Startup garage: Business coaching for startup success

Nowadays, a great idea and good financing are not enough to secure a startup’s success. In the best-case scenario, a company experiences exponential growth, and new members are quickly introduced to the team.

The structural changes that go along with this can be overwhelming, especially for many creative startups. Often,the founders are solely focused on financing and developing their company and the tasks of establishing sustainable structures are ignored.

The initial stage of development and implementation is especially chaotic, as you want to get your idea off the ground as quickly as possible.

An integral part of our MBA programme at Tangaza is the work each entrepreneur does with the Business Coach who is a dedicated business consultant and provides individual support in the refining and implementation of the Business Model. Just as sports coaches assist athletes win big games by empowering them to take advantage of their natural abilities and improve on their weaknesses, business coaches can also help their teams improve business performances.

As a start-up your interest is to take your team to major leagues. You should therefore consider the few tips below on working with a business coach and let them guide your actions.

Accelerate Your Personal Growth: The founders who succeed over time are the ones who learn the fastest—not just about product-market fit — but also about themselves. Working with a coach accelerates your business learning skills.

Get Emotional Support: Founders often confront emotional challenges they don’t share with teammates, investors, advisors or even trusted friends and family. A coach creates a safe space for you to talk through business struggles and help you brainstorm your next steps

Anticipate Later-Stage Challenges: In the early days, you’re so busy sprinting to put out fires that you might not take the time to stop and think about the long-term impact of your choices. The smallest decisions made earlier on can significantly change your company’s trajectory.

Working with a coach helps you realise which decisions made now might have future ramifications.

Unbiased Sounding Board: Founders make myriad decisions every day under massive uncertainty. To navigate through this ambiguity, you need a coach who is an active listener, a pattern-spotter, and someone who helps you decide, quickly and thoughtfully, what you want to do.

Like football teams, startup companies are constantly vying for victory. They carefully design each play, assess their talent pool and make substitutions, as needed.

A good coach can be the heart and soul of a strong team, guiding both the individual players and the team as a whole on the path to success.

Just as you invest your time and energy into startup success, do the same for finding a business coach. The right coach can truly be a game changer.

- By David Cheboryot, MBA manager, Tangaza University College. For more information, email bizbeat@standardmedia.