough negotiations with suppliers, resolving disputes, or firing people can take a toll on women, who are socialized to avoid conflict and promote harmony. A coach can provide invaluable support when the going gets tough, and we have to get tough, too.
- You Need to Embrace Data. Coaching is about learning to test and measure constantly to know what is working. Are your advertising investments paying off? Are you meeting your conversation rate targets? How long does your inventory stay on your shelves? Some women are not to drawn to “by the numbers” thinking. Even with the increase in women going into math and business, data-driven fields like science and MBA programs are still dominated by men. One sure way for women to improve at this key skill is through coaching.
- You Need a Friend. It’s lonely at the top of a business. Because we’re social, women can find this isolation particularly hard. It can feel as if there is no one to turn to: confiding in customers, employees, or other business owners isn’t smart; and the last things family members want to do is spend the little time they get with you talking about your business! But a business coach is there to talk about your business. The coach serves as confidante, mentor and sounding board and never gets tired of talking through the details of your business.
- You are Coachable. As coaches, we learn quickly to spot the business owner who simply can’t be coached and to move on. Not every business owner can accept the guidance, encouragement and (most important) accountability that a coach provides. As a group, women seem to be have a slightly easier time with this. Whether this suppleness is socialized into women or lies in our genes, it makes it easier to for us to get the full benefit of an investment in coaching.
- You Are A Business Owner. For every reason specific to women, there are ten reasons to invest in coaching that apply to business owners of either sex. A smart business owner, who wants to work smarter, not harder, invests in a good business coach. Being a woman may just mean you get a slightly better return on your investment!
Colleen Keenan is a Business Coach with ActionCOACH. She brings over 20 years of experience helping diverse organizations focus on and overcome strategic challenges coaching. She loves the opportunity coaching offers to make a real difference in the lives of business owners. Colleen lives in Bernardsville, NJ with her scientist husband and two teenage kids. In the free time that having a well-run business allows, she loves to sing, entertain and travel around the world. Colleen Keenan can be reached at (908) 766-0131 or colleenkeenan@actioncoach.com
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