Business Coaching

What is Business Coaching?

Business Coaching is often a misunderstood term - because there are so many variations (e.g. business mentoring, advising, teaching, business training, executive coaching, consulting, counselling, facilitating and so on) that are used almost interchangeably, and so many varying degrees of service/product packages in the field.

What we mean by Business Coaching is enabling the business owner and entrepreneur to find and utilise the resources necessary to achieve their goals and rewards in life and business. We use the term 'business coaching' because out of all the terms used, it's the closest to our approach - enabling you to get learnings and integrate what you need, without us being the teacher or adviser - in other words, this is a 'do with' (together) process, not a 'do to'.

We know how hard it is to run your own business; keeping up with the constantly changing world is difficult enough, and finding the time to optimise sales, marketing, systems and business processes and run the company at the same time can be daunting.

Why do entrepreneurs choose to go into business for themselves?

The reasons are varied, but many boil down to wanting financial freedom, independence, more time; for living, family and relationships, achievement, fulfillment and happiness. However, after the initial honeymoon period, the figures show that these needs are not fulfilled - most business owners find themselves working long hours, and underachieving financially - the business becomes a job, the job becomes restricting, and the entrepreneur can become disillusioned.

The statistics are not good for small businesses - about 80% of small business start-ups fail within the first 5 years. The business starts to show signs of failure after the first 2-3 years.

Surveys have shown that is the USA some 13% of all employees want to start their own business, and 8% plan to start their own business within the next 12 months; and the trend is going in the same direction for the UK.

The reasons are obvious - even just one or two decades ago, there was far more stability and security in the workplace compared to now. The world is changing faster, jobs are less secure due to market / economic cycles, and company pensions don't give the security for the future that they once used to.

So what is the secret to being successful in business?

It's a similar situation to becoming a parent - people simply are not prepared, 'good practice' advice is not readily available (and even if it were, how can it be applied to each unique family / circumstances); so people learn the hard way.

It's the same for business start-ups; there are lots of books around, although there seems so often very little or inadequate support and advice from local authorities or from government appointed organisations. This is where business coaching can play a vital role.

What is the solution, the 'secret' to business success?

There are some fundamental processes that you can go through to ensure you don't have to learn the hard way, can stay motivated, and ensure you reach the goals you have set for financial security, freedom, and more time.

We have spent the last twenty years searching out these secrets - they are only secrets because people are not using them - so if you do, you will be way ahead of 95% of the rest of your competitors out there.

So what is the secret to business success with business coaching? - the secret lies in taking the most effective processes for all the key functions of the business, and utilising them in a step-by-step way to build the business based on solid foundations. The first step is to start with the owners/leaders/managers - removing limitations and blockages that are restricting motivation and growth.

ACT have been able to put this together in our business coaching program where others haven't, because we take a holistic view of the business and the entrepreneur:

A successful business comes from unlimiting each of the elements of the equation:

the Person x the Idea x the Implementation.

most business development books, courses and consultants focus upon the Idea and Business functions; we start with the Person (the first part of the equation)
the exact limit of the success of a business is directly related to the limitations of the people
the success of the idea is limited by the value of the idea to the client (although this value is often not consciously known to the client or the business)
Business is Marketing - businesses need to be very good at marketing in the Internet age
The business and the person should be aligned
The business is not a job, it should be capable of functioning without the person
The limitations of the person can be unblocked - you can be all you dream of being.

ACT have the skills to enable the person and business success, to clear blockages in either, then align both together, to achieve freedom, time, fulfillment, more life.

Before you spend any more money, ask what you really need, and what exactly you are getting: understand the differences between;

Business Coaching, Business Mentoring, Management Consulting, Human Resources Consultant, Marketing Consultant, Facilitator, Business Enabling, Executive Coaching, Personal Coach, Counseling, Business Training, Performance Coaching, Advising, Specialist, Life Coach,......the list goes on.

If you are not sure what you need, what you are getting and what it is going to do for you, then come and talk to us first and we'll help you decide what you need - because we know how to listen, how to understand, what you really want, and need.

We also run a Business NLP workshop for excellence in communication, rapport building, negotiation, presenting, etc...