Can you imagine recent football World Cup Winners, Spain; The New Zealand All Blacks rugby team; Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt or Tiger Woods performing without a coach who pushed and guided them? 

Their coaches were instrumental in:
*  Ensuring that the team performs at optimum levels;
*  Devising specific strategies and plays to defeat opponents;
*  Ensuring team harmony and that everyone worked for the benefit of the team as a whole
*  Providing one on one support for each player by encouraging and counselling them, where necessary.

Business coaching is no different.  Many small-business owners often have specific experience only in a limited number of areas and lack the holistic vision and skills to grow their business as a whole.

Business coaching should therefore be seen as an investment, rather than an expense or an overhead. You should therefore evaluate your investment in business coaching in terms of return on investment (ROI). You should also remember that business coaching is a long-term investment that will only pay dividends over a period of time and your evaluation should be based accordingly.

But a word of caution.

A business coach is not a magic solution to your problems and you should not think that just by having one, your problems are going to vanish overnight.  You will have to work very hard to translate the input you will see from your coach into concrete action. You are the entrepreneur and the coach is merely a resource or conduit to make things happen.

Some of the areas in which business coaching works well:

Creating an environment for growth. One of the key requirements for managing change and growth is to put in place the proper organisation and create the kind of work environment that promotes teamwork and encourages people to work with one another. The challenge is to acquire and retain high-quality talent. This is not an easy job and involves a number of areas ranging from job evaluation and appraisal to designing the right compensation packages.

Designing and managing systems. Systems are critical to establishing a backbone and a framework for providing support for all employees. Business coaches will often have extensive exposure to a range of systems for different functions such as sales and marketing, governance and human resource management. The right systems have the effect of improving productivity and quality and the ultimate benefit is increased customer satisfaction.

As I have said above, business coaching is only a helping pair of hands and the responsibility for growing your business is yours; fairly and squarely. To make optimum use of your resources, consult with your business coach frequently and extensively.

Do not implement key decisions without fully understanding what to do and how to do it. The consequences of your action should form part of an integral part of any business coaching process.

A good business coach is essentially a successful business owner with recognised credentials.  They will be well versed with the nuances of running a business and therefore have the knowledge to share and guide you through your own experience.  

Your business coach will:

Guide you at every step:  They will analyse your business and suggest changes that will improve your business.  Rather than working merely like a consultant, a good business coach will involve themselves by understanding your primary business goals and they’ll suggest using proven to minimise any risk of you failing.

Hold you accountable:  Business, with all its freedom for its owner, can often induce procrastination or a strong belief that a business owner’s strategies will work best. This thinking is surely a recipe for disaster as the owner loses a holistic perspective and gets sucked into believing that nothing can go wrong.  Your business coach will come with a fresh perspective and hold you accountable for your actions; thus coaching and steering you to better performance and inducing a sense of doing things “the right way”.

Inspire and motivate:  Running the show alone can be emotionally challenging. You will need people with whom you can discuss your problems and recommend practical solutions.  Your business coach will listen to your concerns and inspire you to perform better.  They will motivate you when you lose confidence.  They will ensure that you stay focused.

Recommend practical solutions: There are many books on ‘how to run a business’.  But rarely do you find any that suggest practical solutions. With your business coach, you get a ‘talking book’ full of practical solutions for many facets of your business.

Streamline ineffective or inefficient processes:  Your business coach will dedicate themselves to streamline your business processes, define work priorities and devise ways to bring more efficiency and productivity to your business.

Identify Whether Your Business Coach Can Deliver

The simplest way around this is to ask for references.   Ask about their experience with the business coach you are considering.  Ask them whether they delivered what they promised.

Remember, no matter what a business coach promises to deliver, the deliverables should not stay as mere words on paper. They should translate into real success and profits.  Your business coach should be able to help you improve sales, induce better work management and devise ways to streamline your business to give you more time to focus on business development, customers and much more.

Fear of Failure:  Some procrastinate because they are afraid to fail.  They are too afraid of not living up to their expectations or to other people’s expectations that they’d rather be called lazy than lacking.

Procrastinators who fall under this category must first build their confidence in themselves to overcome this problem.  This can be done through having small successes first and building on these towards accomplishing bigger goals.

Enormity of Problem: 
Some people procrastinate because of the sheer enormity of the problem.  They know deep down that doing nothing is the worst thing that they can do.  However, they don’t know where to start in solving the problem.  Failure actually comes as a relief for procrastinators under this category since this means that they can move on to other things.  That is, until they come face to face with another big problem.

For this type of procrastinators, the solution is learning how to break the big problem down into smaller and more manageable chunks. 

By breaking down a big problem into various but smaller problems, the person can focus his or her energies into solving the big problem, one small problem at a time.

Analysis Paralysis: 
Analysis paralysis happens when there is simply too much information or possible options so the person becomes unsure of the best course or resolution.  This frequently happens to perfectionists or to people who want total control.

People under this category are like mice trapped in their exercise wheel – spending so much time and effort going nowhere.  They would usually focus their energies into doing completely irrelevant things such as doing the laundry, cleaning the house and other errands just so they’d have a semblance of control over the situation.

To overcome this type of procrastination, the person must learn how to identify the things that are within his control and those that are not.  A number of options could be narrowed down through analysis based on priorities.  One can’t always expect the perfect solution.  Perfection should be seen for what it is:  a process of continuous improvement.

Force of Habit:
Some people, on the other hand, have lived with procrastination for so long that it has become a deeply ingrained habit.  Procrastination then becomes an unavoidable or unchangeable fact that has to be accepted.  Procrastination, however, is neither unavoidable nor unchangeable.

For people who procrastinate out of habit, the development of and the exercise of the will is usually the first step. 

Willpower, just like the mind, is something that grows stronger with use.  To overcome habitual procrastination, one must take the time to build his willpower by keeping the small promises that he makes to himself.

If you want to become an effective time manager, you have to change your whole attitude.  The next time you hear yourself saying, “This can wait until later”, or “This can wait until tomorrow”, get a grip.  Admit that you are procrastinating and say, instead, “No, this can’t wait. 

It’s procrastination that can wait!”

Saying yes, however, could be one of the most unproductive habits one could have.  When we commit to doing more than we can handle, we have less time to work on our priorities.  Saying yes can also damage your reputation and relationships with other people.

When to Say No

Saying no takes a lot of reflection and requires a deep conviction that you are right to say no.  You have to be convinced that no is a defensible answer – that it is backed by the right principles.

Only then will you be able to say no without feeling guilty or defensive.  Thus, to say no, we must know our priorities; we must know which activities we need to accomplish.

You can’t say no just for the sake of saying no.  You have to say no only when you know and are convinced that whatever the consequences are, saying no is the right course to take.

Saying no is therefore rooted to how we actually prioritise things in our lives.  If your family is more important to you than your job, then how come it’s much easier to say no to your children than to your boss?  If financial stability for your family or keeping your job is more important than your friends’ acceptance, then why is it so hard to turn friends down when they want you to help them on their projects at the expense of your own plans?

Saying no starts with knowing what is and what is not important.  However, it has to be followed up with the courage to stand firmly by your priorities.

How to Say No
Saying no is indeed hard.  However, when someone with integrity does it, people cannot help but respect it.  When you are asked by your boss to work on an unscheduled project, you can say “I’m sorry, Sir, but much as I want to help you, I have already promised my son that I would attend his baseball game today – and I make it a point to keep every promise I make.”  If your boss knows that you do indeed keep every promise you make, he will respect your decision.

If a colleague asks for your assistance or if your boss asks that you handle additional projects, do not automatically say yes.  If you truly have no time for it, show them your planner and say “I know those are important to you but, based on my understanding, the projects already assigned to me are important, too.  Perhaps you
could move some of the deadlines set for these or perhaps you could help me explain why these have to be moved so that I can accommodate your request.”

Be honest enough to admit that you don’t have time, be responsible enough to do your work efficiently, keep your promises, and never bite off more than you can chew.  In time, people will respect your decision whenever you say no.

It’s easy to dream – but it’s hard to follow and achieve dreams.

Dreams, after all, are just goals without a timeline and a definite plan.  Thus, if you really want your dreams, convert them into SMART goals.  Being SMART transforms prayers into plans and hope into action.

Specific
Do you think men would have been able land on the moon if they did not deal with specifics like the amount of fuel needed, the distance to be travelled and the place where Apollo 11 would land?

The bigger your goal, the greater need there is for specifics.  If you’re gunning for a great increase in sales, specify your target increase; is it 30%, 50% or 70%?  Specify, too, your target market or the group of people to whom you are planning to sell. 
 
More importantly, specify the means that you will use to achieve your goal.

Specific goals are great for focusing your energies and resources.  Imagine a target practice without specific targets. 
 
How do you take down targets when you don’t even know what they are?  When you have specific goals, you’ll have something specific or definite towards which you can direct your energies and on which you can devote your time.

Measurable
Your goals should also be measurable.  That is, it should be clear how far along you are to achieving your goals.  This means that you should have various indicators by which you can measure how near or far you are to achieving your goals. 
 
For example, if your goal is to reduce the time needed to produce one unit of your product, you have to set the parameters against which your progress shall be measured.  Such parameters can include: average packaging time, the average handling time or the Average equipment down times.

By having measurable variables that can be monitored and assessed, you will know exactly how successful you are at achieving your goals, how close you are to your targets, and who or what is causing the delays. 
 
Moreover, you will also avoid sending conflicting or confusing messages to your people as your judgment will be based on measurable variables, not on intangible and subjective opinions or feelings.

Achievable
What is the difference between world peace and financial independence?
World peace is a wish whereas financial independence is an achievable goal.  If you are going to use SMART in your goal setting, you have to be confident that your goals are attainable. 
 
Otherwise, all your efforts would be futile – you’d just be banging your head against an unyielding wall.

Relevant
Of course, the goals that you must set must also be relevant to the people who are going to pursue them.  Can you imagine trying to convince your marketing people that having the cleanest delivery trucks in town are a worthwhile marketing goal for the year? 
 
Make sure that your current goals are relevant to your business.

Time Bound
As mentioned earlier, a goal is a dream with a timeline.  By having a specific timeframe for your goal, you and your people shall be forced to spend your time on activities that will result to the achievement of your goals. 
 
Successful goal achievement is only possible if the goal is attained within the timeframe set for it.

Recognise your dreams

We have preconceived ideas and this has moulded our thought process. The thought process has evolved over a period of time and is based primarily on our experiences and the people we have come into contact with.

For many of us, a look into the future would not look very different from what it is today. There may be marginal differences but on the whole it would be almost similar to what life is today. Why do we think so?

In our limited experience of life, this is all we are capable of! But when you have a coach you will be giving yourself a chance to envisage something bigger and better for yourself. There is now the opportunity to grow and become whatever you wish to be. There are no barriers and you can have more of anything you desire – from money to satisfaction. There is also a fire within you to strike out and try to fulfil the purpose to which you were born.

When you feel that the world is out to get you or you are down in the pits, it is your coach who will hold before you the picture of your ambition, your passion and your capabilities. Personally and professionally, you want to create for yourself, a dream. If you have not realised what this ‘dream’ is then that’s where your coach steps in.  Your coach can help you recognise your dream and realise it.
 
Taking responsibility and marching on

If there was no one to take responsibility then it is possible that most people would relax, do only what is necessary or that which is easy. No one wants to be seen as making a mistake or finding it impossible to do something or worse still make a spectacle of oneself by standing up for something.

And then of course the biggest fear of what would happen if you did do something remarkably different and succeeded? On our own, we are comfortable to burrow into our comfortable rut all the while telling ourselves that we are fine and on track. Ask yourself how many self help books you have read and promised yourself that you would follow, well…not all, but some of what was advised?

What have you done when you found changes in your life? Sometimes you do strike lucky and you do get a break. But for long-lasting and quicker results it is best to have a well trained coach by your side.
Nothing and nothing but the truth

There are some places in our lives that we do not want to look at. But a coach will help you look at that and help to see you through. You will get a chance to face your devil, confront it and overcome it. People who are fond of you or close to you often simply turn a blind eye to these trouble spots. But here, the coach is objective and helps you put things in perspective and talk about it ultimately helping you find yourself. With a good coach to guide you, you will be able to take of yourself and create for yourself goals and aims which can be attained. You can create a world that you want, without getting diverted or being forced to accede to other people’s plans that leave you not only confused but annoyed as well.

Going in the right direction

Have you got a map on your life? Fix the point of where you are now and where you are heading. It would be quite a formidable task, unless you have a coach. To begin with you need to know where you are and then you need to move forward immediately. There is no time to wait or think. It may sound like power play, but in truth, a coach is there to give you that nudge that would propel you to move forward. The coach will give you just that much to increase your speed and realise your dreams that much faster.  How? Because the coach has let you into the secret of what it takes to make difference in your life – you are now armed with not only knowledge but also techniques and a lot of short cuts.

Sometimes, we humans use our minds so much that we fail to appreciate the power of positive reinforcement.  We can become so immersed in our work or, conversely, in our guilt for failing to do what we were supposed to do that we tend to forget about conditioning, the natural method of habit building.

The Carrot and the Stick
As funny as it seems, the carrot and the stick method of training animals can also be applied to us – although just the carrot applies in time management.  We should build good habits through rewards.  This is positive reinforcement.  In layman’s term, this is celebrating your wins.

Celebrating wins is an integral part of reinforcing a good habit.
 
When we were kids, we were usually given toys or something special whenever we got high marks.  Even Santa supposedly rewards good kids with gifts every Christmas.  Looking back, all our good habits were probably products of positive reinforcement during our childhood years.

The same rule applies when learning how to become an effective time manager.  By celebrating wins, we weave the effective time management habit strand by strand until it becomes a natural part of ourselves.  By celebrating our wins, we reward ourselves when we accomplish our time management goals.  This reward feels good so we strive to “win” more by doing what we have to do. 

Through this method of positive reinforcement, therefore, keeping promises and maximising productivity becomes a natural part of feeling good.  By celebrating wins, furthermore, we give ourselves time to rest and to relax so that we can be refreshed and thus eager to overcome subsequent obstacles.

Celebrating Wins
Celebrating wins means rewarding ourselves whenever we achieve something worth celebrating.  Most people do this by having one big prize at the finish line – say, a vacation trip to the Bahamas or a new car.  However, some people end up becoming frustrated instead as their goals are too far away in the future and too hard to accomplish.

Thus, it is important that you focus on celebrating small wins instead of big ones.  Break big goals down into smaller pieces then celebrate small wins; that is, reward yourself whenever you achieve one of your small goals.  Instead of a trip to the Bahamas for increasing your sales by 100%, perhaps, you can treat yourself to dinner in your favourite restaurant for every contract won.

By celebrating small wins instead of big wins, you will succeed in reinforcing your time management habit.  You will not burn out before you achieve something worth celebrating so you get motivated to go on to the next challenge.  Eventually, effective time management will become so ingrained that you’ll find it no hard task to achieve your big goal.  You shall deserve that trip to the Bahamas soon, you’ll see.

It is the great business management legend (yes, he is still alive today) Joseph M. Juran, who actually proposed this principle.  He discovered that the 80-20 rule held true for many other things apart from business management. 

Among the interesting applications of this principle are the following:  we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time; 80% of a business’ sales come from only 20% of the customers; 80% of quality control issues originate from 20% of the causes; only 20% of a computer’s applications typically uses 80% of the computer’s resources; and so on and so forth. 

In fact, this principle was so useful that it was used by the Japanese Industries to conquer a large part of the American consumer market during the 70s.

Pareto Principle and Time Management
The Pareto principle is also the backbone of effective time management.  Basically, Pareto Principle in the area of time management states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the activities.  This principle is sometimes called the “law of the vital few and the trivial many” for this reason.

This means that around 80% of things that we do aren’t actually that important in the final reckoning of things.  This also means that if we are able to identify “the vital 20%” of our activities then devote most of our time to accomplishing them, we will boost our productivity by around 80%.

For example, one of your business objectives for this year is to increase sales by 30% through an increase in the number of new customers.  This means that you have to increase your advertising and marketing expenditures.  By concentrating 80% of your marketing dollars and time to the top 20% of your advertising/marketing methods – those that would convert the greatest number of customers – you are sure to achieve your goal of increased sales. 

This 80-20 approach would be more effective than equally allocating your time, money and effort on different marketing media.

Likewise, if you are a team leader in charge of the productivity of a group of people, you will notice that 80% of what your team produces comes from only 20% of the activities that you do as a leader. 

For instance, the more time you and your team devote to preparing for the project, anticipating problems and developing project monitoring systems, the less time and energy you and your team will have to spend on the actual project execution.

Using the Pareto Principle
First, you have to identify the vital few activities in your business.  Effective use of the Pareto Principle necessitates that you list down all of your goals and all the activities that are required to attain these goals. 

Next, rank the activities according to their potential impact to your goals.  After that, apply the Pareto Principle by concentrating most of your time on the top 20% of the activities.  By so doing, you ensure achieving at least 80% of your target result.

Value and Time
Value in business is intimately tied to success.  This can be seen through market leadership, yearly growth, customer satisfaction, monthly sales, or any other factors that are used to assess business success. 

Generally, the higher the business scores on these factors, the higher the value of the business and thus the higher the business’ financial worth.  These factors, however, take time to build and the time it takes depends on how skillfully the business leader makes use of this time. 

Thus, the time value of a business ultimately has something to do with how much profit it can generate in a specific period of time.

How Much Is Your Time Worth?
For some people like consultants, tutors, freelancers and others who charge by the hour, the value of time can be easily seen.

Financial consultants or lawyers, for example, may charge $500 per hour.  Tutors, freelancers or transcription professionals, on the other hand, may charge $30 per hour.

In such cases, the value of time is measured according to the set of skills a person has as well as the number of hours logged in.

Now imagine the financial adviser taking 2 hours daily to transcribe his clients’ reports for the day.  If they had focused on their own skills, they would have been able to invoice $1,000.

Likewise, imagine the transcription professional raking the yard for an hour daily instead of delegating this work for $5 per hour.

Why are they doing a $5 per hour task when they could be earning $30?

Some people, however, measure the value of their time according to their hourly productivity.  This goes for writers who measure their productivity through pages per hour, mechanics who measure productivity through the number of automobiles serviced per hour or salesmen through the number of units they sell per hour. 

The key to maximising time value for these people are speed and skills.  In this case, a person in sales who nets $20 per unit sold and is capable of selling 5 units per hour has an hourly time value of $100. 

Now imagine the opportunity cost or the monetary losses incurred if the same person has to help inventory products for about 2 hours daily or takes an hour everyday to do the paperwork.

Core Competencies
If you have noticed from the above examples, time value is maximised when you concentrate on your core competencies or most valuable skills. 

Now think about the most profitable activities in your business and evaluate how much time you are concentrating on these activities rather than being bogged down by less profitable tasks.  The more time you spend on “valuable activities”, the more you value your time.

These steps form a structured, practical blueprint for focusing on your own value.

Try it and see what happens.

Most small business owners start their business because;
a) they want to do something they’re passionate about; and
b) because they think it will give them more freedom in life by releasing them from the unreasonable demands of their boss.

After a few weeks, however, the truth hits them hard.  Running your own business is a whole lot more demanding than a full time job.  Instead of one boss, you now have ten; your clients, your suppliers, your employees, each with a different set of needs and expectations that have to be met by you. 

You are so busy running the business that you hardly have time for anything else.

But who ever said it has to be that way?  The key to running your business more efficiently and effectively is to systemise it.  Systemising means you have to establish an organised method of dealing with the different functions of your business – from employee recruitment procedures to financial transactions. 

You have to find a way to structure jobs in such a way that things will get done on their own, or efficiently by someone else.  The ultimate goal of systemising your business is so you have more time to concentrate on growing your business and to enjoy your life.

Systemising your business also has another major advantage to it.  When your business processes are organised and proven, there is a much smaller chance for errors.  Because interruptions or errors can be costly, both in terms of time and money, avoiding unnecessary slip-ups serves to improve the overall performance of your business. 

So how do you go about systemising your business? 

First, know that it doesn’t mean you have to re-invent the wheel on each procedure.  You just have to find out how each procedure is best accomplished, document it, and repeat it.  Here is how you should get started:

1.  Take a step back and look at the big picture.

2.  Identify the activities that always seem to go wrong, take up too much of your time, or create a lot of stress for you.

3.  Create diagrams for each activity which indicate:
•   the desired results
•   the workflow
•   accountable persons
•   appropriate timeframes
•   resources needed
•   measurable performance standards

4.  Think about how you can group tasks together and how you can delegate them.

Once you establish systems within your business, you’ll be so much more comfortable with how much better everything works.  You’ll have so much more time for steering the business, giving your customers the attention they need, and most importantly, to spend quality time with yourself and the people you love.