Archive for October, 2008
The Business World Uses Strategic Thinking
Posted by: | CommentsRegular readers know that I believe in the necessity of strategic thinking for running your coaching business. See previous post here. My husband, Bob reminded me recently of the importance of strategic thinking for all businesses. Bob is general manager of a small company that manufactures specialty fibers. Not too long ago, he and the other managers rewrote their business plan. They wanted to make some changes in the business due to changes in the marketplace and the business environment in general. They rewrote the plan, made some business changes and things have started to look better.
About two weeks ago, Bob realized that they had made some good changes, but were still failing to look ahead to keep the successes going. He actually printed out my blog post on strategic thinking and took it to his managers for a “what’s next discussion”. It would have been easy for them to look at the improvements they had made and sit back content at that. What they did instead is to review the long-terms goals and the progress they had made to date. They then devised new next steps on the plan to reach the final goal. Whenever we do this, we are likely to find areas that have changed and that need our attention. Any change in your business is going to effect things in many areas.
You need to do similar strategic planning on an ongoing basis in your coaching business. I am currently looking at the strategic advantages and disadvantages of social networking with Twitter. What area of your business are you making decisions about that may affect your overall plan?
Biz Tools for more Productivity
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a great blog post to help you find just the right business tool – perhaps just what you’ve been needing for your coaching business. Donna Gunter at InfoBusiness has gathered her Top 10 Tools to Turbocharge Your Business Productivity. What I like best is that several of these will definitely save you time. Although I don’t know all the products she has chosen, I use and like four of them myself. Make sure to look at GoToMyPC, Roboform and XDrive. If you are interested in Practice Pay Solutions, feel free to click in from my affiliate link here.
Should a Therapist Twitter?
Posted by: | CommentsI am a coach with a thriving business which includes two niches, individual clients, groups, newsletters, this blog and several other marketing activities. I am also a Licensed Professional Counselor and have a busy private practice specializing in marriage counseling and trauma recovery. In the past few weeks, I have uncovered a dilemma in my life about Twitter.
Many of you know that Twitter is a new, very popular social networking site. Many coaches are having great success with using Twitter for business development. What they are finding is that connections and networking on Twitter happen very quickly. Twitter is made for just that – quick little bursts of info about you that others receive and follow. You get to know people quickly and they know you based on what is posted. The way this happens is that you write brief posts about yourself and your life that you send periodically throughout your days.
The excitement of Twitter is very obvious to me as a coach and entrepreneur. The exposure of Twitter is causing the counselor in me to be concerned. Although I am not a traditional therapist by any means, traditional therapy says that the counselor knows all about the client and shares nothing about themselves. Not only is there this inequality of information sharing, but the inequality is considered to be essential for the benefit of the client. Even though I share freely about myself with my counseling clients when I believe it will be helpful for them, now I am taking pause and wondering what the impact would be on my counseling clients for me to start twittering.
My counseling practice is in a small town with clients who are not typically online entrepreneurs or in other ways likely to Twitter. However, many are youthful and spend time online. I have decided that if I Twitter, I will not automatically post to other social networking sites. I know that I would only post about the coaching and business part of my life – not the counseling part. Yet I am still hesitating – I signed up for a Twitter account and haven’t posted the first thing. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Should a therapist Twitter? What should I look at and think about as I move forward or not on this? Leave your comment here and let me know.
