Books, TV and the Internet are awash with small business advice. But if your company is not as successful as you'd like it to be where do you start? If you are looking for the Holy Grail, a particular nugget of information that will transform your enterprise in to something Richard Branson would be proud of, maybe you're looking in all the wrong places! Because sometimes when a small company is not going so well, a question is the answer you're looking for.
The questions that owners ask themselves are critical to the extent that it may determine their success or failure. For example, you may get some advice that you need to spend more on marketing or spend your marketing budget differently when in actual fact if you asked and answered deeper questions such as:
* Do my customers really want what I'm selling?
* Are we an attractive company to do business with?
* Is it clear what we do for customers?
* Am I clear about what makes us unique?
* Have I got the right business model?
You may realize there is little point reconsidering your marketing strategy when you haven't quite got your basic building blocks in place. Questions can be revealing which is why they are a key tool used by business coaches. In fact, this is one of the major benefits of coaching because your coach will not only ask you the difficult questions, they will also give you an honest answer to your own questions (unlike friends and family who often don't want to offend you!). When enterprise owners get used to asking themselves deeper more difficult questions, they are far more likely to find the real answers.
Yes, educating yourself with all the resources on TV, in books and on the Internet is enormously beneficial to your organization, but you also need to make sure you're not missing the blindingly obvious. Don't go searching for the Holy Grail when the real answer (and the very best small business advice) is right here on your doorstep - the asking of better questions. Very often the question is the answer!
Elaine Seager created Business-Coaching-Insights.com to help couples (copreneurs) who work together remain passionate about their small business. Get more on getting the best small business advice by asking the right questions.
The questions that owners ask themselves are critical to the extent that it may determine their success or failure. For example, you may get some advice that you need to spend more on marketing or spend your marketing budget differently when in actual fact if you asked and answered deeper questions such as:
* Do my customers really want what I'm selling?
* Are we an attractive company to do business with?
* Is it clear what we do for customers?
* Am I clear about what makes us unique?
* Have I got the right business model?
You may realize there is little point reconsidering your marketing strategy when you haven't quite got your basic building blocks in place. Questions can be revealing which is why they are a key tool used by business coaches. In fact, this is one of the major benefits of coaching because your coach will not only ask you the difficult questions, they will also give you an honest answer to your own questions (unlike friends and family who often don't want to offend you!). When enterprise owners get used to asking themselves deeper more difficult questions, they are far more likely to find the real answers.
Yes, educating yourself with all the resources on TV, in books and on the Internet is enormously beneficial to your organization, but you also need to make sure you're not missing the blindingly obvious. Don't go searching for the Holy Grail when the real answer (and the very best small business advice) is right here on your doorstep - the asking of better questions. Very often the question is the answer!
Elaine Seager created Business-Coaching-Insights.com to help couples (copreneurs) who work together remain passionate about their small business. Get more on getting the best small business advice by asking the right questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment