121 COACHING

ACCOUNTABILITY

I believe that every business owner should have a coach. As we all know full well, when you're responsible for the success of the whole business, you become the sales person, the marketing person, the production person, the finance person. You end up wearing so many hats and find yourself being pulled in many directions.

It's a well-known fact that when you share your goals with someone else, there is more incentive to actually achieve these goals. A good business coach will help you to reach your potential and make sure you stay on course if you start to get sidetracked.

I'm lucky enough to work with print business owners across the globe. I've worked with businesses of all shapes and sizes and whether you are a 1 person operation or head up a 200-strong team, we all need a coach to keep us accountable and keep on top of that progress.

GOAL SETTING

The very first thing I do with a new coaching client is set a baseline of where they are currently and where they want to get to. I do this through a series of visualisation exercises and look both short and long-term at what they would like both for themselves and their business.

We'll not only take a look at the things they want for the business but also we'll look for aspects within the business that could be harming them and they could do with offloading.

Goals can be as simple as earning that salary you always wanted to earn, bringing in extra support staff, or looking at new kit or it could be more personal like helping put systems and processes in place to allow you to spend less time in the office and more time at home with friends and family.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

One of the things I used to find when I ran my own print company was that often it was difficult to reach out to friends, family, or staff on certain things. They just didn't get where I was coming from and often their feedback or opinion was biased based on how it affected them.

As a business coach, as I am sure many of my clients would agree, it's my job to tell it how I see it from an unbiased perspective. That means sometimes saying things you don't want to hear but giving good, honest constructive criticism.

Sometimes you can just be too close to a problem and having this kind of insight can uncover certain issues much more quicker.

MARKETING STRATEGY

One of the first things on the agenda when I take on a new coaching client is taking a look at their current marketing strategy. More often than not, I find that there isn't anything of much structure in place.

Because I only work with companies within the printing industry, I have the added benefit of insights into what marketing strategies are working across the globe and can work with my clients to create a personalized, easy-to-implement marketing plan that will not only help their existing customers spending more but also create a steady stream of new leads with a predictable pipeline of sales.