Many SMEs know they should seek external formal advice but don’t

Posted on by
1

Quality Business Coaching in Bristol, Bath and the South West

For many ambitious business leaders, growth is high on their list of priorities. And so it should be. After all, who starts a business with the vision of seeing it go under? Everyone knows that if they can build a long-term sustainable new business pipeline, it will increase the capital value of the business. It will also build in long-term security and most likely increase the engagement of the team and clients.

Growth, like good health and safety, is no accident. It is no fluke. Rather it is the outworking of a complex, interlocking process of resource allocation, systems development and product enhancement all underpinned by sound marketing and competent sales.

Getting all these various components to fly in formation towards achieving the business vision and goals is very satisfying, if all goes well. But when it doesn’t go well, it can lead to a dip in confidence, a sense of frustration and at worst the team engaging in various short-term tactics to redress the problem.

External formal advice will enhance growth and, if brought in early enough, can help resolve the survivalist tactics mentioned above. But many growth-oriented SME owners or Directors are held back from bringing in this support according to some research carried out by The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and further developed by Skilfair.

What they concluded from the research is that the reasons why growth hungry SMEs do not employ formal business support are:

1. They have doubts about whether the support will achieve a satisfactory return on their investment or ROI. As business coaching consultants in Bristol and Bath, we can understand this doubt. On what basis can we confidently assert that, because of our input, support and advice, the client’s business will grow? The answer is simple in one regard – we cannot guarantee growth, and complex in that we can guarantee growth, if certain conditions set out in the engagement are met. By conducting a thorough diagnosis of the business, the mindset of the owners, the team, clients and the situational environment, it is possible to reduce the potential for failure and simultaneously increase the resiliency of the business.

2. Trust and confidence in the source of advice. Having what we term flat packed solutions shoehorned in to your own unique business issue is sadly typical of most consultants. They argue, “Why waste time doing a diagnostic, when it is easier to search through the tool kit and employ a ready made solution, one that we know works and we are confident in using”. We at the Business CoPilot know better. We know that trust is gained during that essential diagnostic phase and with that trust comes the freedom to dig deeper and delve into more areas. Hopefully to point out the elephant in the room and offer possible solutions as to how best to remove it.

3. Fear of making a wrong choice or not being able to work effectively with the external advisor. Employing people is risky, we all know that, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. Employing a consultant on the other hand is easy. You can engage them on a very small and perhaps low risk, insignificant project to test their relational skills, aptitude and ability to work within the culture of the business. And as we are on fixed terms and conditions it allows the client to dispense with us at their request. No questions asked, no explanation needed. Just a simple email and that cuts short the engagement.

Our goal in writing this was to dispel the myth that hiring quality advice is risky. We think that this business maxim says it all “If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait till you hire an amateur”.

Call us on 0117 230 3166 for more information, or click here to read more about how we can help

Business Coaching in Bristol, Bath and the South West

Strategic thinking whilst out walking

Posted on by
Reply

We went for a walk the other day. It wasn’t a long walk, nor an arduous walk. Just a gentle stroll through the Ashton Court Estate here in Bristol. The weather was unremarkable. The scenery, whilst it reflected the season, was unremarkable. A totally ordinary and forgettable stroll in the country.

And yet – it was totally absorbing, full of fascinating insights, observations, moments of clarity and moments of deep reflection. The reason why the unremarkable walk became remarkable was the addition of a catalyst. His name is Dave Stewart and he runs the Fresh Air Learning Company. They “work with leaders and teams in tough places”.

What Dave did was ask us to pause as we walked and to reflect on what we were doing, where we were relative to the start point and so on. Each time it was an opportunity to think. And as there were none of the usual work based barriers, structures, walls etc, we could think better as nothing could occlude our line of thought so to speak.

The one key moment for me was when we stopped halfway up the hill and looked back to see our tracks in the dew on the grass. A clearly defined route was visible. The moments when we stopped, moved to the left or the right, moments when we spilt up or converged. All these were easily visible, we could map our course to that point with ease. But when we turned around it was not possible to see the route ahead as we were in a field and not on a path. And the shape of the hill meant that we could not see our end destination.

So we simply walked in the direction that we knew our destination would be, it wasn’t a perfect route but without the confirmation of being able to see it, it was good enough for the moment. We were at least moving.

That got me thinking about the business – what do you do when you cannot see the end destination. The answer from this exercise was to move in the direction of the end goal and make adjustments when the goal is revealed.

Nothing spectacular but another glimpse of strategic thinking that will help me to move the business forward and to help guide others as we guide them along the way to success.

Business Coaching in Bristol, Bath and the South West

The E-Myth Revisited – a summary by Joe Mosed

Posted on by
1

I read the book by Michael Gerber a few years back and it changed the way that I think about how to grow a small business. When I saw this summary it accurately encapsulated everything that I learned from the book and have therefore reprinted it wholesale. Thanks to Joe Mosed for this insightful summary of this excellent book

“75% of small businesses fail in the first 10 years and 50% fail in the first 5 years. These are horrible stats that can be mitigated with the right strategy. E-Myth Revisited explains how to do this and why most businesses fail in the first place. Franchise businesses succeed 75% of the time over the same 10 year period. We will contrast the differences in this summary.

Why is this important to me? Michael argues that three personalities are required to run a business and they all have different agendas. They consist of the technician, the manager and the entrepreneur. The tech wants to just do the work, the manager wants to organize the work and keep order and the entrepreneur wants to strategize about the vision and the future. The problem arises because most people who start the businesses are technicians only. They have to do everything themselves and end up buying a job and working triple time to get everything done. The personalities are required for a business to be successful but when there is only one person i.e. the plumber, hair stylist, dentist etc. who start the business then these personality types conflict.

E-Myth is packed with great information. For the sake of time, I will cover three key points.

1. Infancy, Adolescence and Maturity – These are growth stages in any business and if they are not handled correctly, then bankruptcy is the conclusion. Infancy consists of starting the business with you doing all the work. Adolescence is when you hire your first employees. Typically what happens is that the employees are thrown into the job with no training and they become your right hand. Maturity happens when the business finds its legs and is able to scale growth.

2. Why do franchises succeed and small businesses fail? The number one reason is that the franchise is a crafted system and the small business is started on a whim with no real experience. The franchise model is strong because it gives all the necessary training, steps and systems to succeed. McDonald’s is the greatest franchise to prove this. They can hire low skilled workers to run the system successfully. This is important because everything is covered and checklists are required. The system is the business. The small business does not have this luxury and usually dies because of it.

3. Systems and Scalability – We can learn a lot from franchise businesses. They are always honing and creating better systems so the business can run by itself. I can personally attest to the power of this. My business is in enterprise software. When the business was first starting, 80 hour work weeks were standard. We did everything without a roadmap just to keep the business going.

When I stepped back and asked for help, it allowed me to work on the business instead of in it. We now have systems in place that allow us to control quality, deliver on time and keep happy customers. This is not easy to do. System thinking is detailed oriented and is a culture change with the people. I can tell you that if you have a small business and want to stop trading HOURS for DOLLARS then start scripting and creating systems so the business can run without you.

The goal of creating a business that can run without you is lofty but definitely attainable. The best example of this is Warren Buffett. He owns excellent businesses and does not run them at all. He has the right people in the right places and it frees him up to do what he does best which is capital allocation.

I hope you have found this short summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit. Habits form in as little as 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book is the importance of systems in your business.

Work on creating business systems so you can have more time to either grow your business or spend time with your family. Working a 100 hours per week and having the business stress for a simple pay check is not the way to a happy life style. Creating systems is the way to true income independence and freedom.”

Joe Mosed invites you to subscribe to http://www.successprogress.com to receive free video book summaries. Our vision at Success Progress is to provide relevant & meaningful content to our user community. To view the video summary of this article please visit http://www.youtube.com/successprogress

(c) Copyright – Joe Mosed / Success Progress All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6801145

Zoom – how to make your business idea happen

Posted on by
Reply
As a result of a series of rather strange circumstances, I met up with David Sloly, enjoyed a cup of coffee and we got chatting. It turns out that he has written a book. I went online to buy it on Friday, it was in my hand by 11.30 on Saturday – way to go Amazon!Anyhow, I was so impressed with it that I have dedicated this post to the book.

Chapter 11 – Telling your story - How to stand out from the crowd

Here are some of the insights from the Chapter 11.

Think of your story as a magnet that attracts attention. Will King of King of Shaves tells how he uncovered his first idea – razor burns after shaving. The rest is history. He is still telling that same story today.

Great story tellers know that great stories have essentially seven plots:

1.    The Quest to achieve distant goals
2.    Voyage and return
3.    Rebirth from a dark spell
4.    Tragedy downfall of the powerful
5.    Overcoming the monster
6.    Rags to riches
7.    Comedy using the above plots with lots of misunderstandings

Select one and then write your authentic story using one of the plotlines above but laced with emotional content, not logic or reason. Look for the human truth in your story and practise telling it. Story tellers have a way of fitting their content in to the plotline in a compelling way that keeps the attention of the reader long after the facts have evaporated.

Here are some ideas as to how you might be able to reveal your own unique plotline:

1.    Did you solve a problem
2.    Did you take a big risk
3.    Did you discover something new and sharing it with the world
4.    Is a famous person involved
5.    Did success come from an incredibly small amount of money
6.    Are cute animals involved
7.    Are you on a journey that people are curious about
8.    Are people getting exited about your offering
9.    Is your idea novel

Summary of the chapter – ZOOM thinking!

“Your story will differentiate you from the competition and make you memorable in the minds of your customers. So craft a convincing but authentic story, based on personal experience rather than on dry facts and stats.”

Their website is www.thezoomguys.com and you can buy the book here.