Business Success Coach

Position Summary

The Business Success Coach provides individualized coaching, financial education, and technical assistance to entrepreneurs and small business owners, with a focus on underserved, low-income, and historically excluded communities. This role supports clients throughout their business journey from startup and business planning to accessing capital and post-loan growth to help them build sustainable, profitable businesses and strengthen their financial management skills. This position does not approve loans or make credit decisions. The Business Success Coach supports client readiness and refers loan-ready clients to the Lending Business Advisor team for application packaging and underwriting review.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide one-on-one coaching and consulting to small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs who are not yet ready for a loan.
• Aid clients with business planning, marketing, operational improvements, and growth strategies.
• Help entrepreneurs identify and overcome barriers to business success.
• Support clients in developing marketing, sales, pricing, and customer acquisition strategies.
• Assess clients’ loan readiness to be referred to our Lending Business Advisors.
• Connect clients with community resources, professional service providers, and business support networks.
• Deliver financial education on topics such as budgeting, digital marketing, cash flow management, financial statements, credit building, business financial health and more.
• Facilitate workshops, webinars, and training sessions for entrepreneurs.
• Develop educational materials and tools that support business sustainability and growth.
• Provide ongoing coaching and technical assistance after loan disbursement to promote successful loan repayment and business growth.
• Maintain regular communication with clients and build trusted, long-term relationships.
• Track client goals, milestones, outcomes, and progress toward business objectives.
• Document coaching activities, client interactions, and program outcomes in Renaissance’s CRM system.
• Participate in outreach efforts to recruit and engage entrepreneurs.
• Represent the organization at community events, workshops, and partner meetings.
• Occasional evening or weekend hours to support workshops, community events, and client meetings.
• Support program evaluation and reporting by collecting client success stories and outcome data.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of coaching and training programs.
• Follow organizational policies and procedures, complete administrative tasks accurately and on time, and support REDC’s mission, goals, and values.
• Perform other related work and duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Community Development, Education, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 2+ years experience working with small businesses, entrepreneurs, or community-based economic development programs.
• Knowledge of business planning, financial management, and small business operations.
• Ability to review basic business financial documents, including profit and loss statements, cash flow statements, tax returns, bank statements, budgets, and debt schedules.
• Strong coaching, facilitation, and relationship-building skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Local travel throughout New York City will be required.
• Ability to work effectively with diverse populations and underserved communities.
• Bilingual fluency in English/Chinese, English/Spanish, or another language commonly spoken by REDC clients is highly desirable.
• Precise attention to details, excellent organizational, interpersonal and time management skills.
• Commitment to the confidentiality of sensitive materials and information.
• Experience delivering financial education training.
• Meets expectations for attendance and punctuality.
• Familiarity with New York City’s small business ecosystem, community organizations, and business support resources is preferred.
• Proficiency in Salesforce, Zoom, Google applications, and Microsoft Office Suite (specifically MS Word and Excel).