What does business coaching cost? That's a common question and it's a good one. I want to help you be a better consumer of business coaching services and part of that is having realistic expectations of what to expect and how to assess value.
Ultimately, what you decide to invest (monetarily AND energy-wise) in business coaching is going to drive the value of the return on your investment…as long as you are investing wisely. So, I want to help you be a wise investor in business coaching services.
Consider the difference between an expense and an investment.
When you have an expense in your business, there is not a financial return on that expense. For example, purchasing a nice desk for your office is an expense. You don't get a return on that expense, other than the enjoyment of looking at your nice desk.
In contrast, when you make an investment, you expect a return on that investment. Purchasing business coaching is an investment. With an investment in business coaching, you absolutely should expect a return and it should come in multiples.
When you learn a new system and successfully implement it in your business, there's an immediate return on your investment.
The use and refinement of that system over time continues to produce a return on your investment.
Here's an example. In late 2013, I learned Profit First and implemented it in my business. Within 2 weeks, I was instantly profitable. In fact, I still have the spreadsheet showing the amount (because I continue to track it)!
$2,537.44 appeared in my bank account. That wasn't there before. That was the first two weeks in January 2014. Profit First is a SYSTEM that has been in place in my business since 2014. Every 2 weeks, more money goes into that Profit Account and the business has grown considerably since then.
I've also been able to increase the percentage we put in the Profit Account. The total profit distributed from Tap the Potential to date (because this system is in place) is a SIGNIFICANT MULTIPLE OF THAT INITIAL AMOUNT of $2,537.44 that appeared in the first 2 weeks of implementing Profit First back in 2014.
THAT is the beauty of investing to learn, implement and refine systems in our businesses. That system is paying dividends in my business… and will do so for years to come.
Profit First is just ONE of the systems we help our clients implement. Because it is a foundational system, it drives us to help our clients create more and more efficiencies in their businesses.
Efficiencies lead to greater PROFIT, which is not only the return on investment to gauge the success of a business coaching engagement, but also the return on investment you should expect as the owner of your business, who bears all the entrepreneurial risk.
We have built a stable business model, proven processes, and hundreds of success stories (you can see a few here) to showcase the return on investing in our services.
We strive for a minimum of a 3 to 1 return on investment in our services for our clients. Many of our clients experience much more than that.
In one expense review meeting with our team, our strategist found $165,000 worth of expenses that could be easily cut for a client. That's a multiple of more than 40 times what that client invested in working with us! It's important to note that this kind of result is dependent on your level of engagement with us and your commitment to making improvements to your business.
We take the return on investment in our services so seriously, we will turn away prospective clients if we do not believe you will recoup the minimum 3:1 return on investment we strive for in the first year of work with us.
How do we produce such strong returns on investment in our services?
Typically entrepreneurs are coming to us because they have a problem to solve and it's not simple. In fact, if it was simple to solve, you would have already done so by now.
Getting to the root of the problem is key. We get to the root of the problem. We don't dispense bandaids!
Some business coaches provide a highly focused solution for a problem area of the business and this can actually make the business worse! That can be a bandaid solution, and more problems will come because of it.
Here's a prime example. Let's say you have a problem with cash flow. You notice sales are down. So, you invest in marketing to bring in more leads (a highly focused solution). Then you notice your sales team struggling to convert leads. So, you invest in sales coaching for your team (a highly focused solution). More leads come in, your sales team gets better at converting those leads to sales and your top line revenue is growing. YET, you STILL LAY AWAKE at night worrying about cash flow.
WHY is that? You didn't get to the root of the problem. Expenses are out of control. The business is running in a highly inefficient manner. You have high turnover on your team (very costly!) and you are losing more customers than you are gaining (churn is VERY costly!). Converting more prospects to paying customers did not solve that problem. It exacerbated it. YIKES!
This is why we kickoff our engagements with a complete analysis of your business, The Tap Your Profit Potential ™ Analysis. From that analysis, we create a clear ACTION PLAN for you to follow with us in your first year working with our team.
This ACTION PLAN becomes your compass to guide you out of the weeds as we help you transform your business into a highly profitable, Great Place to Work.
But, we don't just focus on your actions.
We dive deep into who you are as a person (i.e. what's driving you? what's your personal vision?) as much as we dive into the business operations and culture.
At the end of the day, you will be a better person for having engaged our services. After all, we produce life-changing business transformations with our clients. Those results are harder to measure in dollars. “Priceless” is the phrase we often hear from our clients (that makes our hearts sing!).
What should you look for in a business coach?
Coaching can be like the “Wild West.” Anyone can call themselves a coach. Your next door neighbor can lose his job tomorrow and decide to be a business coach the next day.
You need to know who you're really dealing with. Does the coach walk their talk? Is the coach running a healthy, profitable business? Here's a shocker: there are many “rockstar” business coaches out there in internet-land who are going broke. They can drive a 6-figure launch and will proudly tell you about it all over social media, while they are building 7-figure debt!
We walk our talk and I'm proud of that. Because of that we have a deep appreciation for what you are experiencing as we work with you through this transformation in your business.
Notice, I didn't say, “We're perfect.” We make our mistakes and have our mis-steps. Mistakes are learning opportunities. In fact, that's one of our Immutable Laws.
Speaking of Immutable Laws, you want to know your business coach's Immutable Laws. You can find ours here (along with lots of other things you may want to know about us).
You also want to know if the coach is certified and what credentials the coach holds.
I am an ICF Certified Coach. ICF is the International Coach Federation, which is the gold standard in the coaching industry. ICF provides ethical guidelines for coaches to follow. Remember, coaching is the wild west. There are no ethical guidelines that coaches are required to follow, so you want to work with a coach who values their professional affiliations.
Furthermore, anyone can read a business book, such as Profit First or the Pumpkin Plan, and then try to walk clients through it. These individuals will not be prepared to help you navigate the complexities that arise as you implement.
A coach certified in the program has the tools, training and experience to do that, along with the certifying organization backing them up when a particularly complex situation arises in a client's business. We love being affiliated with Profit First, Pumpkin Plan and Peoplemap for these reasons. We have access to lots of wisdom and experience — usually just a quick phone call away for us.
OUR CREDENTIALS
Our team takes a strengths-based approach, with each of us focused on a specific area of your business. When you work with us, you can be confident we take into account the unique circumstances of your business and your life – even your own personality and leadership style – to make recommendations specifically tailored to your needs.
Tap the Potential offers that rare combination of business growth services combined with the deep knowledge of how to hire the best and engage employees to build a great team—all of this delivered within a no-fail system to grow your profit.
We deliver our services in SMALL GROUP COACHING. When you work with our team, we are coaching you for a minimum of 1 year's time. Again, we don't believe in slapping band-aids on your problems.
We're transforming businesses by going deep and getting to the root of the problem, and focusing our clients on the the key actions that have the greatest impact.
You are in a group with no more than 3 other businesses so we can devote ourselves to supporting you in this transformation in your business.
We aren't for everyone… just those ready to grow (themselves and their businesses) and be more profitable.
Ready to grow in your business and your life ?
How close are you to having a highly profitable, great place to work?
Could you to take a 4 Week Vacation™?
Take our 10 minute assessment to discover which foundational pieces you have firmly in place, and what to work on next to transform your business into a highly profitable, great place to work that allows to take a 4 Week Vacation™.
Here's what people are saying about us:
“The transformation in the last six months of coaching has been more instrumental than anything that I did in the previous 25 years of business.”
Mike Bruno | CEO, Contractor Business Solutions
“These are REAL results…an 800% increase in profit in 12 months!”
Todd Bussey | Owner, Bussey's Florists & Gifts, Inc.
“For the first time in 20 years, my business is running without my fingers in it!”
Christeen Era | Owner, Core Accounting Services
“One simple shift leads to hiring A-players.”
Charlotte Wasmer | President, Virtual Partner Advantage
The bottom line?
Successful business coaching should bring in more money than you're spending. It's an investment: in you, and your business.
A GOOD INVESTMENT BRINGS DIVIDENDS!
Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist™ and author of the How to Hire the Best series is the founder of Tap the Potential.
At Tap the Potential we specialize in transforming small businesses into highly profitable, great places to work and sending business owners on 4 Week Vacations to celebrate that achievement.
Never one to accept the status quo or back down from a challenge, Dr. Sabrina’s How to Hire the Best series grew from her desire to solve the toughest hiring challenges interfering with her clients’ growth and profitability. What sprang from her experience working with entrepreneurs in rural areas catapulted her into becoming the world’s leading expert in attracting top talent in small businesses — no matter what hiring challenges those businesses are facing — and earned Tap the Potential’s reputation as the go-to resource for entrepreneurs committed to creating Great Places to Work with thriving coaching cultures and highly engaged team members working from their strengths.
With her background in psychology, and years of driving profit in small business, Dr. Starling knows what it takes to find, keep and get exceptional performance out of your biggest investment — your team members.
Learn more at www.TapThePotential.com
