Business Improvement, Business Growth, Improving Profits, Business Coaching with Mike Yates (FAQ’s)
What is coaching? (click for ANSWER)
Coaching is a relationship between two (or more in the case of teams or groups) people. In essence it’s about helping you to achieve whatever you want. It’s about focus, enthusiasm and commitment from both sides. For Business Coaching it’s about results. You decide what you want to achieve (in a set time frame if necessary) and, as your coach, I will ensure that you reach your goals and targets with you acting as your confidante and sounding board along the way and giving you ideas and strategies that will speed up your learning process and experience. This requires an immense amount of trust between us, so we meet up with all prospective clients prior to entering into any agreement to ensure that the coaching process will be as effective as possible.
Why should I consider a coach for my business? (click for ANSWER)
Many business owners now enlist the help of a coach because they want to improve some (or many) aspects of their business. They may have specific issues that they want to deal with and may be frustrated that their business may not be moving at the speed or direction they would like.
There's nothing 'wrong' with either me or my business, why should I still consider a Coach? (click for ANSWER)
Coaching is a very well proven method to help others attain a level of performance that they may not otherwise have attained alone, or it may take them a much longer period of time to achieve their objectives by themselves. The interesting thing about business in general is that most of the research has already been done on what makes people successful and what makes businesses successful. An immense amount of information is available on all the areas you need to address to make your business fly. We are continually updating and refining that information to give the maximum leverage to the coaching process. Many people actually just run their own businesses to the level of their own knowledge – they run them by ‘trial and error’. An experienced coach is also a great sounding board for ideas and new potential avenues of business. For those business owners who are already successful, hiring a coach can (and very often does) massively accelerate an individual’s performance even further.
What sort of people decide to work with a coach and business growth specialist? (click for ANSWER)
Absloutely all sorts! Consider the world’s top athlete’s, sport persons, football teams – they ALL have mentors and coaches. This is also true in the world of business for savvy business owners. Most of the most successful millionaire’s and entrepreneurs in business have all realised that to try and ‘reinvent the wheel’ by learning the information yourself is the slow way to increased success. They clearly understand that hiring a personal coach or mentor is well worth the investmentment to fast track them to their desired goals
So what's a Business Growth Specialist then? (click for ANSWER)
Someone who has a good grounding in business, has a solid awareness of business dynamics in general and has the tools and knowledge necessary to you and help you and your business to grow. The emphasis being that of having already worked with a multitude of business types, models and owners to help them towards greater success.
How can I find out if it would be right for me? (click for ANSWER)
The best thing is to take the first step and that is to get in touch by your preferred method – call 0870 161 24 121 or click here and send us an email even if just to ask a question. The ususal process is that we will arrange a call face to face or by phone. There is absolutely no commitment at this stage, merely a chance for you (and me) to ask some questions that you may have and what you’re looking for.
So, does business coaching work? (click for ANSWER)
A resounding Yes! Now you may, at this point, be saying to yourself ‘well he would say that wouldn’t he’ and to that I would add a proviso. Coaching will only work within a business if the business owner truly wants to change their results and are prepared to do ‘whatever it takes’ to gain the results they are looking for.
You can be coached to do great things: one of our clients multiplied their turnover by 9 in 24 months and another went from working 80 hours a week in their business to 30 hours per week within 90 days. Truly great results for them and achieved through making changes (sometimes radical) to the ways that they had previously run their businesses.
Here’s the proviso then: I can’t make you successful if you aren’t congruent with your desires. If you don’t do the work you need to do to change your results then nothing will change. I can’t wave a magic wand that will suddenly improve aspects of your business if you are not prepared to put in the extra effort.
However if you are open to new ideas and truly want results, then coaching you and your business will be extremely effective. It really is as simple as that.
Can I work with you a on a specific project or issue? (click for ANSWER)
Certainly. Interesting thing is that most clients do come to us initially with a specific challenge or idea. One of the common one’s is how to get new business through the door (more sales). What we do find sometimes is that gaining further business can trigger additional issues and challenges within the business such as delivery or team issues (this is where a clear understanding of business dynamics and pre planning comes in rather useful!).
Here’s some more common issues:
How to make more money (increase profits) in your business. How to improve your time management. How to improve your presentation skills. How to increase your confidence in various areas of your business. How to increase sales. How to grow your business. How to improve team communication. How to work less hours AND make more money!
The list goes on…
What Can I expect being coached personally by Mike Yates? (click for ANSWER)
I typically work with a limited number of business owners that run small to medium sized businesses – see All About You who have decided that they may need some external input to accelerate their business success and/or growth (success being different for all of us). You will be prepared to put in the additional work required to gain your goals and be open to trying out new ideas. I have a very relaxed coaching style with the emphasis on both sides having a great deal of fun with a serious intent. You can expect our relationship to be one of complete trust with both sides being upfront with each other at all times. You decide what you want out of our time together and, on that basis, you are investing in my experience and knowledge in the field of coaching to get you your desired results as effectively as possible. I will always want what you want. My desire is to help and inspire you to achieve exceptional results and for you to be delighted with our service. On this premise you will want to tell as many of your fellow business owners about the results you have achieved with us and recommend our services to them also!
I can just get this from a 'self help' book why should I use you? (click for ANSWER)
A great question! If we ever work together you will also get the opportunity to read a number of books (a great book to start with is: The E-Myth Revisited – Why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it by Michael E Gerber). Books contain excellent information, and if you’re the type of person that can read a book and take action then I have one simple message: ‘Go For It’. In practice however you will find that most people get bogged down in the day top day running of a business and either don’t get enough time to read or they read many books but fail to take action on what they have read. And here comes one of the big advantages that coaching will give you – and that’s ACCOUNTABILITY. One we have set the areas that you want to address and move forward with then, by the act of regular meetings you then become accountable to both of us. As you complete your desired goals then you simply can’t NOT move closer to your desired outcomes!
I'm not sure about 121 coaching, are there any alternatives? (click for ANSWER)
As mentioned earlier I only work with a limited number of business owners who have certain characteristics that ensure they will really benefit from our working together. Other alternatives are to attend one of our MasterClasses where you will be in the company of like minded individuals on specific subject such as Sales Techniques, Time Management, Increasing Profits, Goal Setting, Presentation Skills, Customer Service Success, Marketing, Business Skills and Personality Profiling and much more.
If MasterClasses are not for you then you may also find that taking a look at the products section of this website may help you and your business.
Aside from that simply sign up for our weekly ‘121 Top Tips’ and/or monthly ‘Let’s Get 121’ newsletter – both are free and designed to give you ideas and tips to improve your business (right hand side of this website – just enter your name and email address!)
How regular are the sessions and how long do they last? (click for ANSWER)
As our 121Business Growth Programme is tailored to each business that we work with then you will meet with us (face to face or by phone), weekly, every other week or monthly. This is mainly dependent on your requirements for the programme along with your investment level.
I've used a coach or consultant in the past and had a bad experience. I'm really not sure...? (click for ANSWER)
If you have had a bad experience in the past then there is nothing we can do to change that. This normally relies on the skills, expertise and experience of the person you work with and how well you work together. It doesn’t mean that your experience with another coach will be the same though. We pride ourselves on our excellent working relationships with all of our clients and have a measurement system in place to ensure that you receive an outstanding service. If there are any areas of disatisfaction on either side, we’ll find out fast. Much of our business is through referral from other satisfied clients (see our testimonials section). Our initial meeting/conversation enables both of us to decide if there is mileage in our working together. The coaching relationship relies on complete openness and therefore we generally know (from our own past experiences) what to look out for to ensure that our working together will be as effective as possible. It may be helpful to openly talk through any previous bad experiences you’ve had to address your fears in advance.
How do I know if I need help? (click for ANSWER)
You may be frustrated with one or a number of areas within your business at the moment. This may be affecting your personal life. You may be experiencing signs of stress (tiredness, irritability, anger plus physical signs that all is not well – illness etc).
You may simply not be moving as far forward with your business as you would like.
You may already be highly successful and be curious how coaching may further improve your personal and business results.
Here’s some common statements that you may identify with:
- “I’m working too many hours for too little return”
- “I’m not balancing my work and personal life as I would like”
- “My Team are driving me round the bend!”
- “I know where I want my business to be but somehow never seem to get there”
- “My lack of Confidence is holding me back”
- “I’m Just not getting the level of sales through the door that I need for my business”
- “I just seem to be running around in circles and not getting anywhere”
- “If I could just improve… XXXXXXX… then my business would run sooooo much more smoothly (just fill in the blank!)”
- “I’m too busy ‘in’ my business to have time for coaching!”
- “I’ve had enough of things as they are and I want… XXXXXX” (again, just fill in the blank!)
How do we get started? (click for ANSWER)
Just take the first step!
Call 0870 16 24 121 or contact us via email.
We need to discover how we can help you best – via 121 coaching or other products and services.
Just outline what challenges you’re having (all information recieved is always treated in the strictest confidence) and we’ll see what we can do.
There is no obligation whatsoever on either side at this stage. So what are you waiting for?