Business coaching is becoming more popular, and the number of people leaving their shingles to provide the services associated with this activity has increased tremendously in recent years.

This article explores a few more reasons why coaches add value, especially to smaller companies.

In a previous post, I noted that coaching addresses the loneliness of business owners who simply have no one to turn to to discuss their challenges.

If we examine the word “coach” and think about sports, we ask ourselves, how do coaches work to improve the performance of their athletes?

One way is by imparting new skills, tricks of the trade that they learned or discovered on their own, that are not intuitively obvious to their players.

For example, just this week, one of my clients is involved in building a telesales unit and is trying to recruit college students for his part-time positions. It’s a good idea, but the plan is to advertise in newspapers within the intensive student zip codes.

At best, this is a roundabout way of recruiting, where without shelling out any cash, you can post job ads at university placement offices. You KNOW students will see ads that way! And as a result, there are major universities within blocks of your office, and a school of your own is located in your building!

I have recruited this guy for years, both as a provider of telemarketing work and on behalf of my advisory and consulting clients.

This example demonstrates just one small way a coach improves performance. Sometimes you have a cheaper, more direct, and more effective method of doing something you just don’t know about.

But assuming you know all the basics, what else can a trainer do for you?

Going back to athletics, for a second, coaches make their players play harder.

They do this through all kinds of means, including goal setting and encouragement, to name a few. Left to our own devices, we are tempted to relax, especially after achieving moderate success. This can lead to relapse and a downward cycle of achievement.

With a trainer, you’ll get the push, shove, and occasional kick in the pants you need to surpass your previous peak performance.

In our age of expanding coaching services, no small business owner needs to be an island.

That’s good news, isn’t it?

In future articles, we’ll explore the roles of trainers even more.