Consuelo Meux, Ph.D.

A Business Coach can be one of the best resources you can do for the success of your business.  How do you find the perfect coach for you?  One who will value your business, even treating it like it was their own?  One who will work well with you by listening to your thoughts and helping you overcome your stumbling blocks. 

Having a professional business coach gives you the gift of having someone to talk to about your business who will keep your information confidential. You might be very isolated as a professional small business owner without a group of trusted confidants to discuss items with on a daily basis. You will be surprised to see how many ideas you can generate when you have a knowledgable professional to discuss things with.  

Here are a few tips on how to select a Business Coach for you:  

1.  The very first thing you need to do before actively researching a business coach for your business is to sit down and think about what it is you want to achieve by hiring a coach.  Jot down what you believe are your strengths and weaknesses.

2.  Next, you’ll want to draft a list of potential questions that if you had the perfect coach at your fingertips right now, you would ask.  Don’t worry you don’t have to stress about this part, but atleast think of a few things.  Once you actually start working with a coach the questions will come. 

3.  Do research and compare the things you find between the various coaches.  Just a few places you can begin are by conducting a search online and the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (WABC). 

4. Ask other business owners you know and trust that have used a coach in the past, who they would recommend and even more importantly WHY they would recommend that particular person or group.

5. Narrow your list down to a manageable amount and then start contacting those coaches.  You’ll learn a lot about how a coach operates just by the initial contact with them.  For instance, do they respond in a reasonable amount of time?  Where you able to even get in contact with them?  Those types of things will help you to narrow your list even further.

6.  Once you’ve got a smaller list, start contacting those coaches and asking about consultations.  Many business coaches will offer a free initial consultation to help you find out if the two of you might work well together.  Take this opportunity to “interview” these coaches.  Refer back to your list of questions above and any others that may come up. 

7.  Take note of things like whether you felt rushed or on edge when talking with a particular coach.  Did you feel comfortable and get the impression that they really cared and had time to help you succeed in your business?  In other words, trust your instincts. 
8.  Be honest with your potential coach and yourself when it comes to your business.  Trying to make yourself or your business seem more together than it really is will only hurt you more in the long run.  You want success and a smoother flowing business and without honesty, it will never come on it’s own.

Finding a business coach is not something you should just jump into with the first person who comes along.  Take the time to really feel confident about the coach you choose, because the better the two of you work together the more successful your business will be.

.  The very first thing you need to do before actively researching a business coach for your business is to sit down and think about what it is you want to achieve by hiring a coach.  Jot down what you believe are your strengths and weaknesses.

2.  Next, you’ll want to draft a list of potential questions that if you had the perfect coach at your fingertips right now, you would ask.  Don’t worry you don’t have to stress about this part, but atleast think of a few things.  Once you actually start working with a coach the questions will come. 

3.  Do research and compare the things you find between the various coaches.  Just a few places you can begin are by conducting a search online and the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (WABC). 

4. Ask other business owners you know and trust that have used a coach in the past, who they would recommend and even more importantly WHY they would recommend that particular person or group.

5. Narrow your list down to a manageable amount and then start contacting those coaches.  You’ll learn a lot about how a coach operates just by the initial contact with them.  For instance, do they respond in a reasonable amount of time?  Where you able to even get in contact with them?  Those types of things will help you to narrow your list even further.

6.  Once you’ve got a smaller list, start contacting those coaches and asking about consultations.  Many business coaches will offer a free initial consultation to help you find out if the two of you might work well together.  Take this opportunity to “interview” these coaches.  Refer back to your list of questions above and any others that may come up. 

7.  Take note of things like whether you felt rushed or on edge when talking with a particular coach.  Did you feel comfortable and get the impression that they really cared and had time to help you succeed in your business?  In other words, trust your instincts. 
8.  Be honest with your potential coach and yourself when it comes to your business.  Trying to make yourself or your business seem more together than it really is will only hurt you more in the long run.  You want success and a smoother flowing business and without honesty, it will never come on it’s own.

Finding a business coach is not something you should just jump into with the first person who comes along.  Take the time to really feel confident about the coach you choose, because the better the two of you work together the more successful your business will be.

Drop me an email about my coaching services (dr.meux@gmail.com).  Take a look at the About page to review my background and the areas of my expertise.   

Project management means dealing with a lot of tasks and a lot of people in a concentrated period of time. Get into the habit of creating a usable to-do list to keep on track to reaching your daily goals and get through all of the tasks that need to be completed.

The main thing is to create a to-do list that gets used. How many times have you started a to-do list only to leave it laying on your desk incomplete and never to look at it again, at least not until you find it buried under the 20 other to-do lists you never finished?  To-do lists are a project managers friend and here are a few tips for making the most of yours.

1.  Create your list BEFORE your day gets started.  You can do this at the end of the previous day or first thing each day, but don’t start on anything until you’ve created your list.

2.  Prioritize items on your list.  Sometimes putting tasks in order of importance isn’t an easy task, so first just jot down everything you know you need to do and then go back over and number each item, starting with 1, in order of priority.

3.  Follow your list in order.  Once you have your list prioritized don’t devate from that list by jumping around to things further down the list until the tasks above are complete.

4.  Allow for changes.  Don’t get down on yourself if something pops up in your day that you have to incorporate into your list.  Simply, add it, do it and then keep moving down your original list.

5.  Mark items complete.  By checking off items on your list as you complete them you will see yourself making progress and at the end of the day you will feel a sense of accomplishment.  Even if you don’t complete everything on your list, it’s ok you can still look back and say “I DID get this done today!”

6.  Be reasonable.  You know there are only so many hours in a day, so don’t overload your list with tasks that you know good and well will take more time than you have available.

7.  Be as detailed as possible.  Don’t overload your list, but also don’t forget the smaller tasks throughout the day that will take time away from other bigger duties.

8.  Keep your to-list in sight at all times.  By keeping your list out from under papers, books, etc. it will be a reminder that you have a plan and that plan is going to help you move forward with your business.

9.  Throw it away at the end of the day.  At the end of each day, transfer any unfinished tasks to the next day’s to-do list and throw the current day’s list in the garbage can.  Seeing multiple incomplete to-do lists lying around all the time is not good on your self-esteem, so say sayonara at the end of everyday.

A to-do list is one thing no project manager should start their day without.  Planning is crucial to reaching your project goals and the better prepared you are for each day, the more you’ll accomplish.  You’ll also give yourself a well deserved boost each time you can cross off something on your to-do list.

If there’s anything I can get on a soapbox about in small business it’s creating a business plan.  The business plan is the first step to starting a business and is your blueprint for success.  A business plan will help you have a concrete plan for your money, what your budget will be and where your money will go.  It will give you a flow chart of all aspects of your business from marketing to accounting, so that all your bases are covered.  It will define your target market and your marketing plan.  Your business plan will also document your goals and outline your plans to attain them.

How do you begin writing a business plan?  Here are some things to include:

1.  Your business description.  Begin writing a letter to someone, maybe your mom or a friend, about your business.  What would you tell them you do?  How would you describe it?  Once you get your letter written, if it is longer than a paragraph, narrow it down.  Keep working on your business description until you can succinctly tell someone in 30 seconds exactly what your business does.

2.  Your employee/management plan.  When many people start out in business, they’re a one person operation.  That’s perfectly acceptable.  Write down exactly what your job responsibilities will be.  As you’re making that list, take note on the responsibilities that you feel aren’t your strong points.  For some it may be copywriting, for others it may be accounting tasks.  Separate these tasks from the list as potential future employees or contract employees.  Once you’ve reached a certain level of success, it may make sense to hire someone to handle the tasks that you either don’t like or aren’t as skilled in, so that you can focus on your strengths.

3.  Legal structure and other legal considerations.  What legal structure will you have for your business?  For example, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation or limited liability company?  What type of business licenses do you need to legally operate your business?  What are your insurance needs?  Include insurance on physical buildings, errors and omissions insurance for consulting and coaching businesses, liability, homeowners, health etc.  How will you keep a record of your expenses for tax reporting?

4.  Products/Services.  Here is where you will plan your initial products or services offerings.  For example, if you are opening a business as a bookkeeper, then how will you charge?  How will you receive payment?  Will you offer multiple services like bookkeeping, payroll services and collections?

5.  Operations.  How is your business going to function?  Do you need a computer?  A website?  What will your hours of operation be?  What are your financial goals?  What are your expenses?  List each aspect of your business operations, goals, and needs, and then go into as much detail as possible.

6.  Sales and marketing.  Start this section by detailing your target market.  Next, describe how you plan on reaching these people and selling your products or services.  There are many options here and tons of information about marketing tools you can use right here on the Internet Based Moms website.  You may also want to detail how much of your time you plan on spending on marketing related tasks each day, week or month.

7.  Budget.  How much money are you starting with?  What do you need to buy?  A detailed budget is essential for success.

That’s it.  You’re business plan is complete.  For ease of use you can create an executive summary, which will contain a brief summary paragraph about the seven sections you’ve just detailed.

Use your business plan to keep your business on track.  As you reach your goals or your goals change, take the time to revise your plan.  This can be something that you do every month, every six months or annually - it’s up to you!

Small business owners must know about their budgets. After decades of consulting small business owners, I really believe that not understanding finances in small business is a primary reasons for small business failures. 

When you own and operate a small business, it is critical that you keep close tabs on your finances.  There’s nothing worse than owing more money at the end of the year than you’ve actually made.  Budgeting your business begins before you open your doors.  In fact, it begins at the business plan level.  Here are some questions to answer:

How much do you have in start-up funding?
What will your actual start-up costs be?
How will you market your business?
How much will your marketing expenses be?
How much will it cost to operate your business?
   Operating expenses include:  
 * Phone lines
 * Web site development
 * Website hosting
 * Merchant accounts
 * Shopping cart software
 * Outsourcing expenses
 * Accountant fees
 * And much more   
What will your profits be?
When will you expect your business to be profitable?
How will you support yourself during tighter months?
How will you pay your taxes?

Lots of questions, right?

The best way to handle tracking your profits and your expenses, and to stay within your budget is to actually make a budget, and keep it.

Creating a budget and keeping to it will not only help you keep out of debt, it will help you make important financial decisions.  How else will you know if you can afford a new software product, a joint venture investment, or if you can outsource your administrative tasks?  That being said, the more accurate your budget, and the more frequently you track your income and expenses, the better your information will be. 

If you track your spending and income on a quarterly basis, that’s great because you will have your financial information and it will be accurate.  However, if you track it on a weekly or monthly basis your information will be that much more accurate. 

The first step to creating a business budget is to think clearly and honestly about your expenses.  Using a spreadsheet or accounting software, create a list of categories and a list of monthly, weekly or quarterly spending available for each expense.  Note that the more frequently you track and account for your spending, the more control you’ll have over your finances.  And your financial information will be more accurate when you need to make weighty financial decisions.

A budget will also help you come tax time!  With an accurate budget, your expenses, profits and taxes are all at the tip of your fingertips.  This means you don’t have to dig through piles of receipts and invoices to find the information your accountant is waiting for.  Time is money, right?  If you haven’t already, save time and save money by creating a small business budget.  You’ll be glad you did. 

Business budgets are a necessity. Just like your personal home budgt, a business budget keeps you on track for your financial goals. A big question is whether or not as a smal business, you should hire an accountant to create and moniter your business budget.  

That answer depends on your ability to keep your budget in order without the accountability of an accountant.  Here’s how to decide whether or not you want to go it alone  in figuring out your business budget situation.

#1:  Do you have a solid understanding about what expenses your business is likely to encounter?  An accountant will have knowledge about the expenses most businesses incur but they may not know your business specifically.  The strength of an accountant often lies in knowing which expenses are tax-deductible.  This information can be helpful when determining your budget.

#2:  If your time spent on accounting tasks is better spent on tasks that bring profits to your business, then it may be wise to hire an accountant or bookkeeper to handle these tasks.  If an accountant is going to be tracking your expenses and cash flow then you may want them to be in on the creation of the budget so they understand your expense categories.

#3:  An accountant is most definitely an excellent resource when you’re setting up your accounting software, even if you plan on doing the bookkeeping yourself.  If you’re going to use a software program like QuickBooks or Peachtree, many accountants are familiar with this software and can advise you on best practices. 

If you hire an accountant as a consultant for your software and you’re going to use the software to create your business budget, you would likely benefit from their knowledge not only about budgeting matters but also how to create your budget on your chosen software.  However, both software programs mentioned above come with comprehensive tutorials and online help, so setting up your business is fairly straightforward and an accountant may not be necessary.

#4:  If you’re going to hire an accountant to do your taxes, they might be able to guide you to the right categories to assign to your expenses, so that doing your taxes takes them less time.  Less time doing your taxes means less time you’ll have to pay an accountant for, which means more money in your pocket.  And that’s always good!  However, if you’re like many and can handle your taxes on your own, the IRS website is a goldmine of information and an accountant is probably not necessary to help with your budget. 

#5:  Lastly, if you hire an accountant to help you create your business budget, you’re likely going to get an earful about what to do with your profits and how to maximize your spending.  It’s all great knowledge to have and anything that helps you do business better is a good idea. 
 

Everybody knows the phrase, there are multiple ways to skin a cat, but not many entrepreneurs believe that there are multiple ways to earn an income.  Robert Allen was probably the first person to coin the term, “multiple streams of income” and it is in fact a brilliant strategy to get rich and stay rich.

Creating multiple streams of income has become a reality for entrepreneurs all over the world because of the opportunities that the Internet has created and here are just some of the many ways to help you get started building your income portfolios.

1. Google AdSense

Google’s AdSense program is probably one of the easiest ways for anyone, even a complete newbies, to start building a passive stream of income.  AdSense is a pay-per-click advertising network that pays you every time a visitor to your website clicks on an advertisement.  Apart from placing a simple piece of code on your website that AdSense provides, the only other “real” work you have to do is create relevant content and drive traffic to your site.

2. Create An Online Directory

Online directories make great bait for search engine spiders because of its ability to create lots of content very quickly.  You can place AdSense on your directory and watch your income grow, but an increasingly popular way of building a passive income with an online directory is by selling text links. 

Selling text links is like selling advertising space except that instead of displaying banners, your directory displays links.  You could offer a monthly, yearly, or even a permanent option to build this type of income. 

If you don’t want to create a directory but you already have a website, you might consider creating a category where you place links to other websites for a fee.  The higher the page rank of your website, the higher the fee you can demand.

3. Get Paid To Review Products

Another increasingly popular way of creating a new revenue stream is to become a paid blogger.  You simply start a blog and get paid to review products, review someone else’s blog, or review just about anything an advertiser would want reviewed.  Services like ReviewMe.com and PayPerPost.com caters to both bloggers and advertisers who are interested in this business model.

4. Create A Membership Site

If you have information that you think people would be keen to pay for, consider starting a membership site.  Impose a low monthly subscription fee and offer information that is exclusive to this community.  If you think your information is worth a higher subscription fee, then raise the price.  Prospects will pay if they know the information is made exclusively for them.

5. Selling Domain Names

Buying and selling domain names is a great way to build your income fast if you know what you’re doing.  There are folks making a full-time income doing this, but there is a learning curve required to achieve optimum results.  There is money to be made in selling domain names so learn the trade if you’re interested.

6. Affiliate Marketing

Probably, the most popular business model for earning an income online, affiliate marketing is a really simple way of creating a new stream of income online on a very low budget.  Affiliate marketing is about selling someone else’s product or service for a commission, without having to deal with customer payments and product deliveries on your end.  Amazon.com is a perfect example of how affiliate marketing works and is definitely a great business model to get into.

7. Teleseminars

If you already have a subscriber base, then consider selling them your expertise via a series of paid teleseminars.  Offering paid teleseminars is a wonderful way of helping your customers and prospects learn more about your products or services.  You can monetize your paid teleseminars even further by recording them and selling them in different audio formats, or even have them transcribed to be sold as eBooks.

8. Special Reports And eBooks

If you could record a teleseminar and sell it as an eBook, imagine what you could do with the rest of the intellectual property you own.  People love consuming information, and packaging solutions to a problem in the form of special reports and eBooks is a revenue stream that can truly last you a lifetime.

9. Create A Tips Booklet

Very much like creating special reports, but a tips booklet can be shorter and more succinct.  I mentioned people loved gaining access to exclusive information, but even more of them love reading a list of tips for quick solutions.  David Letterman uses this to his advantage with his Top Ten List and it has now become a favorite segment of his show.  You too can use this to your advantage by creating a booklet of “The Top 10 Ways To …” or variations of that to build yourself a nice stream of income.

Creating multiple streams of income isn’t rocket science and is very achievable.  All it takes is a little ingenuity and lots of determination to succeed.

Have you ever recommended a good movie to a friend?  Have you ever stayed away from a restaurant because someone told you they had a bad experience there?  This is “word-of-mouth” advertising and it can have a huge impact on your business.

In most cases of “advertising,” the business owner has control of how the ad looks, feels, and the message it conveys to the potential customer.  The exception to this is “word-of- mouth advertising”.  With word of mouth, your prior customers have all the control over potential customers.  If they rave about you, you’ll attract new customers.  If they gripe about you, they will deter people from becoming your customer.

Good word-of-mouth advertising can work wonders for your business, and the best part is that it is free.  Your prior customer may run into someone who needs your services, and if you have provided quality products or services, chances are they will recommend you.  If you sought out ten customers through your own marketing efforts and they each told one person about you, who then became your customer, you would have doubled your customer base.

Bad word-of-mouth advertising can have the same effect, only in a negative way.  When you mistreat a customer or sell them a poor product, they will definitely let people know about it.  When someone is spreading good word of mouth advertising, they will usually wait to tell the good stuff until someone specifically asks about it. 

For instance, if they recently worked with a great graphic designer, they will be more than happy to recommend them when someone asks if they know of a good graphic designer.  However, with bad word-of-mouth advertising, the hurt party isn’t going to wait for someone to ask if they know of a bad graphic designer.  They are going to tell everyone, whether they want the information or not.

The fact that the angry customer is telling this to people who may not even be interested in hiring a graphic designer doesn’t sound so bad, but unfortunately, these people will probably remember the story.  When they are asked if they know of a good graphic designer, they will retell the angry customer’s story.  The person in need of a graphic designer will stay away from the designer who made the angry customer so angry in the first place.

You can protect yourself from the negative aspects of word-of-mouth advertising by consistently providing quality products and great customer service.  Of course, you cannot please everyone, but if the majority of your customers have only good things to say about you, you will have plenty of great word-of-mouth advertising for your business.