Business Coaching

Despite a dogfighting scandal in 2007, Vick is making a good comeback.

Everyone is talking about whether BP can make a comeback…maybe the oil company should look to an athlete who overcame a scandal a few years ago: Michael Vick, who was involved in a dog fighting scandal in 2007.

Even though Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid has publicly said Kevin Kolb will be the team’s starter if he’s healthy, all indications point to Vick as the one under center in the Eagles’ game against Detroit on Sunday.

Kolb failed his first two concussion tests on Monday and Wednesday. He’ll have another one today, but even if he passes it one wonders how much he’ll be able to factor into this week’s game plan.

The last time Vick started an NFL game was in 2006, before serving time in prison for dog fighting and a suspension from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Vick’s dual-threat ability as a runner and a passer makes this a good match-up. Due to the Eagles’ leaky offensive line (center Jamaal Jackson is out for the year), Vick is better equipped to deal with protection break downs than Kolb because Vick can keep plays alive with his feet.

Vick has shown that at 30, he’s an asset to the Eagles. We’ll have to see what happens this Sunday.

It just goes to show, that sometimes, hard work and talent can cause a comeback – just like it did after Vick’s dog fighting scandal. It might have taken some time, but he’s made it happen.

Perhaps BP should be taking some notes…or be prepared to wait it out while working hard to restore the company’s image.

Subway is breaking into the breakfast business.

In terms of business coaching, someone is coaching Subway on the path to success.

Subway has launched its breakfast menu, which includes various breakfast sandwich options like steak, egg and cheese and bacon, egg and cheese on a light wheat English muffin, flatbread or a sub, and coffee until 11 am. This has McDonald’s very concerned — McDonald’s is already struggling to compete against Burger King and Starbucks in the breakfast category.

It might be surprising to learn that Subway is causing McDonald’s to sweat, but it makes sense. The sandwich franchise has more than 22,000 locations nationwide, and with this addition to its menu, breakfast could appeal to its existing customer base. In addition, Subway is partnering with Starbucks, another McDonald’s competitor, and serving Seattle’s Best coffee with their breakfast combos.

There is one catch to the whole breakfast business, however: with the economy still down, the demand for on-the-go breakfast is down, too, by 2% according to marketing research firm NPD Group. With less people getting in line for a fast-food breakfast, why are so many players jumping on the breakfast train?

It seems that Subway is planning — or at least hoping for — a mild economic recovery. This way, when the economy does recover and more people are working, Subway will have their breakfast menu in place and, hopefully, will attract more customers because it will already be known.

What do you think? Does Subway have a chance at overtaking McDonald’s in the breakfast category?

The Business Coaching Blog

As if you haven’t been inundated enough with tips on how to blog well and attract more and more readers, we’ve got yet another list for you. It’s a good one, and from Techipedia.

If you’ve wondered how seemingly anonymous bloggers have managed to become well-known in the blogosphere, read some of your favorite bloggers’ posts and see if they have some of these 11 things in their posts. Of the 11 — consistency, specific, personal and thought-provoking, for instance — many of these tips parlay into business coaching.

Business coaching can cover similar tips like these, but instead of getting readers to a blog, it covers how to get more customers to a business. Curious about what else you might learn from a business coaching session? Click here and find out.

Students set themselves up for failure when they procrastinate.

With all the advances in technology, people might believe that there will be shortcuts in running their business, or to the path to success. After all, will people really need to learn how to do something if some technology comes out that might do the job for you?

Not surprisingly, research has shown that college students who cheat will fail later in life. But, surprisingly, those students don’t cheat because they don’t know the information…they cheat because they put off their work until the last minute, then scramble to get it done.

Behaviors, like this one, can be detrimental once those college students graduate and become business owners – the behaviors learned when they cheat in college are those that are necessary to fail: avoiding accountability, lack of commitment and poor time management.

In business coaching, what coaches are especially conscious of is how to help their client succeed – and to obviously prevent them from failing. But it’s equally important for clients to figure out why things aren’t working in their business during business coaching, and to put a stop to learned behavior. Figuring out their behaviors – even things like whether or not they procrastinated and therefore cheated during college – can be important in ultimately changing their behavior for the better.

Liquid Media Group, conference events production company, hired an ActionCOACH for business coaching to help them stabilize their focus. Watch how business coaching helped them…

Even though business coaching is the second fastest growing industry in the world, there are still lots of people out there who are unsure of what a business coach actually does.

A great way to find out what benefits a business coach can bring is to listen to a business coach’s client testimonial. Like the one above!

If you want to find out more about what business coaching could do for your business, click here.

Business owners already go through an unbelievable amount of hard work to get their businesses up and running, much less grow it to a successful business.

Imagine if in addition to all the “normal” challenges to being a business owner, you had another challenge thrown at you from left field? A challenge that could not only affect your business, but also your life?

That’s exactly what happened to Michele Alexander, a top business coach, when one morning, she woke up completely deaf. Alexander isn’t a business owner herself, but a certified business coach. Not being able to hear her clients, business owners, who needed to work through business issues, could have proved detrimental, but she managed to get through the day. She didn’t let any of her clients down, despite the fact that she couldn’t hear them!

Michele’s experience going through what seems like an impossible challenge — business coaching clients while deaf — just goes to show the lengths certified business coaches go to to make sure their clients succeed and reach their utmost potential. Find out more about what a business coach and business coaching session can do for any business here.

To read more about Michele’s amazing story here.

With the recession, charities' donations have decreased.

With the recent disaster in Haiti, many people and charities are reaching out via social media networks to raise funds.

But before the Haiti disaster, charities were increasing their social media efforts to attain potential donors…and it seems to have been working.

The Detroit News recently published an article about how charities are joining Twitter and Facebook in an effort to spread the word about charity events and recruit volunteers and donors, something that’s been a more urgent need in the down economy. An example they cite with Forgotten Harvest, a charity that supports impoverished areas that need food, is they had 100 volunteers for an event to help package 11,000 meals. And about a fifth of those volunteers were recruited online.

Even though charitable donations took a hit with the recession – in 2008, donations slid 2 percent from 2007, the first decline in donations since 1987 – E-philanthropy, giving donations online and recruiting volunteers, increased 4 percent that same year.

Charities are getting so savvy with social media marketing, that some have added their own apps for iPhones and Facebook. For example, the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign has a facebook widget with a game that collects real donations.

ActionCOACH is making waves by marketing its own charitable campaign, Coaching for a Cause, on Twitter and Facebook. The end goal for the pro-bono business coaching campaign is raising $2.5 million and so far, with successful business coaching, $859,294 has been raised.

If it’s working for non-profits, social media marketing can work for small businesses and big businesses, too. Fine-tune your social media marketing skills and figure out what you can do to leverage your business this way.

On the other side of things, if you’re a social media whiz, you might consider how you can help charities with your expertise. Coaching charities — and businesses — does wonders in this economy.

Brad Sugars helped donate 250 bikes to a local toy drive.

Brad Sugars recently donated 250 bikes on behalf of the N9NE Group, a partnership that owns and operates restaurants and nightclubs in Las Vegas,at local radio station’s KLUC toy drive. Sugars’ and N9NE’s donation helped KLUC achieve their 1,500 bike goal.

But people shouldn’t just give during the holiday season – they should give all year round.

ActionCOACH launched its Coaching for a Cause campaign last October to help non-profits and charities in the U.S. recession. ActionCOACH Business Coaches will donate their time to give these organizations pro bono coaching.

The overall goal of this campaign is to help non-profits raise at least an additional $2.5 million in donations and funds from October 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010.

Coaching for a Cause started before the holidays…and will continue for a few months after, extending “holiday cheer” and the spirit of giving.

What’s something your business can do that gives back to the community, whether during the holidays or not?

Happy holidays!

Facebook recognized ActionCOACH founder and CEO Brad Sugars as an All-Star giver.

Facebook recognized ActionCOACH founder and CEO Brad Sugars as its All-Star who helped generate the largest birthday gift. He raised $7,690 through the website’s birthday wish fundraising tool.

The Facebook Causes group was founded on the belief that in a healthy society, anyone can participate in change by informing and inspiring others.

In just two years, the group has raised $10,000,000.

This application is just one example of Sugars’ support of charities and non-profits. In August at ActionCOACH’s Global Conference in Sydney, Australia, he announced the company’s first global initiative to help charities, Coaching for a Cause.

The global pro bono coaching program is designed to help charities and non-profits from all over the world increase their donations. Coaching for a Cause’s goal is to raise $2.5 million in six months for charities in donations and funds. The initiative officially started October 1st.

So, why give? Well, besides giving being a good thing in general, it also makes people feel good.

Many independent studies suggest that charitable giving has several health benefits (it is even believed to increase the supply of dopamine to the brain) and promotes professional success (our society tends to look upon philanthropic people as leaders).

What sort of things can your business do to give back to the community?