In business coaching it is important that the business coach is capable of coaching the entrepreneur or executive through 9 pillars of business planning. Every business owner should be able to answer these key business planning questions.Whether the coach has a business background or not it is important that he/she gets himself well acquianted with these aspects of business coaching.
So if you are a business coach or wanting to become one, create a template for your coaching process with these 9 pillars and related coaching questions below:
- Value proposition
- What is the business? What value does one get by using your service/product?
- How would you describe value proposition for the business?
- Customer segmentation
- Who is the target audience? What segment (B2B, B2C, …)?
- How would you describe customers/clients?
- Channels:
- How are you planning to reach out to your clients?
- What kind of sales and marketing strategy do you need?
- Revenue streams:
- What are some potential revenue streams for the business/for you?
- Key resources:
- What do you have or know?
- What other resources do you need to develop/acquire? (techonology, people, talent, skills, know how, raw material, money, investment funding…)
- Key partners/stakeholders/talent:
- What type of support do you need?
- Who can help you? What kind of talent do you need?
- Cost structure:
- What are the costs: operating costs and fixed coasts?
- How will you manage your costs? What do you need to reduce/ stop/increase?