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BUSINESS PLAN FOR COACHES: ADVENTURE, INTUITION, TRUST

Further to my recent posts on Start-up for Coaches and Personal Branding for Coaches, few self-employed coaches have a business plan.  We all keep putting it off; frankly, most of us would rather go to the dentist!  A conventional business plan can be helpful however it’s my experience that the energy and commitment in the coach is more important for business success than the coach’s written plan.  If your business comes from your heart and soul, planning it with your head may not be the best way to create a plan that really works for you.  What will pull your business forward is tapping into your sense of adventure, your intuition and trust.

ADVENTURE

In business we get to choose our own adventure.  This is about stepping into the unknown, discovering new worlds, overcoming challenges and working out how to survive and thrive in the market place.  If you don’t feel daunted, unsure of yourself, like an imposter at times, then you haven’t launched yet.  It’s only when you’ve burned your bridges and there is no way back that you truly commit to the business journey.  When you commit to your business, there is only one way you can go, which is forward.  You’ll know when you are called to this adventure: you will feel drawn to starting your own business, it lights you up when you talk about it and you just know you’ll regret it forever if you don’t do it.  I wanted to be my own boss and to work with business owners.  I turned up to my first networking event introducing myself as a business mentor but feeling like a total fraud.  I realised afterwards that I enjoyed meeting new people and learning about them – I love connecting with people.  This helped me to build a great network of mentors, coaches and business people.  I wrote a vision statement of everything I really wanted in my business, which included working with associates and leadership roles.  These have manifested in surprising ways: I went on to co-found and lead the Wiltshire Business Mentoring Scheme; I founded and lead the Salisbury Coaching Circle; I’m the organiser of Salisbury International Coaching Week; and I’m a founder member of the Cancer Coaching Community.  The adventure has drawn me more into coaching for career transition, wellness and cancer.  I’m now exploring ‘therapeutic coaching’ and the overlap between coaching and counselling, which fascinates me.  I like the fact that I don’t know what’s next, which simply makes the adventure more intriguing.  Sometimes we just want to ‘make the boat go faster’ and nothing seems to work however the flipside of this uncertainty and frustration is surprise and adventure.  A recent example of this upside was being asked to run an ‘away day’ for a team from the Bank of England, which was a total surprise – and a great gig.  

INTUITION

Intuition is sometimes called ‘wisdom in action’.  We all have intuition, yet our education system teaches us to use our senses and logical thinking in preference to our intuition.  When I began to use my intuition for decision making, I found it to be more effective than logical thinking: I usually had better outcomes. Similarly, when planning my business, I’d sat myself down on half a dozen occasions absolutely determined to write a conventional business plan, however, nothing happened!  Despite lots of experience of writing and appraising business plans, I drew a blank every time.  Eventually I understood that I felt I ‘should’ have a conventional business plan, but this wasn’t my voice; it was the ‘conventional wisdom’ speaking.  What if I let go of these other voices and simply allowed my intuition to guide me?  When I did this, 2 hours later I looked up and I’d written an intuitive business plan template.  I populated it with my input and I’m still using it.  This was a game changer for me and my business has developed ever since.

TRUST

Openness and trust are key qualities that will help you achieve your vision.  This requires a leap of faith.  Make that leap and you liberate yourself from all self-imposed constraints.  You now have licence to try anything and everything – you can do whatever you want. This approach allowed me to discover hidden talents in myself (poetry in coaching anyone?) and to be constantly learning, open to new experiences, taking inspired yet manageable risks, finding new ways to serve my clients and finding new clients in different market segments. For me there is no destination, it’s all about the journey, the adventure, and I trust that I am always heading in my best direction.  Even the detours are fun and useful.  In the early days of my business, I was called out of the blue by the publishers for the Institute of Directors (IoD).  They asked me to write a chapter on coaching and mentoring for the IoD annual publication, ‘The Growing Business Handbook’.  After checking that they hadn’t made a mistake (imposter syndrome had well and truly kicked in!), my mouth opened and the words, “I’ll do it” came out.  When I put the phone down, I had a moment of panic, but I trusted that my unconscious mind new what it was doing.  Writing this chapter turned out to be a sound move that brought me credibility.  The following year the publisher asked me to write about any business topic I chose so I wrote about leadership for performance, and leadership for growth, which added more strings to my bow.

TIPS

There is a lot of ‘conventional wisdom’ out there about business plans.  A conventional business plan can be useful, but logic and numbers aren’t the wellspring of your business.  As a coach, it’s your personal energy and commitment that will pull your business forward.  Here are my tips for an intuitive approach to your business plan that taps into your heart and soul:

1.       The flipside of uncertainty and frustration is surprise and adventure.  It’s going to be challenging and only when you truly commit to it will you begin to make real progress.  Ask yourself: what adventure do I want to go on?  Once you’ve made the decision to commit to this adventure, write a statement of everything you truly want in your business, then put it away. You’ll be surprised how much of it manifests over time.

2.       Use your intuition to plan your business.  Coach yourself to create your own intuitive business plan.  What outcomes do you want?  What has meaning and purpose for you?  What energises you?

3.       Openness and trust will help you attract the right resources and opportunities.  This requires a leap of faith.  Make that leap and you liberate yourself from all self-imposed constraints.  This creates the space for everything you want to manifest in your business.

It feels appropriate to share a few of the wise words of Albert Einstein here:

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.  We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Are you ready to honour your sacred gift?  Honouring my intuition is the best business move I’ve made, and I hope an intuitive business plan works for you too 😊

PERSONAL BRANDING FOR COACHES: MOTIVATION, VALUES, INTENTIONS
Further to my recent post [‘Business Start-up for coaches: Labels; Niche; Style’ 04 November], I’ve been reflecting on how coaches establish their personal brand. New coaches can get hung up on the trappings of branding, such as business name, logo, strap line and so on. These are important, yet superficial. What’s more important is the experience your prospects and clients have when engaging with you. In my view, the key to creating a brand that is truly personal is to get really clear on: your motivation; your values; and your intentions for your clients.
MOTIVATION
If you think you are a self-employed coach primarily to earn money, look deeper: there are easier ways to earn a living. A good question to ask yourself is, ‘How does being self-employed serve my Life Purpose?’ For the first 5 years, I set myself targets for how much I needed to earn in order to be ‘successful’. Eventually I realised that these criteria were simply not important to me – no wonder they didn’t feel right and I didn’t achieve them. My motivation for being self-employed as a business mentor and coach is that it allows me to be fully myself and do things my way. For example, I still do voluntary work as a business mentor in my area and I always have some clients who are unable to pay however I choose to work with them because they are the right clients for me; they energise me and make me a better coach. Heck, I’ve even started writing poetry this year and using it in my coaching simply because it’s me being me – quirky or what? It’s my experience that the more real I am, the more fulfilled I am and the more I earn.
VALUES
Your values drive much of your attitudes, behaviour and responses however they are often unconscious. They permeate and govern every aspect of your business: how you show up, how you react to setbacks and how you respond to opportunities. Understanding your values is very insightful and helps you to choose what’s best for you. When we honour our values, we are powerful and more likely to find our flow. Every time I take part in a values exercise, I learn more about myself. My values, at least those I’ve identified to date, are: learning, healing, spirituality, giving, independence, Grace, vitality, connectedness and inner harmony. These are not the values I aspire to, they are the things that are genuinely important to me. This awareness empowers me to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ with confidence as I navigate my coaching journey.
INTENTIONS
We somehow know when someone has our best interests at heart, which builds trust – a vital ingredient for coaching. Whatever your intentions for your client, they need to be unswervingly positive. Clarifying your intentions brings positive energy to your coaching and helps you serve your clients to the best of your ability because you understand what you want for them. Initially I thought my intention was to really understand my client. This evolved into holding space for the client. Ultimately, I’ve realised that my intention for all my clients is to help them develop self-acceptance, self-approval and in due course self-love. This is based on my belief that we need to love ourselves in order to become our best selves and help others – how can we give what we don’t have? When I’m dissatisfied with a coaching session I’ve given, what usually turns up in my reflective evaluation is that my intention has been distorted by some short-term objective, for example to get a good recording of a coaching session for credentialing purposes.
TIPS
It can take years to get clear on why you are a self-employed coach, your values and your intentions for your clients. This clarity is worth the effort: it empowers you to show up fully as yourself in all aspects of your business. Like your DNA, this will guide the development of your personal brand if you allow it to. No matter how quirky you are, embracing your uniqueness will help you stand out and attract the right clients while diverting those who aren’t right for you. It’s easier too because you’re not trying to be anyone or anything else. Here are my tips for developing a personal brand, which is the essence of you.
1. Ask yourself, ‘How does being self-employed serve my Life Purpose?’ Understanding your motivation for being a self-employed coach gives you permission to be more you; and the real you is the best brand ambassador your could ever wish for.
2. Take every opportunity to identify your values. The more you understand your values, the more empowered you are to navigate the coaching journey in the way that is right for you.
3. Reflect on your intentions for your clients before and after every coaching session. Notice how your intentions change over time as you become more self-aware and grow into your coaching practice. This will help you to give your best coaching every time.
Did I mention my poetry? This is the second poem I wrote, which feels appropriate to share for this topic:

On Being

What does it mean to be, not do?
How can you finally be more you?
How do you find a life that you love?
How do you find a way to choose?

Questions, questions, is where it starts,
Questions to open up your heart,
Open your heart and let light in,
This is how your journey begins.

Is it so simple, simply to be?
Yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Take your time to know yourself,
Listen and feel for your inner voice.

The road may be long and tough,
Yet this is a journey to love,
Love for yourself, love for others,
This is what really matters.

What’s the secret, how do you start,
To find a way to open your heart?
Sit still and simply be you,
See what comes up and embrace it in full.

This is your way, your truth, your light,
It comes from within, no need to fight.
Yes, courage is needed to face your fears,
And facing them brings a power to heal.

So, let go of others’ voices,
Simply be you,
It’s your life,
Who are you?

I hope this helps you to develop your personal brand 😊
Ross Nichols 2018

In recent sessions with start-up coaches, I’ve noticed some common issues around how coaches describe themselves and present themselves to the market place.  Here is my suggestion, which may be helpful for new coaches launching their practice.

There are 3 related issues: what labels you give yourself, the niche you are aiming at and your coaching style.  Let’s look at each of these in turn.

LABELS.  

This needs to be clear and simple so people who are looking for the service you offer can find you easily in directories.  Remember Yellow Pages?  If you wanted a plumber, you simply looked under ‘plumbers’ and found those in your area. We may be largely on-line now however the principle is the same: make it easy for people to find you by using a label that is easily understood, such as Life Coach, Career Coach, Business Coach and so on.  For example, what labels do you use on your Linkedin profile header?  You may have more than one: I refer to myself as: Business Mentor; Career Transition Coach; Wellness Coach; Cancer Coach; and Mentor-coach.

NICHE

This is your target market segment, the clients you want to work with.  New coaches tend to worry about this but here’s the thing: the niche you first aim at is unlikely to be the niche you end up in.  The best strategy to discover your niche is simply to put yourself out there and start coaching and see who shows up.  Over time you will work out where your strengths lie, what energises you and who your ideal clients are.  For example, I’m working with a start-up business owner (not a coach) who is aiming at women, but men are showing up.  That’s a big clue that what she is offering is as useful, if not more useful, to men than women.   A good question to ask yourself here is, ‘What problem am I solving?’.  You know what your solution is, your coaching offer, but who else might have this problem?  There was an excellent reflective essay on the Animas (www.animascoaching.com ) Learning Zone about finding our niche and the conclusion was: we don’t choose our niche, it chooses us.  This is certainly my experience.  I started as a business mentor in 2011 and stumbled into coaching by accident thinking my niche was military service leavers (I’m ex-Army) but that’s not how it worked out.   My niches are evolving.  At present I mentor start-ups and business owners up to £1M turnover who are muddling through; I coach professionals in career transition who are stuck in a rut, feeling lost; I coach people for Wellness and Cancer who are stuck and living under a shadow; I mentor coaches who are seeking a professional credential with the International Coach Federation.  This is a journey so who knows what niches I’ll end up with?

COACHING STYLE

Another issue that new coaches get caught up in is determining their coaching style.  There are any number of coaching styles: Existential; Ontological; Solution-focused; Holistic and so on.  As with our niche, it takes time for us to work out our strengths and preferences.  Every time I did another Animas CPD course I’d wonder if that was my style.  I gradually became aware that I was coaching very much ‘in the moment’ and using my intuition to guide me during coaching sessions over what questions to ask, what to reflect back to the client, when to reflect back and when simply to be with the client in silence.  I became increasingly aware of my clients’ energy and vitality.  It was about 2 years after completing the Animas Diploma that I reached this understanding and concluded that I was probably an Existential coach.  I was wondering what to do with this awareness, where and how to develop myself as a coach, so I called Animas and by chance Nick Bolton [Founder, Animas Coaching] himself answered the phone.  After a quick chat, Nick told me that my coaching style was Transpersonal, which is about working with the client’s values, energy, vitality and spirit in an intuitive way.  It was refreshing to have this understanding of my coaching style however taking the time to work it out has been an important part of my journey and I’m glad I didn’t rush it.

TIPS

Coaching is a journey on many levels.  We develop our coaching skills, we develop ourselves personally and we develop our business skills. My suggestion is to approach coaching as a journey rather than a destination: it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Take the time to know yourself and figure out what works for you.  Here are my 3 tips:

1.       LABELS. Choose a clear, simple label for yourself so that most people will understand immediately what type of coach you are, such as Life Coach, Career Coach, Business Coach and so on.  You may have more than one.

2.       NICHE.  Don’t worry if you don’t know your niche to begin with.  Simply put yourself out there and start coaching; over time your niche will find you.

3.       STYLE.  Don’t rush to conclusions about your coaching style. Experiment, play around, have fun and you will gradually work out your strengths and preferences.  One day you will have a ‘eureka’ moment when you identify your coaching style – it’s worth waiting for 😊

© Ross Nichols 2018

Chapter 3 – Legitimate Purpose and Legal Basis

Before we get into legitimate purpose and legal basis for processing personal data, I can’t help noticing that Facebook is in the news again today for another data breach.  If GDPR were applicable in the USA now, Facebook would be in big trouble with the information regulator for failing to notify it and users of this breach in an appropriate way.  As noted in the Daily Telegraph Business Section today (18 April 2018), by default, Facebook profiles allow users to ‘tag’ their friends in pictures and status updates and this feature can only be switched off manually by the user.  As most users do not change their default settings so the majority who installed a Facebook app, such as a quiz or personality test, exposed most of their friends’ names.  So far, Facebook has not revealed how many developers had access to this App or whether it has any evidence of abuse – this is information which Facebook would be required to share under GDPR.

You may recall that in my previous ‘Diary of a Data Champion’ post, I reported that I’d left what I perceived to be the most difficult section until later: identifying the legitimate purposes and legal basis for processing personal data.  As I looked at the headings, I felt like a schoolboy facing some difficult homework I’d been putting off and wondered how I was going to make sense of this.  As a fellow coach commented to me the other day, this aspect of GDPR left her feeling ‘unhinged’ and I can now understand why!  

Seeking an alternative route in, I looked at the FSB (Federation of Small Business) template for the Data Privacy Notice.  This was invaluable as it covered much of the same ground and came with detailed guidance on how to complete it.  I worked through it steadily and by the end, I was relieved that I’d been able to identify the legitimate purposes and legal bases for processing personal data.  As we also process some ‘sensitive personal data’ in the form of health data, we also needed to identify a separate legal basis for that from a different part of the GDPR.  Completing the Data Privacy Notice felt like the crux of GDPR: now I’d done this, I simply needed to run it by my colleagues, fill in some of the less important blanks and we would have our Data Privacy Notice.  Additionally, I could copy much of this information into our GDPR Register as our record of data processing activities.  Our GDPR policies and procedures would then be pretty much complete.

If you are reading this and wonder where you can get some helpful templates and guidance for GDPR, here are some suggestions.  You could join the FSB (Federation of Small Business) – it’s a superb non-profit members’ organisation with lots of benefits and I’m a big fan.  On GDPR, the FSB has come up trumps.  Their GDPR documents are however legally privileged for internal use only and may not be shared with third parties so the only way to gain access to them is to join the FSB.  With annual membership fees starting at around £140 this is excellent value.  The other alternative is simply to search on line. I googled ‘GDPR Data Privacy Notice Template’ and found lots of good free stuff.

In my next post, I’ll let you know what happens when I get feedback on my draft GDPR policies and procedures from my colleagues.

Chapter 2 – GDPR: where do you start?

The first thing I did was to attend a briefing arranged by my local branch of the Federation of Small Business (FSB).  This was excellent: the FSB provided a speaker from their own legal advisors and the room was packed.  It was a lot to take in however the FSB provided a lot of guides, documents and templates on the members’ area of their website, which I’ve found to be invaluable. I also obtained guidance notes from appropriate professional bodies I’m a member of, such as the International Coach Federation (ICF), which again were very useful.

The first task was to do a data mapping exercise.  This is simply to understand how personal data enters the organisation, how it is processed, and where it is stored.  I did this exercise with our Webmaster.  As our coaching community handles some health data, which falls under the definition of ‘sensitive personal data’. I decided that we would carry out a ‘Data Protection Impact Assessment’, also known as a ‘Privacy Impact Assessment’.  This builds on the data mapping to look at vulnerabilities and risks.  It also prompts you to look at ways to reduce risk through improved protective security measures and improved procedures.  This was a useful exercise as it highlighted the key IT and information security measures required.  It also flagged up who needed to do what follow-on work – most of which fell to me to develop the policy and procedures.

The shape of our response to GDPR began to take shape in my mind.  I saw that we needed some detailed written procedures that would be easy to follow.  We also needed a policy document.  It soon became clear to me that our ‘Data Privacy Notice’, our public statement of our commitment to privacy, would be our GDPR policy.

I began work on the procedures first.  I copied and pasted numerous sections from the ICF guidance, and the FSB guidance (which was legally privileged and for internal, non-profit use only) into ‘bite sized’ sections and created a working GDPR Register.  This provided prompts to the user in the form of tables to be completed in the event of occurrences such as a data request or a data breach.  It also provided a forward planner by setting dates for future reviews.  This was a detailed piece of work I did over several sessions.  I left the most difficult section till the end: the record of our data processing activities.  This was where we would need to be clear on the legal basis for processing personal data, how we were applying the principles of GDPR and how we were respecting the rights granted to individuals under GDPR.  Another aspect of GDPR is not only the requirement to be compliant, but also the requirement to be able to demonstrate compliance – the ‘Accountability Principle’ hence the importance of this audit trail of everything from policies and procedures to staff training.

In chapter 3, I’ll probably look at the legal basis for processing personal data.  I say ‘probably’ because I haven’t got there yet and maybe some other aspect of GDPR will take priority!

Chapter 1 – from the Cold War to Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before the USA Senate and Congress in April 2018.

In a board role for a non-profit coaching community, I have the lead for legal and regulation, which includes GDPR.  As we have fewer than 250 employees, we don’t need a ‘Data Protection Officer’ however we do need a board member to lead on GDPR so I’ve taken on the role of ‘Data Champion’.  I’ve had to get up to speed quickly and I’m still working through policies and procedures. To start with, I found it helpful to reflect on the changing context of data protection as seen through changes in legislation and attitudes.  

During the Cold War (late 1940s-1990), the focus was on keeping official secrets and the mantra was ‘need to know’.  The issue wasn’t privacy, it was secrecy.

In the noughties, Freedom of Information changed the mantra to ‘need to share’.  The issue changed from secrecy to transparency.

On 25 May 2018, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) come into effect in the EU and the mantra changes to, ‘privacy by design’.  The issue has changed again, this time from transparency to privacy.

The rapid development of ICT (information communications technology) and the use of social media have created near perfect conditions for our personal data to be used and abused by others without us even knowing it.  The intention of social media such as Facebook could be described as, ‘connecting and sharing by design’.  Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes (Mark Zuckerberg’s room-mate at Harvard) has said that Facebook and other tech firms are experiencing “a kind of reckoning.”  In an interview published in The Sunday Times on 15 April 2018, he commented that tech firms are having to face up to how “a lot of idealistic goals, a lot of idealistic thinking about how these platforms should work is all well and good, but not without attention to the nefarious ways, the malicious ways, they can be abused.”  The potential for conflict with the GDPR mantra of ‘privacy by design’ is obvious.

At the time of writing (April 2018) Facebook announced a data breach affecting 1 million UK users and an astonishing 50 million users worldwide – the figure subsequently rose to 87 million users.  This came about due to 270,000 FB users completing a personality profiling assessment, which accessed and stored not only their personal data but that of their FB friends and their FB friends’ friends.  This data was then sold to a third party, Cambridge Analytics, who exploited this big data for profit such as advising companies on targeted advertising. Chris Hughes again: “the fact that Facebook users don’t, I think, fundamentally understand how much data they are creating, who has access to it and whether they can leave Facebook with it has been a problem from the beginning.  Mark [Zuckerberg] is talking a lot about users’ trust these days.  I think it is important to talk about, but trust involves people really understanding what they can rely on Facebook to do and what Facebook is relying on them to do.”  

More worryingly, FB embedded staff with the campaign headquarters of some political parties to advise on targeted support during elections – Chris Hughes himself worked on Barak Obama’s presidential campaign, which leveraged social media so effectively. Additionally, there is concern that foreign states have weaponised big data to influence the outcome of democratic elections in the USA and Europe, which has been called ‘information war’.

All these unauthorised uses and abuses of our personal data undermine trust in business and politics and provide a strong justification for enhancing our privacy online through regulations such as GDPR.  Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before the USA Senate and Congress in April 2018 highlights that privacy regulation in the USA is relatively weak.  The EU’s GDPR are much more stringent than anything in the USA so Facebook must be concerned that tighter regulation will follow.  Chris Hughes welcomes the congressional scrutiny of Facebook but doesn’t believe this is enough. “This has to be a much broader cultural conversation that [tech] company leaders have to participate in with journalists, academics, policy makers and people in government.”

I found this reflection helped me to put GDPR in context so that I could see the bigger picture.  I also found myself agreeing with the purpose of GDPR and the need for it, which made it more real and relevant, and not simply another bit of ‘red tape’ to be complied with for no obvious benefit.

In Chapter 2, I’ll talk about how I got to grips with GDPR.

Diary of a Business Accelerator - PS: The Intuitive Business Plan

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.  We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.”  (Albert Einstein)

Background

Despite being an experienced business mentor, I became frustrated at my inability to write a plan for my own business.  I’m not held back by a lack of know how - I’ve helped lots of business owners with their plans and in my latter Army days I specialised in plans so I’m comfortable with the concept and skills of planning.  I attended a business accelerator in London in 2016 to try and resolve this once and for all, however this only increased my frustration.  

I allowed this feeling to soak for a while (I’m an experienced coach after all!) then took myself off to figure out what was going on.  What came up was that my business comes from my heart and soul so why was I trying to plan it with my head?  I realised that I was listening to others’ voices telling me that I must have a business plan written in the conventional way.  I decided to let go of this sense of obligation to conform.  To cut a long story short, 2 hours later I looked up and found I’d written a brochure for a package of workshops I wanted to run. This was an empowering experience and I found it almost effortless to follow through to create those workshops and take them to market.  I then realised that if I could develop my business by letting go of the need to follow conventional wisdom, I might be able to plan my business the same way. That’s when I created the Intuitive Business Plan, and subsequently the Intuitive Marketing Plan.

The Intuitive Business Plan

The Intuitive Business Plan is a hybrid of coaching and mentoring approaches.  Part 1 seeks to elicit from business owners who they truly are and what they truly want in their life and business.  By blending exploratory coaching exercises with business knowledge, the business owner arrives at the end of the process with a deep and rich understanding of who they are, where they are going and how they are going to get there.  The Intuitive Business Plan enables business owners to tap into a deeper sense of themselves that allows them to be more of themselves and use their natural strengths, talents and preferences to develop their business.  This removes self-imposed constraints and allows business owners to use their creativity and intuition to create a unique path for their business journey.

Part 2 of the Intuitive Business Plan helps business owners to identify their natural wealth creation strategy.  It also provides them with a simple method for how to have a great relationship with their business.

The Intuitive Marketing Plan

Part 3 in the intuitive series is the Intuitive Marketing Plan.  This builds on parts 1 and 2 of the Intuitive Business Plan to help business owners identify their natural marketing strengths and style.

My Experience to Date

It’s early days for the Intuitive Business and Marketing Plans.  I’ve used them to support an on-line hair extensions business, an interior designer, an aromatherapist, a life coach and a former Army officer in transition as well as with my own business.  The feedback has been very positive, for example:

“In the past year, I approached mentoring with an open mind and heart, knowing that once I did, I would clarify my path and fulfil my need to further identify who I am, what drives me, my purpose and how I achieve it. Ross Nichols was absolutely superb at being able to help me understand and respond to my fears whilst embracing my skills and capabilities. Undeniably the most wonderful mentoring outcome is firmly knowing that I am enough, I am amazing, and I am a creative, resilient and progressive entrepreneur & individual!  Thank you Ross Nichols.”  (Noelle Balfour, Interior Stylist and Designer)

My experience thus far suggests that this approach works best with business owners who have high empathy and creativity, and of course those who are more intuitive.  These traits are more likely to be found among business owners in the helping professions, such as coaches, counsellors and therapists, and in the creative professions such as designers and artists. That said, these qualities can be found in any sector.

Opportunities

The Intuitive Business Plan works well in a 1 to 1 coaching and mentoring relationship.  It could also work well in a group coaching and mentoring setting.  It’s not a ‘quick fix’: I’ve found it works well over 6-10 sessions.  It can be delivered in person or via Skype and it could also be run as a series of webinars.

If you would like to know more about the Intuitive Business Plan and the Intuitive Marketing Plan, please get in touch.

Session #6 was all about the sales process.  We spent some quality time checking that our core offering was crystal clear: what do we sell (products, services, packages) and at what prices.  Every time I do this exercise I come up with a new insight into what exactly I’m selling and how I could package it up and price it.  We also looked again at our target customers and then our ‘marketing collateral’ – all the different assets, methods and channels we use for marketing.  Not for the first time, Andrew recommended the Prince’s Trust business plan template: https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/help-for-young-people/tools-resources/business-tools/business-plans  We also looked at how we acquire our clients and customers and what we could do differently to acquire our ideal customers, which I always find to be a useful exercise.

Andrew produced another rabbit out of the TH 01 hat with our final session #7 on ‘your numbers’.  I’ve done accounts as part of an MBA but never have I understood accounting as clearly as Andrew explained it.  He shared some simple but very powerful revenue tracking methods using rolling averages to help us understand what is going on with our numbers.  Andrew’s one page model showing how money flows through a business, by linking the Balance Sheet with the Income Statement (P&L) and the Cash Flow Statement, is a world class insight for analysing any business.  The accountants in the room were in raptures!  Andrew’s son Daniel (of Key Person of Influence fame) rounded off the programme with his presentation that ‘growth sucks!’ Actually he called it, ‘Rules for Fun’ but it’s ‘growth sucks’ that stuck in my mind: growth sucks cash, energy, weekends and so on.  Daniel described the hope that business can be fun as a ‘fantasy’, however, and here is the paradox, if we accept this then it can be fun!  Hence his strapline, ‘Be brave, have fun, make a Dent.’

Another feature of the programme was the FB group, which many of us used and are still using for mutual support, asking for help and sharing our learning and insights.  One particular gem (I think it was Ash Taylor but please forgive me if someone else should be given the credit!) was to mention the book, ‘Profit First’ by Mike Michalowicz.  I bought the book and it was a no brainer – I implemented profit first accounting and it’s no exaggeration to say it has transformed how I feel about my business – and how much money I make from my business.  As the book subtitle says, it is, ‘A Simple System to Transform any Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine’.  Outside of the great content from TH 01, this is my top tip for all business owners and self-employed professionals.  I recommend the ‘Profit First’ approach to all my business clients and they are loving it!

I’ve gained a lot from Threshold Accelerator.  It forced me to address my own issues, the very things that have been holding me back, and also helped me to work through them by holding me to account and by providing me with support when I needed it – all I had to do was ask.  Every business owner has to work through this stuff for themselves – Threshold Accelerator has been more effective at helping me do this than other business training I’ve undertaken.  I don’t know whether it’s a coincidence or a direct consequence of TH 01 however I’ve doubled the number of active clients I have as well as my monthly revenues.  Without TH 01, I would not have achieved the alignment I now have with my business: I’m now leading with my career and life coaching brand rather than my business mentoring and consulting brand and I’ve put myself out there to my target market in a way I’ve never done before.  This is bringing in new clients and it feels right.  I’m now recommending Threshold Accelerator to others in my network – ‘nuff said!

I’d be pleased to connect with other ‘Thresholders’ on Linkedin, FB, Twitter and so on to continue this learning journey J

Namaste

Ross

ROSS NICHOLS

Business mentor, consultant and coach

Session #5 was a bonus session with Nic Rixon, which was refreshingly different!  There were lots of nuggets to take from this day, such as, ‘when planning your business, halve your revenues, double your costs and if it still works, do it!’  He intrigued me with his reference to, ‘push, pull or horse whispering.’  From memory (and I may have got this wrong) this was about the psychology of how to sell.  Ric shared the ‘blue-red-black’ method for building a business by understanding how much time we spend on each colour: blue = revenue generating; red = back office; black = business development.  If your business is struggling, it’s likely that you have an imbalance between these activities.  His ‘SWSWSWNO’ was a great little reminder that we can’t please everyone so don’t waste time chasing the money because, ‘Some Will, Some Won’t, So What?  Next One!’  I liked Nic’s insights that we need to be clear on what we want from our business so that we design a business that supports us, rather than designing a business that we have to support.  This was an advanced business session with a lot to take in and it would be good to be able to re-visit this in say a year’s time.