Library - Coaching for Businesses
10 reasons to have a Business Coach
10 reasons to have a Business Coach
Here are 10 reasons, in alphabetical order, to have a business coach:
- Accountability: as a coach I will hold you to account, check on your progress, care about how you own or manage your business, support, champion and challenge you. Self-help books are great, but they don’t do follow-up.
- Agenda: a coach will normally work on anything you want – however small or random. Not every business owner who sees a coach wants their business to go global or be worth millions. Some business owners just want to find the motivation to structure their day, market more effectively, get on better with staff, stick to a routine, explore local business opportunities, or just make a change means not working 24/7. You set the agenda in coaching and I commit to supporting you.
- Feelgood factor: coaching isn’t like sitting an exam. There’s no right answer. In fact, it’s exciting, stimulating and fun to be coached. I’m entirely comfortable using humour while offering you support, praise and challenge. You should expect to leave every coaching session feeling more entrepreneurial, capable and resourceful than you did when you started.
- Fresh Start: I have no preconceptions about you or your business. There is no agenda and no history to cloud my view of you. Unlike anyone else in your life, I see you and your business as you and it show up in front of me – not as your job title or as a brand I’ve known for years. I see you and your business as you and it are and as who you and it could be. Then I hold up a mirror to you so you can see too.
- Individual solutions: coaching is not one-size-fits-all. I don’t impose solutions. Instead, I appreciate the uniqueness of each business and know that each one is different. As a coach I help you understand yourself as an entrepreneur or business owner – what motivates you, what holds you back, what excites you, what gives you purpose.
- Listening: coaches know how to listen. When was the last time you were really listened to, without interruption, so that you could hear yourself think? There’s a reason for asking: “How Do I Know What I’m Thinking Until I’ve Heard Myself Speak?”. It’s not the same as talking to yourself when you’re driving or out for a walk. Neuroscience has found that having attention from another human floods the brain with chemicals that improve your thinking and reduce stress.
- Questioning: I will ask you questions – sometimes tricky ones – to help you find the solutions or goals that are right for you and your business. And then you (not I) will find solutions that are right for you and your business. Coaching is like having a bespoke suit that only fits you!
- You: you pay for my time, expertise and ability to partner you in your business thinking. We don’t have to take turns in a conversation – you can just indulge in pure “you time” and I may not speak much. When was the last time you weren’t interrupted and thrown off your train of thought?
- You and your business: perhaps for the first time in your life you can be entirely yourself. You can let go of trying to be perfect, people pleasing, or other habits you have acquired. I create an adult-to-adult relationship in which you will learn that being perfect doesn’t exist and also isn’t necessary. Instead, you will learn to accept and even celebrate your minor flaws! What’s wrong with being idiosyncratic? You will learn self-awareness, self-management and business growth skills that last.
- Effectiveness: behind every successful sportsperson is a coach. Behind many successful business persons there is a coach. Behind many successful individuals there is a coach. High achievers know they can’t do it all on their own. And there’s nothing wrong in accepting that you and your business can do more or better with support.
10 Reasons to have a Business Coach
24 Ways To Increase Your Turnover - Steps 1 to 8
24 Ways To Increase Your Turnover - Steps 1 to 8
A version of this blog appeared here on 15th May 2023.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make if you’re a business owner or entrepreneur and want to increase your turnover is to think that the only way is:
- to get new leads
- to convert those leads into prospects
- to convert those prospects into clients or customers.
If you’re thinking like that, you’re on the wrong track.
There’s a much easier way that requires you to do only three things:
- you resume (or sometimes resurrect) contact with your lapsed contacts, clients or customers
- you stay in touch (regularly) with the contacts, clients and customers you already deal with
- you leverage things that are right in front of your nose
Lapsed contacts, clients or customers means people or organisations who you already know, but who haven’t engaged with you or your business for a while. They may have been lost for a variety of reasons, but the main ones tend to be:
- changes in their own circumstances
- competition from other businesses
- you not following-up or staying in touch
To generate business from lapsed contacts, clients or customers you can use a variety of strategies. These can include such things as:
- targeted non-selling information-based emails or email campaigns
- personalised reaching out
- special offers or promotions
By offering lapsed contacts, clients or customers a reason to re-engage with you and your business, you can generate new business opportunities because they already trust you.
The same approach applies to current clients or customers (who trust you even more) but sometimes need to “feel the love” on an ongoing basis to give you even more business.
Things that are right in front of your nose refer to the untapped opportunities that may exist within your existing business or resources. These are often overlooked or undervalued, but with some creative thinking and strategic planning, you can capitalize on them to generate new business.
Here are 8 (out of 24) suggestions (you’ll have to wait for the remaining 16) that are the easiest ways to increase your turnover by leveraging lapsed contacts, clients or customers and/or are things that are just staring you in the face:
- Answer your phone even if it’s a “No ID” number: lost of business is lost by not picking up promptly. People have an increasingly short attention span. If you can’t pick up, use voicemail or get a virtual PA or answering service (they pay for themselves very quickly).
- Use your existing database: most of us have 100s (if not 1000s) of contacts in our database. Of course there are GDPR factors to consider, but one of the easiest ways to respect GDPR but still generate new business from existing contacts is to invite them to reply to a GDPR audit and then resume contact – your database then becomes much more up to date, reliable and useful anyway.
- Call back quickly: research shows that if you call back an unanswered enquiry within 10 minutes, then your conversion rate will be much higher in terms of getting more traction and converting those calls to a business opportunity: business means having a conversation.
- Use WhatsApp or SMS: have you noticed how people these days are more likely to communicate with you via WhatsApp or SMS than by an old-fashioned phone call? Why not do the same yourself (WhatsApp for Business is cheap) and revive or maintain your contacts by dropping them a text message? It’s still innovative and will make you memorable.
- Don’t give up: too many people give up trying to get in touch after 2 or 3 attempts. Research shows that if you persist up to 5 or 6 times then you’re more likely to get a reply or traction.
- Have an out-of hours service: many people who are looking for goods or services for themselves tend to do so outside their normal hours of work (when they’re doing their day job). You only need to have a recorded message (but then remember suggestion no. 3 above).
- Make sure your website works: check – again and again – and on an ongoing basis – that your web pages and the links to and within your web pages work. Your website is your shop window and if it doesn’t work efficiently, people won’t trust you to do work for them.
- Don’t ask for too much data up-front: too many enquiry pages ask for someone’s full name, address, email, reason for contact, referral and other details. All you need is a first name and a phone number that you can use for a phone call or (see suggestion 4above) a text message.
Try putting this into practice – not only yourself, but also by encouraging your staff or team to do the same – and you might be pleasantly surprised how much more contact you get from people. No conversations usually means no business. Suggestions 9 to 16 and 17 to 24 will follow later.
What is a Business Growth System
24 Ways To Increase Your Turnover - Steps 9 to 16
24 Ways To Increase Your Turnover - Steps 1 to 8
A version of this blog appeared here on 22nd May 2023.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make if you’re a business owner or entrepreneur and want to increase your turnover is to think that the only way is:
- to get new leads
- to convert those leads into prospects
- to convert those prospects into clients or customers.
If you’re thinking like that, you’re on the wrong track.
There’s a much easier way that requires you to do only three things:
- you resume (or sometimes resurrect) your lapsed contacts, clients or customers
- you stay in touch (regularly) with the clients and customers you already deal with
- you leverage things that are right in front of your nose
Lapsed contacts, clients or customers means people or organisations who you already know, but who haven’t engaged with you or your business for a while. They may have been lost for a variety of reasons, but the main ones are:
- changes in their own circumstances
- competition from other businesses
- you not following-up or staying in touch
To generate business from lapsed contacts, clients or customers you can use a variety of strategies. These can include such things as:
- targeted information-based emails or email campaigns
- personalised reaching out
- special offers or promotions
By offering lapsed contacts, clients or customers a reason to re-engage with you and your business, you can generate new business opportunities because they already trust you.
The same approach applies to current clients or customers (who trust you even more) but sometimes need to “feel the love” on an ongoing basis to give you even more business.
Things that are right n front of your nose refer to the untapped opportunities that may exist within your existing business or resources. These are often overlooked or undervalued, but with some creative thinking and strategic planning, you can capitalize on them to generate new business.
The first part of this three-part program identified 8 (out of 24) suggestions to increase your turnover by leveraging lapsed contacts, clients or customers and/or things that are staring you in the face. Shown below are:
- those original 8 suggestions
- plus another 8 (9 to 16) more:
- Answer your phone even if it’s a “No ID” number: lost of business is lost by not picking up promptly. People have an increasingly short attention span. If you can’t pick up, use voicemail or get a virtual PA or answering service (they pay for themselves very quickly).
- Use your existing database: most of us have 100s (if not 1000s) of contacts in our database. Of course there are GDPR factors to consider, but one of the easiest ways to generate new business from existing contacts is to invite them to reply to a GDPR audit and then resume contact – your database then become much more up to date, reliable and useful.
- Call back quickly: research shows that if you call back an unanswered enquiry within 10 minutes, then your conversion rate will be much higher in terms of getting more traction and converting those calls to a business opportunity: business means having a conversation.
- Use WhatsApp or SMS: have you noticed how people these days are more likely to communicate with you via WhatsApp or SMS than by an old-fashioned phone call? Why not do the same yourself (WhatsApp for Business is cheap) and revive or maintain your contacts by dropping them a text message? It’s still innovative and will make you memorable.
- Don’t give up: too many people give up trying to get in touch after 2 or 3 attempts. Research shows that if you persist up to 5 or 6 times then you’re more likely to get a reply or tractio
- Have an out-of hours service: many people who are looking for goods or services for themselves tend to do so outside their normal hours of work (when they’re doing their day job). You only need to have a recorded message (but then remember suggestion no. 3 above).
- Make sure your website works: check – again and again – and on an ongoing basis – that your web pages and the links to and within your web pages work. Your website is your shop window and if it doesn’t work efficiently, people won’t trust you to do work for them.
- Don’t ask for too much data up-front: too many enquiry pages ask for someone’s full name, address, email, reason for contact, referral and other details. All you need is a first name and a phone number that you can use for a phone call or (see suggestion 4above) a text message.
- Make sure your links work: as well as checking the links on your website – see item 7 above – you should also be creating a seamless connection between it and (i) your business-focused social media pages and (ii) your free Google Business Profile page – the optics work well.
- Have a physical brochure or info-sheet: this doesn’t mean a .pdf document that people can download. It means a physical thing that you pop in the post (everyone does that) that makes you show up like nobody else does.
- Have a call recording system: other than if you’re a solopreneur (when you don’t need it) a call recording system (i) lets you know what’s really happening; (ii) means you don’t need to remember everything; and (iii) lets you identify training requirements. All of these improve the client or customer experience and therefore makes things better for your business.
- Have Facebook pixels and Google tags embedded in your website: every time someone visits your website they leave a trace and are cookied. If you’re not picking that up and they leave without taking things further, you’ve lost them forever and can’t chase or re-market.
- Actually bother to re-market when you do have Facebook pixels and Google tags: there’s no point in having these free tools if you don’t use them (and even if website visitors don’t respond to your ongoing re-marketing for months).
- Plan to use your leads: if you’ve gone to the trouble of getting leads, then don’t throw them away by not having a good follow-up process.
- Have a thought-through (not a casual) plan to use your leads: having a process such as offering (i) a meeting or (ii) a brochure or (iii) a quotation but then always following up with a phone call or SMS to demonstrate you’re interested in the fact that your prospect is interested.
- Send a 3-line email every 3 months: this is something for people who visited your website, but haven’t engaged further. It’s no more complicated than: “Hello NAME. I’m wondering if you’re still interested in WHATEVER. Could you let me know?” It works wonders.
Try putting this into practice – not only yourself, but also by encouraging your staff or team to do the same – and you might be pleasantly surprised how much more contact you get from people. No conversations usually means no business.
Suggestions 17 to 24 will follow later.
What is a Business Growth System
Liar!
Liar!
A version of this blog was first published here on 9th May 2023.
Do you describe yourself as a small business owner?
Are you sure?
Really sure?
Or are you, in reality, someone who:
- owns a job that owns you?
- spends all their time in their business with little or no spare time to do other thing?
- wonders where their time has gone at the end of the day?
- is frustrated by not enough having achieved enough business growth?
If any of those scenarios resonate with you, you may be a liar.
Lying:
- to yourself
- to others.
The reason is that your so-called “business” may actually be nothing more than an expensive hobby.
If that’s the case, you may find a conversation with a business coach useful.
There are a few key signs that can help you to determine whether your business is a viable and sustainable enterprise, or whether it’s a hobby that’s costing more than it makes and needs to change.Here are some of them:
- Finance: it’s important to consider your financial situation. Are you consistently earning enough money from your business to cover your expenses and make enough of an after-tax profit that will fund your life and your plans (not just pay your bills)? If you’re constantly struggling to break even or are losing money, it may be a sign that your business is not sustainable in the long run and that you need to make some changes.
- Time: another factor is the time and effort you’re putting into your business. If you’re investing a significant amount of time and energy and are seeing little or no return on your investment, it may be a sign that your business is more of a hobby than a serious enterprise and that you need to address your time management and assess your commitment to spending time on your business and make changes here too.
- Market: it’s also important to consider the demand for your products or services. Are there enough clients or customers who are willing to pay for what you are offering? If you’re struggling to find them, or are not generating enough revenue, it may be a sign that your business is not viable or that you need to refocus on what you’re selling or offering, or on how you target your product or service to people who will actually buy.
Ultimately, if you’re unsure whether your business is more than an expensive hobby, it’s sensible to seek the advice of a professional – such as a business coach or mentor – who can support you to evaluate your business and identify areas where you can improve your operations, increase revenue, and achieve greater success.
As a coach focusing on small business growth, I can work with you to:
- Identify your business- and related goals
- Work out how much turnover you need to have to generate (before tax) to find those goals
- Analyse the gap between where you and where you need to head
- Focus on your market or sector
- Fix your marketing
- Generate more clients or customers
- Understand your numbers
- Develop processes and methods and systems which, with time, will let your business make money while you’re asleep.
It’s better to tell the truth than to lie.
What is a Business Growth System
What is a Business Growth System?
What is a Business Growth System?
A business growth system involves developing a series of business-related habits that create a methodology. This then generates more profit, which in turn not only brings your business more money, but also gives you more time to focus on those parts of your business that interest you most, as well as more leisure time when you can dispose of that money or do other things.
There are four (or five if you think long-term) elements to a business growth system. They’re called (1) Find Your Gap;(2) Do The Basics; (3) Define Your Message; (4) Know Your Numbers; and (5) Consolidation. Each element has several sub-elements that need to be methodically address if the synergy of all five elements are to result in the overall benefits mentioned earlier. Each of them comprises a separate part of the Coaching for Businesses program offered by WynLewisCoaching.
- Find your Gap: is where we start to understand:
- you and your business;
- where you want to get to;
- where you are now;
- the difference between here and there (this is your Gap);
- what you need (financially, personally, practically and in other ways) to bridge your Gap
- a clear goal;
- a sense check of your goal (is it even possible?)
- Do The Basics: this is where we establish the basic requirements of a successful business:
- as the business owner, it’s your responsibility (nobody else’s) to get and keep more clients/customers;
- if you don’t get and keep customers, your business will fail;
- most business owners don’t understand the direct link between:
- rhythmic business growth activity; and
- the rhythmic acquisition of clients/customers as a result;
- being reactive on an “everything will work out fine” basis isn’t enough;
- haphazard “spray and pray” marketing, with no follow-up, doesn’t work;
- to become a (more) professional business person you have to:
- introduce, develop, monitor, refine and leverage systems that result in leads, prospects and clients/customers;
- know your numbers (how much does it cost you to get a client/customer? what is the lifetime value of a customer? what are your margins? what work is most profitable?)
- you have to act and think like an investor with a plan to exit your business a few years’ time.
- the basic requirements for a successful business include:
- a marketing assets audit;
- activating Google Business;
- following up clients/customers;
- re-marketing;
- price review;
- getting reviews;
- publishing content in social media and other places; and
- having arrangements that capture enquiries.
Once you have the basics, all you need to do then is monitor and refine them every so often. But getting the basics in place is often overlooked.
- Define Your Message: this is where we focus on marketing your products or services so that you:
- understand your ideal buyer;
- present your business in a way that makes it memorable and needed;
- explain what your business does;
- think like a potential client/customer – why should they care about your personal circumstances – your product is more important than you are;
- establish your business as the place to go for your product or service;
- create an offer that a potential client/customer would be silly to resist;
- assess and work out the most effective marketing;
- follow up
- don’t focus on selling – focus instead on others buying.
Marketing and messaging don’t have to be “sales-y”. All that it involves is supplying information to people who are already looking to buy something. They key point is to do this in a targeted way. Then do it again. And again. And again. That then creates a rhythm, which creates a habit, which makes marketing easier, which results in business growth.
- Know Your Numbers: this is when we identify, understand and know how to manipulate your management financial data: it’s Business Maths…. The reason it’s important is that:
- most small business live from week to week / month to month / year to year and then send their data to their accountants to get their annual accounts done. But they (i.e. your accountants) only process your data – they don’t understand how your business works;
- many small businesses are OK if there is enough money in current account to pay for overheads, remuneration, tax and some contingencies;
- and most small businesses have no idea of the numbers that would let those businesses flourish and profit, such as:
- how much money did you make in the last 12 months?
- how many clients/customers/sales did you add this year?
- how much does it cost you to get a new client/customer/sale?
- how much is your average client/customer/sale worth to you?
- what is your most profitable work (i.e. which takes you least time and effort to produce the highest profit)?
- which bit of what you do or provide creates the most profit for the least effort?
There are also 12 key numbers you need to know. These are:
- your leads;
- your lead conversion rate;
- your prospects
- your prospects conversion rate;
- your sales;
- your average order value;
- your total revenue;
- your gross margin;
- your gross profit;
- your overheads;
- your remuneration; and
- your net profit.
These numbers let you know how much money you need to spend to make more profit and how effective is that to bridge your Gap. The extent to which you know these numbers will determine whether you focus on “busy-ness” or whether you are a business person. You need to know your numbers. If you don’t know the score, you won’t know your status.
- Consolidation: this is when we accept that business growth isn’t something that can be done once and then forgotten about. Instead, it’s an ongoing process that needs to be developed and refined and, sometimes, changed entirely. It has three stages:
- Stage 1: involves putting everything in place so that you know more about your business and can manage it better. This is what the first four stages are all about:
- Stage 2: involves improving, refining and generally polishing what you now have in place, so that (part of) your business can run itself; this then leaves you free to focus on other things; and lets you build (not create) your business: optimisation.
- Stage 3: is what happens when you have stabilised and maximised. It’s when you can expand your reach, your client/customer base, your products/services:
Everything that’s mentioned above is part of a system, rather than a series of one-of activities. Each activity builds on and/or is related to other activities to build and benefit from the system. It’s having a system that result in someone owning a business, rather than owning a job.