Ready for more business success?

When we are aware, we are empowered to make a change.  This couldn't be more true for business - there are so many factors that contribute to the success of a business that being aware of these is the first step to being in control of them.

What gets measured gets managed and this couldn't be more true for your business.  As a coach, you are most likely solely responsible for the delivery of a world-class coaching service, marketing your business to attract clients, and making sure the business runs smoothly. 

Frankly, as a CEO of a growing coaching business, you need to measure a lot of things so you can manage them.

Often it's assumed that only the metrics need to be managed - the marketing numbers like open rates on emails, or financial numbers like sales, and sometimes client satisfaction.  Although these are essential to business success, it's not the be-all and end-all.

There are a number of intangible areas of your business that need to be measured and managed that never get talked about.  But if 16 years as a founder and CEO have taught me anything, it's that just because you can't see it, it doesn't mean it's not there.  I know there are a number of bottlenecks in every business that are often given zero attention.  When we start to pay attention to these areas, we change the way our business operates. 

We enter a zone of actually having a feeling of fun and flow in our business.  We see how things can feel easy, that it doesn't have to be so hard.

There are 8 bottlenecks, or sticking points, that I'll present to you here and I assure you, you can find evidence of each of these in your business once you are aware.  Knowledge is power, so once you are aware, you can start to give them the attention they need, one at a time.

As you read on, have in mind this question:  if I were to change this, what benefits would my business, my clients or I receive as a result? 

Energy

Energy, or Energetics as it's more popularly known, are the points in your business where emotions can cause us to take action or not take action.  An example of this would be how joy or motivation will encourage you to move forward with a new idea, a new offer maybe, or a challenge, or even a collaboration.  But how fear and doubt can stop you from taking any one of these actions.  The key is to learn how our emotions can be managed by our mind and physiology so that we can understand what is creating an energetic bottleneck, feel it to allow us to work through it, and then take action on a strategy to shift the blocked emotion.  Not getting stuck in a particular negative energetic place is critical here so being tuned in to your energy around your business can change outcomes overnight.

I've seen clients who have been holding onto a negative emotion of fear around something, finally name that it's fear that's holding them back, and make the brave decision to make friends with fear and take action.  The results speak for themselves, as action always leads to results. 

Beliefs

Our beliefs are at the core of our thoughts, feelings, and then actions.  All outcomes in our business can be traced back to a core belief - both beliefs that support us and those that don't.  Take one of the essential beliefs as a CEO: that you can figure out how to solve any problem.  Once you believe this completely, all your feelings, thoughts, and actions will be in alignment with this core belief and you will do what it takes to prove yourself right!  As humans, we always want the certainty that we are right and hence, will take all actions that align with any idea we have about ourselves. 

I know that as soon as my clients clear up their beliefs and thoughts so that they are focused on what supports their business and not what holds them back, the business feels like it's flowing and doesn't feel so hard.

Identity

The Identity of the CEO of the business, you, is critical to the success of your business.  We all have an idea of who we are and often, this is not even clear to us.  Only someone holding a mirror up to you can show you your blind spots and what could be getting in your way.  Often this is a coach, a mentor, a therapist, or even a peer.  The main thing is that as you open up to receiving feedback and insights, will you take action on them?

Developing an identity, or self-concept, of a CEO and leader can take time, and once the coaches I work with transform from Coachprener to CEO they see their business grow in exactly the way they want it to.  

Mindset

This is the one that people talk about most and I would like to offer this - mindset isn't something you need to change, it's just something we need to practice trusting.  If you have been brave enough to take action on starting your own business as a coach, you most likely have done a lot of self-development work.  I find that most of my clients have the answer they need but don't trust themselves to take action.  This self-trust is the mindset we need to develop, coupled with compassion for ourselves.  We won't always get it right and that's ok - if you trust that you did it for a reason and you learn from the situation, you won't get stuck and you can keep moving forward.

Lead Generation, Sales & Delivery

I have bundled these together as these are more strategic and different for everyone, depending on how they want to design their business.  I will offer that you will find that unless you have worked on the other areas mentioned above to release the bottlenecks, any strategy you follow will feel like pushing a boulder uphill.

These 3 core functions of your business have a number of strategies available to follow and they can all work brilliantly.  But you will feel like they are failing and causing bottlenecks unless you have awareness of the other areas of your business.

You

Yes, you may be the bottleneck for your business.  Not because you aren't doing enough - quite the opposite. You may be trying to do too much.  Delegation to a team is the number one secret to more ease and growth of your business.  The biggest bottleneck I have experienced in my business and my clients is them not being able to hire and then delegate to capable team members.  Being aware of this bottleneck that we cause ourselves in our business allows us to clear this up.  Not only does this lead to more business success but it truly makes the journey of entrepreneurship more fun! 

Next Steps

Awareness is the start of making the powerful changes that can free up so much stickiness in your business and lead to a lot more flow.  Can you pick one of these areas and give it your attention for 2 weeks.  See what happens when you do this, do you feel things moving in the right direction?  Can you feel the business bottlenecks ease up as you see your revenue metrics get stronger?

I encourage you to take it slow but don't ignore this - your small actions today will lead to so much flow in your businesses it will start to feel easy!