• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Hiring a business coach

gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Has anyone utilized the service of a business coach, or related courses/workshops to help grow your business and also improve yourself as a business owner? I'm personally so overwhelmed I don't know where to begin. I recently met with a highly recommended business coach and need to figure out if the cost and time input is worth it.

Apologies in advance if this brings a certain "listener" out of hiding.
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
I hired an Emyth coach a couple years ago. I had always dreamed of working with one since I read the book.

I didn't get as much out of it as I would have hoped, but I'm definitely partially at fault for that. I didn't like having to follow their specific format and focusing our efforts on things that weren't our biggest issues.
It wasn't cheap, and I don't have much to show for it, but I certainly learned some things from it.

Happy to answer any specific questions you have later.
 
V

victor bogdanov

Active Member
My guess is ROI will be low unless it is something highly specific like a wrapping class or another printshop specific class for a service/product you want to learn , how long have you been is business?
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
What exactly are you hoping to get from a business coach? I'm sure there are some good ones out there, but the old saying "Those who can't do...Teach" usually rings true.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Going into my third year soon. I need to finally get a business plan together and figure out where I want to take the business, and if my goals are reasonable.

There's also a few weekly networking meet-ups in my area specifically for B2B. Does anyone find success with these? I suck at public speaking.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Start by laying out your strengths and weaknesses to be honest with yourself. You should be able to easily identify where your own bottlenecks are without paying someone to give you a bunch of general text book nonsense. Oftentimes it is a personal weakness that causes you problems and no amount of business tips will fix it. Mine is procrastination, it has always been my Achilles heal. I wait for the last minute, cram everything in at once, get pissed off and overwhelmed and once its back to a manageable level, I space out until the work pile is full again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Generally speaking, if or when you go to hire someone, try to hire someone that is strong where you are weak which may help a bit.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
gnubler said:
Going into my third year soon. I need to finally get a business plan together and figure out where I want to take the business, and if my goals are reasonable.

There's also a few weekly networking meet-ups in my area specifically for B2B. Does anyone find success with these? I suck at public speaking.
Click to expand...
You need to focus, do you need a business plan or more business? What do you do? If you don't know what you do or where you want to go, how would networking be effective? Start with a road map and follow it.
 
StarSign

StarSign

New Member
A business coach is there to keep you accountable and help you work on the business not in the business. IMO, just google business management books and start reading them, that's what a business coach will do and he will charge you more than the 19.95 a book will cost.
 
Scotchbrite

Scotchbrite

No comment
If you have a community college nearby that offers business classes, you'll likely get more for your investment there. I took classes shortly after starting here and it really gave me a lot of information and a basis to grow from. One of the classes included writing a business plan. Taking evening classes will put in a group of similar people (older working adults) which makes the experience better.
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
Yes, still getting set up in the new place so no pics for you. Lots of good points in this thread, pretty much stated what I was already thinking, that the biggest problem is me...procrastination, not staying on track, seeing squirrels, etc. The business coach I met with said with a lot of her other clients they know what they should be doing and want to make the changes, but just don't do it. And pay her to not do what she recommends they do :p

So where's this sign shop manual you speak of? I NEED ONE. Or is it Signs101?
 
gnubler

gnubler

Active Member
victor bogdanov said:
I'm 12 years in and don't know what a business plan is
Click to expand...
Good, then it's not just me. When the sign shop came my way I had less than a month to lease a space and get up and running so I wouldn't lose the customer accounts. There was no time to dink around with a business plan, I had no idea. Robert sent me a DM soon after I joined the forum and scolded me for not starting the business the "right way". Guess I didn't "listen". :p
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
This is about 15 years ago. Wife met a business coach at a networking thing. Invited him to come out to the shop. He started out by having us fill out a rather lengthy questionnaire. I thought it was way too personal for being a business plan. Anyway, I left a lotta blanks and he got mad, asking me how was he to help us, if we don't fill everything in ?? He used lotsa key/buzz words and I started asking for some credentials and testimonials. He told me his record speaks for itself. . Okay, so who or what companies make up your record ?? Finally, my wife was showing him around the shop, so I looked through his notes and papers. He had only one account....... and that was 5 or 6 years prior to our meeting. They got back and said i hadda go. Can we reschedule ?? Never called the dipsh!t back. Every week, he'd ask my wife t the meetings what's going on ?? She just said we're really busy. Not long after that, he quit the group. Someone said it earlier, they don't know, jack.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
I think the SBA has free business consulting. Might be through score.org
It's mainly retired business people. You don't have to have a formal business plan but it's not good to not have any plan at all. You're gonna run yourself ragged without a vision and just going whichever way the wind blows. Yes, you can make money like that but it's stupid. If nothing else, your business plans will set your boundaries. There are a lot of people that post here that have none and you can really see them spinning their wheels. How do I do this, what about that? Throwing darts
Business is like dating. You can know what you want and move forward or just swipe right and bang everything that you come across.
 
V

victor bogdanov

Active Member
gnubler said:
The business coach I met with said with a lot of her other clients they know what they should be doing and want to make the changes, but just don't do it.
Click to expand...
Its like a fitness coach/trainer, everyone knows that they need to eat less and exercise more yet very few make the changes long term
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top