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- Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
The Business Coaching Handbook reveals what business coaching IS, how to assess the shape of your business and what steps you need to put in place to grow a successful business. This book has been compiled for business entrepreneurs who have recently achieved the first goal of getting the enterprise up and running or, have been operating their own professional practice or business for a few years and now want to take it to the next level.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2007
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Acclaim for The Business Coaching Handbook
“The Business Coaching Handbook is packed full of extremely useful information. I found the ideas the inspiration I needed for taking my business to the next level. There are many different practical business models which are explained clearly and were easy to apply. Time has always been a challenge for me and it was an eye-opener to discover the ways I waste time. The variety of techniques I now employ when organising my time has given me the space to work on growing the business.”– Jo Down. Dartmoor Horse Trails www.dartmoor-holiday-cottages.co.uk
“This book works as a business owners conscience and a wake up call, all in one. It reminds business owners of what they said they would do and have not yet achieved. It also introduces new ideas and methodologies for overcoming those troublesome little challenges which are so easy to avoid taking any action on until they have grown so big they have become a crisis. Every business owner should take time to read this book and if you are short on time – read chapter 3!”– Carmine De Ieso, Director Winemaking & Production, HM Wines International Pty Ltd www.henrymartinwines.com
“Without doubt Curly Martin is in the vanguard of a movement for change which is totally in tune with the current business climate. Her depth of knowledge and insight have proved to be an invaluable tool for me in the success and expansion of my Company. I am sure that by reading The Business CoachingHandbook, and most importantly taking the action required, both existing and prospective entrepreneurs will achieve the results to which they aspire. Highly recommended!”– Margaret Edmondson, Director, Edmondson & Company Ltd
“Curly’s clarity of thinking coupled with her ability to apply personal development concepts to real world situations has proved invaluable in both my personal and business life. I would have no hesitation in recommending her work to any aspiring entrepreneur looking to leverage some quality ideas in their business.”– NigelWinship, Managing Director, 1st Thought, www.1st-thought.com
The Business Coaching Handbook
Everything You Need to be Your Own Business Coach
Curly Martin
To my mother, a great business entrepreneur who still inspires and instructs me, even though she is in her eighties.
Table of Contents
Title page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction: A very personal letter from the author
Chapter One Now Review Now
Chapter Two The Secrets of Setting Goals
Chapter Three Time Is Money
Chapter Four Typical Customer Profile
Chapter Five From Lead to Sale
Chapter Six Marketing Magic
Chapter Seven Your Press Releases
Chapter Eight The Art of Advertising
Chapter Nine Website Marketing
Chapter Ten Tactical Socialising
Chapter Eleven Staff Strategies
Chapter Twelve Challenge Resolution
Chapter Thirteen Money Matters
Chapter Fourteen Money from Waste
Chapter Fifteen Intellectual Money
Chapter Sixteen Outsourcing
Chapter Seventeen Succession Planning
Bibliography
Author Resource Guide
Index
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Jackie Fletcher for proofreading expertise and curiosity. Colin Edwards for all his literary advice and wizardry, which provided the means for this work to get to the publishers. Mary Edwards for her support of Colin. Ted Edmonson for his enthusiasm.
Ric Hayman for his patience in the boiler room.
Paul Sandy for his great photography.
For my family and friends who understand the challenges I encountered while managing a successful business and writing a book simultaneously.
My husband for his love and support.
Introduction
A very personal letter from the author
This introduction is a vital part of the book.
Even if you typically skip pages like this, now is a great time tochange the habits of a lifetime, because many of the followingchapters will encourage you to make similar changes to your attitudes and beliefs about business. If you are totally new to thebusiness world, they will ensure that you embark on the correctcourse from day one.
This introduction will help you get the optimum benefits fromthe ideas and concepts that follow, so stay with it for a fewmoments longer.
The Fun Begins
This book has been compiled for business entrepreneurs who have recently achieved the first goal of getting the enterprise up and running, or have been operating their own professional practice or business for a few years and now want to take it to the next level. It can also be very beneficial if you are just dreaming about going it alone by creating your own business.
I recommend that you start with a glance through the synopses of each chapter first, so that you can prioritise or select those that are the most meaningful to you at the moment. If you have recently reviewed your current business and now have clear goals to work on, you can select the most appropriate chapters to support your plans. Perhaps you have been thinking of making some changes and want some inspiration or ideas on how to generate more money – if so, simply select the chapter for your immediate needs. Your focus and needs will change as your business changes and evolves, and you will certainly change your priorities too.
If you have borrowed this book, apart from questioning your commitment, it is important that you return it to its owner in good condition, so resolve now to order your own copy today. If you have bought this copy, thank you and congratulations! Now I am about to send you shopping again.
It can be infuriating to read a good idea and then be unable to find it again later, so I invite you to buy a set of three coloured highlighter pens. As you read, use a traffic light system to mark the sections that apply to you. For example, you could select red for ‘must do’ items, yellow for ‘should do soon’ and blue for ‘OK at the moment but may need attention soon’. Keep a pen with the book too, and then you can circle your significant page numbers as an additional rapid reference guide.
Ideas will come to you as you read and may well be forgotten by the time you turn the page. Ideas are as fragile as fluffy white clouds on an otherwise clear summer day, and will vanish almost before you can say ‘look at that’. Any one of those ideas could be a breakthrough moment of ‘Aha’ rainbow brilliance and far too valuable to lose, so acquire a notebook and use it to capture key word reminders of your ideas as you read. Then refer to it later when you have time to develop your ideas further.
Within each chapter are diagnostic question boxes which are designed to make you think about your business and prompt you to consider what could be done to improve it. Spend time with the questions and write the answers in your notebook along with any actions you need to take.
At the end of each chapter there is a diagnostic action box along with a final page dedicated to your personal action boxes. These are designed to encourage you to commit to taking actions on the ideas and strategies you will have read. The diagnostic action box has suggestions of actions you might need to take. The last page of each chapter requires you to write the actions you want to take and to identify the dates by which you will have achieved them. The personal action boxes are deliberately small because they should work as an aide-mémoire and motivator. Make more detailed observations in your notebook as soon as ideas are generated. Using the action boxes and the notebook simultaneously will hold you to your commitments and act as your silent coach.
I have already given you several simple instructions and you will come across many more in each chapter. I have introduced them this early to establish a pattern. I can coach you to coach yourself, but unless you take positive action, we are both wasting our time. There, I have said it, that magic word ‘coach’. Coaching may not be magic, but the outcomes it can create may seem nothing less than magical. This is an opportune moment to define what I mean by coaching.
Coaching Simplicity
You will probably have come across coaching in a sporting context – business coaching and life coaching work just as effectively and in similar ways.
Your coach cannot do the work for you but can, and should, suggest where you direct your focus to gain the optimum benefit from doing what you do. Self analysis without a support system can be difficult and demoralising. Coaching looks at what you are doing, examines how you are doing it and asks why you are doing it that way. Coaching is not about the past, it is about where you are now and where you want to be by some defined future date.
It clearly follows that you can only start a journey from where you are now and your journey to business success follows this rule. Similarly, you must have a clear destination in mind otherwise you will drift off course and, even worse, will not know when you have arrived!
That is coaching in a nutshell. Whether you opt for self coaching or invite external help, it is all about knowing where you are, where you are going and the actions that you will take to get there. Coaching is not a quick fix, it is a process.
The most effective coaching provides a drip-feed of constant and continuous information to fuel your motivation, to plan and make any changes that are needed, and to keep you on track by making the most of what you have. This leads to another simple instruction. Please set aside a regular period each day to spend time with your book, notebook and pen. Even five minutes is better than nothing and ten minutes is even better, especially if you add another five minutes to digest and consider what you have read. Spend time each day to plan and write down the actions you will take – no matter how small the steps may seem, they will to lead you towards your goals, aims and objectives.
If you keep doing the same things in the same ways, you will always achieve the same results. If those results are exactly what you want, then congratulations, but ask yourself why you picked up this book in the first place. Are they truly and exactly what you want? If not, then the following chapters offer you a series of signposts to point you in the right direction of change.
Effective coaching uses metaphors, examples and analogies to deliver results. That is why you will find a brief real-life story to launch each chapter. As they say in some movies, “The stories are true, only the identities have been changed to protect the innocent.”
Are you ready to start writing and living your own story? It has a two-word title, Business Success. You will notice the second letter of each word. There will be no business success without you and your positive actions.
Due Diligence
You will probably come across ‘due diligence’ sooner rather than later in your business career. It is often linked with the slightly odd sounding, ‘doing due diligence’.
This is what all buyers should do before agreeing to any transaction, whether they are buying a book, a car or even a company. In plain language, you ‘do due diligence’ when you flick through the pages in a bookshop, when you take a test drive or when you examine a company’s financial records. What you are doing is satisfying yourself that the objects of your desire meet your needs, are fit for the purpose and represent good value.
This is your responsibility. You may seek the advice of people who should know, you may include personal recommendations in your decision, but ultimately the buck stops with you. You take responsibility for your actions, fully and totally.
It is sometimes claimed that we live in a society of blame culture. As far as your business or career success is concerned, forget about blame. Your personal life is down to you alone. Your business life is down to you alone. All the decisions you make are down to you alone. And guess who is going to apply the principles, tips and hints in this book!
Remember this saying: “If it is to be, it is up to me!”
The advice and information in this book is based on over 20 years’ practical experience as a corporate business coach. I am now the owner of a very successful coaching and coach training business, which has been operating successfully for over ten years, but I am not a lawyer, an accountant nor a medical person. You need to know this because what you are about to read complies with English law at the time of publication.
Laws are changed from time to time and many cases that come to court are won or lost according to recent precedent and the skills of barristers. In legal, financial and health matters you must always seek the services of appropriately trained and qualified professionals as part of your personal due diligence. Because I have no control over the way that you use the information in these pages, your due diligence must also recognise that you alone are responsible for compliance with local rules and regulations, with governmental obligations and, equally importantly, for the outcomes of any actions that you take. This book is a valuable guide, but remember, the responsibility for the way that you apply it is yours!
A Special Bonus
When you have read this book and applied the ideas and suggestions in each chapter, you may still feel that your personal circumstances could benefit from personal input from a professional coach working with you in a one-on-one session or two. As a special bonus, you can email your contact details (in absolute commercial confidence) to Achievement Specialists and a member of our coaching team will reply with a time and date for an introductory chat, which will be free of cost or obligation. This added benefit alone could be worth far more than the cover price of your book!
You will find our e-mail address at the end of the book. But you really should read everything else first!
You are about to be reminded of things that you already know and alsosome things that are new to you. Just because we know how to dosomething, it does not follow that we do it. So ask yourself regularly,“Am I doing what I know I need to do today?”
Chapter One
Now Review Now
Where you are now in relation to when you started?Are you where you want to be?
Synopsis
This chapter is about soul-searching. If you have been doing your own thing for a year or more, it is important that you read this chapter now. The principles apply to every manufacturing, service or retail business. They apply to every professional practice. In short, unless you work for someone else or unless you are unemployed, they apply to you and your business. We begin with a brief but true story.
Although the shop was in a secondary shopping area, Julian felt that the savings on rent, compared with a prime site, would allow him to generate traffic by extensive local advertising.
He was in the insurance business. He had learned his trade as an employee within a big company and had built up an impressive list of contacts. Now he was ready to broker insurance on just about anything from cars to cats, from houses to horses and from freezers to floods.
His business boomed. So much so, that he became a victim of his own success. Within a year he had a staff of six. By reducing his commission he was able to offer extremely competitive rates, and word soon spread that this was the place to go for great deals.
However, Julian was not a well-organised man. The back office, where all the essential paperwork was done, was in a state of chaos. Files littered the desks and every available surface. Inevitably, mistakes were made. The staff became more and more stressed and, as a result, took increasingly frequent sick days. This added to the pressure, and mistakes occurred more often.
Soon his key man, Tom, could not take the situation any longer. He had been well rewarded for his work but felt that he just had to get off the treadmill. Using his recent experience and business network, Tom sought premises in the next town. He decided to start his own business, modelled on all that was good about Julian’s company and with an added focus on avoiding that which Tom considered was bad.
Within a year Tom was drawing customers away from his former boss. One evening, he strolled past the shop where he had previously worked and immediately noticed that the fascia sign had two missing letters. The door, which always had a tendency to stick, had still not been repaired. Instead it bore a handwritten notice asking clients to ‘push hard’. There was graffiti on the side of the building.
Peering through the dirty windows he noticed the display had not been changed since he left. Many of the ‘special offer’ posters were outdated, faded and peeling away from the walls. There was a collection of dead insects on the floor of the window, and one of the spotlights had failed and not been replaced. He noted that the toppling piles of paperwork had overflowed from the back office and now littered the counter.
Tom returned to his own spotless premises which reflected his own neat and orderly lifestyle. Instead of following the industry standard practice of rewarding his growing staff with ever greater percentages of commission, he offered them bonuses for every month in which they had no mistakes and generated no complaints.
Julian went out of business soon afterwards and told his friends and family that the fast growth of internet insurance was the cause of his company’s failure. After a decent interval Tom acquired the premises. He now owns eight branches and the ninth is about to open.
The point of this story is that your business is a reflection of you. Its ethos, culture and public persona will be indelibly marked with your own sense of values, ethics and approaches to life.
If you are untidy, inefficient and disorganised then your business will soon be the same. If you are in a creative business where clients or customers do not visit your premises, you may think this is unimportant. Perhaps you always work at your clients’ homes or businesses? In this case, you are very much the face of your business. They will pick up on your characteristics and will form a split-second decision about whether to hire you or not.
Here is a simple and revealing exercise called PACE, which stands for Personality, Attitude, Commitment and Excellence.
The PACE Exercise
Decide right now on a time and place where you can be alone and quiet for as long as it takes, allowing at least half an hour. Focusing on yourself, rather than on your business, award yourself marks out of 10 for each statement. If you disagree absolutely, your mark should be 1. If you agree totally, give yourself 10. If you are unsure, then make an educated estimate between those two extremes.
Well done on completing this exercise. This indicates that you have a willingness to listen, to follow instructions, to work on yourself and your business and to tap into the undeniable unused potential in both.
If you scored less than fifty per cent of the maximum scores in each category, you have some serious realignment to do and you will find the rest of this book absolutely essential. Look at each individual statement that scored 5 or less and ask yourself: “Am I willing to change this to gain a higher score?” If the answer is ‘no’, then what are your reasons for not wanting to change?
If the answer is ‘yes’, keep reading and return to the PACE exercise after you have read the rest of the book, and revisit your scores. Meanwhile, decide now on one single, simple positive step that you can take tomorrow in each category to raise those 5 or less scores. Every one of them!
As for the individual scores of 6 and above, do not be tempted to rest on your previous or current track record. Remember that ten years’ experience is worthless if it is just one year’s experience repeated ten times! There is still work to be done to ensure you stay in the top ranking.
Before the PACE exercise I said that your business is a reflection of you. That exercise should have given you insight into your strengths and any areas that need attention. It is almost certain, unless you have employees who compensate for the weak areas, that your business – whatever its size – will mirror these same traits.
The PACE activity is not about the formal business plans or marketing plans that you created to keep your bank manager or business adviser happy. It is about what went on inside your head when you created your business.
Why did you start it? List as many reasons as you can recall. Consider whether your main motivation was wealth generation, service, happiness, meeting a need, the empowerment of doing your own thing, pride, necessity or some other drive.
Did you have a mental picture back then of how your business would look and function now? How does that model compare with the reality of now? Is ‘now’ better than your earlier vision or not as good? Maybe it has gone in a totally different direction?
If you could turn the clock back, what would you do differently? Why? What impact would the differences have made to your current business in terms of growth, return on financial and time investments, and work/life balance? Which one of the differences would have had the biggest impact or improvement with the smallest effort or investment?
I am not able to give you specific right or wrong answers because your individual circumstances are unique to you. I know that YOU instinctively know the answers which are right for you. That is the real value of this exercise. It encourages you to look for the answers that are within you.
Do you have a job, a business or a practice? Beware, because how you answer will reveal a great deal about your perception of self-value, and this perception will colour the way that your customers or clients think of your enterprise. That, in turn, will influence their decision to use your services or those of a competitor.
I asked three self-employed carpenters the same question about having a job, business or practice.
The first, dressed in clothing that looked as if it had come from the local charity shop and had not been washed for months, answered, ‘a job’. “I do a good job and people recommend me to their friends. I work out a price for each job, I buy the materials for each job, I plan it and do what is needed. Then I get cash for the job and move on to the next one. My name is my reputation and I scrape a reasonable living.”
The second carpenter, dressed in clean overalls with a logo on the breast pocket, replied, ‘a business’. “I have a property renovation and repair business. It has a registered name and website that are both clearly displayed on the side of my van. It is VAT registered and I take pride in keeping my paperwork orderly.”
The final carpenter wore a suit. “When people invite me into their home or business I believe that I am showing them courtesy and respect by being prompt and looking smart. I have a lifestyle practice that allows them to create the design effects they have seen on television or in glossy magazines. Of course, I provide dust sheets and wear a working uniform once I am on an assignment.”
Three individuals with similar training, experience and trade skills – all that differentiated them was their attitude and the way they described what they did.
The one with a ‘job’ was treated as an inferior professional by the majority of his customers. He did not expect to be invited inside other than to see the customer’s requirements. He did not expect to be paid much more than the national minimum wage because he thought that was all that most of his ‘punters’ could afford.
The one with a ‘business’ was usually invited inside through the back door of largely middle-class homes and was told when he was expected to arrive. He certainly earned respect and, because his potential clients liked his business-like attitude, they were happy to pay a premium price.
The one with a ‘practice’ called at the front door to keep appointments that he had made by telling the clients when he would be free to call. His clients were all in the upperincome bracket and expected to pay a high price for his specialist services. He saw to it that their expectations were met.
So, I ask again, regardless of your speciality, trade or expertise and, regardless of your enterprise, do you have a job, a business or a practice?
Why do you think this is? Are you happy with your answer? Of course, there is more to being in business than just creating a hefty bank balance, but do you have the right to deny yourself and your family the lifestyle that is within your reach by an upward change of attitude?
One of the most effective ways to acquire and sustain a positive attitude is to use the powerful mix of enthusiasm and motivation.
“Enthusiasm is the fuel that drives your motivation, but motivation is the engine that drives your business.”
True motivation can only come from within.
Self-motivation is fuelled by focus and enthusiasm. One without the other will not work. It is true that some short-lived motivation may come from outside sources, like attending a seminar, or like a boss or spouse saying, “unless you do this, then that will happen”, or “if you do this, then I will do that,” as they hold out the promise of some future benefit or reward.
These external inputs are like a donkey being persuaded to follow the driver’s wishes with a carrot or stick. Donkeys learn fast. A stick need only be applied once and then a brief glimpse of it is enough to maintain forward momentum. A carrot, however, can be applied as often as necessary. It is worth remembering that a carrot is simply a short orange stick applied to the front instead of the rear. Someone or something else can motivate you briefly, but that level of motivation will not be strong enough to create a lasting change in you and your business.
Different triggers motivate all humans. However, there are three basic principles that apply to every person on this planet:
The only true and lasting motivation is self-motivation. You are strongly motivated to meet your needs and less strongly motivated to meet your wants. Self-motivation is powered by the prevention of pain and the pursuit of pleasure.In the next chapter we will look at the aspect of focus in more detail as we explore the fascinating area of goals and their achievement. Firstly though, you need to examine your motivation because without it you stand less chance of achieving your personal and business goals.
Self-motivation means that you are doing something, like creating and running your business, because YOU want to, not because someone else wants you to. A suggestion from someone else might well be the catalyst that causes you to start a venture, so that you can meet a perceived need from potential clients, but it is essential that it is sustained by your own motivation and desire.
Every action that you take – without exception – produces a result or an outcome. Conversely, it follows that, if you focus strongly enough on your desired outcome, you will be strongly self-motivated to take whatever action is needed to achieve it.
Prevention of pain is a negative and powerful motivator. It kicks in when you realise that you need to take some action to avoid an uncomfortable situation from deteriorating further. For example, if you ignore a telephone bill you will eventually be disconnected, lose clients and incur a penalty fee. So, although it may be annoying and inconvenient to pay the bill, you are motivated to take the action to avoid an even greater pain and costly inconvenience.
The pursuit of pleasure is an equally powerful, but positive, motivator. I am sure that you can think of many examples from your own experience where you may have planned a holiday or an outing. You certainly did whatever was needed to ensure that it happened.
The pain that you seek to avoid does not need to be physical, like toothache. It is often more subtle and can be mental, as evidenced by high stress levels, depression or mood swings. Pursuit of pleasure does not have to mean a materialistic reward. It can be as simple as the great glow of satisfaction you experience when you know that you have done something extremely well.
As you develop your business, you will be somewhere along an imaginary railway line between a station called Pain at one end and another called Pleasure at the other. As you move away from pain you must head towards pleasure, for there are no branch lines or sidings. There is, however, a gap!
Initially, like the donkey and the stick, you will be strongly motivated to move rapidly away from pain. Then, as the pain diminishes with distance, it reduces your motivation so that you tend to slow down. Unless you have a very strong vision of your ultimate pleasure, that motivation can fall through the gap where it will diminish or disappear altogether. Then you will drift back towards the pain end of the track and the cycle repeats itself.
The way to sustain your forward momentum to cross the imaginary gap is, by constant repetition, to remind yourself of the pleasure at the end of the line. This will help you to keep positive, enthusiastic and focused.
Your question then is, “What is the ultimate pleasure that I can derive from running my business?”
If you are bored with your business, it may be, “How can I fill every moment of every day with meaningful activity?”
If you need extra funds, it may be, “How can I create sufficient money to meet my needs and my wants?”
Just for now, think of your own ultimate pleasure and write it down in your notebook or inspiration file so that you can refer to it later. In your notebook use colour, draw sketches, paste in photos – anything to remind you of your reasons for owning your own business.
Whenever you find yourself in the gap, ask yourself these simple questions:
If your answer to any of these questions is, “I don’t know” then the clincher question is, “If I did know, what do I think the answer could be?”
If you still don’t know, here is the ultimate clincher question: “What additional information do I need to answer the question?”
Now, set goals to acquire that information. You will discover how to do this in the next chapter.
Personal and business success are inextricably intertwined. Here is a fundamental and basic truth concerning coaching and business success – you can only start from where you are now. What has gone before has gone. No amount of soul-searching, weeping or negative thinking can change it. You will have learned any lessons that you needed in order to grow, and now it is time to move on and forward.
If you attempt to drive a car with your attention focused mainly on the rear view mirror, you will miss the turnings of opportunity ahead of you and increase your chances of having a crash. Instead, drive with enthusiasm looking through a clear and spotless windscreen into the future of your business. You CAN improve your business success – now have the courage, release your handbrake of real and imagined failure and jump into your business journey.
Get ready to plan the route to the next level on your business journey by reading Chapter 2!
