As a business coach, I use a different approach, one which often produces spectacular results.
While most business owners look for help from time to time, it's usually "what should I do next?" or "what is a new course of action?"
Accordingly, business coaches provide guidance, suggestions or advice . and are usually powerful allies in combating stuckness.
But, if you're an entrepreneur wanting long-term results, you have to begin at the beginning.
And the beginning is you!
Whether you're a solopreneur or have a large staff of employees, who is the most important person to your business?
Now, to get a better view of the situation, let's take a helicopter up to 5.000 feet and look down. However big or small your firm is, we see one person who's making the wheels go round. Yep, you!
Now, from our lofty perch, let's decide - are we getting the maximum out of this person?
Maximum effort? Almost certainly! If you're running a small business you're working hard and long. Sometimes making a lot of money, sometimes not nearly enough.
Maximum value? Almost never! Most frequently, in small companies, the CEO is absorbed in day-to-day operations, functioning more as chief employee than as CEO. Working far below his/her "pay grade." What Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth, describes as "doin' it, doin' it, doin' it!" What s/he rarely makes enough time for is the strategic thinking, the long-range planning - I call it CEO-Time. It's hard work. And that's where coaching is most helpful and powerful.
You'll see the list of entrepreneur complaints elsewhere on this website:
The most frequent: "I'm working twice as hard, making half as much!"
Groucho Marx had a famous rejoinder: "I resemble that remark!" :-)
If you "resemble" the businessperson described above, and you're willing to begin at the beginning, please read on.
1. Self-Discovery. We start with self-discovery, at the top of this little Venn diagram.
We're still looking at our CEO.
What are his/her strengths? Wouldn't it make sense to design our business plan to take maximum advantage of your strengths? While we were at it, we could take some steps to manage around the places where you're not as strong.
This is what self-discovery is all about. I promise that if you embark on this journey with me, you will discover good things that you didn't know about yourself. You already know the bad things.
Why should that be? Wouldn't you agree that most of us know our weaknesses much more clearly than our strengths? Can you remember when you came home to your parents with a report card and there were good grades and bad ones? What did your parents want to talk with you about?
Exactly! 77% of parents think their primary job is to help their children when they fail.
So our first program is a process of self-examination which explores where you're really strong, and leverages those strengths to the maximum.
What about places where you really suck? We'll follow my 3-D program: deny, defer, delegate.
If you want your business to grow and be great, don't waste its time with lousy performance, especially if it's yours! Your time is too valuable. We'll find a way to delegate. (Ask me about how I manage bookkeeping in particular, managing detail in general!)
My full-service coaching process spends time and effort on finding out what are the greatest strengths of the CEO, and strategizing to maximize them. And, of course, steering the CEO away from the time-traps where s/he can spend great time and effort, with poor or little result.
2. Vision
A vision is a picture of what you want to accomplish. It's usually not measured in money. It's usually not about you. It's usually not about now. Here's one example:
In 1982, IBM had just introduced the IBM PC. Bill Gates' Microsoft (a picture shows a dozen young people in tie-dyed tee-shirts) had provided the operating system for IBM. It was called D.O.S. Later on it would be succeeded by Windows).
Bill's vision for his little company: "A computer on every desk!" In 1982 terms, this was outrageous, absurd, impossible. Even IBM didn't believe it. We'll see if we can find a vision as outrageous for you.
3. Finally, Mission
Mission is the fulfillment of the Vision, the tasks that you want to accomplish. Again, it's usually not measured in money, about you, or now. Here was Bill Gates' mission: "Microsoft Software on every computer." Also outrageous.
Bill Gates' accomplishments are many, and they made him one of the richest men in the world. But consider the vision and mission that he set before his tie-dyed colleagues:
"A computer on every desk, Microsoft software on every computer."
If you're willing to pull this all together, you will attract people, customers, and money.
Most small businesses start without a really clear picture of what they want. There is no guarantee that you'll get what you want. But if you don't know what it is, there's an iron-clad guarantee that you'll never get it!
If you and I work together, you will set three targets for yourself - self-knowledge, vision, and mission, and we'll lay the groundwork for extraordinary business success.
Ready to go? Click here to contact me right now