Business Coaching

Wondering what Brad Sugars and ActionCOACH really do? This trailer for ActionCOACH’s documentary-style Web movie will show you.

Premiering June 1st, “The Business Of Coaching – Winning the Game of Business” is a 22-minute documentary-style video that demonstrates how business owners overcame adversity, financial worries, as well as gain quality time with their families…all through business coaching.

Get an in-depth look into the world’s 2nd fastest growing industry, listen to stories and insight from business coaches and their clients from around the world, and hear how business coaching creates success for companies

The video separates business coaching into three entities:

• What is Business Coaching?
• How Can a Business Coach Help a Business Owner?
• Client Success (financial, personal, team)

Mark June 1st down on your calendars! The full-length film, “The Business of Coaching,” will be on ActionCOACH’s website.

Will marketing be dependent on Twitter? And is that a good idea?

With all the hubbub about social media, it begs the question: is social media marketing hype? Social media marketing is useful now…but will it be in the future?

Several successful CEOs, like Brad Sugars, Tony Hsieh and Guy Kawasaki are huge fans of social media marketing. But will investing everything in social media be a big mistake down the line?

Marc Brownstein, writer for Advertising Age, says it will. In his article, he writes about how marketing decision-makers everywhere are slashing media budgets and relying heavily on social media — too heavily, in his opinion:

“Brands that already have, or are planning to go dark, in favor of a Facebook page and a steady diet of Tweets.

Some of you might say I’m a hypocrite for feeling this way, as my agency is a leader in social media since 2004. I speak publicly about its attributes and have written frequently and glowingly about it in this column. And our clients are certainly benefiting from digital strategies, none of which are weighted all toward social media.

I love the power of the unfiltered consumer voice — the dialogue between brands and customers as well as customers and customers, vendors and customers, agencies and customers. It’s all good. It’s just that I believe some marketers have gone too far in their reliance on all things Twitter. No doubt their brand awareness, and brand identity, will one day suffer.

My mother taught me that things in moderation won’t hurt you. In this case, she’s right. Social media belongs in the media mix. But it shouldn’t be the entire mix.

How will customers find you? Why should they care about your product/service? What are you going to do when your competitors crank up their promotional spend and start taking your customers?

This message is simple — the short-term delight of not spending any media dollars on advertising will surely have a long-term effect: brand erosion.”

Do you agree?

Starbucks is maximizing its sales by selling Seattle's Best.

This fall, Seattle’s Best Coffee—a former competitor Starbucks acquired seven years ago—will be sold in about 30,000 fast-food outlets, supermarkets and coffee houses, the company said. Currently, Seattle’s Best coffee and coffee beans are sold in Seattle’s Best’s own shops inside nearly 500 Borders bookstores, in about 2,500 supermarkets, and Burger King, Subway and AMC movie theaters sell the coffee brand, too.

Starbucks is also eventually looking to sell the Seattle’s Best brand in convenience stores, vending machines, mobile trucks, coffee carts and drive-through kiosks.

Why the big push for Seattle’s Best everywhere instead of Starbucks? This move is made to take out McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts, who have specialty coffees and espresso-based drinks for lower prices than Starbucks. Especially during the recession, Starbucks suffered a decline in sales.

Can this tactic work for other companies in other industries? In business coaching, thinking outside the box is key, and coming up with fresh ways to market your product or maximize profits is necessary. Can business coaches use this Starbucks/Seattle’s Best example to help other companies?

Brad Sugars gave 1,600 books to the Read 'n Recover program.

Something that seems small, like a few books, can have a great effect on people. For example, Brad Sugars donated 250 bikes for local radio station KLUC’s bike drive last Christmas. Sugars’ donation brought the number just past the 1,400 bike mark, inching the station closer to its goal of 1,500 bikes.

Sugars also donated books to hospitals all across Australia for sick children as part of the Read ‘n Recover program. But he didn’t just donate a few books — he donated 1,600 books.

During Christmas last year, he posted on his Facebook page that he wanted to grant Christmas wishes .  He asked his friends to post on his wall what they wanted for Christmas, and he’d pick a few wishes to make come true.

Jenny White saw that post. White’s son had just been released from the hospital where he was being treated for bouts of pneumonia. Books kept him going through the many nights in hospital, and White found that many hospitals had very “used” books or no books at all.

White asked if Sugars might consider donating 100 books to 10 hospitals in Sydney. He not only granted that wish, but took it a step further…he donated 1,600 books for 100 hospitals all across Australia.

Check out WhiteNow.com for more information about the Read ‘n Recover initiative.

When you pass someone selling something on the street — whether it be jewelry, some sort of food, newspapers, etc. — do you see those people as sad and pathetic?

The reality is those people are entrepreneurs. And they might — as many do — build their businesses.

Don’t think it’s possible? Of course it is, and entrepreneurs everywhere could probably learn a thing or two from street vendors, according to this article on OpenForum.com.

In fact, entrepreneurs everywhere can learn four things from street vendors:

1.) Establishing cash flow is crucial.

2.) Avoid other jobs that prevent you from focusing mostly on your own business.

3.) Don’t be afraid.

4.) Don’t pay up front for anything.

Read about those four points in detail here.

Do you readers agree with the article?

Can MySpace make a comeback?

MySpace has been considered dead for a while now among the social media-savvy. But could MySpace make a comeback?

Five years ago, News Corp. acquired MySpace for $580 million…and then the losses came. Although MySpace Music is listed as the number one music site from comScore, it’s had a steady decrease in popularity since News Corp. has owned the site.

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said, “We’ve got to admit that during the last two or three years, I think we made some big mistakes. But we’ve got fine new management now; they’ve started to introducing new features. There’ll be a lot of changes coming through the summer. The early indications—and they’re only early indications—are we’re getting more visitors and they’re staying longer. When that gets more substantial, we’ll get more advertising.”

News Corp. has also called MySpace a “work in progress,” as it plays with its number one music platform ranking to try to get back on top of the social media scene, and plans to roll out a number of enhancements to the site in the next few sites.

What do you think? Can MySpace regain its status in the social media site scene?

Well, if only it could be that easy. But Brad Sugars can teach you how to learn, think and act rich…which will help you one day be rich.

Sugars is the founder and chairman of ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company. He’s also a successful author and entrepreneur, and became financially retired at the age of 26. With a track record of that kind of success, it’s probably a good indicator that his advice about how to become rich is, well, good advice.

Want to know how he did it? Sign up for his Entrepreneur’s MasterClass and find out. The MasterClass is a three-day intensive course held in Las Vegas taught by Sugars himself. Attendees learn secrets for financial freedom and business success straight from his mouth.

Interested? Who isn’t interested in making their business more successful, or inching closer to financial freedom? Watch the above promo for the class to see more, or click here to register.

Any business owner would agree, it takes a lot of strength to admit to the world that a product or service has been dissatisfying to the customer. It’s a bit of a blow to the owner’s ego, and not only that, but it could be detrimental to the business.

But Domino’s Pizza has shown how admitting its own faults can benefit the business…as long as it’s spun the right way.

Domino’s Pizza recently started a huge campaign where it admitted that many people across America were not fans of their pizza. From showing hidden footage shot in focus groups and feedback from customers, Domino’s Pizza was outing themselves as a sub-par pizza company.

But with this campaign, they’re advertising that they’ve changed their pizza recipe for the better. They admit their old pizza was bad, their new pizza is good, and they’re catching people’s reactions on camera.

This is a clever way to take a negative and make it a positive, but it’s risky — after admitting their old pizza was bad in national ads, there’s no taking it back. And if Domino’s new pizza wasn’t an improvement, it was a failed ad campaign.

In business coaching, coaches often have to work with clients through difficult situations — like customers not liking a company’s main product — and help turn them into positive situations, or situations that create profit, as in Domino’s case.

The plus of a risky campaign like this? It’s hard to make fun of the company and actually offend them because, well, they’re insulting themselves. Take the above clip from the Colbert Report. Domino’s has to agree that every word Colbert said is true, which sums up the message of the entire campaign: their old pizza was bad, but they’ve learned from their mistake…and the new pizza is heaps better.

Looks like Louis Vuitton purses won't be on sale anymore.

According to this week’s Bloomberg BusinessWeek, high-end retailers are back to selling full-price items and not doing as many promotions or discounts to attract customers.

According to SpendingPulse data, the prices for U.S. luxury goods increased 11% this March from a year ago. Pre-recession, the average price of a luxury handbag was $2,000; last year this decreased to $1,600, and this year that price increased to $1,800.

With the luxury market seemingly on the rebound, this would appear to be a good sign…yet unemployment rates are either stagnant or decreasing still.

With this new data, does this mean businesses can start — just start — to exhale a sigh of relief? Business coaches, would you advise your clients any differently with information about the luxury consumer and the potentially changing economy?

Leverage is a useful strategy in business.

People put a lot of emphasis on networking to get good business. But it’s all about how you use who you connect with to your advantage to really benefit from networking.

Take Brad Sugars’ current “Business is Booming” tour. To find local area sponsors for each event for the 52-city tour, business coaches in each area really had to leverage their existing relationships to succeed in finding sponsors.

How did most of them do it? If you’re involved in business coaching, you know the greatest way to get new clients is through referrals. Think of sponsors as clients, and think about who you can know who might know someone who could help you…or they might be able to help themselves.

Coaches who leveraged relationships were more successful than those who didn’t…leverage is clearly the way to go.

What relationships can you leverage to get more for your business? Find out even more ways to use leveraging to your advantage during Brad’s “Business is Booming” tour.