See the Future for your Coaching Business
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It is amazing to me how many of us, myself included, step into starting a coaching business without a clear sense of what we are creating and why. Coaching businesses are not capital heavy, do not usually need a funding source like a bank loan and so the business owner is seldom requested to make a business plan. In addition to the obvious problem of not having planned where the business is going and how to get there, this lack of business planning often leaves the coaching business without even a clear purpose for existing.
I was reminded of the frequent lack of business vision this week when I discovered a great new business website – www.jimcollins.com. Jim Collins is the author of the renowned book, From Good to Great and this site is a wealth of information about the basics of succeeding in business. What I was particularly drawn to on the website was what Jim has to say about business vision. Although he is talking about major corporations, the facts hold true for solo-entrepreneurs in the coaching business as well. If you haven’t thought through this process or haven’t done it for a while, I encourage you to sit with these ideas about vision.
First, you need to know the core values of your business. These are the values that you believe in that will not be compromised no matter what the business trend or situation. Some coaches chose things like customer service, others chose quality of service, others believe most strongly in respect for the individual. Next, think about your purpose for being in business – I call this your mission, but it is basically the soul of your business. The purpose for your business is the bigger agenda that your business is reaching toward. The purpose, i.e. improve human life through effective relationships, is not something that we ever can obtain, but it serves to guide us in making our contribution to the world.
The second part of your business vision is to have a clearly envisioned future. Doesn’t that sound like a coach talking to a client? Yup. Have a really big goal for the distant future and a vivid description in mind of what it will be like in the future to have achieved that goal. This is where your passions really come into play. When this picture is clearly created, it can be your source of motivation for the hard work of business creation. I urge you to explore the website since there are lots more great concepts there. Most importantly, I urge you to develop the vision for your business. Spend the time you need to find the soul behind both the coaching and the business side of your company. Happy visioning.
2 Comments
February 12th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Hi Janet-
Like many coaches, the terms “vision, core values, business vision, mission, respect for clients, etc, etc” are so familiar to me, that I’m occasionally guilty of skimming over them rather than focusing on them the way they deserve to be. So I appreciate your blog post, and your efforts to help us re-visit them.
I know I’m particularly wary of over-promising something that depends – in no small part – on what the client brings in, and therefore I can’t possibly “guarantee” the outcome the way I could if I were selling a widget or some other kind of service.
That may seem like an excuse sometime, but I really do like being a modest person, not selling snake oil. Selling “value” is good. How to package that up credibly, and send it out there to the market is a whole other world.
Sure, I’m not nearly as squeamish as I once was about making money, or the need to conduct myself as if I’m in an actual business enterprise, but I still find myself cringing at the thought of using language the way some of our colleagues do in their ads about their products and services.
Your endorsement of Milana Leshinsky in your earlier post is fascinating, and actually very liberating because she seems so blatantly oriented toward the commerce side of the Coaching biz. I get her stuff because I gave her my email once, (which is the classic “list building” strategy for Coaches) and I find that she gives compelling, very no-nonsense and direct advice about how a successful Coaching practice happens. She also wants you to buy her eProducts, of course. Which is absolutely fine.
Your blog looks great.
I know you’ll do well with it.
Shaun
February 14th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Shaun,
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. For me, what made the most difference in how I presented myself and my coaching to the marketplace came from my experience as a coaching client. Once I had experienced in my life how powerful coaching could be, it became much easier to let others know in a genuine and deep way how I thought I might be of help to them. I don’t use that language of the marketing whiz that you see in some coaching sites – it doesn’t ring true for who I am. What I do instead is try to speak or write from my heart and I find that the clients that I am going to enjoy working with can hear that message.
Warmly,
Janet