An employee was talking to his somewhat taciturn boss and asked:

“Sir, what is the secret of your success?”
“Right decisions” his boss replied.
“But sir, how do you make the right decisions?”
“Experience” was the reply.
“And sir, how do you get experience?”
“Wrong decisions” came the answer!

It’s true though – to become successful you do have to make some wrong decisions and learn from them.

A business coach won’t know all the right answers and won’t necessarily be able to help a business owner from making wrong decisions but a good, experienced business coach will be able to help the business owner to measure what is happening with their business and then make qualified and, hopefully, right decisions for the future. And if some of those decisions do turn out to be wrong for the business, then the business coach is there to ensure that the business owner actually does benefit from the experience.

I was doing some research reading over the weekend and was struck by just how many acronyms that seem to have been created for business coaching.

We have GROW models – that’s Goals, Reality, Options and What, Who or When (depending upon which one you choose).

We speak of IDEAL’s – that’s Identify, Define, Explore, Action and Lookback – and KASH which is Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Habits. And then we’re surprised if our clients exhibit CRAFT – that’s Can’t Remember A Flipping Thing!

Wherever possible I try to avoid these acronyms when talking to clients but if any of you know someone who could do with a BOOSTER session – that’s Balanced, Observed, Objective, Specific, Timely, Enhancing and Relevant then please refer them to me.

I’m DAVE Baker (that’s Diligent, Affordable, Vital and Enthusiastic) from Charting Success and I’m a business coach. (By the way, I originally wrote Desirable, Attractive Virile and Entertaining but I thought that might be pushing it a bit!!)

I was reading a rather scathing article about business coaching the other day. It gave the author’s opinion of what the two most important qualifications were for a business coach – and according to those standards I’m only half qualified.

Now, my personal opinion is that I believe a good business coach should have experience of business – it’s all very well having text book qualifications but I really believe that a good coach has to have sampled some of the success and learnt from some of the failures.

Secondly, I think that a good business coach must be a good listener; one who actually hears what their clients are really saying rather than just picking out a few words here and there and filling in the blanks with assumptions.

So what were the qualifications referred to in the article? Grey hair and haemorrhoids. The grey hair to make you look distinguished and the haemorrhoids to make you look concerned

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I’ve got grey hair!

In the book Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll, there’s a lovely quote that goes something like this.

Alice, coming to a fork in the road asks; “Which road should I take?”

“Where do you want to go?” responds the Cheshire cat.

“I don’t know,” Alice answers.

“Then,” says the cat, “it really doesn’t matter.”

 It’s just like in business; if you don’t know where you want to go then it doesn’t matter which way you turn because any way could be right or wrong for the business.

 Could you have a successful business without the vision of where you want to go? Quite possibly… but then how would you know?

If, on the day you left school or college to start work for the first time, someone had presented you with a cheque for £12,000 and told you to invest it wisely because that was the only investment you would ever get for the rest of your working life then, without a doubt, some people would use it wisely and some would just fritter it away – after all, £12,000 is not really a lot of money for your whole working life is it?

Well, think on this. If you start work at 17 years old, retire at 66, work an average 5 day week with an average of 4 weeks total holiday per year then the total number of working days in your whole working life is 11,760 days.

Not a lot really is it? Make sure that you invest your time wisely!

Everyone seems to be talking about the R-word these days don’t they? You know… Recession!

Now I suppose in some ways that I’m a traditionalist; I was brought up with the old idea that good basic schooling was founded on what was then termed the three R’s (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) – actually that acronym always caused me a problem but I suppose it didn’t actually include spelling!

So the little challenge I set myself was to come up with the three R’s to boost your business and beat that other R-word… and here they are.

Number 1 – Reach out to your existing customers – you’d be amazed at how many businesses don’t bother to keep in touch with existing customers. They know you; they’ve already bought from you so they are the easiest ones to get to buy again. Use newsletters for example to tell them what you are doing and to announce special offers.

Number 2 – Raise your sales activity – don’t just sit there waiting for orders to come to you; go out and get some. Pick up the phone and talk to people; go out and visit existing customers; do something positive to increase your sales every day.

Number 3 – Referrals are one of the best forms of getting new business – go to networking meetings and tell people about your business; make sure that people know what sort of customers you’re looking for and ask for referrals (especially from existing customers).

There you are; my three R’s for boosting your business out of the recession.

So if you know a business that’s down on its R’s please give them these three and refer them to me

I’ve just come over a bit poetic (with humble apologies to Rudyard Kipling)!

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same…

…then you probably don’t need a business coach.

However

IF you know a business that needs help and encouragement in these troubled times and;

IF the business owner really wants to change and make a success of their business…

Then please refer them to me; I’m Dave Baker and I’m a business coach.

The obvious ones are the people whose title is something like Sales Executive. But what about the people who always answer the phone – their cheery welcome or frosty greeting will immediately affect a caller and may well influence their decision as to whether to buy or not.

What about the dull and dreary box advert for the company in Yellow Pages; won’t that cause some prospective customers to re-think their decision as to where to place their business?

And what about the business cards that the employees hand out; do they adequately express the nature of the business? Do they make it easy for the prospective customer to find out about the business?

As a business coach I advise small businesses how to ensure that all their potential salespeople (real or virtual) are working to the best possible effect. So if you know a business whose sales force could do with a little improvement then please, refer them to me.

I once heard a story (which I have slightly adjusted) about two priests who wished to know whether they were allowed to eat and pray at the same time. They both wrote to the Pope for guidance.

One wrote “Is it permissible to eat whilst praying?” and received the answer that it most definitely is not, since prayer should always be the focus of one’s whole attention.

The other wrote “Is it permissible to pray whilst eating?” and received the answer that it certainly is, since it’s always permissible to pray at any time.

Sometimes, to get the answer that you need, you have to ask the question in the right way.

Business coaching is all about helping people to succeed in business by asking questions in such a way that the answers given actually define the route to success.

If you know any business owners who would like to be more successful then please refer them to me – I’m not qualified to comment on the power of prayer but I do know how to ask the right questions to help them to succeed in business.

I’ve just been reading the biography of Steve Jobs, the guy who founded Apple Computers.

What an amazing guy! He founded Apple; was booted out after making hundreds of millions of dollars; started NeXT Computers; went from boom to bust; bought into Pixar studios; succeeded hugely in a joint venture with Disney and made more millions; was brought back into Apple when the company bought NeXT; masterminded the iPod, the iPhone and, most recently the iPad; survived major heart surgery and continues to run the company.

What any small business owner can learn from this is that there is no such thing as failure provided you can pick yourself up, learn from your mistakes and move on – and that’s where a good business coach can be invaluable; providing an unbiased ear, a supportive attitude and a sounding board for new ideas.