Today, I want to take you inside my Business Breakthrough Day; my VIP coaching day, aimed at helping you grow your business, maximise the benefits that coaching can bring, whilst minimising the time needed to gain clarity, direction, and focus and start seeing results.
What is a VIP Coaching Day?
Quite simply, it is a day dedicated entirely to you, and the challenges you are facing in your business. There is no agenda, no template, the format of the day is defined by you. Typically, we meet away from your office. Recently, I have met clients at Monks Yard Business Centre, at Yeovil Innovation Centre, and at The Castle Hotel, Taunton. We have an initial discussion around the challenges you are experiencing and then I will support you in discovering the best solution. A quick bite at lunchtime is included in the cost, and we normally conclude at around 3.30 pm.
Why chose a full VIP Coaching Day, rather than session?
Some clients are impatient to get the ball rolling and implement the changes that coaching can bring. Others prefer the time away from their organisation that a dedicated coaching day offers, meaning they can focus on the coaching, minus the distractions of daily business life. Some coachees value the “quick intervention” nature of a dedicated coaching day, whilst others follow up an initial coaching day with, for example, monthly 1:1 coaching sessions to ensure accountability and that they stay on track.
A VIP Coaching Day is suitable for you if you’re just starting out and want to eliminate many of the obstacles in the way of starting your own business, if you’re looking to scale your business, or even, if you’re employed and looking to work on mindset, or blocks in the way of your success, or to improve your own performance, perhaps ready for your first leadership or management role.
So, why should you invest in a coaching day and how will it benefit you and your business? Below are some questions I asked of two recent coachees, both of whom have benefitted from a Business Breakthrough Coaching Day with me. (Names have been changed, but the participants are real!)
Small Business Sarah
Sarah is a sole trader, running a small B2C business, offering garden design services to homeowners. She wanted to scale her business, by growing a small team of ground workers, and to create a strategy to achieve that. In addition, she wanted to explore creating a passive income to, quite literally, “weatherproof” her income.
Why did you decide on a VIP Coaching Day, rather than longer-term coaching?
You’d think that I would be patient, given that my job involves planting and nurturing growth over seasons, but I knew I wanted to get clear on my future vision and get plans in place to avoid the fluctuation in business that bad weather can bring. I know that a coaching day would take me away from the business for a day, and I’m usually quite reticent in doing that, but I knew I could achieve more by investing a chunk of time, rather than time each week. It also fitted better into my diary, as time can be difficult to arrange week on week when I would much rather be outdoors tending a customer’s garden!
What did you find beneficial about the VIP Coaching Day?
To be honest, I don’t get much time to focus on my business and to develop a strategy. Outside of business, I’m a mum of three, and so dedicated focus time can be hard to find. This day with you allowed me to drop the kids at school, and then a whole day to focus on my business and my future plans. It felt like a real luxury, and I feel like I made so much more progress in just one day, than I would have in weeks of coaching.
What has been the impact on you and your business after the Coaching Day?
Through the coaching on the day, I was able to see the gaps in my business, and from there create a “love to have” job spec. which I have since used as the basis for my recruitment process. I now have two team members; one doing all the admin, meaning invoices are finally going out on time, and being paid on time, too, and one gardener, which has been a game-changer. Because of their geographical location, I am now able to offer design services to a much larger area. This is the first step to creating my “dream team”
My “admin. lady” has meant that I am able to spend more time with my children, without worrying that I have office work to do, and I actually have some free time – I don’t know myself! I hadn’t previously considered expanding my team to include office support, but the coaching allowed me to see that my time is better spent doing what I love, earning an income and working on expanding my services and my team, so it’s an extra step, but I have a clear idea now of the advantages of it.
Mid-Business Mark
Mark is a B2B supplier of office equipment. He has one office, supported by his team, comprising administrative staff, warehouse and dispatch staff and regional home-based managers. As business has increased in the past two years, he is looking for ways to efficiently scale, whilst pursuing his plan of retiring within the next 10 years.
Why did you decide on a VIP Coaching Day, rather than longer-term coaching?
I have had some coaching previously, and found it useful, but to be honest, I found it difficult to take full advantage of it. Life got in the way, and I often found myself distracted, fire-fighting whatever was happening in the business, rather than being able to dedicate the time to coaching activity. I enjoyed the VIP Coaching Day, and, as mentioned, am now planning a quarterly “away-day” for reflection.
The time away from my role was really beneficial. As I said to you, I have an “open-door” policy at work, which is great for employees, but a distraction for me when I need to get my head down. The technique you taught me that allows me to maintain communication with staff, whilst ring-fencing my time has worked well. I wouldn’t have thought of it, so thank you.
What did you find beneficial about the VIP Coaching Day?
I know that my longer-term plan is to retire, but I was unsure what that meant on a practical level. You were able to help me identify the options open to me and to look at the best course of action for now, whilst building in regular reviews as I get nearer my deadline date.
Through the gap analysis work we did, I was able to clearly see weaknesses in not only my processes, but also in how I was using my team. I was initially quite resistant to delegating more, but after the work we did, I saw a clear pathway that would allow a member of staff to take on management of some of my role, freeing up my time to focus on the areas that we had identified as needing my attention, particularly around business development.
That space to fully focus on a strategy was invaluable. I realised as we worked through everything that, although I thought I was clear on how to best grow my business, it was all a bit “wooly.” The time we spent together allowed me to identify key steps that I need to action.
What has been the impact on you and your business after the Coaching Day?
I’m not sure my ego can take it, but I’ve realised that I can take time out from my business, without any major catastrophe occurring! I have created a much more effective “chain of command” within the organisation and have some key tools that I can use to optimise performance of key staff members. I can see where the weaker areas are, and we have now started creating processes to improve these.
I have clearly defined goals, and specific KPIs to measure success against. This has been beneficial not only for me but in communicating the future vision of (the company) to my team. We are now more cohesive in the way we work.
If you would like to spend a full day away from the distractions of working IN your business and, instead, focus on working ON your business, for example, clarifying your goals, creating your vision, improving team performance, or identifying weaknesses, then you can find more details here. Still have a question? Contact me for a no-obligation chat.
