This introduction is followed by six short bite size lessons.

So when we talk to any new entrepreneurs or people looking to start out on business and there’s going to be a lot more with a recession more and more companies announcing redundancies and unfortunately job losses, people in a state of flux and uncertainty about what to do. So a lot of people think they can set up their own business which is great if they’ve got the right process or having a product that is desirable for the market and is going to add value to their customers.

Be that B2B (Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Customers) directly. But it’s finding that niche. It’s finding that thing that’s that sweet spot. That actually is something they enjoy doing and also something that they can make money from and that requires a bit of thinking and a bit of planning and that’s what we help with.

So we help individuals find their niche, find their worth, find their value and ultimately turn that into a profitable business and I see a lot of people that just don’t do that. They just have a lifestyle business which is good on the face of things but ultimately you’ve got to make money to bring some income in and to survive with it keep doing what it is you like.

So that’s where the business coaching comes in. Helps you to identify your USP, your product, your market, how you’re going to promote that how you’re going to sell that and how more importantly you’re going to keep that sustainable.

Lesson 1

So I guess the first thing to consider is what is it you want to do and why is it you’re doing what you’re doing. Now most people go into business because of a major change some adversity in their life. I said before maybe because of recent redundancies changing their circumstances or they just actually spot a problem that they believe their skill set their resources can resolve and that’s basically the fundamental reasons why small businesses, micro businesses start off because they identify a situation, a problem that they believe they can actually resolve for others and if it’s a profitable business make some money from doing so at the same time.

Lesson 2

Now the second aspect is thinking about how do you go about doing that then. So most people will either leverage their existing ,network their experience, trying to put a product together and then testing the water.

What we recommend though is doing some proper market research. So checking out the current state of play. What’s happening in the market already, is there someone else that is out there doing what you are proposing to do, in a slightly different way and taking a look at them. What are they successful at, what makes their products so good? What are the things that you think you can improve on in terms of their products? What’s their price range? who’s their client?

Learning from others that have been there before is the best way to avoid making some basic mistakes yourself. Now our business coaches have a depth of knowledge and experience from doing exactly that setting up their own businesses, working in large organisations that do that competitor analysis.

So considering your competitors, as well as your market you’re actually going to be selling to is very very important in the first stages before you even go to market.

Lesson 3

Now a lot of people make the mistake of focusing initially on the branding and what the product actually looks like or even the name sometimes of the product or the company and then kind of start focusing on the pricing. I guess initially we would advise looking at not just the sustainability of your product, so how long is it going to last in the market. If it only has a short life span then actually, is it worth setting up a business around.

That and also the scalability of what you’re proposing so that will become important as we talk to people about the marketing proposals and how they develop not just one product but they develop the range of products that they offer within the organisation.

So sustainability scalability key things to consider and again as we’ve mentioned looking at what your competitors are doing is key to that process as we’ll find out. How they’ve maybe evolved their product how they’ve started to go into different areas and started to diversify from their original product range all these are tips and hints that our business coaches will explore with you and help you to understand ultimately how to survive and grow from a micro business to an SME to even larger.

Lesson 4

So first point of call I would say is grab a piece of paper… your mind’s probably full of all ideas and excitement around what you’d like to do and try, but keep it logical. Okay keep it sensible one A4 sheet of paper, put your product, proposition, business in the middle of the page and then almost do a spidergram around the outside thinking about who are your likely customers?

So think about your marketplace, think about the product development in terms of what could grow on from it. Think about your price range, think about who your competitors would be? Think about whether it’s a localised market? or further afield?

If it has the potential to grow think about what your costs are going to be in order to set up and to maintain your product if it’s a service.

Most services tend to be fairly low cost. If it’s actually a tangible product you need to think about production and manufacturing of that quality associated with that as well. So there are a number of things that you need to be thinking about brainstorming around your key product but that’s the starting point get it down on paper how they think and if its down on the paper it makes it so much easier to plan and organise.

Lesson 5

So I guess the question remains, finding your sweet spot. Finding something that you like to do that you know it’s going to be of value to others and it’s going to actually add some revenue to your stream of sales and income but ultimately finding something that you can do that you get pleasure from and also in an environment that enables you to be flexible and get your work-life balance as well.

I mean doesn’t have to be an environment like this could be an office it could be a city but ultimately you need to find what is it that works for you.

Lesson 6

Some of the key skills these days of good effective leaders is making sure that you’ve got the right staff working for you and that’s also about having a good style of leadership. Now more often than not these days leadership is about ensuring you’re coaching and developing your people appropriately.

One of the things that we’ve talked about in our courses and our training is the way that you do that and we’ve put those tips and hints together in our book ‘Reaching the Summit’ which as you can see from the link is downloadable and readily accessible and has a whole heap of different tips and hints to inspire, encourage and act as a guide really to the effective leader and manager in any organisation.

Now part of this process is understanding and basically following the guidelines to make sure that you are saying the right thing, saying it in the right way and also saying it with the right intent because a lot of managers sometimes think or still think that actually doing coaching is giving away their power which is not the case at all. You should be empowering your people helping them to develop nurturing their ideas and effectively helping them come up with solutions themselves which if they weren’t and they were just knocking on your door all the time that’s going to take up a lot of your time and going to take up a lot of your energy as well.

So the coaching guide ‘Reaching the Summit’ is effectively about that some key tips and hints and some advice on how to ensure that your people are developed, encouraged, supported, engaged in the right way in the modern workplace to ensure that their ideas their creativity their solutions that they may be coming up with through the business issues and problems that you face are there for all to benefit from.