Mar 09
adminUncategorized
Admitting the need for a business coach or mentor is a tough decision for any self-reliant entrepreneur. Don’t take it as a sign of weakness or stupidity. Instead, look at your decision to get business coaching as a cost effective solution to a business issue. However, there still remains the issue of finding the right coach for your needs.
Choosing a business coach is as tough as deciding which flavor to pick at a Baskin Robins. It’s only hard because you are in the middle of the issue. You can make it easier if you step back from the issue you’re having and look at it from the outside.
The best business coaches have their own little niches they serve, a successful history in solving one issue or another. Combine this with their own brand of problem solving, and you see that business coaches and mentors are distinctively different and not all coaches will relate well to you or your business.
One solution to this issue is to try to gain a few minutes of a coaches time to see how they analyze problems and communicate with you. If you don’t like the way that coach presents his solutions to you, move on to the next one, until you find one that works for you. The only issue here is paying for the advice with every contact.
There are a few businesses that focus on delivering coaches to you at a fraction of their normal rates, effectively reducing this expense to a very manageable sum. As you seek out these business coaching service clearing houses, try to choose one that offers these services:
* A variety of coaches
* free access to each coach
* one fee for the service
* a good length of time to find the coach you need
* bios on each coach
* responsive customer service
Although I have seen a few of these services, only one so far has met all these criteria for me. I found this service at www.businesscoachingandmentoring.com. Although this is a new site, the owners (Business Growth Experts out of British Columbia, CA) built this site to replace their aging domain at www.business-growth-experts.com.
If you’re even remotely interested in hiring a business coach, I highly recommend heading over to the site and taking a look through their coaches for yourself. I believe you’ll find the site informative and helpful. Of course, please let me know what you experienced while there.
Don Hatton is an SEO Expert and Website Analyst for The Daricca Group, a full services Website Design and SEO Management company with clients all over the world. With Search Engine Optimization one of our specialties, you can be assured your design will be search engine friendly.
We also offer services such as Web Management, Content Management, SEO Management, Search Engine Marketing, and SEO Analysis, among others.
Mar 09
adminUncategorized
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
This is especially helpful if you’ve experienced past business mistakes that you are still paying the price for. Mistakes can do three things:
1). Hold you hostage to your past. Meaning that you have a hard time trying new things, approaching new markets or new business opportunities because you are afraid that “it” might happen again.
2). Propel you forward into a beautiful future because you’ve taken the necessary steps to learn from the mistakes by writing them out, forgiving yourself and re-shaping how you’d handle that situation if you could do it all over again.
3). Keep you doing the same things over and over. No matter what you touch. In this place, you repeat the same mistakes because you didn’t recognize them as the culprits that they are. You’ve got to shake yourself out of this pattern. The only time you should be content with repeating a pattern is when the pattern is delivering victorious results.
For most of us, the focus of forgiveness has been towards others. However, there comes a time for every business owner to forgive themselves for past mistakes. As a coach-consultant, I’ve had my share of business mistakes and for a while these mistakes held me back. I couldn’t see past them. I would literally, have many butt kicking conversations with myself about the mistakes I had made.
Until one day I received the revelation to forgive myself. This revelation came as a conviction of divine reprimanding to me if I wanted to move on beyond my past and reach toward the ultimate success I really desired.
So, here’s my coaches requests for you:
1. Create a 3 column page (in a word document or on a folded sheet of paper)
2. In the first column, write down every business decision, activity or partnership that you call a mistake (no matter how big or small).
3. In the second column next to each mistake, right down what you would have done differently.
4. In the third colum, write out your forgiveness statement for each one. For instance, I forgive myself for ______. The lesson I’ve learned is________. I am thankful for this experience.
You Deserve A Better Business
As a Business Strategist and Coach, I’d like to give you the tools, strategies and techniques you need in your business
Mar 09
adminUncategorized
Make Good Decisions
Michael, who is now a very successful entrepreneur was finding it difficult to decide between starting his own business based on his own unique talents or to take another role in the City. He felt that he wanted to start his own business and yet he wasn’t sure about the risk that this involved. Once he decided everything else came easy.
So, how do you use your senses to choose between different desired directions or goals. You may begin by discovering how you make good decisions, then you can use this information to help someone else. Let’s start with how you make good decisions:
Imagine that you are about to decide between 3 options. For example whether to seek a challenge in your current role, or to find a different job or to set up your own business. To find out your decision criteria make a list numbered 1 to 10 and ask yourself the question “what’s important to me in choosing my future work direction” and write down the answers. In deciding between your options make a comparison, between option 1, option 2 and option 3 in your mind. Notice what you see, hear and feel for each of the options: NOW, 3 months from now, 6 months from now and a year from now and become aware of as many fine distinctions as you can between the 3 options. Be specific on dates i.e. 14th February 2010, 14th May 2010; 14th August 2010; 14th February 2011 in this example. Make the images and sounds into 3 movies in your mind.
Now remember a decision that you have already taken that you knew was a good decision before you took it. Notice what you see, hear and feel in detail and compare this to each of the 3 options. The option that most closely matches this decision is the one for you.
Now let’s move on to helping someone else make a good decision. Imagine that you are going to help your customer/employer make a decision for an investment in your services, whether you are aiming to become employed or to sell your services as a business. Start by remembering the process that you use to decide yourself. See what you saw, hear what you heard and feel what you felt when you made a really good decision and you knew it was a good decision before you made it. Pay attention to the fine sensory distinctions between your good decision and a decision that did not work for you.
Use these distinctions to amplify the “good decision” state and make it stronger. Create a powerful association between the good decision state and your decision strategy by paying particular attention to the voice tone, tempo and rhythm that you use when talking yourself into that good decision and make sure that you sound persuasive. Notice how you look when you are making that good decision and step into the image. Notice how you feel and create a gesture to use when you start your decision strategy to access this state. Start to consider what information the people making the decision require and how you are going to package and sequence it for them. How do you find out what information the decision maker requires? Well, ask them using your strategy for gathering high quality information and pay attention to the sensory information that you receive.
Record the differences between a good decision and a decision that did not work for you here:
Decision Sub-Modalities Good Decision Decision that did not work for you
Visual
Bright/dim
Colour/Black and White
Moving/Still
3D/Flat
Focus
Associated/Disassociated
Size
Distance
Location
Shape
Number of images
Bordered/borderless
Auditory
volume
Tone
Tempo
Rhythm
Pitch
Pace
Timbre
Direction
Intensity
Distance
Location
Harmony
Stereo
Number of sounds
Kinaesthetic
Location in body
Breathing Rate
Pulse Rate
Pressure
Tactile Sensations
Direction
Intensity
Weight
Scope
Movement
Olfactory/Gustatory
Sweet
Sour
Aroma
Fragrance
Salt
Bitter
Essence
Pungency
Enjoy.
Graham Constantine from Whole Being is an NLP Trainer and with his partner Claire Towers he specialises in helping Graduates who are unemployed to make the transition from education into employment or setting up their own business or volunteering or work placement or further education.
Mar 09
adminUncategorized
Over the last few years, I have been observing and studying the onslaught of new market entrants into the consulting and coaching venue. Perhaps, you have also noticed how many people have become personal and business coaches in the last few years? Well then, let me tell you what I’ve discovered. What I’ve noticed is that many of these folks do actually have a good amount of experience behind them, and they have got into the coaching or consulting business because they have been laid off from corporate America.
And they’ve decided to try to start their own business, because they really can’t get a job for equal pay to their previous employment. Unfortunately, there’s a big difference between working for a paycheck, and working out of your house trying to make money and market yourself. So many of the people who are coaches, are not making any money, and they are complaining and worry they might lose their house to a foreclosure, because they cannot make the payments.
Now then, perhaps you are considering starting a Coaching business from scratch. If so, you have to ask yourself how are you going to get your customers? If you think that you’re going to go online to the social networks in various industry subsectors, and make friends and get jobs that way, I’d like to enlighten you to the fact that those types of online groups are already filled with people who will be your competition.
In other words, you are going to have to get your new customers and clients the old-fashioned way in the real world. Of course, if you don’t know how to do this, you might be better off buying a franchise, from a franchisor that knows how to get clients, and can assist you with an excellent marketing plan.
The reality is there are too many coaches out there who don’t know what they’re doing, and do not know how to market themselves, and they aren’t making any money. Many of these folks are making a mockery out of the consulting industry, and leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. So, if you are thinking that you might want to be a consultant or coach, perhaps you might look into franchising to do just that. Indeed, I hope you will please consider this.
Mar 09
adminUncategorized
Getting outside advice is invaluable to the small business owner. Business coaches and business consultants are both valuable sources of help to an owner, but the distinction between the two sometimes confuses people. This can lead to people pursuing business coaching when they need business consulting services or vice versa. Which service is right for your business?
What Is Business Consulting?
Business consulting services offer expert advice in an area that the business owner may be lacking in. The business consultant can serve several roles but ultimately is a source of personalized, objective, expert information.
Consultants can be hired to answer a question. For example you might want an analysis of which marketing techniques would be most appropriate for your business. A marketing consultant could analyze your industry and the markets and indicate which marketing efforts are likely to provide the best ROI.
A consultant can also be contacted to provide a service. The same marketing consultant could use the analysis to create and manage the marketing programs. You would oversee the consultant’s efforts but allow the consultant to do the actual marketing work.
Finally, consultants can teach new skills — and this is often where business consulting services are confused with business coaching. If you know nothing about marketing but want to do your own promotions rather than hiring an outside firm, the marketing consultant could educate on the proper way to run your campaign and oversee your early efforts.
What Is Business Coaching?
Consulting involves fairly concrete principles while business coaching gets into more abstract areas. A coach’s job is to help you be the best business manager you can, not by teaching new skills but by helping you develop your potential.
Coaches aren’t there to give you answers. They are there to help you find the answers yourself. A question like, “What is the best direction to take my business?” doesn’t have a single right solution. Instead, the coach will let you answer that question by helping you decide what is important to you and what you really want from your company.
Business coaching provides a source of accountability. Many business owners find that the lack of someone to answer to causes them to flounder. Having a coach who helps them set goals and evaluate their success gives them the structure they need to motivate them to meet those objectives.
Which Service Does Your Company Need?
It is common for business coaching organizations to also offer business consulting services and vice-versa. The reason is that in most cases, their clients need a little of both. One might need more coaching and another more counseling, but most need a blend of services.
Working with the coach/consultant is the best way to determine what mix is best for you and the future of your business. Over time, your needs will change and a good coach/consultant will change with you.
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