My Start Up Background

I have started a number of small businesses and, in fact, operate two right now. One of my earlier companies, a software company, was successfully sold.

I know many of the problems entrepreneurs face and where to find additional help.

Entrepreneurs – passionate and – knowledgeable

Entrepreneurs are typically passionate and very knowledgeable about some key aspect of their business. However, you face the problem that everything seems to have to be done at once.

I can help you sort this out and maintain a useful combination of strategic and tactical priorities.

Business modeling, financial planning, strategy, marketing

The areas that I most typically focus on is to develop a solid business model, cash flow models to manage and project the business and its growth, marketing, and the overall plans required to win supporters including funders.

Keeping your attention on the key issues

A key hurdle for every new business is keeping attention focused of what really needs to be done, what will really drive the business forward, and ignoring the noisy tumult all around.

Through regular business coaching sessions I can help you bring your business ideas to fruition. The road will still be bumpy and at times difficult, but I will help you find your way through.

]]> http://businesscoach.us.com/services/start-up-entrepreneur/feed/ 0 http://businesscoach.us.com/business-coaching/grea-questions-about-business-coaching/ http://businesscoach.us.com/business-coaching/grea-questions-about-business-coaching/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:13:02 +0000 Mark Orton http://businesscoach.us.com/?page_id=1593 Continue reading →]]>

• My coach yelled and screamed at me in high school, do I need that?

  Is business coaching touchy feely – therapeutic stuff?

  You don’t know anything about my business. I have been at this for xx years, how can you help me?

  How long before I see results?

  Do I need to meet with you every week?

  Am I signing up for a long contract?

  This must be expensive

  I’m not a business owner, just a manager, is this for me?

  What about start up businesses?

  Do you work with management teams?

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  My coach yelled and screamed at me in high school, do I need that?

  Business coaching is all about you and not about the coach. I will challenge with questions that will help you think more clearly and anew about your problems and opportunities. My coaching is successful when you state the best solution, then it is your solution not mine. I measure my success by how little I talk and how much you produce results.

  Is business coaching touchy feely – therapeutic stuff?

  Business coaching is about business, about getting the right things done. Sometimes this touches on the way in which you listen and communicate with people, or, your focus on facts and not emotions. But, always, our discussions are about your business results and how to improve them.

  You don’t know anything about my business. I have been at this for xx years, how can you help me?

  There is an element of truth in this. If you really need help with a specific technical issue, business coaching is not the solution.

  On the other hand, every business is about customers, products, services, employees, sales, profits, capital, marketing, sales, operations, product development, quality, and more of these basics. It only takes me an hour to ask enough questions to know the basic shape of your business, to provide me a platform to engage you in productive discussions of how to push you and your business forward.

  And, another key role for me is to help you establish the short list of tasks to work on each week to drive ahead. I provide the constant reminder of how day-to-day work connects with the big picture goals and the tactical accountability for getting the work done.

  How long before I see results?

  You will see results in your personal management approaches and skills within a few weeks. Business results typically take longer, three months is a good timeframe, though it depends on the cycle time of the business issues you are tackling.

  Do I need to meet with you every week?

  Most clients find it valuable to meet every week. It keeps up the pace of the work, makes for better, more immediate feedback on progress and problems, and maintains better self-accountability for the important future-building tasks. On the other hand, some clients find every other week to work fine. We just need to identify what works best for you.

  At the outset of a new relationship, I insist on at least three months of weekly meetings. This gives us the opportunity to really dig in and accomplish something important and useful. It also assures that I have a sound understanding of how you work and the important facts about how your business works.

  Finally, most clients really look forward to talking with me. I am the one person they speak with each week who will listen with interest to whatever they say, not be judgmental in anyway, and be supportive through good questioning and sound advice.

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  How effective is telephone or computer based coaching?

  I have been working via telephone and Skype for four years, after years of face-to-face consulting. To my initial surprise, I have found the telephone to be better in many ways than face-to-face meetings. When I sit down to talk with a pad of paper at the ready for notes, and my notes from earlier discussions, I am totally present and focused on the person on the other end of the line. I am listening to every word and, not being required to provide visual focus, I can process the conversation and think of different questions to reframe the issues or bring up new avenues to explore very consistently. I can hear the body language through the audible cues given during a conversation.

  Sometimes we need to talk about financial management issues or other document based topics, then, we can turn to our computer screens and refer directly to the facts in question. Some clients keep detailed notes and create an agenda for every meeting. I print this out in advance and I let the client manage our meeting as they see fit. Other clients come to the meetings with topics that are pressing on them that day. For them, I have to be sure that I bring up the tasks from the previous session so that we close the loop on their progress.

  Am I signing up for a long contract?

  No. My contract with you includes a clear statement that either party can cancel the engagement on a one week notice.

  This must be expensive

  Most clients budget $350 to $500 per month. This means that business coaching that will produce significant results, measured in sales dollars, increased profitability, more customers, and a more productive, happier you, the business owner or manager, costs on a par with your CPA. So, when you think of adding a new senior manager to your staff, this looks outrageously inexpensive.

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  I’m not a business owner, just a manager, is this for me?

  If you manage people, have a budget, and are responsible for results, business coaching can help you be more effective.

  What about start up businesses?

  I work with start ups regularly. In fact I have a discounted rate for start ups. Go to this page for more about how I work with startup companies.

  Do you work with management teams?

  Yes. This is where a Skype videoconference works really well. Unlike working with individuals, I do need to see everyone so that i can effectively manage the group and keep everyone involved.

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If you like graphical representations, here is an explosion of the key elements in a coaching session. Scroll down (click here instead) below for a narrative description.

A Coaching Session

A coaching session is a hands-on work with you, owner and leader of a start-up or small businesses. I apply strong active listening with useful questions and appropriate data to help you find the best path through the maze of opportunities, risks, and the occasional disastrous bright idea. Then, I work with you to develop a concrete list of tasks that you must accomplish to push your business toward the goals. Ongoing work focuses on getting the right things done and refocusing as the situation develops. A coaching session is a structured conversation about your business. Most start with issues or opportunities that are on your mind today. I ask lots of questions that lead you to explain what the opportunity is and how you think you will tackle it. It is amazing how often just explaining to someone outside of your business how you are thinking about a particular situation reveals weaknesses, or highlights strengths, in your thinking. Thinking out loud is frequently productive because you are forced to hear the ideas outside your head and, of course, I can hear them, too. Further questions probe for problems or missing elements in your plans or perhaps other opportunities that you have not recognized. I also bring my thirty years of business experience into the discussion through examples from my own work or from experiences with other clients

Because you and I have had discussions about where you want your company to be in two or three years, I can ask how this particular opportunity contributes to reaching those goals. This is one of my key values to you. I am not tied up in the fray of your day-to-day activities, so it is easier for me to remind you of the long view, the big picture.

Sometimes new approaches or skills will be required to capture the opportunity. Most of these can be learned in a just-in-time manner and learned more readily and thoroughly because you re applying them to an actual problem you need to solve. At times, I will point you towards resources for you to explore to build up your knowledge of management principles and practices.

Sometime during our conversation you or I will bring up the two or three specific tasks that you said you would work on to drive your business forward over the last week or so. We will review and critique what you did and either slap each other on the back (conceptually of course) for the successes or re-tool the approach for the less than optimal results. And before the close of our discussion you will tell me what you think are the upcoming two or three forward looking tasks for the upcoming week.

One of the neat things about all of this is that it takes place on the telephone or via Skype over the Web. If we need to review some plans or financial data, we can do that via the Web. You meet with me from wherever you need to be. It is easy to fit an hour into your schedule with no need for me to come to your office.

Where do the new approaches and skills come from? Are they just a laundry list of what I happen to know about? The short answer is no. Sometimes it appears that management is just a hodgepodge of practices and verbosity from academics and consultants. But, we really do know something about how high-perfromance organizations work. These principles and practices flow from high-performance management work of the last fifty years from around the world. These are  embodied most boldly in the Toyota Production System (TPS – also know in the US as lean manufacturing or lean enterprise), Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria, ISO9000-2008, and EFQM.

What About Results?

Learn more about our results with clients here and about who are clients are here.

Is Business Coaching for Me?

“I have not had a coach since high school. I am not sure I need a touchy-feely experience to make me feel better about myself. Isn’t this going to cost a lot of money?”

Here are some ways to think about these questions and more.

Tell Me More about Management Principles and Practices

You can learn more about what these are and where they come from here.

Business owners and managers have plenty of work and lots toworry about. This seems to be the natural state of being entrepreneurial and liking to run your own affairs.

Worrying is not productive

The worry part of running a business (or starting one, for that matter) can be minimized. Learning new skills and approaches to make you more productive, more successful, and happier.

Work with a business coach

An important component of your strategy to getting the right things done can be to work regularly with a business coach.

Business coaching works – the proof is in our results

I know that this is true because I have worked with many business owners in many types of businesses, start ups and small firms, and we have proof in dollars, customers, new markets, and more ease at managing to show the value of our work together.

Learn more about how the coaching process works here.

Fill out the form below and I will contact you with suggested times for us to talk. I will also send along some suggestions for how you can be prepared to get the most out our our coaching session.

Please contact me with availability of free business coaching sessions.

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A coaching session always starts with whatever is most pressing for you at the moment. “What’s going on today?”

We will explore these problems or opportunities. Lots of questions will be asked to work towards a complete understanding of what is at hand. After all, the most important step in any problem solving is to accurately define the problem. Then, you can move on to asking how to tackle the issues. At this point the conversation may turn back to high performance principles and practices that we have already talked about or, perhaps, something new will have to be introduced. Further questioning and discussion will develop a tactical list of actions to be taken.

You can expect that the coaching session will be challenging, stimulating, energizing, and supportive. Remember, my only concern is your success.

During coaching sessions we will regularly examine what your personal and organizational long-term strategies and objectives are. This provides  background that supports a continuing winnowing or issues so that we can focus your energies on the most important issues and opportunities. It is critical that we know that our work is moving you and your company towards long term objectives. Business coaching is about significant results on both the personal and company levels.

At some point during our conversation, we will review the results of the previous session’s tasks. What happened? Success? Obstacles? Do you need to re-calibrate? Change paths?

Usually towards the end of a session you will state the one or two tasks that you will undertake over the next week or so that will respond to the issues discussed. We always check in to be sure that these tasks are clearly defined, measurable results have been determined (how do we know what success looks like?), and a deadline is set.

An Introductory Discussion is an opportunity for you to learn how we approach business coaching and evaluate how well it meets your needs. We of course are considering the same factors. Can we be helpful to you?

The conversation is about you and your business. We will talk in depth about your situation and explore some of the problems and opportunities you face today. The conversation also demonstrates how the coaching session works in practice. You will find that you will learn something of value even in this first discussion.

At the end of the discussion we will decide whether and how to proceed.

Introductory Discussions typically last between 30 and 60 minutes. Discussions take place on the telephone or via Skype.

Contact us via phone or email to arrange an Introductory Discussion.

We approach our work with CEOs, COOs and other C-level managers from the perspective of a co-founder of a successful small software company. Although this experience can not inform everything we might want to know, we do have the experience of starting, operating, and successfully selling a small company. In addition we have over a decade of experience in a Fortune 500 electronics firm filling roles in many different functional areas. We understand the environment and stresses and strains in the day-to-day life of top level executives.

Most importantly, we apply our full tool bag of high performance management techniques to the most pressing opportunities and challenges.

Weekly Coaching Sessions

• Scheduled 45 minute telephone sessions.

Bi-Weekly Coaching Sessions

• Scheduled 1 hour telephone sessions

Options

• On-demand coaching support
• Other management consulting services

Budget

• Depending on options chosen budget per month ranges from $350 to $500.

Get started -  Schedule an Introductory Conversation

This is at no cost and no obligation. Read about Introductory Conversations before you call.

Note:

We expect that managers will commit to a minimum of three months effort at the outset. Although most clients find positive results within a few weeks, measurable results in terms of top and bottom line performance take somewhat longer to occur. Coaching sessions scheduled less frequently than weekly do not provide good results.

Many clients work with us for a year or more.

In any event all coaching engagements are subject to cancellation by either party on one week’s notice

Like other General Managers they must be concerned with the overall performance of the organization. However, as owners, they have additional concerns that may include, among others, family members on staff, succession planning if inter-generational management is contemplated, and positioning the company for acquisition, merger or close out.

We approach our work with Owners from the perspective of a co-founder of a successful small software company. Although this experience can not inform everything we might want to know, we do have the experience of starting, operating, and successfully selling a small company.

In addition we bring our full tool bag of high performance management techniques to bear on the most pressing opportunities and challenges.

Weekly Owner Coaching Sessions

• Scheduled 45 minute telephone sessions.

Bi-Weekly Owner Coaching Sessions

• Scheduled 45 minute telephone sessions

Options

• On-demand coaching support
• other management consulting services

Budget

Depending on options chosen typical budget per month ranges from $350 to $500.

Get started -  Schedule an Introductory Conversation

This is at no cost and no obligation. Read about Introductory Conversations before you call.

Note:

We expect that managers to commit to a minimum of three months effort at the outset. Although most clients find positive results within a few weeks, measurable results in terms of top and bottom line performance take somewhat longer to occur. Coaching sessions scheduled less frequently than bi- weekly do not provide good results.

Many clients work with us for years.

In any event, all coaching engagements are subject to cancellation by either party on one week’s notice

We offer business coaching to owners and managers in small and medium size businesses and non-profits.

This coaching is telephone-based with Web support. This means that as required we will review and discuss documents viewed together over the Web.

Coaching comes in a number of sizes and flavors. Choose the type most suitable to your situation.

Business Coaching for Owners

Business Coaching for CEO, COO, and other C-level managers

Learn more about our processes:

What Is An Introductory Discussion?

What Should I Expect During a Coaching Session?