Many small businesses, including the traditional family business, function in that space often referred to as a “Lifestyle” business.
What is a Lifestyle business? Generally described, Lifestyle is meant to describe the type of business that provides you, your family or your partners, with a manageable living income but not necessarily a business that provides the owners with an income that generates long term wealth.
Lifestyle businesses are not a bad thing—many times that is exactly what the owner/owners desire.
However, too often, owners are caught in Lifestyle businesses without even knowing how they got there and certainly with no idea of how to escape. That feeling of being trapped with a business can become overwhelming, particularly as owners age and begin to see the mortality of their work with no way of escape.
That trapped feeling may consist of not knowing how to grow the business or not knowing how to escape the business or just being to dang busy to do anything but survive in the business.
Those feelings are emotionally draining. Many small business owners caught in this situation find their work languishing. They may start losing motivation and the desire to improve their business. Things that would normally drive them crazy become acceptable—the inevitable slip starts to creep in and the little details that used to be corrected are left to decay in the corners.
Of course, the small corners of decay will fester, like and virus or bacteria, and begin to slowly grow outward. The business begins to show signs of stagnation or even failure but they are often unseen by the tired person in charge.
Even worse, the stress and frustration of a stagnant or failing business can often lead to other personal issues—bad marriages, over-eating, over-drinking, personal depression, anxiety, poor sleep habits, etc., etc.
Sometimes, like anything in life, we flat out need help to overcome what seems overwhelming and/or impossible.
One way that can be done, particularly for small business owners, is to hire a personal business coach or even a life coach.
For most people, the thought of hiring a coach is an immediate no—perhaps even a hell no.
For those that might be struggling in their business, as mentioned above, there is the immediate thought of money, “How will I afford a personal coach? I am barely making ends meet as it is.”
Other immediate negative impulses, and likely more influential than not having enough money, believe it or not, is the damaged ego.
Ego and pride are powerful emotions that affect the best of us. What does it say about us if we hire a business coach? Many of us worry the subtle message is, “I am not smart enough. I am not strong enough. I am not good enough.”
This quiet dialogue going on, almost beneath the radar of our conscious thought, is powerful. Most of us would do better, not only regarding this coaching issue but all the issues we face, to take that pride and set it out on the table where it can be clearly seen and understood. Individual pride is a weapon that has sewn countless threads of disaster and failure in the human story, whether business or other.
Clearly, there may be other immediate reason to say no—perhaps you don’t think your business partner, your father, your sibling, etc. will buy into having a coach, perhaps you think finding the right person to understand your issues is impossible or perhaps you flat out don’t want someone telling you what to do, but the end game is still the same—the answer is no.
Perhaps consider a few counter points to the issues above.
Too much money—you might be surprised what a little investment into a coach could provide for you in return on investment.
We started this conversation, in the beginning, with the idea that many small business owners and family business owners are caught in Lifestyle businesses or in a rut of sorts. In those situations, although the money is likely dripping out of the facet, business owners might be shocked at how that can change with a few key upgrades in their business.
That little drip of cash, if invested right, could produce much better long-term business results.
A real life example from a personal coach that I know well, Jarod Hancock at JPH Coaching (www.jphcoaching.com) (PS, I am not getting paid to mention Jarod…he is a personal friend and in my opinion a great coach), goes as follows:
He was recently working with a client that owned a small café/restaurant in rural Wyoming.
His client felt frustrated about the lack of profitability the restaurant was enduring. Even worse, he was frustrated about how long he had worked there, owning and operating the business—something his mother had started and now he owned, almost by accident. He had dreams of retiring but didn’t know how that would happen. He employed some family members and still, even though he had owned and run the business for many years, felt like his mother had too much influence on how the business was organized and managed.
The situation, like all of them, was complex and frustrating.
A series of discussions, coaching sessions, ensued where, together, coach and client, they unwound the complexity of both business issues and family issues. Very soon into the process, through these coaching discussions, they ‘discovered’ that the menu prices had not been adjusted upward for inflation in over eight years.
This was a problem. The crazy thing about this ‘discovery’ is that the business owner knew it was an issue. He had known the problem needed to be addressed, but because life was so busy and the business was so hectic, and he wasn’t quite sure how much to raise the prices, and he wasn’t sure how his customers would react, and his mother was old school and thought the prices were fine, he had procrastinated the decision. Months of procrastination slipped to years and years slipped until nearly a decade of time.
The obvious fix to raise menu prices now, because of a few coaching session, became enormously apparent!
Together they discussed how much of an increase would be tolerable to the restaurant’s customer base. They determined around 10%. Using the new numbers, they scratched out what a 10% increase mean to bottom line profits. The dollar amount was substantial, totally around $90-110K per year.
They formulated a plan for an immediate menu and pricing upgrade. Even more, they formulated a plan for yearly price/menu upgrades to stay current with inflation.
They strategized about what time of year to make the price increases. The brainstormed about how to make the menu look more modern.
In addition, they talked about top selling menu items vs rarely sold menu items. Plans were drawn up to take three or four bottom selling items off the menu and try new items that more closely matched the top sellers.
Several great ideas where generated in a few coaching sessions. Enthusiasm replaced frustration and this restaurant owner all the sudden had a source of hope.
The last piece, of course, would be executing the plan—actually doing the work! This effective coach laid out an execution plan that he would be using as a follow-up tool, holding his client accountable for action and implementation, which, not surprisingly, also gave the restaurant owner hope and motivation.
In this case, five thousand dollars’ worth of coaching time looks like a great ROI for what seems to be one hundred thousand dollars in return.
This is, admittedly, is a simple example but it is a true, real-life story that illustrates that many times business owners are so deep into the weeds of their businesses that having a person pull them up for air is invaluable and worth the investment.
Certainly, every case is different but low hanging fruit is often available and discoverable when an outsider has a chance to take a fresh view of your business.
What about your pride?
As I said earlier, this might be more tricky than the money. Overcoming one’s ego is extremely difficult.
To that point, I believe it is important to find the right kind of coach—emotions play a big role in the effectiveness of the relationship.
Each coaching relationship needs to be examined carefully—personality, life goals, values, experience—all play a big part in the success of the relationship.
Take, for a very simple example, the idea of political ideology. It makes little sense to hire a coach that has opposite political perspectives. Religion is another hot spot where diverging opinions can be very emotional and create conflict.
More subtle than politics and religion, however, one might consider quiet but important ideas about values. Hire a coach whose values align with your own.
I have personal experience with this issue. Fortunately, we learn from our mistakes and this was a mistake I made in my career. I was introduced to a very wealthy entrepreneur from lovely Atlanta, Georgia. He valued making money and I was enticed by his obvious success.
He lived on an enormous estate outside of Atlanta, just like one would imagine from the movies. His front yard was enormous and the long driveway to his white house atop a hill was visionary. His neighbors included the whose who of Georgia wealth and influence was known wherever we visited.
The man knew how to make money and I wanted to learn.
Unfortunately, what I soon learned, and almost too late, was that making money was his sole life objective, which meant no sacrifice whatsoever was worth leaving money on the table, including family and friends and including me.
I tried to build a relationship with him. I worked on it for months. I put him on my board and invited him to my business. He invited me to his home and his businesses. Internally, even though this is embarrassing to admit, I thought that if I could get close enough to him and prove my discipleship, as it were, that he would become softer and take me under his wing.
As time went on, I could see that our values flat out did not align.
He tutored me once with some stinging words that I will never forget, “Rich, you have got to be the most conflicted person I have ever met. You need to set aside some of the real distraction in your life and focus your energy one hundred percent of creating wealth.”
Those distractions which had been part of our many conversations included the volunteer work I offered to my church. It included me coaching my son’s football team. It included squeezing out some family members in my business. These were sacrifices that I was not willing to make—these were the conflicts to which he was referring.
I knew at that moment that this coaching relationship was ill-fated and I should have recognized that early on—I was blinded by pride and ego.
Finding the right kind of coach, which I subsequently was able to do, provided just the opposite impact on me. He valued the same things I valued. He understood the many conflicts that pulled me away from work. He loved that I was the offensive coordinator for my son’s football team, even though we ran the double wing.
Together, we worked on ways where my business and personal life could co-exist. My goal was to be a provider and a father, not the richest man in the state.
Pride can catch us in so many ways. Not hiring a coach or, in my example, hiring the wrong kind of coach because our ego gets in the way is a poor choice.
If you sense getting a coach on your team would help you uncover some hidden potential, which I argue is will, then set your pride aside and have the courage to at least research it.
We have talked about money and pride. There are, obviously, many other issues.
Many times getting a partner or your family leadership team to agree on coaching is frustratingly hard. Most people, as already mentioned, will immediately see this as a waste of money—perhaps even a luxury type expense. On top of that, finding the right kind of coach is not always easy.
Coaching might be something as short as a few months or as long as several years.
Furthermore, small business owners and family business owners should consider that coaches come with specialties—you might have one type of coach that is great at financial issues and another that specializes in marketing issues.
Take any sports team and think about the various coaches in the organization—big-man coaches, shooting coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, o-line coaches, linebacker coaches, pitching coaches, etc., etc.
There is nothing wrong with employing a coach for a few months to help in a specific area and then changing it up.
If you want more of a life coach with a long relationship that is a great choice as well.
This is a very individual choice and it is a wide and deep field. I might suggest, however, as a sort of last testimony that the best athletes and athletic teams in the world all have coaches.
The coaching industry is gaining traction in the business world for a reason—it can produce better performance.
Great coaches will hold you accountable. Great coaches will help you set a vision for your life and business. Great coaches will be able to see your weak spots. Great coaches will be able to take advantage of your strengths.
Unlike traditional consultants, great business coaches, in my opinion, should be there to help you financially and emotionally.
It is lonely at the top—we all know that. Great coaches, if nothing else, give you a listening ear and can be a powerful source of support.
Ultimately, nearly all good performers and teams are led by a coach. The time might be right for you to deeply consider deploying those tactics for yourself and your business team.