Then I attended a presentation that I now know was designed to gain more coaching clients. While I can’t remember the topic, I do recall a bolt of lightning hitting me - I realised that a business coach would help me focus on the things I frequently pushed aside.
The presenter urged us to put together a 90 day plan for our business. It then occurred to me that was something I had never done in the 12 years I’d been in business. I had prepared yearly goal sheets and periodically pulled out my business plan to see if I was still travelling in my original direction, but the idea of doing something in smaller chunks had not entered my head.
I was making progress but probably not as fast as I could have, had I had someone on the sidelines egging me on.
I’ve been working with my business coach Stuart now for over a year. In that time I’ve made a lot of changes in my business structure and also achieved some things outside of my business that were previously on the back burner.
I have clients who are business coaches but I had not worked with Stuart. I did not want to blur the lines of work, and being coached. I felt that they might make assumptions about how I work based on the services I provided to them. So getting a business coach that was not connected to my business was important.
In our first meeting, Stuart and I discussed my goals and where my business was. At each subsequent meeting we gradually put together a growing goals and actions list for me to report back on at the next meeting.
It felt good to talk with someone who had genuine interest but had no conflict of interest. I really look forward to our meetings and can’t wait to report to him what my achievements have been. Plus I have to make sure I’ve completed all the actions he had set for me, or have a good reason why not. He’s become a confidante, a friend, a support, an encourager and a fan on the sidelines, urging me to kick my next goal. He’s my taskmaster, and I have a lot to thank him for.
If you need a Stuart in your life, ask your business associates and friends who they know who is a business coach. Don’t settle for the first one – unless you really click that is. I did make contact with a couple of others before I decided on Stuart and knew instantly he was the right business coach for me.
Go on – you deserve it! And the financial costs are certainly worth the rewards you get at the other end.
“ I was making progress but probably not as fast as I could have, had I had someone on the sidelines egging me on. ”
Kathie M. Thomas is the founder of A Clayton's Secretary, a Virtual Assistant Network with members in many countries. Dedicated to teaching others about business on the web, she is a multiple award winner, with 30 years' experience in her field.
