Business Insights

Often when businesses face a change in direction, they look to a business consulting company for help. Finding a consultant who can honestly deliver that help with knowledge, efficiency and integrity can be a challenge. If you think your business could benefit from the help of a consultant, here are some things to consider when interviewing potential candidates.

First and foremost, a consultant must be able to listen. If a person can’t take the time to listen to what you have to say, it is highly unlikely they will ever understand your needs and objectives well enough to help you. Unfortunately, there are consultants out there who talk the talk but fail to hear what others have to say.

A management consultant should offer you a service, not a product. You are searching for help with problems within your business and you need someone who will work to solve those problems, meet the needs of the assignment, foster morale, or help plan new agendas. Be wary of someone who wants only to sell you this program, or that book, or this software. While all of these are great resources to have, a consultant must also provide guidance and teaching first.

Be wary of a consultant who boasts that “I can turn your company around” or some such exclamation. A consultant’s job is to empower your management and employees to implement change, make wise choices and design a plan to reach goals in the future. A wise consultant will help you to recognize how the company got to where it is and demonstrate how to make the right choices to accelerate improvement.

Obviously you will want to work with a consultant who has had plenty of diversified experience. A big caveat here is to avoid the temptation to search out a consultant with experience only in your industry.  In order to be truly effective a consultant must be able to offer a wide range of approaches to problem solving that can only come from having worked in many different situations.

When your business is failing, the last thing you or your employees need is someone telling you what a mess you’ve made of things or point out all the wrong choices you’ve made.  If a consultant starts out telling you things like, “boy, have you been doing things the wrong way” or is very patronizing, saying things like, “let me tell you how it should have been done,” you should definitely end the interview then and there.

Last but not least, a potential consultant will come to you with an open mind, waiting until all of your concerns and issues have been presented before offering any advice at all.  If a consultant appears to arrive at your door with a readymade, cookie cutter, one size fits all attitude to improvement, that is not the consultant you want!

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.OneCoach.com as the original source).

If you are a new business owner, one of your first objectives must be to brand yourself. Business coaches and consultants alike will all tell you how important it is to establish your identity. You want to be noticed. You want to be remembered. You want to stand out from the rest. You want your business to grow. Just what will creating a brand accomplish for you and your business? Consider these points:

A brand makes you memorable
Obviously, for clients or customers to come to you, they have to first remember you. By creating a brand that sticks in their minds, you increase the odds that yours will be the name that pops into their head when they’re looking for the types of services you provide. Whether it’s your logo design, add campaign or radio jingle, creating a solid brand will help drive business in your direction.

A brand creates credibility
Whether it’s factual or simply perceived, branding lends credibility to your business. When people see or hear about you over and over in a positive context they naturally believe that you must be good, reliable, trustworthy, etc. After all, they see your logo everywhere. They hear your ads repeated on the radio, or they simply hear your name connected with something they need or want. Therefore, you must be the go to person for that service.

A good brand saves you time
In business, time is money. Establishing a good brand for your company right from the start can save you hours of introduction time that can be better used as selling time. Imagine if every time you met with a potential customer you first had to explain who you are, what you do, and how you do it, before you even begin your sales pitch! Now imagine meeting with that same customer who has already been exposed to your brand and knows that information already! The time you save there is time you can put into giving a good sales presentation and getting the business.

A good brand helps you attract the right kinds of clients
A well thought out and relevant brand will make it easy for clients to connect you with the product or service they are looking for. To use a very simple example, if you were to brand your company as an insurance company for seniors, you won’t likely be the company Mom calls when her teens start to drive, but you will be the one that all those folks over 50 will call to get some reward for their years of good driving.

A brand provides a solid base from which your business can expand
A good business does not remain stagnant but grows and changes over time. Once you’ve established a memorable brand, it’s much easier to incorporate change under that same umbrella than it would be to try to create a whole new business. By expanding within your brand you never lose the valuable customer base that you have spent so much time developing.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.onecoach.com as the original source).

If you own a successful business, there is an excellent chance you had a great mentor somewhere along the way. Mentoring is an integral part of the growth and development of any business.  Business coaches often assign mentors within a group in order to promote good training and learning efforts.  While mentoring is a very current practice among businesses and companies, it is actually a very old and well established way of learning.  Most of us can remember a teacher, relative or friend who inspired us to learn and grow in ways that lasted a lifetime. A good mentor is first and foremost a teacher.  Instilling a desire to learn, and encouraging the ability to take risks involved with learning is a mentors greatest goal. So, how does one become a great mentor?  Here are a few guidelines to consider.

Understand the potential of the person you are mentoring. When you are aware of a person’s natural abilities and talents, you can guide them forward in the true areas of their interest.

Identify the personality traits that will help you better understand what drives a person to learn.

Establish in the beginning that you and the person you may be mentoring are compatible and can make the relationship work. Do you share similar values and beliefs? Are your work ethics basically the same? Do you share a mutual respect for each other?  And, as basic as it may sound, in order for a mentor/student relationship to work, you must like each other.

A good mentor is able to openly share personal experiences and achievements for the student to learn from both the failures and successes.

As a mentor, it is also your responsibility to help your student believe in his or her own potential and encourage them to develop their own interests and follow their dreams. Many people find it much easier to adapt the goals and directions of others rather than develop their own.

You will be there to instruct and to teach but also to encourage, reward and inspire. You will be the one to help your student up when he falters, and offer encouragement and reinforcement whenever he begins to doubt himself.

A mentor will encourage a student to venture out of their natural comfort zone to try new things and take new risks in order to broaden their horizons and expand their realm of experiences.

Understand that a mentor/student relationship will require quite a large investment of both time and energy in order to be successful.  It can be enormously rewarding and fulfilling for the mentor and an enriching and even life-changing experience for the student.

Your greatest challenge may be in maintaining the right balance of friendliness and familiarity.  It is essential to provide the right amount of support, encouragement and respect while being able to teach, counsel, and recommend ideas for change and improvement without becoming too personal and involved.

And finally, be open to the possibility that a relationship may not be working.  Not every pairing will be a good match, and it is far better to part as friends than to try and force a relationship.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.onecoach.com as the original source).

What are your plans for retirement?  Do you plan to relax in a comfortable chair, drinking tea, and watching the trees dance to the wind? Do you plan on reading all the books you have postponed because of lack of time? No? That’s actually a very good choice.

When they retire, most people wish to remain as active as before, with a little twist… they want to remain active while doing what they love.  This is why many decide to start a business; they’ve got the time, the energy, the experience, and some money.

Retirement is the perfect stage to become your own boss, and here are six reasons why.

1. First, money.
   Most people don’t retire wealthy.  By starting your own business, you can earn some money to add to your wealth, be it that you have enough to live comfortably or want some extra cash.  You can use part of your retirement money to start your venture.
2. Second, time.
   Accept it, after retiring you will have a lot of time on your hands.  You can spend your time thinking about creative business ideas, and take your time implementing them well.  You can choose your schedule, work part-time or full-time, so that you can still do other activities like traveling or relaxing, and you can take a vacation anytime!
3. Third, experience.
   After so many years of life and living, you are indeed an expert on how the business world works.  You know about good customer service, you can feel what people want, and you are a great communicator.  You acknowledge the great feeling that comes from doing a job right, and you know how to take calculated risks.
4. Fourth, energy.
   You are still full of energy and your mind is sharp, maybe even more so than before.  You can put all your energy into a worthy project instead of letting it die while you sit in front of the TV.
5. Fifth, control.
   You probably know what it feels like to have a boss and to have someone else make all the rules, whether these worked for you or not.  If you start a business, YOU make the rules, and you will succeed or fail on your own terms, with your decisions and knowledge.
6. Sixth, passion.
   Have you been lucky enough to work on something you love?  Probably not, most of us settle for a 9 to 5 schedule doing something we don’t find appealing just because we have to make a living.  Our passions are mostly left for weekends or free time, but not after you retire!  Once you do, you can devote all your time to what you love, and get paid to do it.

To begin with, connect with what you are passionate about.  The more passionate you are about something, the more people will want to buy from you, because passion can be felt.

Then, create a business plan for what you want to sell.  Keep it simple, and if you need help, get some business coaching, hit the library, browse the Internet, or get some business books for small business owners.

If you want help running your business, ask other retirees.  There are lots of groups and organizations of retirees that give free advice to anyone starting a business.

Today, retirement should be seen as the opportunity to have a new life; don’t let it slip between your fingers.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.onecoach.com as the original source).

Every winner has a coach. From star basketball players to Olympic athletes… they all have a coach. Did you know that having a business coach can help take your business to the next level?

Here are some reasons to highly consider getting a business coach:

1. Having accountability
It’s more than just motivation. It’s knowing that you’re not in it alone. Every business owner needs someone to give them that extra push to make a plan and then execute it. You’ll have an advantage from having a business coach by your side to make sure that you’re doing the things that you should be doing and avoiding the things that are hindering your progress. They’ll also help you keep on track with your business goals and recognize the rewards from your hard work. As a business owner, you probably don’t have all the answers, and it’s great to have someone help you overcome any doubts, fears, or ideas you may have and give you feedback and reassurance. A business coach will also not only make sure you are learning the right strategies and tactics to grow your business, but they’ll help you apply what you have learned.

2. The right direction
With so many things going on in your business, where do you go for guidance to steer you down the right path? Are you constantly hitting roadblocks and stumbling in areas where you need improvement? The business climate is continuously changing, especially with new forms of communication (e.g., social media, smart phones, search engine optimization), and it can be very overwhelming for small-business owners. It’s essential to have a business coach to guide you and make sure that you stay up to date with the current trends. Like any star athlete, it’s important to have a coach there to push you past your mental limits and to help you view your business from a fresh perspective.

3. Getting the proper plan
Whether it’s your marketing, your team, or anything else, excellent business coaching will reveal the reasons why you’re not getting the results you want. You’ll be able to focus more on growing your business instead of making the common mistakes that many small business owners make. The right business coach will show you a proven process with tools, strategies, and tactics that you can apply to your business immediately.

4. Having more time
Is your business negatively affecting your personal life? Then it’s time for a business coach. Many business owners are consumed by running their business on a daily basis and crave more time for themselves and their family. A business coach will help you become a true business owner, not an employee, so that you’ll no longer have to worry about doing everything yourself such as marketing, accounting, training, managing, customer service, etc. At OneCoach, our business coaches will help you focus on your highest income-producing activities and show you where you can be most productive.

What are you waiting for? If you’re ready to hire a business coach, we would love to see if our coaches are a good fit for you. Click here for more information!