When you learn to drive, chances are you hire a driving instructor. Many people have golf lessons when they take up a game that’s there for recreation. Nobody considers that a weakness – it just makes sense as everyone knows that if you hire an expert, you’re likely to get there faster, make fewer mistakes and probably enjoy the activity more. In essence, you’re more likely to succeed.
Isn’t it interesting then how few people actually take lessons in business – the thing that buys the car, pays for the golf clubs, and allows life to be lived! Yet everyone starts a business with the intention to succeed!
The fact is, most don’t.
Why do I say that? We need to begin with fundamentals here and consider the landscape of business in the UK. The first astonishing statistic is that 80% of businesses fail in their first 5 years, and a further 80% of what’s left fail in the next 5. Frighteningly, that means that only 4% make it to 10 years.
Add to that the fact that out of the 5.6 million private sector businesses in the UK, 4.2 million are sole traders and employ no-one other than the owner. That means that only 1.4 million have employees and of those, nearly 1.2 million have between 1 and 9 employees. That means that there are a lot of people still learning, metaphorically, to drive the vehicle of their livelihood. They’ve got a small engine, not much fuel in the tank, and are going on their journey alone.
When you learn to drive, chances are it’s so that you can gain more freedom, go on journeys to explore new places, and probably share those experiences with people. Surely a business is the same? Why would you want to go on the journey alone? Isn’t it there to give you more freedom, energy and support? But there’s a certain level of learning to be able to achieve those things.
If you want to drive a bigger vehicle (say a minibus) so that you can share the experience with more people, there’s some more learning to do. If you want to drive a faster vehicle, some kind of racing car, there’s another set of skills to be gained.
Most people that start a business are great at doing the business of the business (a great plumber starts a plumbing business). Why would anyone ever start a business if they weren’t good at something? But there’s an awful lot to learn about running a business and making it a sustainable entity – and the statistics only go to reinforce that.
It’s worth considering briefly just what needs to be learned. Even to run a one man business, a good understanding of finance, (margins, cashflow, basic accounting knowledge) is vital. You have to know how to check there’s enough fuel in the tank. As is some knowledge of marketing and sales – you need to be able to monitor and predict the speed you’re driving at. Once that business begins to employ people, yet more knowledge is required: how to structure the business, how to get people performing consistently at the right level – are there any warning lights flashing signifying that there’s something wrong with the engine? And then there are some pretty big shifts in mindset that accompany that journey. You need to learn to drive in all conditions!
Once the business gets bigger, yet more knowledge is needed – the structure changes again, the need for more planning and clear management is even more vital, and yet more shifts in mindset are required.
So the size and speed (growth rate) of the business vehicle need some consideration as they’re different vehicles needing different skills.
Surely then, given the level of knowledge that needs to be acquired to make a success out of a business, at whatever level that may be, help is required? Otherwise, where does one obtain that knowledge? Of course, it’s true that there’s a wealth of knowledge out there, freely available – You Tube videos, books, blogs, and so on. There’s so much help that it’s actually overwhelming! But (and the statistics prove it), if one doesn’t acquire the relevant knowledge, the chances of success are pretty low. You learn to drive faster if you hire an instructor.
Asking for help from a competent instructor would therefore seem a pretty sensible thing to do if any business owner wants their business to succeed, no matter at what level it exists?
So why might coaching be a good option?
There are plenty of misconceptions about business coaching and what it is. That’s no surprise really – there are an awful lot of people out there who’ve adopted the title “Coach” and their offers are very different.
Due to those misconceptions, it’s very difficult to ask the right questions about coaching, who it’s for, what to expect, and most importantly, if it’s right for you.
As such, there are many people who see hiring a coach as something that people who are ‘having trouble’ in their businesses hire, because maybe the business needs ‘fixing’. And maybe, due to all of our conditioning about asking for help being a sign of being ‘stupid’ and stiff upper lips (the head down, get on with it and just work harder if it’s not working mentality), that means that it’s a weakness to hire a coach.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
As an example of some of the clients we deal with, there are some really small businesses, turning over less than £100k with just one person in the business, businesses with 300 plus employees, with sales of tens of millions of Pounds, and everything in between.
We’ve seen then that coaching isn’t necessarily for struggling businesses. It’s actually for people who realise that they probably have more potential than they are currently producing and want to find a faster way to realise that potential.
In the same way as one would hire a driving instructor, a golf coach, or a personal trainer, a good business coach will be able to spot the potential challenges and opportunities in the way you are driving your business and point you towards the right knowledge to address them. It’s a faster way to achieve success, and it’s a more guaranteed way, as a good coach will have a defined process for building businesses and will have used that technique multiple times. In reality, this means that they’ll have already negotiated many situations that arise and will be able to navigate you through them more quickly and less painfully than if you were dealing with the situation yourself.
But, like a driving instructor, they don’t drive the vehicle for you. They get you to the level where you’re competent to drive that vehicle on your own. Because then you can drive any vehicle. Sure, you may need to add some learning if you want to drive a bigger or faster vehicle, but you know how to drive!
Isn’t it your responsibility to learn to drive your vehicle safely and responsibly, protect the passengers in it and help them to enjoy the journey? If so, then coaching may be for you…
See how coaching has helped other business owners.
