How do you find a business coach?

If you want to start a business and leave your 9-5 or scale your existing business to six figures or more, you’re in the right place. Today, I share what business coaching is and how to find an online business coach in 2023.

Ready to start growing your business? Let’s go. 

Chapters: 

What is business coaching? 
Is business coaching worth it?
The best way to find the right business coach
How business coaching can help you start and grow your business
How to scale your business with the help of a business coach

What is business coaching?

You might be wondering:

“What does a business coach do?” 

Good question! A business coach is someone who helps you grow your business and who mentors and guides you to get the best results in the shortest amount of time. 

The thing is: Top performers in all sorts of industries use coaches to get ahead and stay at the top. People like Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, and other top CEOs, athletes, and industry leaders use coaches to help them perform at their best. 

In fact, Forbes cites a survey that shows that one in six entrepreneurs turn to coaching to improve their performance.

Why? They’ve realized something important: To get to your goal faster, you can’t figure it all out on your own. Even if you’re the best in your industry, you simply can’t be a top performer without outside help. 

Want to know exactly how a coach can help you? Let’s take a look.

How does a business coach help you grow your business?

A business coach is someone who gives you guidance based on his or her own experience, mentors you, and asks probing questions to get to the core of a problem. 

You as the coachee need to do the work. But a coach is there to help you get to your goal faster and to ensure that you don’t get stuck along the way. 

At the same time, a coaching experience is all about your personal growth, so you develop tools to build your business on your own without remaining dependent on your coach. 

You see, business has always been about the same principles. There’s no point in reinventing the wheel and spending years trying to figure out how to grow your business. 

Instead, you can tap into someone else’s experience. Someone who has been where you are and who can tell you what works and what mistakes to avoid.

A coach will tell you what to do to get fast results. But a great coach will hold you accountable so that you take consistent action and make reaching your goal inevitable. 

Business coaching works for all kinds of business owners. When you’re starting your business, a coach can help you get it off the ground fast. And when you’ve hit a plateau in your business growth, a business coach can help you overcome that. 

Just look at my own journey. I’ve hired and worked with coaches ever since I started my business. And today, even though I’ve built a multiple 7-figure business, I still work with coaches in several different areas to continue to grow.

How do you work with a business coach?

A common way to work with a business coach is to work one-on-one with them. And today, online business coaching is a great alternative. An online coaching program is much more flexible and you get to work with a coach who feels like the perfect fit, instead of being restricted to local coaches. 

Plus, you don’t have to sign up for a one-on-one coaching program. There are other alternatives that work just like one-on-one coaching but in a self-study format. 

That’s how I designed my own program, Employee to Entrepreneur. I basically took all my coaching experience and distilled it into this course, which teaches you how to build a coaching business from scratch. 

I’ve then continued refining the course over the past few years. 

That’s why many of my clients get the same results as they would if they were working one-on-one with a coach. 

Is business coaching worth it?

The important question is: Is business coaching even worth it? 

Well, according to The Institute of Coaching, up to 86% of companies report that they recoup their investment in coaching and more. 

But what makes coaching so powerful? 

Why coaching is a must for top performers

Even the most experienced business owners use coaches. Why?

New York Times best-selling author Daniel Coyle visited nine of the world’s greatest talent hotbeds that are known for producing incredibly high percentages of the world’s top athletes, artists, and performers. In his book “The Talent Code” he distills the three elements that make a top performer: 

• Deep practice. Specific kinds of practice to improve skills fast. 
• Ignition. Deep-rooted motivation and commitment. 
• Coaching. A master coach who brings out the best in their students, the top performers.

Anyone you look at who’s at the top hasn’t gotten there all by themselves. Granted, they’ve worked hard to get there. But you can be sure that they’ve had outside help.

Take swimmer Michael Phelps, who famously became an Olympian and hit a world record even though he had to finish his race with water in his goggles, all thanks to the visualization exercises his coach had taught him.

Or Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, who worked with a business coach and found the experience invaluable.

How coaching helped me build a 7-figure business

I’ve used coaching in my own life. Whenever I’ve wanted to learn something, I’ve learned from the best in that field so that I could get results in the fastest and most efficient way possible.

For example, when I wanted to get fit, I hired a personal trainer from one of the top gyms in New York. He looked like a living statue and his clients looked exactly the way I wanted to look. 

And in my business, I worked with the best as well. Because I did, here’s what I’ve accomplished:

• Built a seven-figure business in my first year online.
• Executed a program launch that generated close to a million dollars.
• Built automated “evergreen” funnels that generate tens of thousands of dollars per month.

See how rapid business growth goes hand in hand with getting help and learning from someone who has already done it?

But all of this requires you to work with the right coach. How do you find him or her? 

That’s what we’ll look at next.

The best way to find an online business coach

Coaching is a multi-billion dollar niche. And while there are tons of coaches out there, you might have noticed that some of them claim they can coach you without having done the thing themselves. 

That’s why you need to know WHO to work with. Here’s how:

What I learned from losing $18,000 on business coaching 

I’ve worked with several coaches throughout the years. Most of my coaching investments have generated a return of at least 5-10 times my original investment.

But early on in my business, I hired a coach to help me grow my business… And wasted $18,000 in the process.

I saw first-hand what an unqualified coach can do to your business. She was completely unable to help me or even answer any of my questions. I would constantly hear, “Well, this should work…” or “You’re not believing in the process.”

Was it frustrating? You bet. 

In the end, it was a total waste of my money. But I learned my lesson:

A good coach doesn’t just hope and pray for results or rely on a single tactic. Instead, she KNOWS her methodology will work. A great coach someone who has done it and has the results to prove it.

How to know if a business coach is the right fit for you

So what should you look for in a business coach?

The coach you choose to work with should have tangible results. Not just her own but also results she’s helped others achieve.

Instead of looking at certifications or other unreliable qualifications, ask yourself:

Has this coach helped others get the results YOU want to achieve? Has she built successful businesses before? Has she been where you are today?

For example, I work with people who want to quit their jobs and start an online coaching business. That’s my own background. Before I started my business, I worked as a manager at a tech startup. 

And I built successful businesses before I started the business I run today. My first online business was a six-figure Facebook advertising consulting business. Before that, I built a six-figure tutoring business and a payment app. 

Today, I’ve helped thousands of new entrepreneurs build their businesses. And they’re all people who are a great fit for my services. My clients feel unfulfilled in their jobs and want to do something impactful and scalable.

How business coaching can help you start and grow your business

By now, we’ve looked at the theory behind business coaching. Why you should hire a coach and who you should work with.

But what does business coaching look like in practice? What can a coach specifically do for you?

The thing is: Even if you’re in your 9-5, a coach can help you start and grow your business. If you’re just starting out, it’s particularly easy to get stuck. Here’s how a coach can help you move forward, faster:

Figuring out a business idea (the foolproof way)

Anyone who has thought about starting or who has started a business knows it can be hard to come up with a winning business idea. 

You don’t have to come up with the next Facebook or Amazon, but you do need to have an idea that’s profitable, that you enjoy working on, and that you can back up with results. When I first started my business, I had to go through a couple of ideas before I found the right idea, my Facebook ads coaching business. 

That’s where a business coach can help you get clarity much faster. I’ve helped hundreds of students work through their ideas. 

One of my students had been thinking about starting a business for a good number of years before we started working together. She knew she wanted to work for herself, but she couldn’t see how her skills would translate into a business.

As someone who had built a successful career, she was perfectly positioned to help others do the same. And that’s what she decided to do as a career coach. 

Getting your market research right from the start (do this if you want to be successful!)

One of the BIGGEST mistakes new entrepreneurs make? They overlook what their customers really want. Unless you can speak your client’s language, you won’t sell much.

That’s where market research comes in. You need to research your market to figure out who they are and what they want.

But time and time again, I see people get stuck in this phase. That’s when a business coach can help you understand your customers better than the back of your hand. 

For example, one of my students was stuck in figuring out her market. She knew that entrepreneurs needed branding, but at the same time, she struggled with getting them to buy. After all, she wasn’t explaining to them in their own words why they should hire her. 

I gave her the exact script to get people on market research calls and what to ask and listen for to truly understand why her customers wanted her services, branding. 

Soon enough, she started closing sales calls.

Getting your first client (and growing your business fast)

Once you have your idea, you need clients. But how? Again, a business coach can help you get there faster because she’s done it herself AND she’s helped others do it. 

What your coach should do is to show you how to use proven strategies and adapt them to your industry, as well as changes in the world and online.

For example, when I built my business, the live streaming app Periscope was big. Today? You hardly hear of it. Instead, there are other, even bigger live streaming platforms, like Facebook and Instagram. 

I take the formula I used on Periscope and teach it to my students so that they can go and get clients from those platforms that work today. That’s how I adapt what has always worked in different formats and apply it to today’s platforms and tools. 

Adjusting your mindset and ensuring long-term success

Here’s something I learned early on in my business:

Successful entrepreneurs think differently. That’s why they get the results they get. 

You need to think differently to get different results. Your business success isn’t just about the actions you take, but also the thoughts you think. 

This is when a coach can be one of your greatest assets. Mindset changes can take years… Or months or even weeks if you work with someone who can coach you in developing your mindset.

Because I recognize the power of action AND mindset, my students get the results they get. 

Converting clients on sales calls (the sweat-free way)

Raise your hand if you feel sales calls are slimy or salesy.  

I remember my first sales call clearly; it was nerve-wracking. I studied selling for a week before even jumping on the call. 

And it didn’t stop there. I continued to learn all there was to know about selling to become a great salesperson. 

Today, I coach my students to develop their sales skills fast (without feeling salesy!). 

Writing copy that sells your services and products

Want to know what I hear all the time? It’s this: “Luisa, how do I write copy for my business? My copy doesn’t get any likes, comments, or sales.” 

Copywriting is the marketing and sales copy you put out there. You know, your sales pages, emails, web copy, and social media posts. But how do you write copy that gets people to want to work with you? 

That’s what a coach can help you with. 

Getting published in industry-leading publications like Forbes and Entrepreneur

One of the best ways for new entrepreneurs to build their brand and get clients is to get in front of a big audience. That’s what an industry-leading publication helps you with.

How to scale your business with the help of a business coach 

Scaling your business? A business coach can help with raising your rates, setting up evergreen funnels, creating new products, and getting more clients. Here’s how to scale your business with the help of business coaching:

Create an “automated” business with evergreen funnels

When your business is chugging along (you have some clients and you’ve achieved a bit of growth), you most likely want to start scaling your business in ways that don’t add more work to your schedule.

That’s what evergreen funnels can do for you and an experienced coach can help you with.

Take one of my clients, who’s a successful energy coach. She wanted to grow her business without having to use all her time on selling and client work. And with her evergreen funnel, she’s been able to do exactly that. 

Get booked out months in advance

To get your first clients is one thing. But getting booked out? That’s a different ball game and something that business coaching can help you achieve faster.

Raising your rates with confidence

Want to know how you can raise your rates without scaring away clients?

That’s what a lot of my clients ask me about. A coach can help you work through the beliefs and mindset issues that are keeping you stuck.

Many of my clients have gone from charging $1,500 to $5,000 and beyond for their coaching packages. 

Selling online courses so that you can spend less time in your business

If you’re successfully selling coaching or consulting, you can only take on so many clients before your schedule fills up. And that means you can only grow your business to a certain point.

I learned this in my own business when I had scaled it to six figures in four months. Suddenly, I couldn’t take on any more clients, even though I wanted to continue growing my business.

That’s when I started packaging my material into online courses. They were both easier to sell (because the price point isn’t as high as for 1:1 coaching) and you can scale your business without adding on more client work. 

The best part? Your students get the same results because you’ve already taught your methodology in your coaching business.

Scaling your traffic and quickly growing your business

And finally, when you’re scaling your business, a big part of it comes down to getting more traffic. Again, this is something your coach can help you with.

One of the fastest ways to scale your traffic is to use paid advertising. And instead of wasting years learning it on your own, you can get help from a coach. 

Many of my clients have built their own ad funnels and scaled their businesses to multiple six figures. I did it myself in my business. With the help of paid ads, I scaled my business to over seven figures in a year.

Ready to find an online business coach? 

Excited about the possibilities that business coaching offers? By now, you know how a business coach can help you grow your business and what you should look for in a coach. By working with a coach who has the results to show, you can quickly build your business.

Now, over to you: 

What coaching business are you building?

Write a quick comment here below.