Why Business Coaching

 

Why Business Coaching Services are

Vital for a Small Business Owner

In such financially testing times, you might think that hiring business coaching services has no place on your list of priorities. However, the opposite is actually true. As shown in this blog post on the ‘Benefits of Coaching,’ plenty of entrepreneurs have testified to the wonders of gaining outside business coaching. From growing their business more efficiently to helping them overcome hurdles along the way.

Whatever the state of the economy is, you’ll need all the help that you can get. To prove this point further, we’ve listed some of the top reasons why every small business owner needs the business coaching services of an executive coach, a business coach, or an entrepreneur coach, regardless of circumstances.

Identify any issues in your business

More often than not, we become so buried in our trade that it becomes difficult to see what we’re doing wrong. A business coach can offer you an objective rundown of your business. They easily discover systemic problems that you may have overlooked and help you find the best solutions for them.

For example, this article lists a couple of challenges coaches can help you with, including the lack of business growth, which is a common problem for many business owners. Acting as a second pair of eyes and providing invaluable insight, coaches can help you identify the points you can improve on.

Enforce accountability and offer feedback

Sometimes, the biggest setback to the growth of a business isn’t its operations but its owner’s negligent practices. This could come from any angle. Such as your leniency with employees, forgotten campaigns, or even accounts you’re not paying attention to. A business coach can help you prioritize projects and keep you on track. Plus, their steady feedback will be crucial in knowing how far you’ve come in your journey to achieving your biggest goals.

Recommend solutions for growth and expansion

For small businesses, boosting brand awareness and gaining a large customer base can be an uphill struggle. And, for those who are feeling unsure of how to improve their business performance, a small business coach can offer tailored recommendations to help them overcome this particular roadblock. 

Smaller businesses often have difficulty with strategic planning and lack a cohesive digital marketing and social media plan. Instead of following the herd and doing the same as anybody, hiring a coach could give you the direction that fits your personality and behavior. It will make it easier to execute and, even more importantly, keep up with it. Thus increasing your chances of success.

Challenge your mindset and offer new perspectives

You know how the adage goes: two heads are better than one. This is a wise principle to have, especially for small business owners and even more so for those who operate as self-employed people. Whether you’re thinking of new campaigns, sales strategies, leadership skills, or reforms to better your operations, your ideas will always turn out better if you run them through an experienced professional.

A business coaching program with like-minded owners who exchange ideas and opinions supervised by a professional coach, that asks the right questions no employee, friend, or family member asks. Business coaches don’t only suggest solutions to the CEO. Moreover, they help refine the systems you – as the business leader – already have in place as well.

If you still wonder why you would need a coach, picture this: suppose you were a talented singer (or the parent of one) with ambitions, surely you would want as much help as you can get?  

Share their vast expertise and knowledge

You may think that you know all that there is to know about your trade. However, you’d be surprised at the sheer amount of insight business coaches can provide you with. “What we’re taught about sales and marketing isn’t relevant,” says business coach Katrina Ruth as she narrates the things she has discovered over her 13-year career. “The way to connect with people, call them to action, and create change in their lives is to be a heart-and soul-led person.”

Experience is indeed the best teacher, and a small business coach or executive coach – has it in spades whether you’re new to the industry or a long-time player. Whether it’s an average market day or the midst of an economic crisis, a small business coach will always play a significant role in the success of your business. Thus, coaches will challenge your thinking, provide solutions, and walk you through the path to success.

Failures are the stepping stones to success.

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Why startups failed in 2022

Startup Founders Talk Business

Being your own boss sounds like a dream come true for some people, but it's not without challenges. More people than ever are starting their own businesses, but what can they do to keep from becoming one of the 20% that fail within the first two years?

To find out, we surveyed around 500 startup founders about what worked, what didn't, and what they might have done differently in their initial business phases. In addition, we analyzed data on startup failures from the past five years to see what went wrong.

Failure To Land

The effects of the pandemic left scars on the business world. But there's more to the story for many of the startups that failed in 2022. First, let's see what some of the top causes were.

Almost half of startups failed in 2022 due to insufficient funding or investor interest. Nearly as many business owners simply ran out of cash. Surprisingly, although many businesses failed in recent years due to issues related to COVID-19, the pandemic was the third most common cause we found and responsible for only one-third of startup failures.

Remaining vigilant and being innovative is still key. If we've learned one thing from the pandemic, it's the importance of being able to pivot — which is why we're diving into that next.

Pivotal Momentum

Succeeding in the face of disaster requires both obstacle awareness and adaptability. How likely were businesses to pivot from their initial strategy, and what worked for them?

Flexibility and adaptability are crucial during challenging times. Without them, a business can find itself quickly struggling when up against even the slightest strain. In 2022, 40% of startup founders had to pivot to avoid failure. Redirecting a business requires unorthodox thinking, and the methods used to do it varied, even between the sexes.

No matter how a founder pivots to save a business, there's no way to know if it will succeed. Women tended to show more confidence in their strategies than men, with 39% saying they felt "very confident" that their pivot would be successful. Meanwhile, men most commonly reported feeling only "moderately" so (34%).

While even the best-laid plans can lead to ruin, business ownership means putting your best foot forward. Fortunately for those who put time and effort into these readjustments, their pivots were successful 75% of the time. Now, the question is, what worked best?

Words to the Wise

Founders have advice for anyone looking to take the leap and launch a new business. Whether you're trying to run your own company or collaborating with those who do, consider these recommendations they shared.

Preventing failure begins with preparation. That's probably why, given the chance of a redo, 58% of founders said they would do more research and create a stronger business plan before launching a new business. Half of them also wished they'd had better marketing to reach their target customers.

As for the top advice for aspiring business owners, most founders (79%) shared that learning from mistakes is the most important skill to cultivate. Over half also said that creating a solid business plan, listening to your customers, and making sure there's a demand for your product in the first place is vital. All these tips are sure to make for an adaptable business that's ready to hit any curveballs the world throws.

Steering Away From the Crash

Although we found a strong business plan and thorough research to be top keys to startup success, one of the most important (albeit difficult) tips was learning from what hasn't worked in the past. But overall, a combination of strategy and adaptability are the best skills to hone for anyone looking to start a business. Take it from your peers who have launched businesses through the pandemic and survived to tell the tale.

The Best Pitch Deck Ever

 

In 2022, 47 percent of startups failed due to a lack of funding. If you’re feeling uneasy about nailing your next startup presentation, we feel your pain.

We won’t lie to you; raising funds is one of the most nerve-racking parts of building a startup. Sadly, that’s something most startups will do at one point or another. Your big idea has existed in your mind for a while. You’ve probably even built an MVP that’s already gaining traction.

But to scale, you need funding, which is why you need a pitch deck to bring your idea to life in the minds of potential investors. We’re here to give you a much-needed leg up on fundraising. 

In this article, we’ll show you how to nail your next startup presentation.

The Basics of a Startup Presentation

A startup presentation, also known as a pitch deck, is a concise and visual summary of your business concept that you show to prospective investors to convince them to fund your business.

Although potential customers can also be the target audience, we will concentrate on VCs (Venture Capitalists) and angel investors in this article.

A pitch deck typically contains information about your target market, your product’s specifications, your general vision, and the problem your product is attempting to solve.

But let’s be more realistic: A startup presentation will not get you an immediate funding. You know, no one moves on to signing payment immediately after the presentation. 

So this is more about grabbing investors’ attention and securing the next meeting—without this, you most likely won’t advance to the funding stage.

Having said that, pitching to investors isn’t the same as pitching to customers. Let’s take a cursory glance at the differences between the two.

Here is a quick rundown of the differences between pitching to either of the two:

• Audience: The primary distinction lies in the target audience. When pitching to investors, your audience consists of potential financial backers who are primarily interested in the business’s financial viability, growth potential, and return on investment. On the other hand, when pitching to customers, your audience comprises individuals or organizations that are potential consumers of your product or service. They are more concerned with the value proposition, benefits, and features of the offering.
• Objective: The objective of pitching to investors is typically to secure funding for your business. Conversely, when pitching to customers, the primary goal is to generate interest and persuade them to purchase your product or service.
• Language and tone: The language and tone of the pitch will vary based on the audience. When pitching to investors, you need to adopt a more analytical and financial tone. In contrast, when doing sales presentations, the language should be more relatable and customer-centric, addressing their emotions, desires, and aspirations and using a tone that resonates with them.

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How Can I Tell If My Business Is Highly Or Under Geared?

If I begin Invoice Discounting – How will my business’ gearing be affected?

Most businesses become aware that outside Credit Analysts always ask, “Is this business adequately geared?”

The question can puzzle a businessman. This article gives a simple way to understand the concept:

What the Credit Analyst is after here is to compare the amount of money the applicant has invested in his own business compared to the amount of money other people’s money they are risking.

A good banker would like to see that the Credit Applicant has at least put into his business an equal amount as other people are risking.

In other words he would like to see a My Money compared to Other People’s Money expressed in a ratio of 1:1

Then if he was going to lend money to the business he would prefer only to lend up to half the amount that the businessman has invested in his own business 1:.5

Example:

Let's say a businessman has invested $10,000 in his own business. According to the given ratio of 1:0.5, the lender would only prefer to lend up to half the amount that the businessman has invested.

So, the maximum amount the lender would be willing to provide is:

$$10,000\times 0.5=5,00010,000\; \backslash times\; 0.5\; =\; 5,000$$

This means the lender would lend $5,000 to the business.

As we can see this is a very conservative but common approach in the banking community, more than likely not enough money to enable the business to grow and expand very quickly.

What happens then if I discount my invoices?

Most businesses who seek Working Capital by way of Invoice Discounting are likely to be highly geared. (Refer to our previous Blogs for more information on this topic)

But let’s look at what happens if a business’ Sundry Debtors are sold to a Financier:

• He would be able to payoff his overdraft!
• He would be able to pay off the bulk of his Creditors

So we can see that the business’ reliance on Other People’s Money has fallen away completely!

Therefore from starting out as a Highly Geared Business – the minute he discounts his receivables his business swings into an Under Geared one that Credit Analysts prefer to deal with!

Conclusion

Most businessmen do not want to rely overly on Other People’s Money. After all a banker can get out of bed one morning and demand repayment of his overdraft! – All overdrafts are repayable on demand!

This scenario is not possible if invoices have been discounted because the Financier has to wait until the tenet’s of the transactions have passed, the 30, 60 or 90 days credit the Supplier gives his buyers.

Here we are seeing another strong reason why a businessman should discount his invoices because, in theory, provided he keeps the working capital he has raised in the business, and keeps selling to creditworthy buyers he should always have enough money on hand to keep his Creditors paid, and will be able to see to it that wages are paid on time.

In the link below you will find information that can assist you in understanding Invoice Discounting and Modern Working Capital Techniques more fully and where to find the best providers of Working Capital for YOUR business.

Payment Accelerator

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Unlocking New Possibilities:

Unlocking New Possibilities: How Any Bank or Financial Institution Can Now Seamlessly Finance Invoices

So Providing Safe And Effective Working Capital To Developing Businesses Without Crippling Infrastructural Costs!

Sounds like a pipe dream to any Financier – because he knows that to provide Working Capital to developing businesses can very profitable!

Yet, he is cautious because he knows that this type of lending can be very risky indeed.

But what if I said to you, whether you represent a bank or any other type of Finance House, “Did you know that today you can indeed begin to offer Working Capital finance to YOUR business community safely and efficiently?”

Would you be interested?

OK, I know that most Financiers are very skeptical . . . . But what if I continued and said, “Do you know that I can take all the ‘grunt work’ out of this kind of lending for you? – More than that, using Modern Day Working Capital Techniques will be far safer and more profitable to you than by merely making loans or extending overdrafts?”

Ah, you are reading on . . . You must be getting interested!

Then if I said to you, “And you know what you will be able to make huge profits year after year with a minimal infrastructural cost!” . . . . “In fact, after set-up and on-boarding everything becomes ‘Done For YOU!’ – All you have to do is decide whether or not you wish to finance a particular trade transaction (and insure it if you think their is a need to do this) or not!”

If you have access to capital that is seeking an outlet, and all banks and Finance Houses do – YOU can soon be providing Working Capital effectively and safely to businesses in YOUR community!

By now you will be wanting more information? . . . . If so reach out to the contacts in the Resource Box below – Any one of us will be happy to assist you!

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