As entrepreneurs, we’re pulled in a million different directions every day. Although we start our days with the best of intention, it’s easy to get pulled off course with emergencies (caused by others) putting out fires (created by others) and shiny objects (marketed by others.) And, even a small course deviation, can change the course of your business over a period of time.
As the business owner, your primary job is planning and change which requires a disciplined way to think, plan, act – and rethink and replan every day. This is strategic thinking.
According to Chief Executive Magazine, strategic thinking is the most valued skill for entrepreneurs today yet only 3 out of every 10 entrepreneurs actually think strategically.
Not every entrepreneur is endowed with the gift of strategic thinking, however there are several steps you can take to ensure you put your business on a strategic path each and every day.
1. Begin with the end in mind.
In order to begin with your ultimate business goal in mind, there are several questions to consider including:
Why are you in business?
What does your business do?
What do you want to achieve?
How will you get there?
These questions are answered with the creation of your strategic plan.
2. Think – and act – strategically everyday.
Did you know that 85% of entrepreneurs spend an hour or less a month strategic thinking? Given your primary responsibility of planning and change, carving out time for strategic thinking, planning, and acting is vitally important.
80% of most activities that entrepreneurs are involved in each day contribute to only 20% of the business long-term values. Strategic thinking provides new insights and concrete steps for improvement each and every day making sure your investment creates the greatest ROI for your business.
3. Question your own opinion.
We all develop blind spots that can prevent us from taking full advantage of new developments in our industry. By not questioning our thoughts/opinions – or always believing we’re right – we can destroy our business no matter how talented or brilliant we are.
With less margin for error, its critically important for small business entrepreneurs to make strategic thinking a daily habit.
The recent economic downturn has found highly-skilled professionals on the unemployment line. With employment options limited, inventive professionals exercised their ingenuity and launched their own business. In fact, the US Census Bureau states that small businesses without payroll – those who classify themselves as free lancers, self-employed, or solopreneurs – make up 70% of America’s 27 million companies with annual sales of $887 billion. To you we say, Welcome!
And, as someone who has been on both sides of the equation as a business owner/entrepreneur and a strategic business coach working with entrepreneurs, consider this a PSA (public service announcement): Don’t Grow it Alone!
Don’t grow your business alone. Not only is business increasingly complex today, you also want to unlearn the employee mindset and learn the entrepreneurial mindset. Working for an organization, no matter what size, doesn’t prepare you for the topsy turvey world of entrepreneurship.
You’ll love the freedom and flexibility and will, simultaneously, need some structure. Don't grow it alone!
You’re highly skilled in your core competency and will need to learn an entirely new and different industry and all it involves – entrepreneurship. Really - don't grow your business alone!
You’ll thoroughly enjoy the peace and quiet of your home office and will need an objective opinion and a safe place to further develop your thoughts and vision free from judgment and criticism. Your friends aren’t that person. Seriously - don’t grow it alone!
As an entrepreneur, accidental or not, what advice would you share with those just entering into the wild, wacky, wonderful world of entrepreneurship? (Beyond not growing it alone.)
If you’ve never worked with a strategic business coach before, you might be curious what the process of strategic coaching looks and feel like. Although the business coaching experience is unique to each entrepreneur, each coaching call follows a similar structure.
Strategic business coaching, done right, is a collaborative process between you and your coach. Your business coach may function in a variety of roles depending on your needs. At Synnovatia®, we offer a unique role that varies from coach to mentor to advisor to trainer to consultant. Ultimately, the final responsibility to act upon and achieve strategies and goals discussed is up to you.
Here’s the business coaching call structure we follow at Synnovatia®
Before the Call
Complete a Strategy Call Prep Form 24 – 36 hours in advance of scheduled call. The Strategy Call Prep Form is an online tool used to:
- help you become clear and focused on your most relevant needs
- recap progress towards goals
- communicate your successes, challenges, and objectives for the call to your coach.
Close your email and/or IM programs immediately before the call to avoid distractions.
Put out the “Do Not Disturb” sign to circumvent interruptions.
Strategy Call Agenda
At the designated time, your business coach initiates the phone call to you. Strategic business coaching appointments vary in duration from 30 – 60 minutes. Here’s the general coaching structure for a 30 minute coaching call.
0 – 3 minutes: Greeting
Establish desired outcome from the call (In the beginning of the coaching engagement, your coach may take the lead in establishing the call objective.)
3 – 10 minutes: Review progress of previous commitments and/or plan of action
Adjust plans as needed based on feedback received from progress report
10 – 20 minutes: Discuss, collaborate, and brainstorm various strategies to achieve desired outcome
20 – 25 minutes: Determine appropriate plan of action and/or commitment for the week
25 – 30 minutes: Wrap up
Confirm next appointment
Share learning or insight gained from strategy coaching call
Sound simple? It is. Yet the benefits gained are ever-lasting.
A few years ago, I participated in the Amgen California Coast Classic. The bike ride began in San Francisco and ended in Los Angeles. I know what you’re thinking! What sane person rides 525 miles in 8 days – on purpose? Besides it being a fundraiser for the Arthritis Foundation, it was a fun and exciting personal challenge. Although I’m not Lance Armstrong, I did employ a technique used by professional cyclists to improve my performance – drafting.
Believe it or not, this is the same principle used to accelerate business growth. A strategic coach reduces drag, blocks the head winds of resistance, shares in the workload, and improves performance. In fact, the faster your business is growing – or the faster you want to grow - the more important it is for you to engage a strategic coach with whom you can draft.
Wikipedia defines drafting as a “technique where moving objects align in a close group reducing the overall effect of drag.” Most commonly used in cycling, car racing, and speed skating, drafting is also found in nature as demonstrated by a flock of geese flying in “V” formation. Besides significantly reducing the energy required to maintain a certain speed (some experts say as much as 40%), drafting actually pushes you forward.
It’s time for entrepreneurs to capitalize on what cyclist, speed skaters, and geese have known for some time –drafting improves performance.
Every entrepreneur and small business owner can find tremendous value from engaging a strategic business coach. Although there are a variety of reasons one hires a business coach, the bottom line is that the entrepreneur is looking to make a change. Whether it’s to achieve their goals, improve the quality of their business life, boost performance, or accelerate results, it’s evident that what they’re doing is no longer working. (Think Dr. Phil: How’s that workin’ for ya?)
Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure of working with a wide range of entrepreneurs from a variety of business industries and size. Because of our experience, we’ve discovered the entrepreneurs that benefit most from working with a strategic coach are those with the following:
- a desire to be challenged
- the love of learning and self-improvement
- a willingness to work for positive results
- the ability to learn from mistakes and failures
- desire for collaborative discussions
- independent thinkers
- openness to new ideas and/or ways of thinking
- display strong leadership in their business
- ability to follow-through on commitments
Selecting a business coach with experience, expertise, and knowledge is important, as is making sure you and your selected coach are a good fit. However, the most critical factor to achieving your success with strategic business coaching is to make sure you’re ready for it!
The level of complexity in business is accelerating. Although it’s exhilarating to be an entrepreneur, these mounting complications affect decision-making and, subsequently, business growth. Part of my work as a strategic coach, is to keep fast-paced, overwhelmed entrepreneurs moving through decisions with as much speed and decisiveness as is humanly possible. Why? The speed at which decisions are made have a direct impact on the growth of the business.
In large part, the increasing complexity of business is due to the rate of information we’re exposed to on any given day. Did you know information grows at a rate of 66% per year and it continues to climb? Yikes! There is nothing else like it. And, its coming at us like a fire hose that is on wide-open in the form of TV, magazines, videos, DVD’s, blogs, social media....More information means more options which overwhelms the decision-making process and causes costly delays.
The solution to avoid decision making overwhelm? Make a decision - get additional facts - make a better decision – and do it within 3 days. Decisions delayed longer than three days slows progress and growth of your business.
Entrepreneurs are continually on the hunt for small business ideas to spur business growth. Most small business owners feel a major innovation will put their business on the fast track. The reality is, in the mad dash to innovate, entrepreneurs overlook seemingly insignificant opportunities that are certain to stimulate business growth.
Daniel Isenberg, Professor of Management Practice at Babson College, has a much more practical small business idea – minnovation!
Isenberg describes minnovation as mixing small parts of novelty and creativity with huge helpings of flexibility scrappiness and a generous portion of hard-driving execution or, as he more succinctly defined it on the Harvard Business Review Blog, small tweaks and excellent execution. That makes such sense, doesn’t it.
Although fanciful dreams of spearheading the next big innovation the likes of Marc Zuckerberg of Facebook, Larry Page of Google, or the late Steve Jobs of Apple linger in the mind of many entrepreneurs, the likelihood of innovation of that magnitude is questionable. Implementing the principle of minnovation, however, can stimulate a significant growth spurt in your business.
As a strategic coach, I experience the phenomenon of minnovation in action every day. It’s not the major overhaul or substantial innovation that puts a business on the track to growth, it’s the small tweaks that support sustainable business growth. Whether it’s fine-tuning an existing business idea, putting a different spin on a current product or service, upgrading the business model, invigorating marketing practices – the opportunities for minnovation are endless.
Don’t overlook the growth opportunities in your business - become a “minnovator”.
Entrepreneurs and small business owners have many unanswered questions. Some keep them awake at night, become a distraction during dinner, or remain one of life’s mysteries. As a strategic coach, one of the questions I want to ensure you have answers for is “what topics can I discuss with a strategic coach?”
Here are a few options to consider:
- Grow revenue
- Improve performance
- Enhance productivity
- Upgrade effectiveness
- Sharpen skills including qualifying prospects, networking, closing sales, listening
- Launch new product/service launch
- Grow profits
- Invigorate current product/service offering
- Refine your business concept
- Update your business model
- Pricing and/or proper rates
- Create or refine your strategic plan
- Lead generation strategies
- Expand brand awareness and/or market share
- New client acquisition strategies
- Develop exit strategy for your business
- Inbound marketing strategies
- Organization
- Reduce stress and/or overwhelm
- Time and/or Goal management
- Accountability
- Develop and/or refine ideal client profile
- Setting priorities
- Develop greater clarity and/or focus
- Improve self-care skills
Each business differs in its challenges and opportunities, which is why a customized approach to strategic coaching is most effective for getting the results you want. You can make the most of your strategic coaching by understanding and communicating your needs, preparing for each coaching appointment, commit to take action, and develop a willingness to do things differently or consider different options. After all, isn’t that why you hire a coach?
In the 14 plus years I’ve been a strategic coach, one of the greatest challenges faced by many small business owners and entrepreneurs is their ability to act upon the very plans and projects designed to grow their business. Overwhelmed by the many actions requiring what feels like “immediate attention”, the more important growth projects get put off until “tomorrow”. You know how this story ends, don’t you.
To put your business into a growth mode, consider the use of the “WWH” growth plan. “WWH” stands for the following:
What needs to be done
When will it be done
How will it be done
Here’s how you can grow your business with strategic coaching:
Create my 2012 strategic plan
Friday, February 3rd, 10 am – 2 pm
Schedule this in your calendar as an appointment with yourself. This prevents you from becoming distracted by other activities or putting off this vital activity until “tomorrow”.
1. Turn off all phones and email
2. Gather critical data from 2011
3. Re-evaluate and reset 2012 goals
4. Conduct necessary research
5. Develop my plan
6. Set up metrics
7. Schedule time each month to assess status and tweak the plan, if necessary.
You get the point. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Yet it’s not as easily applied because of the habits that already exist.
What would happen to your business growth if you were to implement strategic coaching for yourself and apply the “WWH” growth plan for one month? What have you got to lose?
Are you satisfied with the number of clients you have? How often do they return for repeat business? Do you make it easy and enjoyable for them to do business with you? If not, analyze your business’ moments of truth to create positive, lasting impressions of you and your company that will turn the most skeptical client into your company’s biggest advocate.
So, what is a moment of truth? It’s a sliver of time when clients or prospects interact with you and your business and decide whether or not to do business with you, to share you with their network, or to use your products/services again and again. Jan Carlzon, in his book, Moments of Truth, defines them as “anytime a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, [as] an opportunity to form an impression.”
The role of a strategic coach is to ensure your business makes the right impression when interacting with clients and prospects. By strengthening the moments of truth in your business, a strategic coach focuses on accelerating your business’ growth by ensuring your clients remain on the continuum of the “Nine Steps for Building Virtual Trust.” The result is an increase in client acquisition, retention, and sales.
A strategic coach advises business owners to be aware of common moments of truth, such as:
- When someone views your Web site
- When someone receives your business card or brochure
- When you answer the phone
- How you interact with a prospect during a sales appointment
- What you post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites
- How you handle a customer complaint
- How and when you respond to requests for information
- When a client receives your billing statement
Moments of truth can seem insignificant to a business owner when they’re happening, but clients may have an entirely different reaction. For instance, if a potential client calls you and you don’t give them your full attention because of an office distraction (whether you think your attention is diverted or not), his or her impression may be that you are unfocused, unprofessional, and perhaps unworthy of his or her business.
Some common questions your strategic coach asks to define and improve upon the way you handle your moments of truth include:
- What are the various touch points (such as your Web site, meeting at a networking event, sending an email, leaving a voicemail message, etc.) during which a potential client has an opportunity to “experience” your business and develop an impression?
- What is the current impression your clients and prospects experience?
- What is your intended impression?
- What changes need to be made to ensure each impression is the one you want your client to experience?
- Who will make those changes?
- By when will those changes be made?
- How will you measure the effectiveness of your changes?
Regardless of the moment of truth that’s holding your business back, uncovering your moments of truth ensure you make the right impression. As clients benefit from a consistently positive experience, you can count on them returning for repeat business.