FreelanceCoach Blog

For many people, setting up their own business is a lifelong dream which is never realized.  For those who do make the giant leap from being an employee into self-employment, however, not only is the experience an extremely exciting one, but also one of the most daunting.  It is for this reason that many new entrepreneurs seek support and guidance via business coaching.

Even before a new business gets off the ground, there are a million and one different things to do and to consider, from setting up the business entity to arranging finance, identifying target markets, writing business and marketing plans and a whole lot more.  Both at this stage and once business activities are underway, entrepreneurs are called upon to use the widest range of skills imaginable, some of which may never even have been tested while they were in paid employment and which may not represent areas in which the individual is particularly strong or gifted.  Even knowing which of these to tackle personally and which to farm out to someone more experienced can be an enormous challenge for many new business owners, and this is one of the many important areas where the more seasoned entrepreneurs who provide business coaching services can offer invaluable advice, guidance and support.

Of course, it’s not just the sheer range of activities and responsibilities which can present concerns and issues for new entrepreneurs.  Switching from paid employment in an organization where other people ultimately carried the can to being in a situation where the buck stops with you can not only feel foreign and stressful, but extremely lonely.  In addition, knowing that your business lives or dies according to the time and effort that you put into it can mean that every semblance of a work/life balance is lost, even to the extent where health and personal relationships begin to suffer or fall apart completely.

Setting up and running a business involves embarking on an extremely steep learning curve which encompasses a multitude of different factors.  Sadly, the harsh reality is that many new entrepreneurs don’t survive the ride, and even if their businesses manage to keep going throughout the first year, the majority is destined to fail before they hit their 10-year anniversaries.  In fact, estimates put the failure rate at 25% before the end of Year 1, and 50% by the close of Year 5, with 70% of new ventures having crashed and burned after 10 years.  Although these figures might seem exceptionally high, especially bearing in mind the wealth of information which is available to new business owners today, both information overload and the generic nature of the advice which is provided in books, training courses and so on can often add to confusion and cause entrepreneurs to make fatal business errors.

For those who choose to take up business coaching, one of the key benefits is the ability to receive advice, guidance and support which is directly relevant to their own business ventures and their own unique sets of circumstances.  In addition, however, because the coaches themselves have set up and run successful businesses of their own, new entrepreneurs who avail themselves of business coaching services effectively have the opportunity to learn by somebody else’s mistakes and experience rather than through their own trial and error, which can shorten the learning curve tremendously.

Whether you are about to kick off your own new business or are looking to fine-tune your entrepreneurial skills in an established venture, business coaching could be your key to reaching your objectives more quickly and painlessly. 

Julia Ann                                             August 16, 2011                                                      

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