How to Select a Small Business Coach

Congratulations on starting your search for a small business coach! There are many small business coaches to choose from, so it helps to have clarity about what you're looking for in a coach. Here are 15 tips to get you started: 1. Select someone who has graduated from a recognized, credentialed coaching school. Small business coaching is a skill and it takes a lot of education and practice to master it. Because coaching is not a regulated industry, anyone can call themselves a coach, whether they've been trained in coaching skills or not. By selecting someone who has attended and graduated from a recognized coaching school, you have more assurance that they are skilled in coaching techniques. 2. Select someone who has experience, both as a coach and as a small business owner. How long...

Read more »

How to Create and Run a Mastermind Group

What is a Mastermind Group? There is synergy of energy, commitment, and excitement that participants bring to a Mastermind Group. The beauty of Mastermind Groups is that participants raise the bar by challenging each other to create and implement goals, brainstorm ideas, and support each other with total honesty, respect and compassion. Mastermind participants act as catalysts for growth, devil’s advocates and supportive colleagues. The concept of the Mastermind Group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in the early 1900's. In his timeless classic, "Think And Grow Rich" he wrote about the Mastermind principle as: "The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony." He continues… "No two minds ever come together...

Read more »

Do You HATE Marketing? (Really?)

Many small business owners say they "hate" marketing. How can that be? Without marketing, a small business will fail. Here's my analogy: Marketing is like diapers. No one leaps for joy at the prospect of changing the the baby's diapers, but everyone wants a healthy, happy baby, so they do the work they dislike because they want the outcome they desire. Well, marketing is like diapers in the small business world. You must do marketing so that people can learn about your products and services. Some people love to do marketing: they see it as creative and challenging. But many dislike doing it... hate doing it...for various reasons. Keeping your mind focused on the goal of success, you will do whatever needs to be done, instead of resisting it. In the world of coaching, when we hear a statement...

Read more »

Which Marketing Model is Right for You?

A client sent me Adam Urbanski's blog post, "Outer Circle Marketing Target Exposed," and asked my opinion on it. Here's what I said: Neither marketing model is wrong, and both offer you insights into creating a marketing strategy that will work for your business. By the way, NONE of these ideas and models are new; we've been talking about these concepts in marketing classes for decades. Let me explain… Whether you are using a bulls-eye target as your visual model or a funnel as your visual model, the concept is similar: you are going from a large audience (top of funnel, outer circle) of people towards a smaller audience of people. In...

Read more »