Coaching for a Proactive Business

"I learn teaching from teachers. I learn golf from golfers. I learn winning from coaches." -- Harvey Penick

There are millions of people worldwide that dive into the excitement of entrepreneurship. It is a powerful feeling to have your own business that you control and grow based on your hard work and ingenuity. It seems though that entrepreneurship is synonymous with long hours, hard work and almost no vacation.

Business owners who are successful find themselves with a quickly-growing enterprise that does not give much opportunity for proactive activities. Instead, there is a flurry of fires to be put out as each action is a reaction to the business that needs to get done.

How can you create a business that is proactive instead of a daily fire drill?
This is the $1 million question that every entrepreneur would love to know the answer to. A business coach can provide the solution to having your cake and eating it too. But how would a business coach help you with your dream? Business coaches focus on helping you achieve baby steps. In weekly coaching sessions you identify specific problems or areas of concern, and the coach helps you develop strategies to overcome these issues.

What kinds of problems can be resolved?
Any problem that effects the efficiency, productivity and profit of your business can be helped by a business coach. For example, at Landau Design we had many issues tracking our sales leads and making sure we followed up in a timely fashion. We attempted to managed this information through Outlook, but still pieces were getting lost in the cracks. We put white boards up in our office, but they got smeared and weren't usually up to date. We tried a CRM, but this did not allow us to assign quotes duties and client meetings at the level of detail desired.

How are solutions found?
We brought our concerns to the Possibilities Unlimited team and together we discussed the details of our problem. By working with them each week, we devised a system for managing leads through a project management system. Before talking to our coach we had not considered a lead a project, and it never would have occurred to us to use this tool, but once the solution was found, it made perfect sense. Each week of using the system we discussed and refined our implementation, and within a couple months we had an effective lead management tool which kept us abreast of every single lead, quote and pending contract on our docket.

But how does that make my company proactive?
Before putting in our lead tracking system, we dropped balls. Customers would call asking for quotes, and we weren't always sure what stage they were in. So then we would all scramble around, hold an impromptu meeting, and try to put the pieces together. Meanwhile the client did not get an answer when they called, and instead we had to call them back. We were reacting in a panicked fashion because we were not organized. Now we get email notifications when a quote is complete, and the client is usually called before they call us. We do not have panicked responses, and instead we can focus on quality customer service instead of stressed-out responses.

How long does it take for a coach to help my business?
There really is no set amount of time for working with a coach. As long as you want to grow your business, a coach will be of value to you. As an objective pair of eyes, with extensive experience in business development, a business coach can help you see paths that you may never realize on your own. So while you might want emergency coaching for a specific challenge, to truly grow a successful business, a coach is a key player.