Business Coaching

Owners of small or medium sized businesses are often on an island, with no one to turn to when they need some help. The ones that most easily navigate those troubled waters are business owners who have learned what’s important and what isn’t when running a business and more often than not, they learn this information by working with some type of mentor.

Many people can take on the role of a mentor. A mentor can be a good friend who is willing to tell you the truth, not what you want to hear. A mentor can be another business owner who has faced those challenges in the past or even be a Business Coach who is, by definition an unreasonable friend who will always have your business’ best interests at heart.

So no matter who your mentor is, whether they’re just a friend, a family member of even a Business Coach, here are five things they should be able to do for you.

A mentor should hold you accountable:

Business owners may neglect the management and marketing of their business by postponing certain tasks and putting the non-essential ahead of the essential. This is a great way to doom a business.

When you work with a mentor, failing to complete your goals and having your business lapse is simply unacceptable. Your mentor won’t tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to hear to get your business moving in the right direction and keep you accountable for everything that happens in regard to your business.

A mentor will help you refine your ideas into practice:

You may have great ideas, but how will you see them through to implementation? There may be some ideas you can put into practice easily, but others will be raw and need to be refined before you implement them.

Working with a mentor, gives you access to their vast knowledge and wealth of experience. That alone will help you make the changes you need to make in an easier fashion.

A mentor will have a wealth of ideas to grow your business:

Your mentor has seen it and been there before. Through your relationship with your mentor, you will learn and understand principles of business you may not have known before.

Most importantly, you can use the lessons learned from your mentor and can apply them for the rest of your business life.

Mentors have the contacts you need:

Ideally, you should choose a mentor who has been in business and not only knows the basics of running one, but also has a good reputation with the community at large. In this way, you can use your mentor as a networking tool to grow your business.

Your mentor has contacts and knows where to find the information that can help you and your business. They are a valuable resource, so use them as much as possible.

A mentor is someone outside of your business, looking in:

You may be caught up in the day to day of your business, but the right mentor or even Business Coach takes a fresh look at you and your business.

A mentor or coach knows what to look for when it comes to the issues plaguing your business because they can see what your customers see. With this knowledge and vision, your mentor will always give you feedback that will help you build the strongest business possible.

So who are you working with to grow your business? Do you have a mentor or coach that is helping you along the path to success? If you don’t, what are you waiting for?

As much as the world changes, it stays the same. The recent purchase of Skype by Microsoft for more than $8 billion is an extreme example of this because, for all the talk about the brand of Skype itself, what Microsoft was really buying was Skype’s massive customer list.

In 2010, Skype had 170 million connected users who logged over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations.

There is massive opportunity for growth with Skype, but the company has been around since 2003 and hasn’t exactly been a big earner.

The company reported a $6.9 million net loss last year, on nearly $860 million in revenue. It reported $686 million in long-term debt, and slightly more than $1 billion in liabilities.

In the purchase, Microsoft assumed Skype’s debts and liabilities in what was, to this date, the largest acquisition Microsoft has ever made.

This isn’t the first time Skype has been bought. In 2005, Skype was bought by Ebay for $2.6 billion but the partnership did not work out and eBay sold its 65% share in Skype for $1.9 billion in 2009.

Microsoft plans to integrate the service into X-Box Live and the Windows Phone but there’s little doubt they already possess the technology to do this without buying Skype.

So why buy Skype?

For all those customers who are already proficient with the service and are naturally ready to buy other Microsoft products.

As Microsoft continues to lose market share (their stock price has dropped nine percent over the last year) the company needs to find new ways to compete.

Adding Skype’s customer list gives Microsoft access to customers that are relatively early adopters of technology, who’ll want to buy the latest, hottest thing, but might not have thought of Microsoft products in the past.

This deal is just another sign that as much as technology changes, the basics of business, like buying a customer list, stay the same.

Tools like Twitter are designed to grow any business, brand or image, but, like with any new platform, there are many avenues of wealth still left to be exploited in its use.

Celebrities have been at the front of using Twitter to connect with their fans and deliver their message directly. That was what brought Charlie Sheen to begin using Twitter, and why over a million people follow him setting a Guiness World record by accumulating 1 million followers of his Tweets in less than 24 hours.

It’s been a few weeks since Charlie Sheen was seemingly on every television show and radio station offering pearls of wisdom before moving to Twitter.

Sheen’s very public meltdown (or publicity stunt) gave us such classic memes as “Adonis DNA and Tiger’s Blood” or “Riding on a Mercury Surfboard”, to name just a few, but it also gave him a public pulpit he’d never had before.

While much of what he said was, to say the least, loopy, it certainly helped grow his already well known brand and take it to a new level.

Sheen started his public tirade the old-fashioned way, on television and radio, but he realized he was missing the social media boat. He contacted Ad.ly, a PR company that specializes in using social media and celebrities for commercial endorsements.

Say what you will about Sheen, but he saw that there was an opportunity and found away to cash in.

Sheen is now a member of Ad.ly celebrity roster, which is more than 1000 strong and while the crazy Tweets have slowed down, there’s little doubt his followers will be seeing plenty of Twitter endorsements from him.

Sheen’s story is a great example of how a business or a person can grow a brand with Twitter.

Sure, he was already well known and had the big advantage of being able to say any crazy thing he wanted without serious repercussions but it begs the question, what are you doing with your Twitter account to grow your brand, and your business?

To create a new idea of your life, a life where you can have ALL that you dream of, not just some little bits of happiness or balance, you’ve got to get the right mindset.

I’ve found there are steps that can help you get your mind right in creating the life you’ve always dreamed of.

You’ve got to consider your life in a positive frame of mind so begin by creating a list of affirmations starting with “I AM”. Affirm things like, I am a leader, I am rich, I am talented, etc. State these affirmations in the positive and present tense out loud every single day.

Secondly, create a dream chart. Find about two dozen magazines full of words and pictures for your new reality. Take several hours and cut out everything in those magazines that match what you want out of life, then glue them to a big sheet of cardboard and put it somewhere where you can see it every morning.

Finally, invest 20 minutes by yourself every single morning visualizing your new reality. Simply close your eyes and focus on everything you’ve pictured in your new reality.

Remember, you are creating a new you and if you’re becoming someone different, you will do things differently.

Since you can only be who you are, you have to change who you are to do things differently.

Your subconscious mind cannot determine the difference between dreams and reality, so feed it dreams often and make that your reality.

Follow these steps, create a bigger picture and then use these techniques to impress this picture on your subconscious.

The rest will take care of itself.

As you change who you are, you’ll change what you do and thus you’ll change what you have. Your new reality will unfold right before your eyes.

Mark Schmelder of Cimbrian, a marketing technology company in Pennsylvania, was experiencing rapid growth, but the company was unable to handle the growth because it lacked organization. Since working with ActionCOACH Jeff Witmer, the business has become more streamlined. Cimbrian has increased its earning ability and profitability. Working with an ActionCOACH has allowed Mark to find the perfect balance between his business and personal life — just watch the testimonial above!

This past year has been rough on small businesses.

Recently, it seemed like economically, things might be looking up for small business…but we may have spoken too soon.

It’s no secret that times are tough for small businesses but the semi- annual mid-year economic report from the National Small Business Association released at the end of July show just how difficult this year has been.

The report, which surveyed 400 small business owners in varying fields found that only 11% have hired workers in the past year, 25% have cut jobs and 41% say they are unable to secure adequate financing.

These numbers are obviously not very promising for our economy when it comes to job creation. It takes a 5% increase in GDP to create enough jobs to lower unemployment by just one percentage point.

“Given the direct correlation between access to capital and job growth, unless small-business owners are able to secure financing, we will continue to see high unemployment,” Todd McCracken, President of the NSBA said.

Other numbers were equally bleak. Almost three quarters of respondents said economic uncertainty was their top concern, up from 64% in December. Almost half, 44% don’t expect any growth opportunities in the coming year and 45% believe the economy is worse now than it was a year ago. Just 59% of those who responded felt confident about the future of their business, down from 61% in December.

But all was not bad — only 25% predicted decreases in revenue for the next 12 months, down from 31% in December. There were also more businesses reporting higher revenue since the last survey in December, 26% this month, compared with 22% at the end of last year.

To view the National Small Business Association survey, click here: http://nsba.biz/

Do you see these numbers reflected in your business? Are things turning for the better or are we headed for a double-dip recession? Tell us what you think.