Business Coaching Blog

The Growth Coach Blog Has Moved to a New Location

Resources@TheGrowthCoach.com — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Dear loyal blog readers, The Growth Coach Blog has moved to a new location. Our business coaching blog can now be found at a new domain, www.GrowthCoachBlog.com. This new location is powered by Word Press, giving us greater capabilities, better search engine optimization, and a more robust blog platform. We will keep this existing blog location as an Archive Blog, where you can access two-year’s worth of Growth Coach blog entries. Be sure to use the search feature on the left side to locate the business coaching content you desire. Here’s to you achieving More Success and More Life.

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

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Managing The Two Vital Worlds in Your Business: Front-Line & Back-Office

Resources@TheGrowthCoach.com — Thu, 27 May 2010 05:00:00 GMT

To be an effective business owner, you must adopt a CEO (Chief Executive Officer) mindset and big-picture perspective. As a leader, however, don’t fall prey to complexity or sophistication. Don't over-complicate the business for your customers or employees. Fight to keep your business simple and straightforward...it's much easier to manage and for your employees to "get it".

At all costs, keep complexity, confusion and chaos to a minimum. After all, simplicity allows for clarity of focus, and focus allows for superior performance. In short, simple is better and more profitable. This Growth Coach blog is dedicated to a simple framework by which to see and guide your enterprise.

First, as owner/CEO, you are ultimately responsible for the company’s leadership process (direction, strategy, focus, goals, accountability) and the business development process (building a systems-based business that is self-managing and nearly runs on auto-pilot). Those are chiefly YOUR responsibilities...leadership and business architecture. After that, there are only a handful of additional major processes you need to ensure are in place, well documented, and working smoothly and optimally.

And luckily, you can lump all these other processes together into one of two buckets...either front-line interacting with the customers/prospects or back-office providing support to the front-line. At The Growth Coach franchise system, we coach several thousand clients each year from every industry imaginable. Over the years, our small business clients have used different metaphors to refer to these two vital worlds within any business: front-stage and back-stage; front-line and back-office; on stage and off stage; externally focused and internally focused; or operations and administration. Pick a metaphor that makes sense for your business. Below are some additional details about these two vital worlds:

Front-Line: Marketing, Selling, Operations & Customer Service
In brief, the marketing process generates leads, the selling process generates customers by closing leads, and the operations process fulfills the promises made to the customers. Completing the business cycle is the customer service process that follows up with the customer to ensure satisfaction with the current transaction and uncover any other unmet needs. Since the purpose of any business is to find, satisfy and keep customers...marketing, selling, operations, and customer service processes should be your top priorities and areas of focus. Are they?

Back-Office Support Functions
While important, back-office support functions (finance/accounting process to manage money; human resources to manage employee issues; and infrastructure to manage technology, facilities, administration, etc.) should be secondary priorities and focused on supporting your company’s main mission...attracting, serving and satisfying customers.

As leader, be sure you and your employees spend your time and energy focusing on your company’s core processes and competencies – those functions that you do extremely well as an organization and which add real value to the customer. Keeping business simple will help you stay focused on what is most important and keep you away from the low-value clutter and trivial stuff that can rob you of your time, passion and sanity. Continued success balancing both worlds: front-line and back-office.

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

Closing the Performance and Satisfaction Gap

Resources@TheGrowthCoach.com — Thu, 20 May 2010 05:00:00 GMT

As a business owner, executive or professional, do you have a performance and satisfaction gap between where you ARE today and where you want to BE? Sure you do. We all do. The gap is the difference between where your business is now (current reality) and where you want it to be (an ideal future).

How big is that difference, your gap? The more you are dissatisfied with your current reality, the larger the gap. And the larger the gap between your current realities and desires, the more you need objective business coaching services to help you bridge those differences. You already know in your gut that you could benefit dramatically from business coaching...nearly every entrepreneur can.

Could you do it on your own? Perhaps...but highly doubtful. Most owners are too busy to slow down and think, too close to their own situation to be objective, and lack the discipline, process, and on-going accountability to make the transformation happen.

As your virtual business coach, know that your performance and expectation gap is merely a current condition that can be changed. You do not have to remain stuck. You can absolutely close that gap and achieve greater success and fulfillment in your business and life. However, for conditions to change, you must be willing to change.

Here are 5 Growth Coach steps you must take and preferably with some professional, objective and year-round coaching and accountability assistance:

1. Face reality about where your business is right now (good, bad and ugly) and take 100% responsibility for those current conditions and results. Greater success tomorrow starts with taking full responsibility today. Blame no one else, make no excuses, and allow for no justifications.

2. Establish clarity about where you want your business to be and how you want your business to look and perform (ideal business). Establish a vivid mental picture. A proven coaching process can help you establish real clarity and a strategic and effective direction.

3. Acknowledge and accept the gap between #1 (your current reality) and #2 (your ideal business) and know with certainty that you can close that gap with focused action. Odds are, you will be disappointed with the size of your performance gap. That's perfectly normal. Simply channel those emotions into constructive actions.

4. Put a focused plan of action together for the next 90 days to move you and your organization toward your ideal future. Review and update your strategic planner every 90 days without exception and without end. Get feedback and make adjustments. Objective and honest observation/feedback will make a huge difference.

5. Allow yourself to be held accountable for executing on that focused plan of action. This is the final and most critical step. Here is where most business owners fall short. Hire an objective business coach to help hold your feet to the fire...to drive implementation. Accountability and repetition will allow you to change your mindset and behavior and get the results you desire. Without accountability, your gap will remain wide and you will remain unsatisfied.

Summed up...Coaching + Accountability=Successful Mindset & Behavior Change=Superior Results.

To begin your journey of closing the gap, click on this link to download a free copy of our business coaching book called, "Becoming a Strategic Business Owner."

To locate a certified Growth Coach near you, click here.

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

For a Better Business & Better Life...Become a Better Owner

Resources@TheGrowthCoach.com — Thu, 13 May 2010 05:00:00 GMT

This Growth Coach blog is intended to assist and educate business owners, executives and professionals thinking about getting some business coaching help. You will find several links below to four website pages with short, informational videos in the upper right corner. These videos should provide you with additional insight about The Growth Coach, our business coaching quarterly workshop process (Strategic Mindset), the benefits of business coaching, and an brief overview of our guaranteed coaching services. In less than 10 minutes, you will be a much better informed buyer of business coaching services.

Once you review these videos, be sure to contact one of our certified business coaches nearest you to discuss your particular situation, objectives, and to learn more about our coaching solutions. Mention this Growth Coach blog and there will be no obligation or cost for your initial 90-minute coaching session. Why wouldn't you take advantage of a free, coaching test drive? Bottom line, for your business to grow, you must grow as an owner, leader, and business architect...we can help.

Remember, once you engage one of our certified Growth Coaches, you still have nothing to risk or lose...we provide a money-back guarantee on all our initial coaching services.

Like every top-caliber athlete committed to peak performance, do yourself a favor and invest in a coach. Why not earn more, work less, and enjoy a richer life? After all, every business owner, executive and professional deserves a business coach, a better business, and a better life. Don't you?

Click here for the page with our video on the Benefits of Business Coaching.

Click here for the page with the video on our Guaranteed Business Coaching Services.

Click here for the page with the video on our Quarterly Coaching Workshops.

Click here for the page with the video on The Growth Coach and our Coaching Approach.

Click here to locate and talk to a Growth Coach near you.

Hope you enjoyed reviewing these videos and learning more about The Growth Coach and business coaching. And yes, we should have paid money for a better looking and sounding spokesperson...my mistake.

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