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Casual Articles - Why every Coach Needs a Business Plan
I hear it all the time. What should I do about . . .?" As a business owner you're faced with the daunting task of making all the decisions that affect your business. Should I remain a sole proprietor, become an LLC or is an S Corp better? Should I start using an electronic PDA or stick with my trusty, but out-dated, Day Runner? In what direction should I take my marketing? Is the color right on this logo? PC or Mac? Paper or plastic? Aargh! Big decisions. Little decisions. It can be overwhelming, especially when you consider how each decision has a bearing on the success of your business.It can be difficult to make decisions for a number of reasons. Sometimes its a matter of not having enough information. Other times, its simply a lack
That's a very simple definition of a business plan. You can't get much more painless than that! Now to flesh it out a little, here are the fundamental features of a business plan :
In writing
Has a goal
Has a plan to get you from where you are now to where you want to be
Has some kind of performance measurement (likely to be the numbers bit)
Its dynamic. To be useful it will change over time: as circumstances change, you will need to 'course correct'
It will be unique to you
If you want the fully monty contents list for your coaching business plan, click here. But actually before you get hit by the overwhelm again, just take these 4 questions below and address them to give you the guts of your coaching business plan:
Exactly what is your product
Who are you selling it to
How can you be sure that they want it
How much will it cost you to provide. How much will you sell it for.. Will that make you enough money?
Remember
Wholesale buying is an art which can be maximized by using the following steps. By learning how to master the art of wholesale buying you can benefit two ways.For starters, you will receive lower pricing which will give you a higher profit margin.Second, you will have access to higher quality merchandise and better variety,The key is to implement the following steps according to the unique situation you find your business in.Wholesale Buying Success Ingredient #1Pre sell merchandise. By pre selling merchandise you will know what products your customers are looking for. Once you have that information, you can confidently order from your wholesale suppliers.Wholesale Buying Success Ingredient #2
Sadly, you are wrong. You do need a plan for you coaching business. It doesn't necessarily need to be the 'all singing, all dancing' version but you do need some sort of plan so you (at the very least) know where you are going with your coaching business. Let me tell you why........ First of all let's get the horror stories out of the way. I'm sure you know by now that in excess of 50% of all small businesses will fail within their first 3 years. There are no corresponding figures for the coaching profession specifically but anecdotal evidence would suggest that the failure rate is certainly not better than the average, indeed many coaching businesses never get off the ground in the first place.
There has been much research into the causes of such high failure rates and it is true that a proportion of business failures are caused by factors outside the control of the owner. But in the majority of cases, failure is caused by factors that could have been foreseen and managed. Peter Cochrane (ConceptLabs) cheerily writes 'the question isn't why they fail so often, more by what miracle any survive!' He goes on to site the key reasons that businesses fold: failure to identify and quantify an opportunity;failure to identify the customer and market; failure to search out the competition and assess risk; failure to address funding and financials. And finally, failure to draw up a plan. And guess what, all of the aforementioned omissions could have been addressed by the last - if only there had been a business plan!
Enough of the doom and gloom! Now for the good news. Drawing up your coaching business plan need not be arduous, tedious and costly. It can actually be quite easy; you probably do have much of it in your head already, you just need to pull it all together. And you can do it yourself, now you have me to help you either by following the guidance that will be published in this blog or using me as a one-to-one business planning coach. Trust me on the 'easy' and the 'diy' for now (more in a moment), but if you need further convincing, just take a look at the benefits of having a coaching business plan:
You get to see the big picture: your business with all its components, aligned with the rest of your life. You get the opportunity to stand back
You clearly define your vision, your mission, your philosophy and your ethics and align these with your personal values and beliefs
You focus right in on defining your product, your market, your client
You set yourself measurable outcomes, for which you are accountable
You have a step by step strategy along a timeline, for meeting those goals
You now have a focus for your time and energy, which makes you more efficient
You begin to address the risks, the 'what can go wrongs' and anticipate how you can overcome them, from limiting beliefs and skills gaps to lack of clients and financial issues
You can see whether it is financially viable from the outset, and at milestones along the way
You identify a business model that works for you: work life balance, nature of client, sales and marketing modes
Here's a thought. As coaches what do we get our clients to do fundamentally, at the start of the coaching process? Well - set goals, of course. And what do we encourage them to do as a key component of achieving their goals? Yep, write them down. (Remember the research: only 3% of the population write down their goals and those that do are five times more likely to achieve them). But back to coaching business plans. You'll see where I'm going on this. That's all a business plan really is: a set of goals, in writing, with more or less detail on the means of achieving. Are we coaches walking the talk here? How many of us have written down our business goals as a starter?
That's a very simple definition of a business plan. You can't get much more painless than that! Now to flesh it out a little, here are the fundamental features of a business plan :
In writing
Has a goal
Has a plan to get you from where you are now to where you want to be
Has some kind of performance measurement (likely to be the numbers bit)
Its dynamic. To be useful it will change over time: as circumstances change, you will need to 'course correct'
It will be unique to you
If you want the fully monty contents list for your coaching business plan, click here. But actually before you get hit by the overwhelm again, just take these 4 questions below and address them to give you the guts of your coaching business plan:
Exactly what is your product
Who are you selling it to
How can you be sure that they want it
How much will it cost you to provide. How much will you sell it for.. Will that make you enough money?
Remember
If your career has gone off the road, take control and drive back to job satisfaction with a direct approach.When youre looking for that new job or a career move its easy to think that they hold all the cards.But if you can change the way you think about it, you can get back in the driving seat, and after all, this is your career were talking about.Remember they dont hire you for the sake of it; they hire you to help them make a profit!So two things first how you are (attitude) and how you react (the way you see things)1 AttitudeEveryone goes on about positive mental attitude, dont they? But what does it mean?To some extent we can all have some influence over what ha
There has been much research into the causes of such high failure rates and it is true that a proportion of business failures are caused by factors outside the control of the owner. But in the majority of cases, failure is caused by factors that could have been foreseen and managed. Peter Cochrane (ConceptLabs) cheerily writes 'the question isn't why they fail so often, more by what miracle any survive!' He goes on to site the key reasons that businesses fold: failure to identify and quantify an opportunity;failure to identify the customer and market; failure to search out the competition and assess risk; failure to address funding and financials. And finally, failure to draw up a plan. And guess what, all of the aforementioned omissions could have been addressed by the last - if only there had been a business plan!
Enough of the doom and gloom! Now for the good news. Drawing up your coaching business plan need not be arduous, tedious and costly. It can actually be quite easy; you probably do have much of it in your head already, you just need to pull it all together. And you can do it yourself, now you have me to help you either by following the guidance that will be published in this blog or using me as a one-to-one business planning coach. Trust me on the 'easy' and the 'diy' for now (more in a moment), but if you need further convincing, just take a look at the benefits of having a coaching business plan:
You get to see the big picture: your business with all its components, aligned with the rest of your life. You get the opportunity to stand back
You clearly define your vision, your mission, your philosophy and your ethics and align these with your personal values and beliefs
You focus right in on defining your product, your market, your client
You set yourself measurable outcomes, for which you are accountable
You have a step by step strategy along a timeline, for meeting those goals
You now have a focus for your time and energy, which makes you more efficient
You begin to address the risks, the 'what can go wrongs' and anticipate how you can overcome them, from limiting beliefs and skills gaps to lack of clients and financial issues
You can see whether it is financially viable from the outset, and at milestones along the way
You identify a business model that works for you: work life balance, nature of client, sales and marketing modes
Here's a thought. As coaches what do we get our clients to do fundamentally, at the start of the coaching process? Well - set goals, of course. And what do we encourage them to do as a key component of achieving their goals? Yep, write them down. (Remember the research: only 3% of the population write down their goals and those that do are five times more likely to achieve them). But back to coaching business plans. You'll see where I'm going on this. That's all a business plan really is: a set of goals, in writing, with more or less detail on the means of achieving. Are we coaches walking the talk here? How many of us have written down our business goals as a starter?
That's a very simple definition of a business plan. You can't get much more painless than that! Now to flesh it out a little, here are the fundamental features of a business plan :
In writing
Has a goal
Has a plan to get you from where you are now to where you want to be
Has some kind of performance measurement (likely to be the numbers bit)
Its dynamic. To be useful it will change over time: as circumstances change, you will need to 'course correct'
It will be unique to you
If you want the fully monty contents list for your coaching business plan, click here. But actually before you get hit by the overwhelm again, just take these 4 questions below and address them to give you the guts of your coaching business plan:
Exactly what is your product
Who are you selling it to
How can you be sure that they want it
How much will it cost you to provide. How much will you sell it for.. Will that make you enough money?
Remember
Before most people go in for a job interview, they will read over some sample interview questions to be prepared for what is expected of them. Some colleges and private schools require an interview in order for you to get accepted. If you've never done an interview before, you will want to know what questions may come your way and how you should answer them to leave a good impression, which is why sample interview questions are a great tool.Sample interview questions that you can expect when you are trying to get a job will mostly be relevant to your goals and qualifications. The interviewer at some point should ask what you can offer to the company in terms of employment. It is important to be prepared for this question because they want
You get to see the big picture: your business with all its components, aligned with the rest of your life. You get the opportunity to stand back
You clearly define your vision, your mission, your philosophy and your ethics and align these with your personal values and beliefs
You focus right in on defining your product, your market, your client
You set yourself measurable outcomes, for which you are accountable
You have a step by step strategy along a timeline, for meeting those goals
You now have a focus for your time and energy, which makes you more efficient
You begin to address the risks, the 'what can go wrongs' and anticipate how you can overcome them, from limiting beliefs and skills gaps to lack of clients and financial issues
You can see whether it is financially viable from the outset, and at milestones along the way
You identify a business model that works for you: work life balance, nature of client, sales and marketing modes
Here's a thought. As coaches what do we get our clients to do fundamentally, at the start of the coaching process? Well - set goals, of course. And what do we encourage them to do as a key component of achieving their goals? Yep, write them down. (Remember the research: only 3% of the population write down their goals and those that do are five times more likely to achieve them). But back to coaching business plans. You'll see where I'm going on this. That's all a business plan really is: a set of goals, in writing, with more or less detail on the means of achieving. Are we coaches walking the talk here? How many of us have written down our business goals as a starter?
That's a very simple definition of a business plan. You can't get much more painless than that! Now to flesh it out a little, here are the fundamental features of a business plan :
In writing
Has a goal
Has a plan to get you from where you are now to where you want to be
Has some kind of performance measurement (likely to be the numbers bit)
Its dynamic. To be useful it will change over time: as circumstances change, you will need to 'course correct'
It will be unique to you
If you want the fully monty contents list for your coaching business plan, click here. But actually before you get hit by the overwhelm again, just take these 4 questions below and address them to give you the guts of your coaching business plan:
Exactly what is your product
Who are you selling it to
How can you be sure that they want it
How much will it cost you to provide. How much will you sell it for.. Will that make you enough money?
Remember
Peter Drucker said: Every few hundred years throughout Western history, a sharp transformation has occurred. In a matter of a few decades, society altogether rearranges itself, its worlds views, its social and political structure, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later a New World exists. And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born.Unfortunately, for most people who live in a hierarchy, the speed of learning tends to be limited by those at the top. If they were a smart Henry Ford or Thomas Watson Jr., the organisation could learn faster than their world changed. If they were not that smart they might get an initi
You begin to address the risks, the 'what can go wrongs' and anticipate how you can overcome them, from limiting beliefs and skills gaps to lack of clients and financial issues
You can see whether it is financially viable from the outset, and at milestones along the way
You identify a business model that works for you: work life balance, nature of client, sales and marketing modes
Here's a thought. As coaches what do we get our clients to do fundamentally, at the start of the coaching process? Well - set goals, of course. And what do we encourage them to do as a key component of achieving their goals? Yep, write them down. (Remember the research: only 3% of the population write down their goals and those that do are five times more likely to achieve them). But back to coaching business plans. You'll see where I'm going on this. That's all a business plan really is: a set of goals, in writing, with more or less detail on the means of achieving. Are we coaches walking the talk here? How many of us have written down our business goals as a starter?
That's a very simple definition of a business plan. You can't get much more painless than that! Now to flesh it out a little, here are the fundamental features of a business plan :
In writing
Has a goal
Has a plan to get you from where you are now to where you want to be
Has some kind of performance measurement (likely to be the numbers bit)
Its dynamic. To be useful it will change over time: as circumstances change, you will need to 'course correct'
It will be unique to you
If you want the fully monty contents list for your coaching business plan, click here. But actually before you get hit by the overwhelm again, just take these 4 questions below and address them to give you the guts of your coaching business plan:
Exactly what is your product
Who are you selling it to
How can you be sure that they want it
How much will it cost you to provide. How much will you sell it for.. Will that make you enough money?
Remember
Recently, I was interviewed by a business publication about business lunches and I added business breakfasts to the interview. The focus was on doing business at a business lunch or breakfast and tips about doing so. This article caused me to think about strategic business entertaining and what would be the appropriate venues for such entertaining.Business entertaining is expensive and time-consuming and warrants being very strategic and goal oriented beyond what the goals are for business breakfasts and lunches. It is good to know that one of the main purposes of the business entertaining is to make people feel good and to have a good time. It is critical to consider whether the event will emphasize and underline your business mission
That's a very simple definition of a business plan. You can't get much more painless than that! Now to flesh it out a little, here are the fundamental features of a business plan :
In writing
Has a goal
Has a plan to get you from where you are now to where you want to be
Has some kind of performance measurement (likely to be the numbers bit)
Its dynamic. To be useful it will change over time: as circumstances change, you will need to 'course correct'
It will be unique to you
If you want the fully monty contents list for your coaching business plan, click here. But actually before you get hit by the overwhelm again, just take these 4 questions below and address them to give you the guts of your coaching business plan:
Exactly what is your product
Who are you selling it to
How can you be sure that they want it
How much will it cost you to provide. How much will you sell it for.. Will that make you enough money?
Remember this: having a business plan is a significant indicator of a successful business. Only 25% of small businesses will have a business plan. Which group do you want to be in? If you want to learn more about drawing up your coaching business plan, watch this space or subscribe to my monthly newsletter. Alternatively, email me on info@yourcoachingbiz.com to find out how I can help you one-to-one. You can read Peter Cochrane's full article in silicon. com Other useful sources of information on business plans can be found at Business Link and is4profit
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