Though I deal with a variety of clients across a multitude of industries and experience levels, my job as a business coach, as I see it, is really quite simple – I help businesses grow in the profession of business ownership.

It may be a straightforward approach, but it speaks to all the unexpected hurdles and challenges people can face as they funnel their talent and/or expertise into the second profession of business ownership.

Think about it: A clothing designer could spend years, even decades, honing her craft and building her reputation for fine fabrics, innovative designs and quality construction. What she likely hasn’t focused on during that time is practicing for the myriad ins and outs of business management and operations when she achieves her goal of a brick-and-mortar boutique.

More to the point – business owners often become business owners because of their creative skill, not their entrepreneurial acumen. It could explain why of the small group of business owners – seven percent of the world’s population – only four percent ever grow large enough to hire additional staff and, of that seven percent, 83 percent will fail.

Even armed with some business savvy, juggling the day-to-day responsibilities can be so overwhelming that a ball will inevitably get dropped along the way. That “ball” is often the business owner’s time – evenings away from family, weekends spent working, vacations that keep getting postponed.

An experienced and knowledgeable business coach can help business owners get that time. Through building the right team – and perhaps, more importantly the right systems – you then build a business that runs successfully and efficiently, whether the owner is there or not.

Ending those 80-hour work weeks is enticing, of course, but business owners also want to see their customer base and profits grow, too.

And that’s my focus for the clients I serve – looking at the big picture for business owners and looking ahead to ensure long-term goals are established and met. So often for business owners, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees (i.e. all the daily obligations and stresses of managing operations).

Like any profession, owning a business comes with a learning curve. Most business owners don’t have a business ownership background, so they are learning as they go. And as you learn, of course, you grow, and your business will follow suit. But what learning isn’t enhanced by a teacher or mentor who can serve as a guide through that growth?

Before coming to me, Star Sosa, who owns Spectrum Art & Jewelry, described herself as “self-taught.”

“I always sort of felt I did not have total training to run a business. We would meet plateaus and not know how to deal with them. I did not know what I didn’t know but knew I needed to know more,” Star reflected.

Working with Star, she has managed to not only navigate the growth and development of her business, but she has also been able to do so without being chained to Spectrum 24/7.

“What life is like now is I have a business that I draw money from every week and I do not have to report. My staff runs my business for me,” she said.

In upcoming articles, I will discuss the ActionCOACH approach, including case studies and best practices of local business owners whose lives have been changed by these principles.

Reggie Shropshire is a business coach at ActionCOACH. Since 2005, he has helped hundreds of business owners achieve greater success in their businesses and greater freedom in their personal lives. He ranks in the top five percent of ActionCOACH coaches around the world and is the No. 1 ranking ActionCOACH in North Carolina. To learn more, visit the ActionCOACH website or email Reggie at [email protected].