Like most men, I can be a little pigheaded. At least according to my wife.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing in my case because I’m a pig farmer.
But I’ve been battling with a new direction that our business has taken with online sales of pork products. And it’s doing my pig head in!
My better half saw me struggling at the computer (life seemed so much simpler when we didn’t have them…) and said she had been doing some Googling. She said what I needed was a business coach.
I said we already have a truck to take the porkers to market. Her glare lasted longer than usual so I thought it might be wiser to listen rather than be a wiseacre.
She suggested a business marketing coach might be the way forward and relieve some of the stress from trying to handle digital marketing, which is hardly my forte.
I was skeptical at first but I have to say I am now a convert. It is an area where outsourcing part of your business to those with more expertise can really work.
So what can a business coach do for your enterprise?
Firstly a business coach can help you clarify your goals and set achievable action plans to ensure that your business has a clear direction. Sometimes a relative outsider is the one to sort the wheat from the chaff, as it were.
Their involvement can help business owners be more accountable for their goals encouraging consistent progress and helping to overcome the P word that my wife always bangs on about.
Not pork but PROCRASTINATION!
Coaches also help with skill development. For me this has helped improve in areas such as leadership, communication and strategic planning.
Their outside perspective on challenges facing a business can help to identify the root causes of problems and provide innovative solutions.
Their help in assisting to develop long-term strategies by analysing market trends can help identify potential areas of growth. I was assisted in this by being shown how AI could help with my online blurbs giving our customers confidence through our communication that our piggie products were just as professional.
Furthermore, by assessing current practices coaches can pinpoint areas where improvement, efficiency and productivity could be made.
In our case, this led to a clear improvement in the other P word – PROFITABILITY!
And to be honest, while our staff are all long-termers who get on pretty well there were some festering issues and I don’t mean the pig sties! The coach was able to assist with resolving nagging disputes as well as building my own confidence that filtered down to the staff.
Suggesting ways to improve the work-life balance – a bugbear of the self-employed with all its tax rules and regulations – was a further benefit.
I now feel I have more time – not to wind up the missus but to spend quality time with her.
And be a little less pigheaded!
