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“In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.” -Margaret Wheatley |
| Before Marketing Comes Business |
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In a discussion on the Co-Active Network I wrote a commentary entitled
Before Marketing Comes Busines.
Hi All, I was responding to Lori's question about "marketing a new coaching busines" then I realized that my response really needed a topic of its own. Lori was given some sound advice about marketing. That is great. AND for most coaches we've all heard these before and are still stuck without a full business and a marketing approach that works for us. Which brings me to my question to all of you:
How strong are you in your basic business skills?
In my opinion marketing is important, however understanding, embracing, and practicing the basics of business are paramount to success. Before Marketing Comes Business.
To read the rest of the article click read more below
FYI. Believe me. I've been there, done that myself but each time I thought "maybe I don't have the right program." So I went out and got another and the same thing happened again. and again and again. I found this very frustrating. What I failed to realize at the time was that we were working with a new paradigm. Solopreneurship (solo entrepreneur). I've been an entrepreneur all of my life and created and ran several successful companies. (competing newspaper routes to a manufacturing firm to national coach network) How could a coaching business be any different right? Wrong! Solopreneurship skills are different from entrepreneur skills. Unfortunately 95+% of coaches out there have adopted the solopreneur approach as their "business model". YIKES! This means that they work by themselves and for themselves. And all to often they don't have any business background to help them out like I did. Solopreneurship is not covered in any text book. Unless you know how to structure and maintain such a business it is ongoing struggle, because you have just hired the worse boss in the world - you. Good thing you are a coach and you have a business coach to help you, right? Richard Leider just came to speak to the Minnesota Coaches Association about the business of coaching. He was quite adamant about the fact that we are not a profession yet. Among many disheartening statistics was this one - When 60% of coaches invest less than $100/per month in their business that isn't a profession. They don't even have a business. You must be willing to invest in your business. I spend between $1000-$4000/mth in my business on my business including paying for my 2-3 coaches. I bring this up because here is an example of how "profession"-wide we don't understand the basics of business. We are not taught it in our coaching programs. Some do however most focus on the marketing not the business end of the coaching business, which just repeats this message. Before Marketing Comes Business.
Given what Richard said, I think I need to add one more Essential to my Coaching Business Essentials E-Course. If you haven't checked it out, go for it, its free. Right now it has five elements. The 6th will be about investing in your business. Its the classic, you've got to spend money to make money.
My strong desire in my work with coaches is actually to work with seasoned coaches on the art of coaching and I have discovered that without a stable business most coaches can't go deeper with their coaching and can't regularly touch the soul of their clients because their own worries are too much in the way. So I am sharing with the community what I know and have learned about being a solopreneur and an entrepreneur and a coach with my business programs.
What would you say are your top 3 business skill/systems/tools that form the backbone of your business?
Matthew Egan Rochte, a Coach for Coaches |
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