The Online Prosperity Experience

When should you hire a business coach? Here’s how to know.

If you’re a business owner, you might be wondering, “When is the right time to hire a business coach?”

Hiring a business coach can help you make strides forward in your business. After all, not everyone who starts a business is an expert in business!

In many cases, hiring the right coach can help propel you forward in your business — with everything from improving your mindset, creating a clear strategy, and knowing exactly what actions to take to achieve your goals.

How do you know if it’s the right time to hire a business coach? Consider these 7 signs it’s time to hire a coach.

1. You are just starting your business and you’ve never done this before.

2. You’re struggling to find clarity.

3. You’re missing key parts of your business foundation.

4. You’re struggling to reach or convert your ideal clients.

5. You keep having limiting beliefs

6. You’re tired of people giving you advice, yet you can’t seem to find your direction.

7. You want support along the life-changing journey of starting a business.

When to hire a business coach? It’s all up to you

If any of the above scenarios ring true for you, it might be time to consider hiring a business coach.

Whether it’s mindset support, strategic support, marketing and sales support or all three, the right business coach can be a wise investment so that you can achieve your business goals.

The first step in hiring the right business coach for is knowing what questions to ask.

What’s the difference between a business coach and a consultant? And who should you hire?

So you want to start or grow your business? Congratulations! Whether you're just starting out or you're already on your way, one of the best things you can do for your business is to hire a business coach or consultant.

But what's the difference between the two? And more importantly, who should you hire? In this podcast, I'll break down the key differences between business coaches and consultants, and share with you who will be the best fit for YOUR business.

As a business owner looking for help, you may not be sure who you need to hire. Do you need a business coach, consultant, or mentor? You want to hire the right fit for your needs and get the results you want!

In this podcast, I’ll outline the differences between a business coach, consultant or mentor — so can you choose which one is the best fit for you.

Hire a business coach when you want true coaching

Business coaching, and coaching in general, is where the coach guides the client to figure out their own answers vs. providing the answers.

A true coaching agenda is guided by the client. The coach is there to provide a sounding board and be a guide to helping the client figure out their next steps.

Business coaching can be more helpful than consulting or mentoring for the following things:

• Getting clarity and figuring out what you want
• Setting and achieving meaningful goals
• Finding the right path and starting the right business for you
• Creating a business that aligns with and supports your values
• Breaking through blocks and challenges, especially “internal” blocks such as fear and impostor syndrome
• Finding and sustaining motivation
• Enhancing your productivity
• Developing a more focused mindset
• Thriving in times of uncertainty
• Managing stress, anxiety, and overwhelm
• Staying accountable to yourself and your goals

In business coaching, we take a look at what’s working and not working for you in your business, paying special attention to those areas that seem out of alignment. We get to the bottom of the issue, you define what success looks like to you, and we go from there. Changes in one area have a direct effect on the other.

Note: As business coaching has risen in popularity and given the fact that anyone (even non-accredited coaches), can claim to be one, you want to be very clear about what credentials your coach has, as well as what their approach is. (Many coaches are actually mentors in disguise!)

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We live in a time when extroverts seem to get all the glory and attention.

Why Are You So Quiet?

Have you ever been asked this before? As an introvert, I’ve been asked this numerous times in my life.

First off, that’s a horrible question to ever ask someone. It comes off as degrading and you feel like you’re better or above the other person. 

Growing up in school and college I was always told that you need to be an extrovert to succeed. Or that on average extroverts were more successful or made the most money.

Extroverts are always the focal point of group conversations and because of that, they stand out. 

In fact, even the education system and our workplaces put a premium on people who are gregarious, outgoing, and comfortable working in large groups. Certainly, the media likes extroverts.

Those of us who are more introverted and like to spend time alone, or in smaller gatherings, have become outsiders.

If you are a coach, consultant or small business owner, and also an introvert, you might feel you are at something of a disadvantage.

After all, the limelight seems to shine on those coaches, consultants or small business owners who have websites filled with their photos and video clips. They hold court at conferences and do well in large client meetings.

But what about the rest of us, who are more quietly spoken, and are happy spending hours at a time reading alone, thinking alone, and coming up with our own ideas?

“There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.” - Susan Cain

Extroverted coaches, consultants or small business owners may make the most noise, but introverted freelancers can be better thinkers, have better ideas, and do better work for their clients.

Ultimately, it’s that quality of work that builds your reputation and brings you success.

Get in the driver’s seat of your coaching, consulting or small business, or fail

Most coaches, consultants or small businesses fail to achieve the level of success they deserve simply because they haven't adopted the Business owner Mindset.

They follow the old model of being in the “service” of their clients. They take a subservient role, feeling grateful for every crumb of work that comes their way. In fee negotiations, they cede power to their clients and buckle under when pressured to charge less.

The new and better model is to be the coach, consultant or small business owner who sits firmly in the driver’s seat.

• This coach, consultant or small business owner has a plan for his or her business.
• She sets goals and chooses her clients carefully.
• She markets herself in a way that associates a high level of value with her business.
• She spends very little time looking for work, because work comes to her, mainly through word of mouth and referrals.
• She is in control and negotiates fees from a position of strength.
• She also watches carefully for opportunities to leverage her knowledge and expertise in ways that enable her to create new and profitable streams of income.

If you want to get into the driver’s seat of your own coaching, consultant or small business, learn more about how we help others create a business that's profitable and enjoyable.

Perform at a higher level by connecting with other coaches, consultants and small business owners.

As a Digital Marketer, I often feel like I work in a vacuum. Generally, I work alone, which means I don’t have a team around me to celebrate with. It also means I don’t have as many opportunities to network, which makes it challenging to grow my business.

But I’ve learnt how to overcome that challenge. Here in this podcast are some of the steps and actions you can take to use networking to grow your freelance business.

This isolation can be tough on us. If we have a bad day, it can sometimes be hard to drag ourselves up out of the fog. If we feel lost, we can’t push our chairs back and chat with the person in the cubicle next to us.

Beyond our daily challenges, we also face longer-term struggles when we work alone. For example, at the beginning of the year, we might have set some ambitious goals and created a plan to help us achieve them. But, being alone, there is nobody around to keep us accountable.

In other words, building your coaching, consulting and small business can be hard when you work alone.

That’s why the people that network have an advantage. They are getting to know each other. They are finding out that others share the exact same challenges.

When everyone goes home, some of them will keep in touch with the people they have met while networking. Maybe they’ll form a private group on Facebook, so they can keep the conversation going.

And if they create small groups and keep in touch, they’ll be giving themselves a big advantage.

They won’t be isolated anymore.

They will have people they can reach out to when they are having a bad week or bad day.

They will have people they can celebrate with when they have a really good day. And they will have people around them who can help them stick to their most ambitious plans for the future.

My advice?

Get out to a conference at least once a year and make friends with a few other Coaches, consultants or small businesses. If you can’t do that, then make friends online and create a small group of fellow freelancers.

Either way, you’ll perform at a higher level if you are not alone.

The Importance of Being Truly Authentic in Business

Being the true and authentic version of yourself is the only way to really create a business that is profitable and enjoyable

Authenticity is the quality of being the true you.

• It’s about being real,
• being true,
• standing forth with confidence and conviction,
• and showing up every day as the person that you truly are.

Some people struggle with being authentic as they are led to believe that they have to put on an act or show up as the person that someone else wants them to be rather than just being themselves.

To run a business that truly serves your ideal client, however, you have to be authentic in everything that you do.

If you’re putting something out there that is not truly aligned with you, the results you get will not be aligned either. This includes the clients that you get to work with.

You may even find that you struggle to get any clients to buy into your offering as you may be being inconsistent in your approaches to business, for example in your marketing strategies

To be really successful not just as a business owner but as an individual, be the person that succeeds in originality.

The one that everyone knows as being authentic because they can see how passionate and truthful you are being in everything that you do. ⁠

In this Podcast, I share 5 pieces of advice to help you with letting your true and authentic self shine through in everything that you do in business:

There's no such thing as an overnight success.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is likely trying to scam you. Anyone who promises a proven process or an easy success formula is probably trying to take advantage of you.

The only way to succeed in business is to learn the rules and find a Mentor who can help you navigate the system.

There's no magic formula for success: just hard work, dedication, and a willingness to learn.

It’s easy to sit in a meeting room on a Friday afternoon and say, “I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel here”.

It’s much harder to say, “It’s going to involve working through the weekend, but let’s step back and see if we can be genuinely creative, and come up with an idea that really is new and interesting.”

In other words, the decision not to reinvent the wheel is the easy way out. It’s the lazy way out. It means you can stop thinking, stop worrying about making a mistake, and grab a “proven process” off the shelf.

It’s also a first-class ticket to mediocrity.

Beware anyone who tempts you with a “proven process” or an easy “success formula”.

I’m not saying you should totally ignore what you see and learn. Not at all. Find out what has worked well for other people. Learn from their successes.

But if you simply sit back and copy what others have done, you’ll be very unlikely to achieve any real results for yourself.

As a coach, consultant or small business owner, you can take the same road.

Read less about what others have done to market their businesses, and spend more time thinking of something original, and hopefully a little crazy.

That’s what gets you noticed.

3 Tips For How To Focus on and Enjoy The Process of Success

Do you know what the expression, “The journey is more important than the destination” really means?

If you want to be successful, listen up!

Life is a series of small moments. The goal of life isn’t to acquire things. Rather, it’s about learning how to focus on and enjoy the process of success.

If you obsess about the final outcome, you end up missing out on all the amazing things that happen along the way.

Are you ready to learn 3 tips on how to focus on and enjoy the process of success?

If you are constantly looking for ways that you can get from start to finish with a hop, skip and a jump, keep reading. I’ve got 3 tips for how you can enjoy the process, while still working towards the achievement of your goals.

1. Enjoy The Present Moment

2. Celebrate Your Progress

3. Live Your Life Purpose

You should also spend less time trying to focus on “where the money is at”, and more time identifying the kind of work you are best at and enjoy the most.

Enjoy your work more, and you’ll feel happier. And the happier you feel, you more successful you will become.

The fewer choices you offer, the more you will sell.

If you've ever wondered why more choice doesn't actually lead to increased sales or conversions, this Podcast is for you. In this podcast, marketing expert Prosper Taruvinga explains the paradox of choice and how it can actually lead to paralysis and decreased sales.

He also shares some tips on how you can overcome this challenge in your own business.

Whether you're a coach, consultant or small business owner, this podcast episode will give you some valuable insights into the psychology of choice and how you can use it to your advantage.

Find some challenging and interesting problems to solve.

In this podcast, Business Coach and Consultant Prosper Taruvinga talks about how seeking out challenging, interesting work can help prevent burnout.

He shares his own experience of burnout and how he was able to overcome it by making a change in his attitude and approach to work.

If you're feeling burned out, this podcast is a must-listen!