By Ben Fewtrell-RecruitLoop

As a business owner, it can get lonely and frustrating at times. Very few entrepreneurs have someone they can lean on when times get tough.

A business coach is a great way for you to get non-biased help from someone who has the experience of building businesses. It is becoming commonplace and by choosing the right coach to work with will pay for itself.

No matter how long you have been in business or how much experience you personally have, everybody can benefit from working with an external mentor or coach.

Here are 11 clear benefits of working with a business coach:

1. A business coach will stretch you out of your comfort zone and build your confidence

Complacency and fear are the most expensive behaviours in your business. You’ll stay in your comfort zone and it’s very unlikely that you will do the things that will make the biggest difference.

Working with a business coach will ensure that you are constantly stretched out of your comfort zone, plus, learning new skills builds your confidence and gives you the ability to make better decisions.

2. An unreasonable friend

A business coach is honest with you.

Rather than telling you what you want to hear a great business coach will tell you what you need to hear. Most of your friends and family will want to be polite to you and not upset you. Unfortunately, this won’t help you if you’re going in a direction that is unlikely to help you achieve your goals.

Your business coach should be brutally honest with you and help you make objective decisions and not let you get away with making excuses.

3. You’ll benefit from their contacts

Nothing great was ever achieved alone. Your business coach will be able to introduce you to specialists to help you get the job done. Finding people you can trust and rely on is time-consuming. Having a ready-made network of experts to tap into is paramount.

You’ll need help in areas such as accounting, marketing, recruitment and much more.

In most cases, your business coach has already done the hard work of selecting specialists that you can rely on and help with business growth.

4. Bounce your ideas off someone external to your business

Having someone out of your immediate circle of friends and family to bounce ideas off will give you a better perspective.

When it comes to making business decisions you want someone with experience to be able to challenge you and ask the right questions.

5. You’ll be held accountable

You are human! And at some stage you will get distracted and/or avoid doing something you find uncomfortable.

A business coach will hold you accountable and make sure you complete the tasks and strategies you have agreed upon

Typically, a business coach will have a copy of your plan or diary and will meet with you on a regular basis to make sure that you are on track. Having accountability will fast track your success and make it less likely that you will go without doing what needs to be done to grow your business.

6. They’ll help you create a plan and stay focused

To succeed in business you’ll need a roadmap! Knowing what to put into your plan and how to prioritise can be very overwhelming. Working with a business coach will help you develop a plan that is easy to implement and realistic to achieve.

You’ll set KPI’s and your business coach will help you keep focused on achieving the target you have set.

7. You’ll keep things in perspective

As an entrepreneur you’ll have good days and bad days. There will be days when you want to give up and days where you want to high-five everybody in sight.

A business coach will help you keep things in perspective, no matter how tough it gets or what challenges you face. You will have someone to remind you why you started this journey in the first place.

8. Try new things and get unstuck

A business coach will encourage innovation and help you get unstuck when you feel like you have lost momentum.

9. You’ll become a better leader

Talk to any successful entrepreneur and you will soon learn that the success of the business is directly related to the quality of their team.

A business coach will work with you to develop your recruitment process and your leadership skills. Learning to manage many people within a team can take a lot of time, and leadership is a skill that is best developed with the help of your coach.

10. Become more efficient

One of the biggest challenges you face as a business owner is spending too much time on tasks that are not critical to help you achieve your goal.

A business coach will help you prioritise your time and delegate tasks that can be done by a team member or an external source.

11. You’ll have more fun!

Your business coach will make sure that you take time to celebrate your wins.

As you achieve your goals it’s important for you and your team to take the time to celebrate. Sharing this journey with your coach will be exciting and rewarding.