Over the last two years I have been coaching a number of business owners that reached a point in their business when things were OK, they were working in the business that started months or years earlier and, like many others, started asking themselves what to do next.  Some of them lost some of their initial enthusiasm because of a number of different reasons; others wanted or needed to move their business to the next level and they were lacking the necessary skills or inspiration.

This is what I define the Now What? Situation, affecting at some point most business owners. The Now What? Situation can have serious repercussions for those that fail to react or, better, prevent it and take the necessary steps at the right time.

Starting a business in the UK is relatively easy, compared to other areas of Europe where I have direct experience, thanks to the minimum bureaucracy involved.  Most individuals with an idea for a service or a product to sell can start trading in a fast and straightforward way.

“Small businesses are over a quarter of all enterprises in the UK: over 520 thousand enterprises in 2009 were Sole Proprietors.  That represented a small decrease of 0.4% compared to 2008, in favour of Corporate Business, representing 58.2% of total enterprises (2.15 million)” (source  Statistics.Gov.Uk)

When the proposition is interesting and many customers are buying into the business then growth can be significant and soon the person with the initial idea and passion is no longer a service provider or product seller: he/she is an entrepreneur.  At the beginning things are exciting, there is a honey moon period that can last sometimes many months or even years. At the end of the bootstrap time there is a need to face a transition period that often catches the entrepreneur unprepared.

There are obviously substantial differences in running a business with you as the only decision maker compared to a company with partners, managers and staff.  Some key points to be addresses during the transition from the micro business and a larger operation are issues like:

• How to grow: by recruiting staff or subcontracting?
• When the decision is about recruiting how can you guarantee to look for the right kind of staff?
• Can activities like admin, invoicing, book keeping and customer service be subcontracted to virtual assistants or other service companies?
• Many people have no formal management experience: what is the best way of managing staff in order to maximise their skills and performance?
• Does the business model need changing? If so how to plan and execute the change plan?
• How to best implementing sales, pricing and positioning strategies?

Coaching can help virtually all business owners involved in a Now What? Situation.

The coaching approach offers a resourceful set of tools, a self directed learning approach that allows to build on the exact current situation, explore alternatives and pin down what needs to be done, establishing and instilling an accountability process.

When coaching a business owner it is very important recognising two key aspects:

• Each individual person or business is unique in its way of being, operating and approaching the market: patterns and templates can be applied but a blank page approach is always easier to start with.
• There will be strong emotional feelings about the business as it was initially started and resistance about how it should be changed for the future.

A business owner, working over a period of three or six months, assisted by a professional coach can be helped to define the exact path about how to move the business to the next level.  In short it is about changing a Now What? Situation into a Now I Know What should be done and I am doing it.

Posted under Articles

Procrastination is a common issue that I encounter when working with solopreneurs and people running small businesses.  Procrastination can be defined as “putting off a pending task because of laziness, lack of interest” or different prioritization about what should be done.  Without a precise and well defined mechanism of accountability we choose tasks we like and keep delaying the ones we like less, and this can become a dangerous habit.  The effects of procrastination on many of my clients to date was initially to affect their performance at work then, increasingly, it was producing stress and other related diseases that eventually affected the physical health of some of them.

When clients are complaining to me about how procrastination is affecting their performance and ultimately their well being I am some times attempted to tell them to just get on with the pending tasks they are procrastinating.  That would be logical and easy but then, as a coach, I must (and I do) use a questioning methodology that is helping the clients’ thinking process and it helps them to see a way forward and commit toward the necessary actions.

Here are some of the questions that I use in these situations:

• Is the completion of this pending task affecting other activities?
• How often do you think about this pending task?
• Is the completion of this pending task affecting other people?
• How would you feel if you could tick this pending task off your list?
• Do you feel guilty when you think about this pending task?
• Is something stopping you from completing this pending task?
• How much time per day/week do you spend thinking about this pending task?
• Would you behave differently if you promised to complete this pending task to a colleague, client or supplier?
• How can I help your thinking toward the best outcome for you?

The questions above are not in random order: there is no logical priority in using one before the other and I never needed to use more than 2 or 3 of them to move the client toward a commitment of completion by the following session.  I would usually choose the questions following the content of the conversation that led to the procrastination topic.

Next time you are procrastinating try reading the above questions and see whether they can help you complete your pending task(s) by tackling procrastination head on.

Posted under Articles

Massimo Gaetani during the workshop

The workshop “Coaching Skills for Business and Life” (CSBL), organised by MaGa Coaching,  was held on the 2 December at the David Lloyd Leisure Centre and once more it exceeded the original expectations of both organisers and delegates.

CSBL was developed, targeting owners of SME and professionals, to cover three main areas:

• essential coaching tools and techniques to address typical hurdles that can affect your smooth day to day business and can seriously hinder your performance at work.
• hints about maintaining focus and motivation high, both in yourself and the people you are managing
• basic understanding of how stress, frustration and anxiety develop and a hints about avoiding them

A total of 7 entrepreneurs from business as diverse as software development, electrical services and low power computer manufacturing attended CSBL.  They all had the opportunity, throughout the workshop, to share their key topics and address different aspects of their work. They all managed to learn some valuable methodologies to assess and improve the way they run their businesses.

The workshop was delivered by Massimo Gaetani, Business and Executive Coach and Managing Director for MaGa coaching. Massimo was once more very impressed by the motivation and determination that was driving the group: the level of participation to the workshop and the exchange of ideas was stunning throughout the whole duration of the workshop. He commented:

“we delivered dense and fast paced content, offering broad variety of concepts that for most people were totally new: given their responses and feedback all delegates received key information that will have a strong impact on the way they run their respective companies. Given the success of this workshop we are now planning others in 2010.  Once more we had the proof that these workshops are excellent tools to connect and engage in highly targeted conversations with our audience, while helping them to boost the way they run their businesses”.

Maga Coaching offers qualified expert coaching services in Cambridge, nationally and internationally: whether you are a solopreneur, a professional or manager in a SME you will benefit of the top quality expertise and bespoke service offered by MaGa Coaching.

Please have a look at the video with some of the testimonials:

Posted under Events, News, Testimonials, Video

The Make More Money While Working Less (MMMWWL) workshop was held on the 11 November at the David Lloyd Leisure Centre and once more it exceeded the original expectations of both organisers and delegates.

MMMWWL was developed, targeting owners of SME and professionals, to cover two main areas:

• essential business management tools to better understand and quantify how one’s company is doing, offering several alternatives about how to improve profitability and reduce working hours at the same time;
• essential coaching tools and techniques to address typical hurdles that can affect the smooth day to day business and can seriously hinder one’s performance at work.

A total of 7 entrepreneurs from business as diverse as graphic design, car finance and building attended the workshop. The various delegates had the opportunity, throughout the workshop, to share their key topics and address different aspects of their work.  They all managed to learn some valuable methodologies to assess and improve the way they run their businesses.

The workshop was delivered by Massimo Gaetani, Business and Executive Coach and Managing Director for MaGa coaching. Massimo was once more very impressed by the motivation and determination that was driving the group: the level of participation to the workshop and the exchange of ideas was very high for the whole duration of the workshop.  He commented:

“the content we delivered was dense and fast paced, offering broad variety of concepts: although each person arrived with a clear starting point for their own business they all received key information that will have a strong impact on the way they run their respective companies.  Given the success of this workshop we are now planning others in 2010 while we are still collecting participants for the next one planned for December.   Once more we had a proof that these workshops are an excellent tool to connect and engage in highly targeted conversations with our audience, while helping them to boost the way they run their businesses”.

Maga Coaching offers qualified expert coaching services in Cambridge, nationally and internationally: whether you are a solopreneur, a professional or manager in a SME you will benefit of the top quality expertise and bespoke service offered by MaGa Coaching.

Please have a look at the video with some of the testimonials:

Posted under Events, News, Testimonials, Video

Testimonial left re: the workshop Make More Money While Working Less, October 2009:

Recently I attended MaGa Coaching’s workshop ‘Make More Money While Working Less’ and it was time well spent. Massimo clearly has a lot of knowledge on how to run a business and came up with very useful ideas and suggestions, presented in a fun and explanatory manner. Highly recommended for those who have just set up on their own and for those who have been going for a while.

Anthonine Art-Zetteler – Estate Planning Consultant

If interested in participating to our next workshops please have a look at our Events page.

Posted under Testimonials