Business Owner<\/a>, as your virtual Growth Coach<\/a>, let me ask you a direct question.\u00a0 What’s holding your company back from greater levels of success?\u00a0<\/strong> Come on, be brutally honest and courageous enough to focus on at least 3 circumstances, conditions, things or people preventing your company from achieving greater results.\u00a0 Go ahead, think of your top 3 barriers, challenges and obstacles.\u00a0 Got them clearly in your head?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

OK, let me guess.\u00a0 Of your challenges, all 3 of them were external to you, the owner.\u00a0 Am I right?<\/strong>\u00a0 It’s not that hard to predict … nearly all entrepreneurs attribute success to themselves and challenges to others.\u00a0 That\u2019s human nature.\u00a0 Owners tend to look outside of and beyond themselves and to blame other things, conditions, circumstances and people for holding the company back.\u00a0 Very few owners are enlightened enough and honest enough to say, \u201cI am one of the main reasons holding this company back\u201d.\u00a0 Are you such an exception?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look carefully at your answers.\u00a0 Were your top 3 obstacles, challenges, and barriers (instead of squarely focused on YOU) more about “external factors”<\/strong> like the struggling economy, politics, government regulation, your industry, your competition, the housing crisis, your sales or marketing teams, your managers, other employees, your customers, your suppliers\/vendors, your products\/services, access to capital, the rising cost of fuel and product materials, etc.?\u00a0 Probably these or other similar \u201cexternal factors\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, aren’t most, if not all of these, merely excuses?\u00a0<\/strong> At a minimum, aren’t your competitors facing the same challenges?\u00a0 Then in truth, aren’t you blaming your lack of favorable business results on certain conditions or other people?\u00a0 Maybe even playing the \u201cvictim\u201d card a bit?\u00a0 If so, you are giving your power away to own the results and to make positive changes and adjustments.\u00a0 Bottom line, you are saying that the situation is out of your control, that you are a powerless pawn to circumstances and other people, and that you prefer to feel better telling yourself “poor me stories”. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

OUCH!!\u00a0<\/em> Sorry if I hit a nerve but at The Growth Coach Franchise<\/a>, we believe in tough-love business coaching<\/a><\/strong> to help entrepreneurs wake-up, truly transform their mindsets and habits, and to enjoy greater success and balance.\u00a0 To do so, business owners have to embrace that they are 100% responsible for the business results generated<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sadly, all human beings and most business owners (me included) are experts from time to time at developing reasonable sounding, believable, and comforting excuses<\/strong>. It\u2019s a mental coping mechanism to avoid painful reality and results.\u00a0 Instead of accepting responsibility for undesirable results and going to work making necessary changes, it’s far easier to blame others or circumstances.\u00a0 We tell ourselves comforting lies.\u00a0 Then, nothing is required on our part … tragic but all too common.<\/p>\n

Do not fall prey to that \u201cvictimhood mentality\u201d … it accomplishes NOTHING and only breeds even bigger problems.<\/strong>\u00a0 After all, it\u2019s not that you have problems that is the problem, it\u2019s that you don\u2019t own up to and fix the problems promptly … making excuses and playing denial is the real problem.<\/p>\n

You deserve better.\u00a0<\/strong> Stop blaming, complaining or justifying why things aren’t working out.\u00a0 Don’t settle for less and for the status quo.\u00a0 Stop feeding yourself comforting stories and excuses that make you feel better on a temporary basis but do absolutely nothing to help advance your business.<\/p>\n

Let this be a tough-love, wake-up call for you and others you care about.\u00a0 If you aren’t happy with the results you are getting from your business, blame no one but yourself<\/strong> and stop wasting time on fabricating excuses.\u00a0 As I just told a large Growth Coach training class this week … you can either spend time making money or making excuses, but not both.\u00a0 You can also choose to be a winner or a whiner. \u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

To be a consistent winner, take 100% responsibility for the results of your business and your personal life.\u00a0<\/strong> That means learning to accept the fact that your thinking and actions to date have attracted nearly everything to your business … results, conditions, circumstances and people.\u00a0 All the good, bad and ugly outcomes in your business were in large part attracted because of YOU and\/or the conditions you\u2019ve established.\u00a0 Can you accept such full responsibility? \u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If you can, you are a winner and your success cannot be denied.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t, that makes you more of a whiner and susceptible to excuses.\u00a0<\/strong> Sorry, but that\u2019s a key distinction between a winner and a whiner … accepting full responsibility as the owner for all results of your business.<\/p>\n

Winners own the good, bad and the ugly outcomes. Winners face and accept the truth and then decide to improve upon those circumstances going forward.\u00a0 They make the changes\/adjustments necessary for better results.\u00a0 Whiners do not.<\/p>\n

Here is some more tough-love business coaching<\/a>.\u00a0 If you want a better business, you must become a better owner.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you want better sales results, you must hire better salespeople.\u00a0 If you want better employees, you must find better managers to find better employees.\u00a0 You must also become a better business worthy to attract better managers and employees.\u00a0 Similarly, if you want better customers, your company must become worthy enough to attract better customers. If you want better services\/products, you must listen to the feedback of your better customers. As you can see, a business only gets better if the people in the business get better …\u00a0 especially the owner.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As we stated, you can either make excuses or make more money. You can either make excuses or create a better business.\u00a0 You can be a winner or a whiner.\u00a0 Which do you choose?<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 So let’s go back to the beginning of this Growth Coach business coaching<\/a> blog and try again.\u00a0 No really … what’s holding your company back from greater levels of success?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Business Owner, as your virtual Growth Coach, let me ask you a direct question.\u00a0 What’s holding your company back from greater levels of success?\u00a0 Come on, be brutally honest and courageous enough to focus on at least 3 circumstances, conditions, things or people preventing your company from achieving greater results.\u00a0 Go ahead, think of your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[855,857,876,930,1105,951,858,860,861,1059,863,897,864,935,865,937,867],"class_list":["post-1945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-coaching","tag-benefits-of-business-coaching","tag-business-coach","tag-business-coaching","tag-business-coaching-advice","tag-business-coaching-guarantee","tag-business-coaching-tips","tag-business-owner","tag-business-owner-mindset","tag-business-systems","tag-delegation","tag-entrepreneur","tag-growth-coach","tag-leadership","tag-marketing","tag-small-business-management","tag-strategic-business-owner","tag-strategic-mindset"],"yoast_head":"\n