Our Approach
Why do so many small businesses stay small?
Are you like most entrepreneurs, working twice as hard and making half as much?
A small business is like a young tree – a little sun, a little rain, a little dirt, and up it goes, year by year. So why not yours?
You want more income, and profit: You want new customers, new employees working with those customers, new ideas, initiatives, approaches. Ultimately, you want a job you’ve designed for yourself, a good income, equity, and possibly an exit strategy.
But a small business entrepreneur is faced with serious challenges. See if you recognize any of these below.
- You work 24/7. You answer the phone, make, order, ship, wrap, deliver. You borrow, pay, cajole, demand, negotiate. You advertise, write, design, publish, talk, speak, promote. When do you find time to think, to plan, to grow?
- You need a better outcome than you have right now! How about income, growth?
- You suffer the Tyranny Of The Urgent! You know the difference between urgent and important. But you are so busy handling urgent, you never get to important, and that’s exactly the difference between income and profit.
It doesn’t have to be this way!
What happens so often in small businesses is that the CEO or Chief Executive Officer spends most of his time as Chief Employee.
You can have a business where you are the captain. You tackle the important issues. Other people handle the smaller stuff. If you want the big bucks, that’s how it has to work, right?
In order to grow your business, you have to “grow” you first. Isn’t this simple, obvious?
You can have more income, more growth, more time to breathe, to think, to plan, and to enjoy – perhaps even scheme an exit strategy. My coaching program has given many business owners the change they want.
My coaching program is called: “Begin At The Beginning.” It has 3 steps. They’re all about you.
Step 1. New understanding. Self-Discovery: Know your strengths, grow yourself, and, learn about others.
Step 2. Create a foundation for your business – a Vision and a Mission.
Step 3. Delegate: Absolutely critical to growth.
Knowing your strengths by Beginning At The Beginning.
It means that you take your CEO (you) back to Square One, and discover what your strengths are. Some fine surprises waiting here.
Immediate payoff. You know your greatest strengths, and you can design your business to take advantage of them. The growth you want will naturally occur.
Creating a foundation:
After Self-Knowledge, you’ll develop a Vision, and a Mission for your business. With self-knowledge, vision and mission fulfilled, you’ll have built a firm foundation, one which most small businesses lack. Imagine a tripod – stable, firm, efficient. If you like, picture a pyramid! Now, when you communicate your complete business picture to others, they really get it!
Then, we add skills to your business by delegation.
There are at least two kinds of tasks which are currently in need of delegation:
- The tasks which you do but hate to do, and could be much more easily and better-handled by an expert,
- And then there are the other tasks – those which you hate to do, don’t do and never get done!
Imagine these two tasks – done regularly and well, without your effort!
Can you begin to see the difference between the business you had and the business you could have?
With my “Begin At The Beginning” coaching program you choose to give up being the Chief Employee, and become the Chief Executive instead.
You have a written foundation for your business which you understand, and which you’re ready to share with others. And you are delegating tasks to others, while you still retain the responsibility of making sure the tasks get done, and get done properly.
Here’s what you have accomplished:
a) Avoided the pitfalls of working without thinking and discovered and energized the greatest strengths of the most important person in your business, you.
b) Created a practical and thoughtful foundation for your business which can be communicated to employees, customers, and colleagues.
c) Found out how to create growth and get rid of unwanted tasks at the same time!
How did all this miraculously happen?
You and I did it together. Business coaching is a process which I’ve been doing successfully for 13 years. For proof of that claim, please see the Results section of my website at www.craigjennings.com.
The process:
Depending on your ambition, issues and budget, we meet once, twice or up to six times a month, face-to-face or by phone (Skype video is fine). The most economical model includes group coaching. We tackle one or two projects at a time, and keep them moving forward. It can take a while to get all the pieces in place, but your business will grow as we work and you should see steady progress. Sessions are not constrained to 30 or 50 minutes, they are as long as they have to be – usually 75-90 minutes. Email communication is unlimited, and, because business problems never arrive on schedule, short emergency phone sessions also come with the package.
We will talk money at the appropriate time. My intention is that I function with you as a “partner without equity.”
Is business coaching an accepted process? Actually, large businesses regularly assign a business coach to high-level executives – at that level, it’s a highly-competed-for perc. Small businesses have more recently taken to professional coaching. Coaching found its “legs” under the guidance and inspiration of the legendary Thomas J. Leonard, who founded 3 different coaching companies, I.C.F., Coach U, and CoachVille. I was a charter member of CoachVille, where I got my initial training from Thomas as a business coach.
You may want to review articles I’ve written about issues we’ve discussed here.
Article on CEO Time: http://craigjennings.com/category/productivity/
Article on Sales: http://craigjennings.com/category/sales/
Article on Urgent & Important: http://craigjennings.com/category/productivity/ (last article)
There are some 25 articles on my website on small business which have been written for you. Further research: just go to Google and search for Craig Jennings, Business Coach.
- If you’re looking for change, perhaps in yourself.
- If you think you might be stuck with the emergency brake on.
Then:
- Get ready to accept the exciting consequences – an efficient, successful, growing business with much more money, directed by a world-class entrepreneur – you!
Will this program be a good fit for you?
If you’ve gotten this far in the letter about the program, you could be interested in taking the next step. If so, I invite you to contact me for a complimentary Strategy Session.
Here, we’ll explore what challenges you face, what kind of results you’d like to see instead, and whether this program may really be of help. Whatever the outcome, I promise that you’ll leave the conversation much more clear about the issues you’re facing, and with a new view of what’s possible.
The conversation will take about an hour, and can be done in person, or by phone. Click here to call or email me– no cost.
