You know your professional advisors, investors and prospects are all looking for measurable progress in your growth and success. Here are 10 areas where an alliance with a small business coach can help you achieve those objectives.
1. Do more than you would do on your own.
With encouragement, support, focus and motivation; it is easier to get more done, and it doesn't have to cost more, take more time or ask the impossible.
2. Take yourself more seriously.
Being accountable encourages you to always work smart and make the best decisions. Your worth immediately increases. You approach your work with more confidence which adds credibility to everything you say or do. All this because you work with a coach, and get confidential support and expertise without the risks of ulterior motives or hidden agendas.
3. Create momentum and consistency.
When you set up systems that work for you, and for your business, it's easier to keep them going and track results reliably. Your coach will help you develop them and teach you how and why to keep them going to get the results you are looking for.
4. Take more effective and focused actions.
When you describe to another person what your options are and the reasoning behind your decisions, you have the opportunity to clarify each one and validate it before implementation. So consulting with a coach can be used as a safety net to prevent poor decisions being made, or as a brainstorming session about the strategic impact of a decision.
5. Become more balanced and fulfilled.
Being in business for yourself is hard enough. When you know you are out of balance and want to do something about it, being answerable to someone else about the changes you want to make and why can make it easier.
6. Find smart ways to save time.
There are great books and programs on time management. But if they worked for you, you wouldn't be having this problem. Your coach can make suggestions that fit your business model, your personality and your strengths to make this goal attainable.
7. Find smart ways to reduce costs/expenses.
It is a long road to learning what's going on and then how to change it, if you are not trained in accounting or business management. Your coach gets to look at your business through your eyes and customize solutions that will work well for you.
8. Increase sales or profitability.
Every business says they want to make more money, but are they really doing anything about it? Specific solutions you develop together will work much better than a generic formula from a book or course. You can't make excuses anymore.
9. Change the dynamics of employee and client relationships.
You are the only one who can make a change to get what you want from these relationships. Your coach can make suggestions; help you develop dialogs; and propose scenarios for you to work through using a variety of tools, techniques and training.
10. Eliminate the stress which you currently feel is inherent to project success or to the whole operation.
Stress can be physical or emotional. Both can be measured. You can consider and try many options to deliver the best results for your situation. The outcome will be more tangible and measurable results which you can use to make better or different choices for your health and your business model.
Entrepreneurshipis the act of being an entrepreneur, which is a French word meaning "one who undertakes an endeavor". Entrepreneurs assemble resources including innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response to a perceived opportunity or necessity. The most obvious form of entrepreneurship is that of starting new businesses; however, in recent years, the term has been extended to include social and political forms of entrepreneurial activity. When entrepreneurship is describing activities within a firm or large organization it is referred to as intra-preneurship and may include corporate venturing, when large entities start spin-off organizations.[1] Entrepreneurship is often a difficult undertaking, as a vast majority of new businesses fail. Nevertheless such undertaking supposes the development of more than just a business venture. Entrepreneurial activities are substantially different depending on the type of organization that is being started.
Entrepreneurshipranges in scale from solo projects (even involving the entrepreneur only part-time) to major undertakings creating many job opportunities. Many "high value" entrepreneurial ventures seek venture capital or angel funding in order to raise capital to build the business. Angel investors generally seek returns of 20-30% and more extensive involvement in the business.[2] Many kinds of organizations now exist to support would-be entrepreneurs, including specialized government agencies, business incubators, science parks, and some NGOs. Lately more holistic conceptualizations of entrepreneurship as a specific mindset (see also entrepreneurial mindset) resulting in entrepreneurial initiatives e.g. in the form of social entrepreneurship, political entrepreneurship, or knowledge entrepreneurship emerged.
Anentrepreneuris a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. [1]. The term is originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome. Jean-Baptiste Say, a French economist is believed to have coined the word "entrepreneur" first in about 1800. He said an entrepreneur is "one who undertakes an enterprise, especially a contractor, acting as intermediatory between capital and labour.[2]"
Entrepreneurial successis central for enhancing the economic opportunity of nations and organisations. Entrepreneurs create and exploit change, are innovative and have the ability to mobilise resources to create value by invention of, or improvement of existing products or services.
Our enterprise, innovation and entrepreneurship related courses are designed either for students either entering industry or setting up their own businesses.
Academic lectures are complemented by sessions lead by industry guests who offer advice from their own entrepreneurial stories, and from their current day-to-day experiences.
Assessment is designed to develop practical skills. For example, setting up a student-led business to provide seed-funding for other student ventures.
The five major fields of business activity are extractive industry, manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, and services.
Extractive Industry
The extractive industry is responsible for providing the raw materials that make it possible for you to survive and enjoy your everyday lives.
Essentially the extractive industry is concerned with the physical extraction of metals, minerals and aggregates from the Earth.
The extractive industry is made up of the mining, quarrying, dredging, oil and gas extraction industries. These differ in what, how and where they extract.
Mining can be defined as the extraction of metals and solid fossil fuel, and extraction can take place in either an underground mine or in an above ground mine, known as a surface mine, 'open-cast mine', 'open-pit' or just 'pit'. Quarryingcan be defined as the extraction of aggregates and industrial minerals above ground. Dredging can be defined as the extraction of marine aggregate underwater. Oil extractioncan be defined as the extraction of liquid fossil fuel, and gas extraction can be defined as the extraction of gaseous fossil fuel.
Manufacturingis the use of machines, tools and labor to make things for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale. Such finished goods may be used for manufacturing other, more complex products, such as household appliances or automobiles, or sold to wholesalers, who in turn sell them to retailers, who then sell them to end users - the "consumers".
Manufacturingtakes turns under all types of economic systems. In a free market economy, manufacturing is usually directed toward the mass production of products for sale to consumers at a profit. In a collectivist economy, manufacturing is more frequently directed by the state to supply a centrally planned economy. In free market economies, manufacturing occurs under some degree of government regulation.
Wholesalingis a distribution channel function where one organization buys products from supplying firms with the primary intention of redistributing to other organizations (but, in general, not to the final consumer). A wholesaler is an organization providing the necessary means to: 1) allow suppliers (e.g., manufacturers) to reach organizational buyers (e.g., retailers, business buyers), and 2) allow certain business buyers to purchase products which they may not be able to otherwise purchase. According to the 2002 Census of Wholesale trade, there are over 430,000 wholesale operations in the United States.
Retailingconsists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a very fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser.[1] Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be individuals or businesses. In commerce, a "retailer" buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells smaller quantities to the end-user. Retail establishments are often called shops or stores. Retailers are at the end of the supply chain. Manufacturing marketers see the process of retailing as a necessary part of their overall distribution strategy. The term "retailer" is also applied where a service provider services the needs of a large number of individuals, such as a public utility, like electric power.Shops may be on residential streets, shopping streets with few or no houses or in a shopping mall. Shopping streets may be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping street has a partial or full roof to protect customers from precipitation. Online retailing, a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions and mail order, are forms of non-shop retailing.Shopping generally refers to the act of buying products. Sometimes this is done to obtain necessities such as food and clothing; sometimes it is done as a recreational activity. Recreational shopping often involves window shopping (just looking, not buying) and browsing and does not always result in a purchase.
Servicesare intangible in nature, only appearing when required by the consumer, which makes the nature of a servicebusiness very different from that of other types of businesses. Some examples of servicebusiness services, real estate, legal services, and education. In all of these cases, people are being provided with a service, not a product, whether they are receiving treatment for a medical problem or learning in an elementary school classroom. businesses include the hospitality sector, consulting, appliance repair, computer support, health care, utilities,
