THE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP IS GREAT.

Hi there. This is Lee Crumbaugh, CEO of Forrest Consulting.

Let’s talk about a great opportunity for the right person. That might be you. The opportunity is real.

A survey of CEOs on how they get the support they need to keep their companies moving forward showed that 39% of venture-backed start-up CEOs had a coach and 60% of growth-stage CEOs had a coach,

As to the benefits of being coached, a study by the International Coaching Federation found that 86% of individuals who worked with a coach reported improved business performance. According to a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Association Resource Center, the average ROI of coaching is around 7 times the initial investment. And over a quarter of coaching clients reported an ROI of 10 to 49 times the cost. A primary benefit cited was improved decision-making.

Importantly, those who opt to be coached recognize the value. According to a survey of 305 business owners by The Alternative Board:

• Business coaches are the second-most trusted advisor for business owners (with fellow business owners being the most trusted advisor).

• 71% of business owners who had used a business coach rated the coach’s impact on their business as a 7 or higher on a 10-point scale.

But there is so much more opportunity out there for business coaches:

• Only 18% of the respondents who had never used a business coach rated a coach’s potential impact on their business as 7 or higher.

Conclusions: Coaching adds great value. Growth-oriented CEOs recognize the value of coaching. More coaching opportunities will emerge if business coaches educate owners, leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs about the value of being coached.

THE CASE FOR BUSINESS COACHING

While business owners, leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs may be experts in their domain - be it real estate, investment, law, home service, entertainment, interior design, accounting, marketing, publishing, IT, or any other business pursuit - they are not necessarily experts in developing and running a business and making it highly successful.

That’s the base case for business coaching:

A business coach’s expertise is making a business successful and then raising its level of success.

And, owners, leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs are often challenged to gain perspective and additional ideas and views. Most business leaders can gain from an objective, educated third-party perspective.

A business coach can help owners, leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs find their vision, set their plan, and achieve their goals by providing guidance, support, and a fresh perspective.

Also, owners, leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs typically have limited knowledge about important business topics, such as human resources, marketing and business development, business models, planning processes, productivity, performance management, and so on.

A business coach can introduce concepts, frameworks, knowledge, and tools and guide clients in working with these elements to help them improve their businesses and themselves as a business leaders.

Finally, working with a coach who serves as a confidant can yield great benefits, both in being able to share concerns and ideas that cannot be voiced to employees and other stakeholders and by using the confidant as a resource who promotes accountability and clear-eyed assessment.

A business coach can be an invaluable confidential sounding board who offers a highly informed perspective on the business and the client and who can help hold the client accountable to meeting the goals and commitments needed for greater success.

COACHING AS A CAREER OR SIDELINE

For the right person, business coaching can be a terrific endeavor. I have found that it offers:

• The opportunity to be of great help to varied owners, leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs. (Unlike consulting, my other endeavor, coaching is all about execution and seeing results.)

• A sweet spot where honesty, directness, and accountability are encouraged and welcomed: As the coach, you come with your best, you give it your best, and you expect the best.

• Deep engagement that often results in the development of lasting business and even personal relationships.

• The ability to structure the use of your time.

• A generally predictable ongoing revenue stream.

• A way to leverage your education and experience and to learn from others’ circumstances, successes, and challenges.

WHAT LED ME TO COACHING

If the idea of being a business coach intrigues you (or if you are already a business coach looking for a good home), read on. You might be the person we want to work with.

I added business coaching to my strategy consulting practice early in 2018. I came to business coaching as an answer to my professional mission of getting more organizations to create and execute a strategic plan for greater success.

This was the destination of a journey that began over 30 years ago with the design of a strategic planning system optimized for smaller organizations (Fast Track Strategic Planning System), publication of a book on strategic planning for non-planners (AHEAD: Strategy is the way to a better future), earning the Strategy Management Professional certification from the Association for Strategic Planning (now the International Association for Strategy Professionals), becoming ASP’s President, helping lead an update of ASP’s Body of Knowledge for Strategic Planning and Strategic Management, and, finally, writing the most comprehensive book on strategic decision-making (BIG DECISIONS: 40 disastrous decisions and thousands of research studies tell us how to make a great decision when it really matters).

It was when I was doing research for BIG DECISIONS that it dawned on me that planning and executing the plan are big strategic decisions and that business coaching was the way to ensure that owners, leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs would develop and execute plans for their organizations and themselves.

Since 2018, my Strategic Business Leader coaching service has mushroomed into a highly successful business.

Given that my coaching bandwidth is overfilled and that the need for the kind of coaching I offer is great, I have made the strategic decision to bring other coaches into my practice and to convert Forrest Consulting into a coaching company.

HAVE YOU HAD SUCCESS AS A BUSINESS LEADER?

We are seeking a small number of successful business leaders to join our team - not as employees but as peer coaches who will use our Strategic Business Leader coaching framework, intellectual property, and business systems to coach a growing number of clients in one-on-one and group formats.

Here are some “tells,” each of which I believe raises the likelihood that you are a great candidate to be a Strategic Business Leader coach:

• You have a significant amount of accumulated experience launching, building, or helping lead or run businesses, be they for-profit or nonprofit.

• You have formal education in business, management, or related disciplines.

• You have been a serious business observer (journalist, analyst, commentator, author).

• You have previously counseled, mentored, or even coached other business people.

• You hold a relevant certification, be it in business coaching or strategic management.

• You love helping people succeed.

• You can make the time to coach individuals and groups on a recurring basis.

• You care a lot about autonomy but like the support of a team and having helpful tools and resources at hand.

The sum of what I just described captures the traits I bring to coaching. They have propelled my success as a coach. No reason they can’t do the same for you!

WHAT WE OFFER.

By coaching under the Strategic Business Leader banner, you receive valuable benefits that will supercharge your coaching:

• Training on effective coaching and coaching client acquisition.

• Use of and training on our Strategic Business Leader coaching platform (which is a white-labeled version of what I think is the best business coaching platform going, Coach Accountable).

• Use of our intellectual property for coaching, including work lists, presentations on important business topics, worksheets, questionnaires, and much more.

• Use of our SOPs for effective coaching.

• Invoicing, collections, funds remittance, and reporting, handled by our office.

NOT A FRANCHISE, NO UPFRONT INVESTMENT

We are not franchising our coaching service, nor are we looking for any up-front investment. We want to venture with you. As you succeed, we succeed.

We have a long history of having fee-spit arrangements with the professionals who work with us. We are applying this approach to our arrangement with coaches. It’s very simple:

• If the coach brings in the client, the fees (minus any transaction fees) are split 80% to the coach and 20% to Forrest Consulting.

• If we match the coach and the client, the fees (minus any transaction fees) are split 75% to the coach and 25% to Forrest Consulting.

Beyond the benefits listed in “What We Offer,” which we provide at no charge, the coach is responsible for any expenses, including those related to coaching and business development.

HOW TO PROCEED

Reach out to me, Lee Crumbaugh, head coach and CEO.

It will be a joy to speak with you and even better if we determine that you are well-equipped and a good fit to be a business coach in our Strategic Business Leader coaching program.