Business Education
by Gerry Rose, Integrity Networking Solutions, Business Consultant
 

Coaches, consultants, mentors, tax attorneys, bookkeepers, financial planners, and business school instructors are all business educators.  How might they help and support you in your business?  How can they help you grow?  How about maintaining your business?  How do they interact as part of your team?

Frequently, we go out into the world and say “Hello world.  Here I am!”  We are proud to be on our own.  We are here to take on the world by ourselves.  Why not ask associates to be part of our team as we chart our course to success?  Now I know it is great to pay an accountant to be our bookkeeping, balance our checkbook, or do our quarterly taxes and annual tax return.  However, when was the last time you asked your accountant for specific information on how to grow your business?  It may not have anything to do with business growth.  Your concerns might be around business correctness, employees, home office or store front, how you bank and where to bank. The possibilities are limitless.

One arrangement that works very well is a set frequency meeting of five to ten key advisors.  You may call them your board of directors or team of advisors.  These can be people who you already have a relationship with or people whose expertise you may want to experience (maybe those you do not know.)  With a prepared agenda, say on a 30-, 60-, or 90-day frequency, you would meet with your team to discuss how to do what you want to do in your business.   Remember, final decisions still belong to you.  You are still in charge.  You relinquish no power.  This group is to be used as a sounding board.  Understanding the word synergy is paramount to this concept.  Meeting with groups of five or more people, with the idea of creation as a goal, will allow one idea to blossom into many more.

A more formal relationship is to hire a business consultant.  I call them “The Answer Men.”  They are paid to give you answers.  Are you familiar with Bill Gates?  How about Amway or McDonalds?  True, they may have started with one or two men with big dreams; however, the team of players they assembled allowed them to realize their dreams.  Consider hiring someone who is willing to give you the answers.  Better to find someone to guarantee you results.  They need to get you where you want to go (those are few and far between, but worth looking for).

Be clear on what your goals are when hiring a coach or assembling a team of advisors.  Write down your goals.  Quantify them by time.  Ask yourself questions such as, “How many clients do I want after 12 months?”  “What are my financial goals for the next 12 months, 24, and 48?”  Get your paid consultant to buy into those goal results.  It is important that paid advisors can agree that they can get you where you want to go in the time you want to get there. 

When you set goals with time and money attached to them, it is easy to evaluate results every 30 days.  Be bold.  When under performing wile evaluating results, find out the “why” as to the underperformance.  Hold yourself accountable first, then ask your consultant.  Get answers that satisfy your questions.  Make adjustments as needed up to and including termination of relationship.  This time find a consultant who will guarantee to get you where you want to go.

Finally, commit to doing what they tell you to do.  Holding yourself accountable means doing the work to get the job done. Do your assignments within 24 to 48 hours.  This will guarantee your success.  Let down your guard to ask a “stupid” question.  Be prepared to discover, dreaming dreams you never dreamt, going places you never imagined.  Sore to the heights of Bill Gates.  Following these ideas will allow you to realize your full potential.