Business Value Coaching
It's the Biggest Capital investment of Your LifeMaybe a guide who knows the territory would be a good idea
Tailored to the Outcome You Need
Get Prepared to Enter the Market
We work with you to assess and understand the situation you and your company are in today and where you want to be, and to identify and help you work through any factors that might prevent you from achieving those goals.
Have a Clear Plan for Positioning the Company (Slowly!)
We help you transition to working on the business instead of in it. We work directly with you, using a structured framework but tailored to you and your company, to assess the situation, map out a long-term plan, select specific short-term next steps, and hold you accountable for getting the work done (although most of it will be done by your team members).
Guide Your Team Through Transition Without Disruption and Confusion
Once you know what needs to be done, we work with you and your team members to make sure they understand the intent and the approach, plan the work, and carry it out.
You're Going to Try and Do it Yourself
On this website, you’ll find opportunities for self-study at a minimal cost. Taking the first step toward learning is a good thing, but it’s not enough. Very few owners are able to stop what they are doing now without direct help from someone to keep them on the track.
How Do I Know If Coaching is Right For Me?
If you took one of the assessments and found that you are ready to proceed with buying, selling, or improving your business, then you’re ready to be coached on that.
If the assessment told you that you’re not ready yet, then you oculd use some help from a coach to get ready – because your make-or-break day will come whether you are ready for it or not.
You can see that the future or the right-now is not what you want.
This is going to take time, effort, and money. If you don’t know why you are doing it, or at least what you’re trying to get way from, then you won’t stick with it.
You are willing to invest time to get back much more time
Reworking your business is not a magic overnight pill. The coaching programs require you to commit to about 4 hours per week (less than 10 percent of your time) to keep moving.
You are willing to invest money to make your business more enjoyable now, more profitable now, and more valuable in the long run
You can get tons of free advice on the internet (quality is another matter) but you haven’t taken it. What you will be paying for is progress and results.
Fill out one of the applications using the buttons above
You’ll give me enough information to determine whether we can help you at all, then we’ll chat so you can be confident that you want that help.
Our unique guarantee
I’m not going to advertise it here on this page, to avoid tire-kickers wasting my time in search of a massive deal. But we’ll discuss it when you decide you do want help, and you’ll see that you cannot lose money by working with us.
Put away the credit card. First, let’s see if there is a fit.
You know what to do. You also know why you don’t do it.
The greatest athletes have coaches, few of whom have the same technical abilities as the stars on their teams. The coach isn’t there to do the job for them. The coach is there while the star is caught up in the heat of the moment, to remind them what the key goals are, to remind them what they planned to do, point out risk and opportunities they might have missed, and to help them plan out the approach to the next few steps.
Business owners have coaches for the same reason. Coaches aren’t as great of a baker or candlestick maker as their clients. They have seen dozens or hundreds of other business owners facing (or refusing to face) the same issues, and they can help you choose the right move or avoid the business-killing pitfalls that may lie ahead.
Obviously, that’s pretty customized to each client and it requires personal interaction. A coach can only take on so many clients and they have to be good fits for each other.
You must complete one of the assessments on the page for Buyers or Current Owners to get started. When you do, both you and I will know where we are starting from. If there is a realistic chance we can assist you, you’ll be invited to a discussion of the options and strategies your business have for getting to where you want to go. It’s not a sales pitch, just a discussion of what might help you get there. If coaching seem to you like a good solution, and if we agree that you are a good fit for us and we have capacity for another client, then we’ll move forward from there. If not, you’ll still have access to the subscriber resources here (but they are not enough to assure your success).
Some owners just want to self-study an online course, at least to start out. It sounds so much less expensive.
Here’s the thing: most business training programs tell you stuff you already know but don’t do. Owners end up being unable to sell their businesses not because of some rocket-science factor they didn’t know about but because they never got around to doing the things they knew they should do “someday”. Then Someday arrives. The vast majority of online course registratants never complete them, and of those few who do get through the material, they almost never get around to implementing what they learned. Again.
If your business is not meeting your objectives now, or is not positioned to meet them in the future, you will not get any closer to your goals by working harder at the same things you are doing now.
What Is Business Coaching Like?
It's done with you, not done for you
We have a structured process for thinking about your situation and the issues you may face, but your situation is going to be different from someone else’s based on the people and track record your business has and the objectives you have for it. You’ll need to answer the questions and take the actions that those answers generate; your coach will push you to do it. (It’s also not do-it-yourself where you just get a bunch of videos and PDF files and you have to go off and figure it all out for yourself).
It's a journey, not a cookie cutter
Every small business starts from a different place, because they have different owners, different employees, different customers, different markets. The issues are the same across hundreds of industries served by small businesses, but the impacts and responses to those issues will be very different. Your coach will help you consider and interpret those issues as they apply to your company. , Yes, the way we look at it is based on a framework, but what matters is their experience nd their ability to get you to apply yours.
It's a commitment
Postioning your business is not a magic pill. If you want to improve it without throwing it into total confusion, you have to take the process step by step. The steps must be small enough that they don’t upend your business processes, but large enough that they show actual progress, so you and your team remains bought into making the business better and better over time.
It's not free, but results can be guaranteed
You don’t work for free. Neither does your coach. What you should be able to expect is a return on your investment, and your coach should be able to guarantee that you will see that return or you won’t pay for not getting the results you agreed to.
My Approach
I built these coaching offerings because as a business broker (and a former business owner) I felt terrible about telling so many owners that their businesses were unsellable, and telling so many enthusiastic would-be owners that they didn’t have the money or the background to own a business.
I drew on hundreds of transactions with actual buyers and sellers, as well taking the best of the best from other experts in the field, to create offerings that are realistic and achievable for small business owners.
Together, we’ll go through those frameworks, which you’ll experience as a series of assessments leading you to make choices about what you should tackle, how, and in what order. Every 90 days you’ll assess whether we’ve met your goals and what you want to do next.
It’s your business. You make the decisions. I just make sure you know what they are, make them, and carry them out!
How It Works
Apply to Join
Buyers may join directly (see the Buyer’s page or use the button above). Subject to total capacity, we can do this because training and coaching for new buyers is similar for all.
Working with current owners is highly personal and customized. We can only serve so many clients properly.
Complete the Owner’s assessment using the link on the Owner pages of this site or one of the action buttons above.
Choose the Best Approach
We’ll meet (probably online) to discuss the assessment and where you want to go from there.
We have several offerings to help you move towards your goals of buying, building, or selling a business. They include:
- Done-with-you 1:1 private programs
- Done-with-you programs in a small group setting
The most approporiate way will depend on where you are now.
Reach Your Goals
We will work with you until you reach your goals, as agreed from the outset.
This is a no-risk proposition for you. We guarantee that you or your company will receive value at least 5x the cost of the program, as long as you do the work and take the actions. You pay as you go, as the value is received.