The Growth Coach, a North American business coaching franchise system, serves several thousand small business clients each and every year.  Before we coach these companies, many of them have an existing flaw in their business model...very limited or no leverage.  What's leverage? It's about getting the greatest results with the least amount of effort, especially YOUR effort. It's about working smarter, not just harder. It's about multiplying your results.  Do you have leverage in your business or are you doing it all?  Are you harnessing the power of employees, alliances, marketing, technology, outsourcing, or even a better business model to give you more leverage? If not, why not?

Too many owners are wearing all the hats and doing all the work. They are doing everything themselves or utilizing too few employees. Very often, they are merely swapping their time and sweat for money.  Sadly, they are deriving most, if not all of their income off their own efforts...very often focused on serving one customer/client at a time. That creates a limited "income ceiling" and makes running a business very difficult.  Again, got leverage?

At first, many of our new business coaching clients and hesitant prospects try and defend their lack of leverage. Many will say that they love being self-employed, having no or very few employees, or remaining a hands-on technician (doer) in all facets of the business.  At The Growth coach, we think that's fine if it's truly their CHOICE to do so. After all, a business first and foremost should satisfy the lifestyle needs, wants and dreams of the owner...regardless of the business' structure, shape or size. The business should be a vehicle to give an owner a richer and fuller life however they define that.  No business however, under any circumstances, should steal your life and leave you  feeling constantly overworked, overwhelmed and like a prisoner to the business.

Therefore, if your business is fulfilling your lifestyle and financial goals and you consciously chose to work "in" your business instead of "on" your business, then that is a good choice for you. Your choice, your life, your business.  However, there can be unintended consequences with that choice...like stunted growth, an income ceiling, not making money when you aren't working, and at times being totally consumed by the business.  Also, if you are the business and the business is you, it will be tough to sell such an owner-dependent business at all or for much money.

We at The Growth Coach help challenge those owners with limited leverage in their business AND who wish to change that predicament.  These clients don't want to be stuck in a rut...they want better ways to run their business and their life.  They don't want the business totally centered around them and dependent on them for solving every problem and touching every transaction.  They don't want to be trapped working "in" the business.  For them, the business just grew and took shape by default, not by design.  For many owners, the business "just happened". Then, one day they wake up and are buried by the business.  The business is running them, they are not running the business.  They are working a job instead of owning a business.  Those are the clients The Growth Coach helps to achieve greater success, balance, freedom, and fulfillment.

No matter what type of business model you are running (even if you are a one-person company), this virtual business coach challenges you to add leverage to your business.  It can be done with the some planning and creativity.  You simply need to adopt a mindset of leverage...intelligent laziness...where you no longer wish to do all the work...where you want to make more money with less effort...where you want to multiply your results.

For sake of illustration, let's examine the business coaching industry.  Many well-intentioned people decide to become business coaches on their own.  Invariably, they start out by doing one-to-one coaching, swapping their time and experience for money.  There is only so many hours in a day and only so many clients they can serve.  Unfortunately, there is no leverage there...their business model is flawed...UNLESS that is the CHOICE they make.

I know this well because for the first two years in my coaching business ('92-'94), I did just that.  I was a business coach with limited leverage, a ceiling on my income, and working very, very hard.  After a little while, it felt more like a job than a business.  However, at that time (unlike now) I had no desire to have employees in the first few years..that was my lifestyle choice.  But I also knew I needed to get some kind of leverage and fast.  That's when I had a real breakthrough...  it struck me, why coach only one-to-one when I could coach a roomful with a structured and powerful coaching process?  I converted my one-on-one coaching process (Strategic Mindset Process) into a group-coaching process...serving multiple clients at the same time over multiple years. 

It took some time to convert my business model to have greater leverage but the results were incredible.  Once I perfected the group-coaching process my income exploded and my life became much easier...I discovered financial leverage.  It no longer felt like a job..I had flexibility, dramatically reduced working hours per week, greater fulfillment, and significantly more income.  I was happy.  So were my clients...they too benefited from my adopting a better business model with leverage.  Because of the group workshops, I could charge my clients less per year and serve more of them at the same time over multiple years.  The coaching was more affordable for them and more profitable for me...a win-win arrangement. They also enjoyed going through the coaching process with other business owners where they could share "best practices", camaraderie, and provide accountability to each other.  This innovative coaching process, along with the marketing strategies I developed to gain even greater leverage, became the foundation of The Growth Coach franchise system.

If I could put leverage into a professional service like business coaching, surely you can put more leverage into your business.  Challenge your assumptions and business model.  Ask how can I serve 10 times or even 100 times the number of clients I now serve?  How can I produce 10 times or 100 times the widgets we now make?  How can I get greater results with less effort?  How can I multiply my results?  How can I work smarter, not harder?   Consider some of these ideas for greater leverage:

• Hire employees or add more employees
• Utilize independent contractors
• Outsource low-value tasks to a third-party providers (payroll processing, bookkeeping, etc.)
• Form strategic alliances with organizations serving and marketing to your same type of client
• Use the leverage of marketing (selling one to many): speeches, seminars, joint ventures, direct mail, tele-marketing, advertising, formalized referral sources, social media, e-marketing, PR, etc.
• Reformulate your business model to serve more clients at the same time (e.g. group coaching vs. one-to-one)
• Consider lean manufacturing automation
• Systematize your business by creating, documenting and continually improving all your key processes, procedures, and policies - trust the business system you put into place and get out of the details
• Use the leverage of technology: interactive website, e-mail marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click, customer relationship management system, etc.

Make GREATER LEVERAGE a top objective for you and your business in 2010.

Daniel M. Murphy
President, Founder, & Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System
Certified Business Coaches throughout North America