Could You Use Some Support During Startup?

Starting a small business involves risk, financially, professionally and personally. You are doing to need a high level of support during startup from family, friends, business associates if you are going to succeed.

Family and Friends

You will be working long hours, probably alone in the first instance, and your days will be filled with problems.

It might take some time before customers appear at your door on a regular basis, and you will spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about your business and second guessing decisions you have already made.

You are likely to be tired all the time, very tired in fact, and you will not exactly be a joy to live with!

Are your family and friends prepared for long hours, late nights, and a smaller disposable income? Are they just as committed to your business venture as you are?

If not, that is something you should work on right now!

Find Yourself a Mentor

According to Dictionary.Com, a mentor is:

1. a wise and trusted counselor or teacher, or
2. an influential senior sponsor or supporter.

Do you know anyone who has already been where you are going?

What you are looking for is a local business person, preferably one that is not in competition with your new business, who is willing to share their experiences with you during your startup phase.

A good mentor will listen to your ideas and give honest feedback, point out any flaws in your business model and offer advice on how to manage any obstacles or blocks that you encounter. They will not actually work in your business, they usually have a business of their own to work on, but just being able to ask questions and bounce your ideas off a business person you can trust will be a real boon for both you and your small business.

If you are unsure of where to start looking for a mentor, you could start by joining your local small business association. You could also check for any free or subsidized mentoring or coaching services offered by local or state government agencies in your jurisdiction.

If All Else Fails, Pay for Support

If you are unable to find a ‘free’ mentor, another option might be to pay for one. There are any number of businesses that offer mentoring services for small businesses. You might also like to investigate the services offered by Business Consultants, or Small Business Coaches.

Business Consultants

What do Business Consultants do? The answer is just about anything!

If you need help with any aspect of business management you will find a consultant with the expertise to help you. Do you need help with team-building, strategic planning, developing a web presence, analyzing and improving your production systems (the list goes on and on) you will be able to find a consultant to help you.

If you do decide the find a Business Consultant, don’t forget to look up Management Consultants as well.

Small Business Coaches

A small business coach can help you get clear on what your goal is for you small business. The coaching process tends to be on-on-one, and focused on developing objectives and the strategies and action plans you need to put into place to achieve them.

If you need a sounding board, a small business coach can be that for you. If you need an unbiased view of your plans to build your small business, a small business coach can give that to you.

They do not judge your ideas, they just help you to work on them and then provide on-going support during startup.

If you would like more information on how coaching can help you during the startup phase of your new small business, drop me a line through my contact form.

Coaching : Evoking Excellence in Others

Published by: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann

ISBN: 0 07506 7920 4

Basically, this book is a how to of coaching. Flaherty bases his text on psychological and management theories, concepts and models to present to his audience how they can be applied to enrich the coaching relationship and empower the coach. Some of the topics covered in the book include:

• The foundation for coaching,
• Basic principles,
• The flow of coaching,
• The coaching relationship,
• Assessment models,
• Coaching Conversations, and
• Working with ourselves.

This book reminds coaches that coaching clients are human beings that have engaged in coaching seeking solutions to immediate problems in the short term and personal growth and development in the long term. In my opinion this book is well worth reading, as a coach the information presented will supplement and improve your existing knowledge of the coaching process.

Coaching for Performance, Third Edition (People Skills for Professionals)

John Whitmore (2006)

Published by: Nicholas Brealey Publishing

ISBN: 978 1 85788 303 9

This book is a coaching guide for practitioners who want to do more advanced work with their clients.

After discussing the nature of coaching and coaching in the workplace, Whitmore leads the reader through the GROW model of coaching.

(GROW stands for Goals, Reality, Options, and Will).

To quote Whitmore:

“Coaching is not merely a technique to be wheeled out and rigidly applied in certain prescribed circumstances. It is a way of treating people, a way of thinking, a way of being.”

This book explains why in a clear, concise and user-friendly way. It is easy to read and leads the reader through complex psychological concepts using realistic examples of coaching conversations.

So, What did I Think?

I bought it, read it and have referred to it on more than one occasion in my private coaching work and my other professional work as a manager.

If you want to know more about coaching in the workplace, and coaching for meaning or purpose in a work setting this book is a good choice!

Are you a natural born entrepreneur? On this page you will find links to questionnaires that will help you to assess your entrepreneurial traits.

Born to be an Entrepreneur?

Find out whether you have the personality and behaviours of a born entrepreneur.

Have you ever met someone and heard stories about their life that made you think, “wow, she is meant to be an entrepreneur!”

There are signs of entrepreneurship that can begin early in life and develop up until the present.

If you possess many of these traits, it is likely that entrepreneurship is a good match for you and that if you do not pursue some form of entrepreneurial venture, you may feel incomplete.

This assessment measures those innate personality characteristics that indicate a high likelihood of being a successful entrepreneur. It uses a lifespan approach to look for signs of being destined for entrepreneurship throughout one’s life.

Self Motivation Inventory

Find out whether you are naturally self-motivated and disciplined?

People often wonder what makes it hard for them to begin or complete activities and tasks. There are many factors which may play a role or serve to explain these difficulties. One of these factors is self-motivation.

Self motivation is the ability and desire to reach goals and succeed which is fueled by your own hopes or dreams, rather than those of somebody else.

Completing this assessment will help you to find out whether you have this quality of self-motivation and if it is present, how strongly you possess it. The results will let you know if you are likely to be someone who does better with internal or external motivators and rewards.

Leadership Potential

Are you a born leader who can naturally motivate and influence others?

Many leadership characteristics can be learned with time and experience. Many others are inborn or natural to the individual. These are the people who have been leaders since kindergarten.They are the born leaders.

There are several keys to strong leadership abilities. Many are beyond the obvious.

Take this assessment to find out how strong the leader in you is. The results will tell you whether you have what it takes naturally and have all the learned skills or whether you could work on learning some more leadership skills.

What Now?

I hope you enjoyed these free assessments.

Please feel free to send me any questions or comments you have about these items.

Published by: Wiley Publishing Inc
ISBN: 0 7645 7652 6

As the title indicates, Business Plans for Dummies is from the ‘For Dummies’ series of books.

The information presented in six sections as follows:

• knowing where you want to go,
• describing your marketplace,
• weighing your company’s prospects,
• looking into the future,
• putting the business plan into action, and
• the part of the tens.

Not all of the section titles give you a clear idea of what is included so I will summarize them for you!

Knowing where you want to go

This section the authors lead you through the preparation stages of preparing a business plan including putting together a business planning team and finding the necessary resources.

This section also discussed why you really need a business plan and how to set the direction for your business planning efforts.

Describing your marketplace

This section leads you through the process of analyzing your market, your customers and your competition.

Weighing your company’s prospects

This section is about internal analysis and decision making.

The authors walk you through SWOT analysis to enable you to work out what your business does best and what you need to fix so that you can develop a business model that will work for you.

They also guide you through the process of developing income forecasts, operational budgets and cashflow forecasts to support your plan.

Looking to the future

In this section the authors address uncertainty, strategic thinking and growing the business.

Putting your business plan into action

This section is important. In it the authors talk about what to do with your plan once you have finished it.

A business plan should be a living document, one that guides the actions of everyone involved in the business!

The part of the tens

As the title of this section suggests, it is all about ‘ten things’ that relate to your business plans, specifically:

• Ten signs that you need to refresh your business plan,
• Ten questions to ask about your plan, and
• Ten business planning never-evers

So, what did I think?

Although this is a good text on how to put a business plan together, I can’t say it is one of my favorites. That, however, is definitely a personal preference thing.

The information presented in the Business Plans for Dummies is accurate and is presented clearly and logically. It offers common sense tips throughout the book for managing the business planning process and definitely ‘talks to’ the target audience.

For anyone who has only limited experience with developing business models and business planning, this book would be a reasonably good choice.

Business Plans For Dummies

You will probably be faced with finding a business coach as soon as you make the decision that coaching would help you with your business.

Before you race off and hire the first coach you trip over, there are a few things you need to consider.

First, coaching is generally a long term relationship that can be of significant benefit to your business.

However, a long term coaching relationship is a serious investment.

Not only will you will need to invest time, but depending on the experience and knowledge of the coach you select, it is likely to cost you a significant amount of money!

Second, to benefit fully from coaching, you, as the client, need to be completely open with your coach. In other words, you need to be honest with them and with yourself. You need to tell the whole truth - warts and all, or you are both wasting your time. For this to happen you need to concentrate of finding a business coach that you can talk to easily and that you can trust.

I suggest that your first step is to build yourself a list of possible coaches.

You build your list by checking out the yellow pages, talking to friends or associates who have experienced coaching, surfing the Net for Coaches, or by using the ‘Find a Coach’ function on any of the Coaching Industry websites (International Coach Federation, International Association of Coaches etc).

How many to add to the list? Up to you, but it is standard commercial practice to get at least three quotes for any large purchase, why should coaching be any different?

How Do You Know Which Coach to Trust?

So you now have a list of possible coaches and are focused on finding a business coach that suits you and your business. How do you know which one to hire?

Try before you buy.

Most coaching professionals offer prospective clients a complimentary coaching session.

During one of these sessions you will be able to evaluate whether or not you would be able to work with this particular coach.

Some coaches are ‘technically better’ than others, and sometimes the personality mix is just not right, and you will get the feeling that flogging a dead horse would be more productive!

No-one’s fault, it happens and if it does just move on to the next possible coach on your list.

What Questions Should You Ask?

During your preliminary discussions or at the end of your complimentary session don’t forget to ask the coach a few ‘good business’ questions:

What is Coaching?

If they can’t answer this question without any hesitation what-so-ever, politely close the conversation and dial the next number on your list.

Do you operate in accordance with an Industry Code of Conduct?

To be accepted as members of the International Coach Federation, Coaches have to make a commitment to abide by the Code of Ethics and Professional Standards developed by the Federation. Which code of ethics does your prospective coach follow?

What Coach Training Have You Done?

Although coaching is a relatively new phenomenon, the number of coach training schools these days is astounding. In Australia a number of registered training organizations (coaching schools) offer a Certificate IV in coaching, and there are some very well known and respected coaching schools which offer coach training internationally. Do some research on coach training and then ask your prospective coach about their training.

What Other Qualifications do You Have?

If the coach is describing themselves as a business coach, or an executive coach, ask them about their ‘other qualifications’. Do they have university level qualifications in business management or commerce? There is no guarantee that they are qualified just because they describe themselves as a business coach. If you are looking for someone who is knowledgeable about business management, qualifications are a good sign that they have it!

What Experience Do You Have as a [Insert specialization here] Coach?

Ask the prospective coach about their level of experience. Just because you are the coaches first client doesn’t mean that they are a ‘bad’ coach - they may be absolutely brilliant - but if they are still learning, that should be factored into their pricing model.

While you can work on practically any issue with a good small business coach, some coaching topics come up more frequently than others. On this page you will find some of the more usual topics that a Coach would work on with a Small Business Owner.

Creating a Business Plan

Do you have a business plan? Do you know how to create one?

If you answered no to both of these questions you might have trouble keeping your business afloat!

A Business Coach can lead you through the process of developing a well thought out plan for your business.

Developing New Skills

It is a fact that the personal characteristics that make you a great entrepreneur, will also make it difficult for you to ‘maintain’ a business in the long term.

Over time the drive and creativity that enabled you to build the business in the first place will turn into restlessness and frustration.

Your ability to think on your feet and make fast decisions, a bonus in the startup phase, will make it difficult to share the decision making with your employees through delegation when the business has grown and stabilized.

Working with a Business Coach can help you to develop some of the skills you will need as your business grows and matures. This might include leadership or management skills (and no they are not the same thing!), communication skills, conflict management and negotiation skills, people management skills, or competency based skills like organizational management, records management or financial management.

Growing the Business

This is one of the coaching topics that is dear to the heart of most Small Business Owners!

How do you plan to grow your business?

Does it involve finding more customers for your existing products or services?

Are you going to introduce new products, or do you need to find new customers?

A Business Coach can help you identify the most appropriate growth strategies for your business and then provide support as you implement your plan.

Managing Difficult Situations

Do you have a customer, or a supplier, or an employee that you are having a problem dealing with? Not sure how to handle the situation?

A Business Coach can provide you an objective view of the situation and help you to see the situation from the other person’s point of view. With the help of your Coach you will be able to develop strategies that will enable you to work your way through the situation and achieve an outcome that is if not beneficial to both parties, resolves the situation with minimal harm to both sides.

Planning Marketing Campaigns

Before you begin your next marketing campaign, you might want to take a better look at who your ideal customer is, where you will find them and what they actually want from you!

A Business Coach can help you to develop a more targeted marketing plan that will reach your target market!

Redefining Your Business Strategy

Does the strategy you started out with still work for your business?

In some cases it will, but as a business grows and develops it can take on a life of it’s own and you may find that shifts in your market and your customer base or emerging economic factors make your initial business strategy a poor fit for the current ’shape’ of your business.

A Business Coach can help you analyse your business and the environment that it is operating in to develop a new or improved business strategy.

Workforce or Succession Planning

Workforce planning often presents a very real issue for established small businesses, particularly for family businesses.

If employees are not family members, they tend to stay longer with a family business than with a larger corporation, and it is less likely that core processes and procedures are documented. Often the ‘job’ has developed over time and much of the organizational knowledge is embedded in the heads of the employees. Single points of failure abound in small to medium businesses.

What does that mean? It means that the loss of one your core employees represents a significant risk to the business simply because no-one else knows exactly what they do or how they do it!

Accidents happen, families have moments or months and years of crisis, people will eventually retire. A Business Coach can help you work through these issues, develop strategies to minimize the risk and manage the process of attracting and retaining new employees.

Work-Life Balance

The majority of Small Business Owners work very long hours, and even when they are not a work they are still ‘working the business’ because you never know who your next customer will be or where you will find them!

As a Small Business Owner, how many school concerts have you been late for, or missed all together? When was the last time you managed to take a break from the business and have a nice long holiday with your family? When was the last time you caught a movie, or went out to dinner?

A Business Coach can help you to work out how to find a better balance between your business and your personal life.

What now?

Bear in mind that this is not a comprehensive list of possible coaching topics, but if any of the coaching topics presented above have relevance to your situation, a business coach is probably going to be able to help you, and the next step is finding a business coach!

Do you think one of the more important coaching topics is missing from this page? Drop me a line on my contact page, and I will look at including it!

Are you thinking about starting a small business of your own?

Starting a home business can be exhilarating it can also be very difficult, particularly if you don’t take the time to really plan your business. There is a lot to think about when you are just starting out, things like how much funding you will need for your small business, and how much external financing will be required.

What business insurance do you need and what are your legal obligations as a business owner?

For that matter, what kind of business are you planning to start?

Are you going to build a business from scratch, or will you buy one? Is franchising a good option or does multi-level-marketing suit you better?

There are so many decisions to be made before you can open the doors and welcome in your customers.

If you are looking for some guidance through all of the steps of starting a small business, including where to start and what to do to develop your desire to start a small business into a viable business operation, check out www.how-to-start-a-small-business.com.

Behavioral Coaching: How to build a sustainable personal and organizational strength

Suzanne Skiffington & Perry Zeus (2003)

Published by: McGraw Hill Professional

ISBN: 0 074 71328 0

Behavioral Coaching

The publisher of this book claims it is the first book published that details a model of behavioural-based coaching and how to apply it.

In the authors own words:

The overall goal of behavioral coaching is to help individuals increase their effectiveness and happiness at work and in the larger community. Behavioral-based coaching seeks to enhance the individual’s life and work performance.

Skiffington and Zeus (2003) pp. xi - xii

The authors developed their behavioral-based coaching model and wrote this book to meet the demand of coaches and their clients for a coaching model based on scientifically validated methodologies.

Topics in the book include:

• An Introduction to Behavioral Coaching,
• Coaching as Personal Development,
• Learning and Behavioral Change,
• The Behavioral Coaching Approach,
• The Behavioral Coaching Model, and
• Client-Centered Management for Coaches.

Although the writing style is not strictly academic, this book reads a little like a textbook.

The concepts and theories that their model is based upon ar set out clearly and in a logical order, and all of the reference material cited in the text is provided in the bibliography.

Believe me this is not always the case, and is a boon if you wish to further investigate any of the concepts or ideas presented by the authors!

I doubt that many coaching clients would be interested in picking up this book as light reading, but it is invaluable for professional coaches who would like to gain a better understanding of the theories and concepts from which the tools and techniques in coaching were developed.

Well worth considering as a addition to your professional library!