My coaching business is 5 years old!
When I joined ActionCOACH I was told that only 1 in 5 businesses survive to their 5th birthday. That could maybe sound a bit daunting when you are taking such a big step, but I guess, at least for the determined amongst us, it can be incredibly motivating, and push you to be the ‘one’ in five that makes it!
Now, five years down the road, I was curious to see if those statistics still stand. They do and in fact are ever so slightly worse — according to Companies House, the average age of a dissolved or closed company in the UK has declined from 5.4 years in 2016 to 4.9 years in 2022.
So, I am proud of what I have achieved, and equally determined to be one of the 1 in 3 that statistically make it to a decade (and beyond).
If I was asked ‘What is the secret to my success?’ I would say there is no magic formula! Yet, as both a business coach, and reflecting on my own business, there are some processes and measures that I feel have stood me in good stead and could work for you too.
Planning is KEY
My favourite part of what I do is GrowthCLUB. At our business strategy workshop, we encourage and support you to build a step-by-step, tailor-made 90-day business plan that will drive your business to success. Did you know that only 2% of business owners have a business plan, and even fewer stick to it?! That’s shocking, really! If you don’t set goals, and then keep track of the numbers, how do you know if you are winning?
Personality and working style
I’m a people person, I love meeting people, spending time with people and working as part of a team (maybe that’s why I love GrowthCLUB so much).
It can be lonely being a business owner — I know my weekly BNI meetings were a lifeline when I first started out. Having someone else to bounce ideas around with or chat through concerns is so helpful. Like many of us, lockdown was a real challenge for me, but thankfully Zoom meant I could spend all day talking to people — no Zoom fatigue here! Now that I work more closely with Rupert (Hine – another ActionCOACH based in Kinross), and we have Marc as our BDM, I’m really enjoying what we do collectively.
I’d recommend to any business owner, if you can, to take on people who enjoy or are good at the things you don’t like to do. This doesn’t have to mean hiring employees, you could find that having suppliers and subcontractors works really well for you – perhaps a bookkeeper to help with your numbers, a social media manager to schedule your posts for you, a copywriter to assist you with blogs or newsletters. Having complementary skills amongst your team enables you to cover more bases. For example, I love networking, but I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. For me it is a vital tool in my business strategy, and the people I’ve met over the years have become clients, suppliers, friends and introducers.
It is important to have an awareness of your own personality style, and to make sure your working practices aren’t at odds with it. The DISC Profile tool is useful to reflect on your own style and those you work with. Before I joined ActionCOACH I didn’t know anything about DISC, and I now use it every day to help me understand the people I meet and work alongside. See my blog about DISC for more details.
Every business owner is in sales
We all know that small business owners wear a lot of hats in the everyday running of their business — and the sales hat is probably the largest or tallest or tightest-fitting! Sales is not just about selling products or services, but many other more subtle qualities — selling the concept of your business, convincing people to pay on time, even persuading your team to put in a late night once in a while … these are all selling skills.
When I took on ActionCOACH, I thought I was buying a coaching franchise, but it is so much more than that. A LOT of my time is spent in meetings with potential clients. If you are starting – or buying – a business, you need to consider how you will sell whatever it is that you do, and work on your selling skills.
The good news is that selling is a skill that can be learnt and gets much easier with practice. Be sure to get some sales training (for you and your team) and make sure to have a regular refresh. There are some great books out there too – we often cover sales in our regular BookCLUB.
Money Talks
No matter how big the business, cash is KING. There’s a story in ‘Shoe Dog’ by Nike Co-founder Phil Knight that really resonates with me. For the first 15 years in business, Nike doubled their turnover year on year. Yet, due to a long lead time with their supply chain, they were still feeling the squeeze!
Even when businesses are turning over millions, they can still be caught out by lack of available cash. I meet a lot of business owners who don’t have visibility of their numbers and are regularly stressed by their cashflow.
There’s always more to learn
I’ve always loved to learn and invest in my personal growth. I think I may have read more non-fiction books in the last 5 years than in the rest of my life put together. You might say I’ve become a something of a self-improvement junkie! There are so many places to learn nowadays too. We are no longer limited to the library or bookshop, there is an abundance of choice — podcasts, blogs, documentaries and docuseries, YouTube, webinars and seminars … in fact, one of my next blogs is all about lifelong learning!
With so much knowledge and information around us, if you have an open mind you can’t fail to find a golden nugget or two you can implement to help improve your business or your life.
Success is different for everyone
There is a ‘traditional’ perception of success — money, great career, nice car, big house, etc, that we are almost conditioned to think we should aim for. The truth of the matter is that everyone is different, and what looks and feels like success for one person or business will be different for others.
I believe that our business goals should be related to our personal goals, and that is how I measure my success. It is undeniable that to achieve success your business needs to be hitting certain financial markers, otherwise eventually, there will be no business. For me, success (and, alongside it, fulfilment) comes from pursuing my passions, helping others, learning and developing — a combination of many small elements that may not be obvious indicators of success to others but most definitely make me feel that I’m winning!
