I'm experienced in helping owners of small, entrepreneurial family businesses grow and sell their businesses. Business owners often run into financial hurdles that cause them to go into debt. This debt can place the business at risk. Owners who are in a financial quandary, sometimes have difficulty making decisions and of knowing what to do.
My experience and expertise is especially useful for small sales organizations of 10-20 employees where underperformance is one of the issues negatively impacting the company’s financial stability. In this instance, business coaching begins with an organizational assessment.
I typically meet with the owner first, to find out what he wants to know by having me conduct an assessment. Also, I need to be sure he or she is prepared to receive feedback from his or her employees without retaliating. If the owner is open to feedback, then together we design a questionnaire that can be filled out by employees anonymously, providing feedback regarding problems in the organization, identifying deficits in terms of needed resources and talking about what changes they’d like to see. I also typically meet with each employee to explore their feelings about how the organization is functioning and what they feel needs to be improved.
I also conduct an assessment of the business owner/leader. I want to know what he believes his talents and strengths are as well as his challenges and weaknesses. I want to understand his vision for the company over both the short and long term. Once these matters are clear, we collaborate on designing a plan for improving leadership skills as well as identifying a series of steps for accomplishing the owner’s goals for the company.
Since financial health is a big part of running a company successfully, I always examine the last 5 years of financials. If there’s debt, I want to know what happened and why taking on debt was necessary. I also want to know if the company is currently running a deficit.
My business coaching also analyzes where the company is in the market, what degree of market share they have, who their competitors are, and what kinds of clients, services or products the company is selling. I also want to know the turnaround time for payment with regards to products and services and whether the company’s financial health is dependent on just a few clients.
Equally important is how the owner feels about his employees. Who are his stars? Who are his laggards? What has he tried to do to boost organizational productivity? How open is the owner to trying a new strategy when it comes to generating improved employee performance?
I always look at a company’s marketing materials and whether these accurately represent the company’s products and services. I want to know what the company’s reputation is in the marketplace, how they came to have this reputation and whether its working in their favor or not.
Business coaching is especially useful for family owned businesses. It’s important to assess whether the family members who are employed in the business, have the necessary skills to execute the jobs they’ve been given. If there’s a problematic family member who’s behavior is negatively impacting the business, I work with the owner to address this. Family businesses also often need help with succession planning and business coaching is especially helpful with this.
Finally, I coach business owners on how to sell their business. There are certain steps that must be taken in order for a successful sale to occur. Usually the company needs to liquidate their debt and achieve profitability for a certain length of time before engaging in conversations with potential buyers.