You own a business because you had a vision of how it could be. Have you lost that vision? Does it seem naïve in the face of brutal reality? How do you know you’re doing everything you can, and doing it well, to make your company great?
Here are the top 9 FAQ’s about business coaching and the top 9 reasons to improve your business, your profit, and your lifestyle immediately AND get a plan for a way forward to having the business you always dreamed you’d have.
- Why would I hire a business advisor? Your business will improve faster and better than it would on its own. Even if you’re keeping up on the latest info, you only retain and implement 17% of info from training/reading vs. coaching which produces an 83% retention rate. Besides, your perspective is tainted—you and your team are roaming among the trees struggling to see the forest. It’s tough to get an objective opinion or have confidence that you have the best answer from yourself.
- Who can benefit from using a business coach? The owner of any kind of business—from manufacturers to restaurants, bakeries to veterinarians, doctors, lawyers, and plumbers to IT companies and construction companies—all benefit from hiring a business advisor. My clients are $250K – $50mil with 5 – 500 employees.
- Don’t I need a coach who knows MY industry? Just like an Indy racecar and your Aunt Bertha’s sedan have the same framework—motor, tires, fuel system, etc, every business has common systems. My expertise isn’t in any one industry but in all the systems that make up a business: sales & customer service, accounting & financials, marketing & operations, strategic planning & mergers, leadership & teambuilding, family business & partnerships—virtually anything to do with a business. You bring your industry expertise, I bring the business expertise – it’s a powerful partnership!
- How much does it cost? Set your own terms with multiple pricing and program options. Decide how much time you can set aside to work on the business, instead of in the business. Then choose an advising package:
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- Two half-hour phone sessions/month
- Two one-hour sessions/month
- Four one-hour sessions/month
- I’ve been known to start an engagement with a client at no or low cost and increase it as your ability to pay increases. That’s how much faith I have that I can make your business more profitable… and quickly!
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- How does coaching work? You’ll meet with your coach for an hour a week, every other week, or once a month—you choose. My approach is to provide both short-term assistance and long-term training through an affordable mentoring method. At the very least, you’ll walk away with ideas to improve your business immediately. You’ll start with an assessment to see where you don’t need help, where your troublespots are, and where the biggest, quickest payoff is for some early wins. Early on you’ll do an alignment. If you’re a 1-person business with sales under $500K, group coaching usually works better in terms of not only the price but in your ability to have the time to do the “between-coaching-assignments.”
- What’s an alignment? It’s a 3-4 hour session the goal of which is to get a sense from a personal perspective what you want to get out of the business… so we can create the kind of business outcome that will produce the personal goals you have. Looking out 5, 10, 20 years, what do you want your life to be like? What hobbies, charities will you pursue? Investments? Travel? How old will your kids be and what do you want for them? Your parents? The answers to these questions and others will help align your business to your personal goals and provide a roadmap for what improvements, new systems, reorganizations, etc. we want to implement.
- What do you do when you meet? You‘ll have assignments between sessions and we’ll followup on how those went at each session. A typical meeting is you telling me how your last week (or 2 weeks) has gone and me giving you suggestions to solve problems or developing a plan to attack the large issues. We follow the roadmap we created in our initial sessions so we always know what the priorities are and we change it as needed based upon the daily situations you face.
- What will we work on first? It depends on you and your business. Do you need more sales? Increased efficiency? A better operating team? Effective financial reports that tell you where your business is on key indicators? I like to start with your greatest area(s) of pain. At the same time, we’ll assess your current state against a model I developed called the SERVANT model. The SERVANT model’s a master template that EVERY successful business follows—a process that includes vision, cash flow, financials and reporting, marketing, sales, customer service, time management and organization, team, even the business owner mindset, and more.
- Stay tuned next week for #9…
At the very least, you’ll get immediate ideas to improve your business, your profit, and your lifestyle immediately AND a plan for a way forward to having the business you always dreamed you’d have.
I’ll be hosting a 1-hour webinar on Thurs., June 5 – “The Business Owners Guide to Finding the Right Business Coach.” There are only 100 seats. Click here to reserve your spot. https://meet89811726.adobeconnect.com/e2yqnz69rbn/event/registration.html?campaign-id=InspireResultsBlog
You simply do not have anything to lose.
