Entrepreneurs often find starting their business to be more difficult than they expect, and seek business success coaching to put their business on the right foot. When they come to you for help, the first thing to find out about is their mindset. They may think they have a business mindset, but in reality, they are often treating their business as a hobby. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, if they are looking for something interesting to do in their spare time and they don’t want to make any money from it. But most of the time, that isn’t the case.

Business Success Coaching Starts With Awareness

When a client comes to you because his business isn’t succeeding at the level he was hoping for or expecting, make sure he is clear on his purpose for the business. Is it about doing something he finds enjoyable? Is it about making money? Is it about contribution to his community or to the world? Once you and he know with certainty that it’s a business he wants rather than a hobby, you can begin to coach him on the 3 business success coaching keys.

The 3 Keys

1. In a business the primary motivation has to be serving others. If your client’s priority is satisfying himself by using language or methods that he is attached to in some way, his intentions may be good, but he won’t get clients. And if clients won’t come, he can’t help them, no matter what his intentions are. Helping his customers has to be more important than doing it the exact way he wants to do it.
2. Your client has to provide solutions to the problems his clients actually have, not the ones he thinks they have or wants them to have. Part of business success coaching is helping your clients find ways to find out exactly what their clients need.
3. The third key in business success coaching is to coach your client to meet his clients at their level, not his own. Clients come to him for his expertise and understanding, and even if it gets repetitive or “boring” to work with people at a basic level, that’s what they require and that’s what his business is about–helping his clients.

Business success coaching on mindset is critical, but it can be tricky. Keep going back to these three keys with your client to make sure he doesn’t slip back into thinking he’s client-focused when he’s actually focused on his own perspective. Don’t let him turn his business back into a hobby, unless that’s what he really wants.

Give this strategy a try and see for yourself that it works. If you liked this coaching tip, leave a comment or use the handy bookmark buttons below to share it with others on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. Thanks!

Dorine G Kramer
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach