Business Development

EXODUS "ON-BUSINESS" DEVELOPMENT

Most people are naturally good at one or two parts of their business. And naturally, that's where they focus most of their time and attention. It's easier and it's more fun to do the things you're good at. In my early years as founder of Exodus Tax Services, I fell into the same trap. My wife and I were masters at selling and promoting our business, and very knowledgeable about taxes. Each year sales grew, but profits were, well... disappointing.

We wondered how we could be working so hard, doing so much, and still not managing to get ahead. Quite simply, we didn’t take the time or effort to learn the set of skills we lacked. Our expense planning was sloppy; our operational standards were low; and our inventory management non-existent. Pretty soon we decided we had to acquire those skills or suffer the unhappy consequences.

There is certainly no question today that superior coaching has become a weapon of professional and Olympic athletes. A sporting coach is action oriented and results oriented, and measures success by the actual winning scores achieved, not by talking about possibilities. The sporting coach also will push an athlete to achieve optimum performance, will provide support when the athlete is exhausted, and will teach the athlete to execute plays that the competition does not anticipate. The sporting coach will make the athlete run more laps than he or she feels like doing. The coach will tell the athlete the truth, and the athlete will listen.

Similarly, the role of the business coach is to educate business owners to generate the actions to provide superior competitive results and measured business performance through guidance, focus, ideas, processes, support, encouragement and accountability.

The business coach will help the leaders of businesses with their professional and personal goal setting, management, team building, operational productivity, financial management, sales, marketing, advertising and many other business related activities that can produce measurable systems to generate improved profitability.

Business coaching involves activities that can be specifically measured, because if you can't measure the results, particularly financial, you can't tell if you are improving.

There is no doubt that business owners in today's world are finding it harder than ever to have the knowledge to keep pace with all the changes and innovations that are accelerating each year.

And as the world of business continues to move faster and becomes globally more competitive, having a business coach is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. Bob Nardelli, CEO of Home Depot, in July 2002 said, "I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities."

People who are exceptionally good in business are not so because of what they know from their own experiences. They are successful because of their insatiable need to know more. The problem with business owners who have failing or poorly performing businesses is that they spend their time and energy defending what they think they know.

Business coaching is about processes, education and learning, establishing business and personal goals, and is focused on continuous activities to generate measurable results.

It can be applied to any type of business, whether it be manufacturing, retail, or services, it can be in any industry category, and it can be business-to-business or business-to-consumer. However, the most likely candidates to benefit from business coaching tend to be owners of small to mid-size businesses where the owners have greater control to make specific changes to the business through their own highly motivated desire, and personal risk, versus executives of larger corporations with corporate staffing infrastructures and less personal financial risk.

The primary benefits of business coaching are to generate a rewarding experience for the business owner and to take the owner's business to another level of financial performance that is consistent with the owner's personal goals.

The owner needs to be able to work ON their business and to control the direction of the business as the visionary, strategist and as the entrepreneurial motivator, not to be working IN their business as a technical worker where they feel the business is "out of their control."

Why is Exodus On-Business Qualified to Help Me?

Benefits of a Business Coach