A business coach is essential for learning how to scale and efficiently run a business. Hi, I'm Chad Murray, Certified professional business coach. I take young and older entrepreneurs on a journey to get their business operations to work more efficiently with them or without them working in operations. It is a skill that is not trained in the typical college course or obtained with a college degree.
I started a service business 25 years ago. My wife and I started from ground up and built it up to 50 employees, 29 trucks, four major markets, and two states. We have a revenue of over $5,000,000 a year. I no longer work there in the day to day operations for 5 years ago I was able to semi-retire at age 43. I spent years training my management crew and staff to efficiently run my business as well or if not better than me.
I became a certified business coach in early 2019 to begin a new life in assisting business owners achieve a Better Business. For my first years’ worth of work the Professional Business Coaches Alliance awarded me the “Rookie Coach of the Year” in February 2020. It is my new mission in life to help entrepreneurs and business owners achieve a peacefulness and effectiveness in their day-to-day operations. Watching some of my first clients achieve quick success through my coaching has been one of my greatest accomplishments in my career and life.
What exactly does a business coach do for their clients?
Educating business owners on how to run their business efficiently through systems, scripts, and upgraded processes. Interviewing the business owner to review all current systems is the first step with hiring a coach. A good coach will also review the financial statements to make sure that they are on track with the correct reporting to the IRS and to any banks that they are getting loans. One of the best things that we do for our clients is being there for them when they have a question on a new process or just a decision they are about to make in their business.
Hiring seems to be a big issue for many business owners. Teaching them to attract the correct kind of employees is big in my practice. An entire process for hiring, training, and managing employees Is developed for each business owner. Dealing with bad Apple employees for how to counsel them and or terminate them is one of our first systems set in place when accepting a new client to be business coached.
Mindset is a key element in getting entrepreneurs and business owners to be able to make the changes that are necessary to scale and grow their business. Most business owners have negative false beliefs that they cannot accomplish the task to have an efficient operation. Core beliefs and values are often not aligned with how they run their business.
I pride myself in my coaching for my experience in running a service business for 20 years. I tend to have the experience of seeing where profits are being lost to Identifying wasteful spending habits. Providing useful tools and standard operating procedures to increase profitability and efficiency.
What are some key systems and SOP’s?
Here is a list of many systems and SOP’s that are common in upgrading your business…
- Overtime
- call scripting
- anatomy of a sale
- quality control procedures
- clocking in and out
- staff meetings
- Product sales scripts
- customer service
- marketing and advertising
- uniforms
- discipline
These are the starting topics that are discussed to be defined in any business to achieve efficiency. Many more systems come up for the need of each individual business owners’ processes that may need to be upgraded. A good business coach can help develop any system or SOP to customize to that business.
Business Coaches Explode Growth and Scalability
Every business that has ever scaled to become a highly efficient machine did it through systems. The model of being a franchise is the model for any business to scale. Having the same followed process to achieve the same quality result. Smaller business and medium sized businesses tend to forget that having a written standard operating procedure is the best way to ensure continual quality.
Duplication of all processes is the grand scheme of growth. Every salesman should be selling the same products with the same sales pitches. Every call center person should be setting an appointment like every other call center person. Management should be on the same page on all the employees achieving reciprocal results.
One thing many entrepreneurs and business owners share is the thought that they manage people when in fact you manage systems. When you have the right systems for growth and scalability then it only comes down to having the right people work that system. Think of your systems as a well-oiled high-powered engine and your employees and staff is the gas.
Solutions are Hiding in Plain Sight
Many times a coach will be called for something that a business owner stuck on and they cannot seem to find the right answers. Often the answer is so easy, simple really, that they just cannot see the solution. In these instances, many times I'll give them the answer that they are seeking, and it blows their minds that it is that simple. But when you are running a business many times you just do not have the time to put the proper thought into it when you're working so much in your business and not on your business.
Hiring a business coach is like hiring a partner that shares none of the profits yet cheers for you for all your successes. Business coaches essentially are free if you get a good coach because if they are finding profits that you're missing their fee is way under the value of what they find for you.
What is a Business Coaching Session Like?
In my practice a business coaching session is typically done on zoom. It's nice because I get to share my computer screen with many of the systems I've created. Any program I have in use at my service company can be shown in real lifetime as my business is operating. My clients tend to like that because they get to see it in action so that they can modify their system or duplicate mine.
I will spend an hour and a half with most of my clients every week discussing what we did in our last session and what their biggest issue currently. An hour and a half goes pretty quick when you're discussing solutions for problems you do not have answers for. Oftentimes I will go over are a lot of time to guarantee my client gets the issue solved. I will also coach the management staff and sales team if necessary. As well as train the call center on correct call scripting for the best possible outcome in achieving the most appointments possible.
During my sessions we have agreed to not take any calls, texts, or answer any emails. Business owners are paying for a business coaches time and holding them accountable to make sure they use the time wisely.
In my sessions I will often call my own service company to provide proof that the system in question is a valid better operating system than what they currently have. It helps my clients get a better perspective from my employees.
Getting All Onboard – Culture Shift
Getting all your staff on board with upgrading in new systems and processes in your business is the best and fastest way to grow efficient. When all your employees from your newest hire to your most tenure staff member is excited to growing your business then your culture shift begins.
Culture is a major player in advancing any company to scalability. When you go into a restaurant that has employees that are greeting you and clearly look happy to be there you feel confident that your service and food are going to be the best that I could. The same is true when you go into somewhere where you can just see that the employees do not want to be there so you feel like you're not going to get the best product or service. Culture is actually the King of transformation any company could do to have better profits in scale.
So, what is your culture like? Do you hate going to work? Do your employees Hate coming to work? Are you constantly having quality control issues? Is there no slogan or mission statement that everybody adheres to in your business?
These are the questions you should ask yourself when wanting to scale. Therefore, you hire a business coach to get your culture in line with growth. Here's the system for you, I train all my entrepreneurs and business owners to drive up to their parking spot with a smile every day and walk into their business with the same smile while saying hello to anyone they come in contact with. Sounds stupid right? Well how often do you walk in there to your business with a smile? You most likely walk in your business with a blank or frown on your face. That's called culture.
You make a conscious decision every day about what your culture is whether you know it or not. A positive defined culture is what will drive any business from losing money and lots of quality control issues.
A culture shift in a growing company is the best fast start two scaling.
Business Coach Teaches Reporting
Do you know how much money you made last week exactly? Do you know exactly the profits per product or service? Do you know how much cash you have on hand? Do you have tangible goals that can be reached?
In my practice as a business coach I have systems for all these reporting issues. One of the biggest things most entrepreneurs and business owners lack is the knowledge of their finances. The accounting programs are so complicated and typically backlog to get anything in real time that most business owners do not know their numbers.
I start with what we call a squirrel’s nut report shortened to what we call the “nut report”. It starts off with just knowing your cash on hand and your outstanding invoices. We don't account for the bills because your cash on hand accounts for your bills if you do this every week on the same time. one way to think of it is if you were to run away how much could you take with you.
Once you get accustomed to tracking your beginning nut numbers, we then start to add reporting. We will start adding sales per opportunities (SPO’s). Every time I start working with the company, they tell me how awesome their salespeople are. Then when we figure out there SPO’s per salesman to find out they are not that great. I had one of my clients tell me that the new guys are always the best salesman because they are fresh and excited. I had to laugh because his culture was allowing his salespeople to not have the enthusiasm to have great sales numbers. We changed his culture that day when finding out his number one salesman was his worst salesman.
Tracking numbers is the best way to manage everybody is always being their best . Having a system to continually know each position and its numbers is how you get better numbers.
Hire a Business Coach
I had one of my clients the other day tell me that I had gotten them in three months three steps ahead of where they would have ever been at right now. Therefore you hire a business coach. Having someone that is got your back and can guide you into better profits and an outstanding culture is why you hire a coach.
A business coach is not necessarily a consultant. But some business coaches are consultants, like me. I can coach you and help you guide yourself into where you need to go but many times I can also give you the answer with a question or system or a process that is already being used in my business or other businesses that I coach.
The best business coach you could hire is a coach that has experience in actually running a business. Outside the Business Box, Chad Murray, Is the right coach for anyone who wants experience, heart, and the knowledge to get your business scaling.