How A Freelancer Business Coach Can Help Jumpstart Your Business
Starting a freelance business is an exciting and freeing experience. It opens you up mentally, physically and financially to more independence and autonomy in what you do, when you do it and where you do it from.
For many of us (myself included) who work for ourselves, the opportunity to design, build and create our own brand and subsequent company ethos and culture can be both thrilling and terrifying at the same time.
Having my own freelancer business coach completely jumpstarted my business when I was first starting out. I didn’t know what I didn’t know and a business coach helped me get my thoughts in order, organize my have-to’s vs. my want-to’s in creating a business and was a fantastic sounding board to all the wild and wonderful ideas I had.
In this article, I outline how a freelancer business coach can help jumpstart your business to help make your first year a success!
Building Your Brand
The first step of any (and I mean ANY) business is establishing your why. If you haven’t seen Simon Sinek’s TedTalk on How Great Leaders Inspire Action, I’d highly recommend you click that link right now.
Understanding why you want to start a business will help inform what you want that business to look like and how you execute your vision. I worked with a freelancer business coach to work through my why and help understand why I wanted to start a business, what wasn’t I getting in my full-time job that I wanted to intentionally create in my business etc.
Having a coach walk you through self-exploration exercises, ask powerful questions and get you thinking about the foundation of your business is key!
Execution and Referrals
The second step of creating a business is knowing you don’t know everything and you will need to create a team of folks to help augment your expertise. When I started my business, the second person I hired after my business coach was my CPA because I knew from the start, me and taxes and finances? Nope!
A freelancer business coach can help you execute the vision of what you want your business to look like but also suggest referrals for services you know you are going to need help with. I’d recommend starting with a finance/accounting person and depending on your skill level, think about a marketer/social media person to help with content creation and design.
Motivation
If you are going into business alone, which is what most freelancers do, it can oftentimes lead to working non-traditional hours, at home, alone. For many of us, this is when we do our best work, however, it can be really difficult to consistently and over a long period of time maintain a high level of motivation.
A freelancer business coach can act as an accountability partner and give you the external motivation to keep going when you aren’t finding the motivation within. Scheduling monthly check-ins with my business coach was absolutely essential in keeping me grounded and motivated when I was first starting my business coach- particularly in business creation areas I didn’t really have a natural interest in learning like creating client contracts or learning QuickBooks- was pivotal.
These were critical parts of my business I knew I had to get done but weren’t half as fun or exciting to learn/do as building a website or creating a community on social media.
Finding The Right Coach For You…
The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. A good partnership is the foundation in building a successful relationship with your coach and ultimately a successful business.
Booking introductory calls helps to interview and actually meet a coach will help you determine if a coach is right for you. You need to find someone you get and that gets you. A good coach offers services to address your personal needs and preferences. You need to make sure these services align with what you need and what you want from coaching and that you are bought into the process of how that coach operates.
Lastly, you should receive an agreement to clearly set expectations of the coaching relationship and your coach should explain their ethics and presence in holding a supportive partnership. If you don’t feel a coach fully aligns with what you want or need, don’t hire them.
A good coach will have a community of other coaches to refer you to if there isn’t a synergy between you and them (I do this all the time). At the end of the day, it’s all about helping you match with a coach that is the best for YOU, not a coach trying to make as much money as possible.
Take your time, do your research and feel good about your decision to hire (or not) a freelancer business coach.
If you are interested in exploring options working with me- let’s chat! Check out my services page or shoot me a quick email at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com
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Meet The Writer!
Hi! My name is Nadia Ibrahim-Taney and I help people design happy and fulfilling careers through authentic career coaching. My expertise includes career exploration guidance, resume writing, interview prep and LinkedIn profile optimization. My pronouns are She/ Her/ Hers and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I focus on how diverse identities impact and influence folks holistically and professionally. Please connect with me on LinkedIn or at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com
