I’ve Been Working in My Business for 20 Years… What Can You Possible Tell Me About My Business?

Thomas from Nashville asks:

I’ve Been Working in My Business for 20 Years…  What Can You Possible Tell Me About My Business?

Wow Thomas, wrong side of the bed this morning?  Just kidding.  It is a question in many entrepreneur’s minds.  After all, you have come this far and done a lot of difficult things to get your business to the level it is including fighting city hall, lawsuits, labor issues, etc.

So let me ask you, if you had a serious legal issue, or serious medical issue would you hire a professional or would you deal with it yourself.  Of course you would employ the services of a lawyer or doctor, but here is the mistake we often make (including myself), we hire them TOO LATE.  We hire them after we have a problem, and this gets expensive.  Imagine hiring a fire department to deal with your burning business rather than a fire prevention expert to advise how to prevent the business from catching on fire in the first place.  That would be not only a lot cheaper, but much less disruptive as well.

To more directly address your question, YOU are the expert in your business.  No one is suggesting otherwise.  There are few people in the world that can tell you how to do plumbing, sell sunglasses, or whatever your core competency is, better than what you already know.  But there are people out there that can fill in the gaps.  Perhaps they have marketing or human resources expertise that you may not.  Perhaps they bring a skill from other industries that can improve what you’re doing.

But, even if they can’t do any of that, when they suggest something, even if it you know it won’t work, you have better committed yourself to your process and removed all doubt that what you are doing works best.  You have a sounding board that allows you to talk through an issue before reaching a conclusion.

I would encourage every business owner to have a mentor, a coach, a consultant, that can work with them on a regular basis so that you can be even stronger.  Just like athletes that have played the game for 20 years, they constantly work on improvement, else they plateau, or worse, fade away.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right:

I am only exaggerating a little bit when I say that running a business is the loneliest of jobs.  On one side of you there are customers that want everything for free.  Employees that think all their problems, especially the financial ones, are YOUR problem to fix.  On the other side you have Creditors that think they should be paid before you, and debtors that think you should/can wait for money that is rightfully yours.   Not to mention Government agencies, COVID restrictions, the tax man and other bureaucracies, but don’t get me started on that can of worms.

The point is, what you face each day is overwhelming, and if you are doing it alone it beats you down and takes you away from those things that can help build your business to the next level.  A coach, or confidant helps you refocus and stay more focused on the things that add value to your business.  The distance from the day to day allows this person to have a different perspective than you.  Not because he or she is smarter, but rather focused on YOUR vision instead of all the noise, much like an athletic coach can.

• Find a coach that buys into your vision so that they are emotionally invested in your success.
• Find a coach that adds value rather than costs your company money.
• Find a coach that has a process as to how they may work with you each week.
• Find a coach that values your time.
• Find a coach that has been through failures as well as successes, because he knows where the guiderails are and can help you steer clear.
• Find a coach that remains objective, but not argumentative.
• Find a coach that values your intelligence.

Lastly Thomas I would like to say that you would be surprised how much a good coach can tell you.  Often times, with some simple financials and little else I have been able to steer owners away from a huge financial mistake as well as guide them, through a series of questions, to brand new revenue channels, or huge process improvements.  I am able to do this not by knowing more than the business owner but rather by learning from him or her and then seeing something that they may have missed or not thought important.  I like to think that I am helping to amplify the skills and intelligence that the business owner already has.