Why Everyone Needs a Business Coach

In any human venture requiring growth and development, everyone needs a coach. In business, investing in a business coach automatically means investing in yourself and your business. A business coach is a pillar of support and mentorship for everyone even if you are just struggling to get the business off the ground or you already have some considerable experience in growing the business. Coaches mostly play the role of objective third parties and even business partners who can help speed up your business process by routinely identifying areas the business needs improvement and offering guidance in areas where the business is weak. It may require some expense to get a good business coach but many professionals who hire coaches like to testify that doing so is an extremely worthwhile investment. So, no matter what business you are in, are you considering hiring a business coach or you already have one? Professionally, a Business Coach:

Helps to Confront and Address Your Shortcomings:

Your business may be yours to do what you like with but only a business coach has the gumption and the authority to tell you hey man, doing it this way can give you better results. Your team members and colleagues may not always feel comfortable doing so for obvious reasons. A good coach won't just tell you what you want to hear. He tells you boldly what is good for you and your business not what is sweet in your ears. He considers it his duty to actively push you to question yourself and confront your shortcomings in a positive manner.



Helps you to Learn from an Unbiased and Experienced Viewpoint:

No matter what business you are in, you’ll always need a third party opinion for an unbiased overview of your performance. That’s where the business coach comes in. No matter how successful you believe you are in your business, there's always room for improvement. The exact reason you will always need an objective and authoritative source of feedback which a good coach provides.

Helps You to Have New Networking Opportunities:

Most business coaches in line with their professional duties are always very experienced and well-connected persons. Thus, they are always able to help people they are coaching to expand their professional networks, which is very valuable for business. Of course, every business person knows the enormous value of a network which a coach easily makes available as an integral part of the coaching package.

Helps to Align your Business and Personal Goals:

The first major challenge of a good business coach is to intimately understand you and your business. That done, it becomes fairly easy for him to provide you a true outside perspective to help you align your business objectives with your personal ones to avoid conflicts. When your business goals conflict with your personal goals, it is difficult if not impossible to make meaningful progress therefrom. That is where Coaches help you to pull the brakes where needed and to stay hyper-focused in the real areas of need.

Helps you to be Accountable for facing your Fears:

Every good business Coach always likes to hold the person he is coaching accountable. That is why they always challenge their clients to step out of their comfort zone and to take the requisite risks in their business. That is what gets the needed results as needed.

Helps You to Find Clarity:

Any good business coach always helps his clients to find clarity, to break through business barriers and to generally change for the better. Most business experts do recommend that anytime you hit a rut in your business, and it becomes difficult for you to know where to turn or what to do next, just talk to a coach. Hitting a rut in your business is at times more common than what many business owners like to admit. The coach helps to get clarity at such points.

Helps You to Gain a Break in your Routine:

Good business coaches always help their clients not to get stuck in the rut. They are available to help find new and practical ways to continue to grow a business. Granted that procedures and routines are quite important for business consistency, experience has shown that after a while, most businesses run the risk of becoming stagnant. A stagnant business by all definitions means a business that is not making progress by its inability to grow. That is undesirable and most good coaches know this and they do help to find a way to engender growth.

Helps You to Hear Constructive Criticism:

It is the business of a coach not just to sing the praises of his client but to criticize and correct as needed. Employees and associates may be uncomfortable to criticize openly but a good coach can do so and be tolerated more if it is in the overall interest of the business. Most business coaches habitually make it their business to provide constructive criticism on the areas of any business they feel needs some improvement. That is what gets the results the business owner really needs.

High Value Traits of a Good Mentor

Have you ever had a mentor? If you haven’t, you are not alone. Even people who have had mentors still don’t understand the relationship between Mentors and Mentees. Many simply see a Mentee as a young intern or co-worker or someone always looking up to another person for help. Truth is, mentorship is for any and everyone, of any age, who seeks knowledge and wants to get ahead in business or in life in general. Merriam-Webster defines a mentor as “someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and, often, younger person.” The rule is not just to approach anyone to be your mentor. If you want a good mentor, look for the following high-value traits. 

Truthfulness

A good mentor must be honest and truthful at all times. You do not need anyone who flatters you as a mentor. Telling you the truth to your face as a way of encouraging you is all that you need in a mentor. A good mentor should always be truthful with the advice dispensed, even if it stings a little. A straight-shooting mentor in the long run is always more beneficial than someone who is constantly praising you.

Trustworthy and Confidential

Mentors and Mentees relationship is best when based on trust and confidentiality.  The relationship is stronger and most beneficial when these conditions exist. For the mentorship to succeed, there must be a certain level of discretion and trust. This is because mentees need to feel that they can talk to their mentor about anything or any challenge they're facing, without fears of repercussion or any form of loss or reprisals. 

Generous with Information

When you come across someone knowledgeable and generous with that knowledge, you have a good mentor. That is because good mentors are always willing to share what they know with their Mentees. They willingly share information for the benefit of their Mentees and not for their own personal glory or aggrandizement. Good mentoring takes time and commitment, but both parties must set realistic expectations that are agreed upon ahead of time. Mentees must however not take undue advantage over their mentors’ time and privacy. That is what makes the relationship really beneficial.

How to Find a Mentor in SFI Business

This somehow has become a very interesting issue in SFI business. I say so because the entire business of SFI revolves around mentoring. Credible mentoring is in the entire gamut of the business because everyone is an affiliate in their individual capacities and we are all involved in the business. We all have sponsors.

A good question to ask here is, why search anywhere else for mentors when your sponsors and your entire up-line which is about 6 layers up is there, ready, able and willing to help you out at all times?

Even if you do not want a mentor from among your sponsors, you can join the FORUM and A2A. You can then reach out, make friends, and search for all the qualities you need in a mentor then get one or more for yourself. Very many excellent mentors are out there in SFI ready for the picking.

Oops! Lest I forget, the ultimate mentor in SFI is Mr. Gery Carson himself, the Founder of SFI. That is the man who mentors practically everyone in SFI business. Just ASK GERY anything about SFI and you get a very prompt and adequate reply. Gery likes to oil things a bit by telling a bit of his own personal story as found in the Launchpad for beginners in SFI. Mentoring can’t get any better than that, can it? 

Why SFI Business Can't Run on Autopilot

The only business I know which runs on autopilot is piloting a passenger aircraft at 60,000 feet above sea level. Even that is only for some time when you are at cruising level. If you have to change course, weather some turbulence or bring down the aircraft, auto-piloting will be inadequate to guarantee safety. I do not see how you can possibly run a serious business like SFI completely on autopilot. Some aspects of it, YES but for all of SFI business, it is a big NO. 

 
You may be able to run your Gateways advertising on autopilot. You can automate your bidding in PriceBenders auctions. Auto-responders to some extent can handle customer inquiries and such like activities. That is about all you can run on autopilot in SFI.

When it comes to the following serious SFI activities, your personal attention comes out best all the time. Some of these activities are:

1. Your daily to-do list.
2. Buy and sell decisions.
3. Reading and participating in the forum.
4. Reading and participating in Ask SC.
5. Socializing through a2a.
6. Mentoring Affiliates.
7. Team Leadership activities.
8. Reviewing purchases.
9. Goals setting.
10. Strategizing. etc. etc, etc.

If however you have run your SFI business for quite some time, you have broken even and are making a profit, you may thereafter choose to do less activities or even log in daily. That can’t in anyway qualify as auto-piloting though. It is simply reduced activities while the business still runs smoothly. Nothing beats human efforts any day particularly in SFI activities.

How to Stand Out From the Crowd in SFI Business

Yes indeed! Thousands of affiliates are doing practically the same things in SFI but with varying results. According to Zig Ziglar, “Successful people do not do different things. They do things differently.” That is why they are successful. So it is in SFI. In SFI, thousands affiliates do the same things to promote their businesses. The affiliates who stand out are those who manage to do these things differently. That is how we all get varying and various results in our businesses as SFI affiliates. 

 
To stand out in SFI, you must find a very personal and result-oriented way to do the following in the business and with the business.

1. Advertising.
2. Products promotion.
3. Sponsoring.
4. Mentoring.
5. Associating.
6. Socializing.
7. Reading.
8. Communicating.
9. Planning.
10. Executing.
11. Evaluating.
12. Goals-setting.

You will agree with me that these are the major things thousands of SFI affiliates do in SFI on daily basis. You will stand out if you manage to find the best ways to do all these and more things differently. The results you are getting will speak eloquently for you and these results will make you to stand out amongst thousands of your peers.

Best wishes.