Why would a business owner consider engaging the services of a Business Advisor and what are the barriers? Well, let’s start with the why – and the attendant “pro’s and cons.”
Most business owners go into business for the perceived freedom – freedom from a boss, time freedom and the ability to be free of the constraints of a company that seem to only have the company’s profits at heart. All valid and yet, all flawed.
Being free of a boss sounds great until it sinks in that the buck stopped with the boss and, so long as you did as you were instructed, you got paid – week in and week out. Suddenly there’s no boss and no weekly pay cheque.
And, in most cases, time freedom is a furphy as well. How many business owners can identify with the idea that the employees go home at 5.00 pm whilst they, the boss, continue to work long after. And the boss then takes his work home with him
– often at the expense of valuable family time. And, to add salt to the wound, the employees get to take holidays and receive an extra 17.5% loading for the privilege!
And what about that company that seemed to care more about their vast profits than they did for you? And the subsequent realisation that a lot of those “profits” were probably being spent of creating Systems & Processes, robust WH&S Procedures to protect their workers, hiring HR Managers to ensure that their staff were being fairly treated, paying accountants and book-keepers to ensure that the money was in the right place at the right time – the list can possibly seem endless.
Which brings us back to my first point – engaging a Business Advisor to help negotiate the minefield. And the notion that engaging him or her is generally beyond the capacity of many, if not most, small businesses. Regardless of the fact that the “cost” is often not only cost-neutral, but can actually be one of the best investments that a business owner could ever make.
That’s because a good advisor, one who has worked with a large number of businesses across a wide variety of professions and trades, has usually seen what happens when the wrong decision is made and can help avoid the mistake in the first place. And it’s not only much better to learn from someone else’s mistakes – it’s always much cheaper!
The answer to finding the balance between the benefit of faster and more dependable results and the cost, is Group Coaching.
This is a system whereby a group of business owners, and usually one of their key staff members, attend a monthly session with ten or a dozen other people with the same aim of improving their business. And not necessarily all from the same kind of business. This creates a cross-pollination of ideas that can provide invaluable guidance and clarity.
The group helps each other to become accountable to the goals and targets that they set at each meeting and that accountability is the key. You can find any information that you want to on the internet, but you can’t find someone to keep you moving forward when life, or the vagaries of business, get in the way.
All business owners experience times where they lack clarity and it all seems too hard and that is entirely normal. Trying to push through this on your own is extremely hard and you can easily become disheartened and feel like giving up – that’s why so many businesses fail in the first few years. Your support network in Group Coaching can provide clarity when you need it most and can often offer a unique perspective – A true voyage of discovery isn’t finding new lands – it’s seeing old lands through new eyes.
Owning a business can seem like the loneliest job in the world at times but Group Coaching provides the support network that is often sadly lacking in the world of small business. You’d be surprised how the issues associated with owning a small business are common across nearly every kind of business – so the others in your group will understand how you feel and are able to share how they cope.
And last, but by no means least, Group Coaching, when taken online, effectively negates the lack of time element. You see, as advisors, we understand how hard it is to carve out time to get away from the business to meet with your advisor. And we also know what it’s like to be sitting in the office with you while sets of eyes are looking in and wondering “Who/what are they talking about? Is my job safe? Is the business going OK?” and any one of a dozen other thoughts.
Our “Your Business Success” Online Group Coaching Program meets once a month in a 3- hour online forum and works with you on a simple blueprint to improve your business over the next year.
You’ll walk away with a more profitable, systemised and automated business where your employees will be driving the business to the next level.
You’ll get a “step by step” process to build your business to a new level of success, including:
• A “How to” workbook outlining the simple steps
• Access to advisors
• Advice from 84 top Aussie entrepreneurs on video
• Diagnostic software & more
Each month we review your successes & obstacles and talk about the next level of improvement in your business. You are then given the tools, software and templates to introduce into your business over the following 30 days.
As part of the course, you will also receive over $3000 of award-winning MAUS SME Business Software.
Your investment in this program is much more affordable than you think so email the writer, Phil Roberts, at phil@futurefocusadvisory.com or go to our Contact Page and we’ll be in touch to provide pricing and more detailed information about our next intake.