Category Archives for "Purpose"

Use Your Offer to Promote Your Business Purpose

Your business purpose is primarily your vision for the changes your business makes to your clients and their wider community.  The next step is to ask: what is your offer and is it aligned with your vision?

Hourly Rates or Packages?

Many coaches make the mistake of offering an hourly rate to clients.  There are at least two issues you need to consider.

1. An hourly rate encourages the view your work is entirely face-to-face with your client. In fact you put in many hours of work not visible to the client; both direct work on preparation and follow-up and indirect work, including marketing.  A package charges for the benefit to the client.  The client does not see your hours and is not encouraged to convert your charges into an hourly rate.  After all they are hiring you for your expertise and you need to be rewarded for the hours you have put in over years to get there!
2. Whatever the change you promise, it is unlikely you will make any significant difference in a single session. To offer a package, says it takes this long to get the result you’re after.

How to Align Your Packages with Your Vision

Your packages flow from your vision.  The way you name and present them shows the expected outputs and outcomes.  You are asking the client to work with you to achieve your vision.

The client may agree with you, work needs to be done to improve the quality of management in their industry.  They work with you and so you both work for change with that goal.  The customer wants to see benefits to their specific problem but also their wider context.

Website Design as an Example

Let’s say you are coaching someone in website design.  They expect to be better website designers as a result of working with you but they also need to consider the wider context in which they work.  What changes must take place in their business or industry, to accept the approach to online marketing your client learns?

Website design has never been solely a technical skill.  In the past the technicalities were difficult to master.  Now it is easier and the focus has moved towards organisational issues.  If the website changes, how will the organisation rise to the challenge?  What you don’t want is a website that works and is never used by its owners because it is not understood.

Whatever your packages do, these days they need to be interdisciplinary, offering a systemic approach because if they don’t they won’t work for the client or anyone else.

This may be a daunting task.  “I’m a website designer, I don’t know anything about organisations!”  But your client may know something about organisations.  This is the value of working together, to solve problems.  You get the credit even if the client solves the problem!  Chances are they would not have understood the issue without you.

Your package should give you both permission to work on the implications of what you are doing, not solely on acquiring technical skills.

And then, of course, you need to market your package and that is another things altogether.

Visit my new website, Market Together to sign up to my list so that you don’t miss any posts and hear about the exciting plans I’m working on to promote an alternative approach to marketing.

Please comment and let me know what you like about this post.  What would you like me to write about further?

How Your Vision Promotes Your Business Purpose

Every business should have business, financial and lifestyle purposes.  Together they equip your business with the vision, means and energy to make real change.  This is the first of five posts that look at how your business purpose plays out.

You are a coach, consultant or freelance; just starting out or perhaps an old hand.  To be effective you need to know yourself.

It is possible to set out in business without a purpose.  I did.  I decided to give business a go about 6 years ago and had no idea what I was going to do.

My story

I was made redundant in 2011 and attended a few workshops about self-employment.  My background was 30 years as a community development worker and it was hard to see at the time what I could offer.

What attracted me was the lifestyle of self-employment.  My priority was to find something I could offer.  My first thought was to offer website design to community and voluntary organisations.  I found this did not work for me.  Website design was no longer viable as a career owing to growth in platforms like WordPress.  Also I soon realised the reasons websites don’t work are often nothing to do with the website.  Organisations are often behind the failure of websites and other marketing initiatives.

This led me to study marketing and I soon discovered much of it was very familiar, similar to stuff I had done with community groups over 30 years!  As I became more familiar with marketing, I could see the same patterns as I saw when I developed community enterprises.

For example, transplanting an idea from one place to another, without appreciating the change in context.  Context is everything in community and business development.  Many businesses market without self-knowledge and desperately need to deepen their understanding of what they are doing.

What is Your Business Purpose?

Your business purpose is the benefit your business brings to your clients and to the wider world.  One concept I used as a development worker was the distinction between outputs and outcomes.  An output is an immediate result of an intervention, usually recorded as a quantity.  It may be something like the number of people interviewed or attending a training course.  An outcome is a more long-term achievement, usually recorded as a quality, a story.

A business coach may find their client’s business becomes more successful financially, while the quality of life for the client also improves.  But the same coach also has outcomes.  What is their impact on their client’s clients, families or neighbours?  If your client becomes a better business owner, the chances are your benefits go way beyond the immediate value to the client.

If you aim to reach people in one industry then your purpose may be to improve the quality of some aspect of that industry.  It should reach beyond the immediate benefit to your clients.

You are saying to your clients, I understand your business and I’m committed with you to improve the overall quality of that business.  Why?  Because this vision will improve your overall profile in the eyes of your market.  You show you understand what they are up against, know what works in their field and can provide the means to make the necessary changes.  When you can point to real and substantial changes, you can show the impact your vision has had on the world.

Your Vision and Theirs

Your vision should stimulate your target market’s imagination.  When you speak, you should be able to capture their attention and hold it.  You are inviting them to join you in making your vision a reality.

On its own this is not enough but as you’ll see in later posts, your vision is a necessary foundation for your marketing and indeed delivery of your coaching.  Your vision must inform all the decisions you make about your business; its purpose, its finance and even your lifestyle.

So, we shall return to vision in a few posts times when we look in more depth at finance.  Next time we shall turn out attention to how you express your business purpose through your offer.

Visit my new website, Market Together to sign up to my list so that you don’t miss any posts and hear about the exciting plans I’m working on to promote an alternative approach to marketing.

Please comment and let me know what you like about this post.  What would you like me to write about further?

Can Coaches Halt the Decline of Caring?

We hear a lot about the troubled history of capitalism but perhaps should be more concerned about the decline of caring, especially as coaches or consultants.

There is no need to worry about capitalism.  It is in fine health and is likely to be until a nuclear holocaust or catastrophic ecosystem collapse.   So-called anti-capitalist movements are on close inspection, different approaches to how we practice capitalism.

This blog advocates co-operation (scroll down to item 5), where capital is owned collectively.  The Soviet Union practiced state capitalism.  People do not have to own capital; it is still capital whoever or whatever owns it.

Western capitalist democracies advocate private ownership.  On closer examination, this is not always what its advocates claim it is.  Does salting huge sums of money in accounts offshore in the name of various corporations really count as private ownership?

Coaching and the Decline of Caring

I’m more concerned about the decline of caring.  And by this I mean trends accounted for by denial of the needs of other people.  Businesses ignore these trends at their peril because businesses that don’t care cannot thrive.  Decline of caring is particularly challenging for coaches and consultants.

I don’t plan to write about the role of major caring professions such as health, social services or education.  I oppose their privatisation because it is not possible to deliver these services through private enterprise.  If you don’t believe me, look at health services in the United States.  Governments should offer a well-funded, universal safety net.  There will always be gaps in provision to be filled by private enterprise or voluntary sector projects.

Businesses that don’t care may have a short-term advantage but most businesses, if not caring from the outset, soon understand there is money in genuine caring.  Coaches must base their business on genuine care for their clients.  The client takes on the coach because they need help with some issue.  The coach must care about the issue because failure is as much theirs as their client’s.

The problem is most business models focus on income generation at the expense of business purpose.  The coach who does not aim for significant change for the better, is unlikely to offer a credible service.

Circulation or Accumulation?

As soon as businesses understand their role is to keep money circulating in the economy, they see caring is important.  Damage to local economies and ultimately to community happens when there is less money in the economy.   Money circulating is common wealth, available potentially to everyone.

Nobody setting out in business as a coach, consultant or freelance, will make much difference to their community, however financially successful their business becomes.  But together many small businesses can make a massive impact.

It can be hard to see this impact because it is hard to attribute change in a locality to one particular business.  Sometimes we don’t know what to look for.  Maybe we must say, “We did this” and not “I did this”.  How can coaches increase awareness of their contribution? How can they use their outcomes to market their business?

Starting next week, I shall take three aims every business should have: purpose, financial and lifestyle and show how they can be aligned with your offer, marketing, clients and wider community.

Visit my new website, Market Together to sign up to my list so that you don’t miss any posts and hear about the exciting plans I’m working on to promote an alternative approach to marketing.

Please comment and let me know what you like about this post.  What would you like me to write about further?

Freedom to Make Your Own Decisions

Freedom is never something that just happens.  We are all bound by constraints of circumstance and perspective.  This is as true for the wealthy as it is for the poor.  We are fooling ourselves if we believe money alone guarantees freedom.

It is tempting to think of lack of freedom as a matter of circumstance.  “If only things were different, then I would be free.”  It is our perspective or mindset that is just as binding on our lives as the circumstances we find ourselves in.   Indeed it can be our mindset that leaves us at the mercy of circumstance.

Alignment

So, to be free we must have a purpose; be free is to do something.  And we need the means to do it.  This is life where profit and values overlap.  To focus on profit alone is to live without purpose, but without profit your purpose is unfulfilled.

If you run a business you must master the art of marketing.  However, it is not some dark art formulated by myrmidons with jargon terms and slick salespersonship.  Marketing at its best is a congruent expression of your values and what you do.  You are bringing your vision or purpose into the light of day, expressed in everyday words and profoundly honest.

So, alignment of your marketing with your values and your offer is essential and your challenge is to align five elements of your business to lend it coherence and credibility.

Values

Let’s assume you know what your values are and want to see them expressed through your business.

Sometimes business people lose sight of their values as they work on their business.  Simply keeping up with everything there is to do means we don’t have time to reflect on our business.  If we are a lone worker, we are not accountable to anyone other than ourselves for our values.  To speak them to a listening ear, helps keep them in mind.

The other error we make is overemphasising values at the cost of business.  If we have a skill we know to be of value, the temptation to give it away or sell it at a low price can overwhelm us.  We must do justice to our contribution because otherwise we will in time have no contribution to make.

Offers

It is essential your offers align with your values.  Coaches and freelancers, base their decision to go into business on an acquired skill and their values inform their desire to learn that skill.  Some businesses have low-end products that allow them to use their skill with the greatest number of people and high-end offers that effectively subsidise their low-end offers.

This approach requires you to make sure you align all your offers with your values.  The prices of your high-end packages must reflect their value to their market.

Marketing

Your marketing must align with your offer and values.  So far, this is obvious.  Everything you say should be congruent with your values.  The challenge is congruence with your offer.

Let’s say you are a coach and your coaching practice is clearly values-based.  How can you use your skills as a coach to market your business?  Think of the advantages.  Your prospects will experience something of your skills as a coach.  They will get a better idea of what you offer and understand the commitment they make when they work with you.

Market / Problem

Be aware of the distinction between what you sell and what you deliver.  You sell solutions to problems in your market.  What you deliver is the means you use to solve the problem.

So, if you sell peace of mind you might deliver home security equipment or fitness regimes or financial advice or …

You need to align your marketing with your market and specifically the problem you solve for them.  You need to use language they understand and show you understand their problem (and can solve it).

If you get all this right and find clients, you will be able to point to success among your clients or customers.

Local Benefit

Finally, you can align your market with the wider benefits of your business to your community.  This is harder to pin down.  People often speak of outcomes, the changes that happen as a result of delivery of outputs.

So, if you coach coaches, their clients will benefit from your coaching.  If you help someone improve their health, their friends and family will benefit.

This is hard to capture but it is the ultimate result of your values and all the work you have put in.

Looking Back from Local Benefit to Values

So, if you imagine a line connecting values to offers to marketing to market to local benefit, you can stand at either end and look along it.  As you plan or review your business you can stand at the values end of the line and see how each element falls into place and follows logically from the one before.

Stand at the local benefits end of the line and ask, whether you can see your values in the outcomes of your work.  If not your values, whose?  Maybe you have done unintended good and so find new values you were not aware of.  Or perhaps you can begin to see where along the line your values are not fully expressed or indeed where your values are a problem!

If you are seeking freedom through business, then alignment of your values and your outcomes is essential.  It is hard work but it is work with a purpose and that is freedom.

If you found this post helpful, do let me know.  I’d be happy to write other posts with more details, on request.

Investment in Other Businesses

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages of doing well financially is an opportunity to invest in other businesses or projects.  There are three types of investment and I consider them in turn.

Gifts

This is the least engaged of the three types of investment.  You give away your money and do not expect any return.  At least, that is the purest form of gift.  Sometimes people offer gifts with strings attached.  Those who offer a gift or grant may ask you to produce outputs in return.

If you actively seek donations you are a charity (although not necessarily registered) and must spend the money for your stated purpose.  A corporate donor may therefore insist on outputs because their donation may in its turn be accountable under charity law.  Individual donors may be happy with an annual report or online feedback.

The Donor’s Purpose

From the point of view of the donor, giving to a corporate charity is perhaps the least engaged form of giving.  You hand responsibility to a charity and trust it to spend your money to meet its objects.

A more engaged form of giving might be to give to a local charity, where you can see for yourself it is effective.  You know the people who run the charity and are happy they take on daily responsibility.  Your contribution helps them carry out their objectives.

Of course, there are gifts to family and friends.  You give birthday gifts with complete freedom to use or spend as the recipient desires.  They are the charitable object, as it were.  Some gifts are given in response to an expressed need.  But here it may be worth considering some other way of investing your money.

Another form of gift is money given away to strangers, most commonly for those who beg for money on the streets.  This is usually with no expectation of any particular outcome other than perhaps the relief of immediate suffering.

Loans

Loans are a more engaged form of investment.  These are contributions made in expectation the full amount will be repaid, possibly with interest.

The most formal approach might be a loan from a bank or similar financial institution.  One very common type is the mortgage.  But it also includes formal bank loans and informal loans through credit cards.

Loans, especially when offered to individuals, are the main reason there is so much debt.  Interest accumulates and increases the amount owed until it becomes difficult if not impossible to maintain payments.

The problem is ultimately, especially where you are investing locally, the debtor must make a repayment.  To insist on repayment to schedule is to effectively close down the enterprise you have invested in, if it is not in a position to repay.  It is hard to see how there can be anything other than a negative outcome for one or both parties, where the investment has not borne fruit.

The debtor in effect depends on the good will of the creditor and this will depend on the confidence the creditor has in the enterprise.  The creditor may find closing the enterprise is the only way they can recover their investment.

This is not to say loans are not a valuable form of investment.  A lot depends on how their structure and local circumstances.

Equity

Of these three types of investment, equity is the one that implies the closest relationship between the donor and recipient.  The donor takes a share of the profit or of the losses made by the recipient. If the enterprise comes to an end, they share the remaining assets in proportion to their original investment.

The reason this works so well is the interests of the donor coincide the recipient’s.  The donor must be confident the recipient can succeed but it is also in their interest to be sure the recipient does succeed.

A family member might enter an equity arrangement with a young person, for example.  They might offer their business experience as well as finance to set the young person in business.  The donor will see this as an investment and not entirely for support of the young person.  Any return can be reinvested in the same or other enterprises.

Some people invest in equity to generate income.  Some do this through stocks and shares but it is possible to receive income from informal equity arrangements.  You would simply draw on the business in the same way the owner might, you are in effect joint owners.  So, if you own 50% of the business, you receive £50 for every £100 profit.  That’s the principle and life is rarely as simple as that.

Conclusion

The question for those who wish to support local business is which of these types of investment are likely to be most effective in support of the local economy.  It is not possible to categorically say which approach is the best because so much depends on local circumstances.

The main thing to bear in mind is if you invest, do so with money you can afford to lose.  Don’t back one enterprise with everything you have.

Has this post been helpful to you?  Please let me know, especially if you would like me to expand on any point.

Using Your Purchasing Power

In this sixth post about using money, I consider how you spend it.  With money you have purchasing power and you can use it to make a difference.  Imagine being able to purchase more expensive options because you know you can generate more money through your business.  The question is what to spend it on.

You can easily find inspirational videos that dwell on the fantastic advantages of financial freedom.  If you are a coach, the chances are you can do well but never achieve financial freedom, where income is coming in without the need to work.  Many coaches would not want it, as their coaching is something they enjoy.

Anyway, if owning a yacht floats your boat, then you know what you want and should go for it.  My concern is for those business people turned off by images of wealth and find them, well bad taste or even unethical.

Your Power to Choose

Making money is a powerful incentive.  I don’t intend to influence how you spend your money.  My point is an obvious one, really – if you want to make a difference, then you need to make money.  Why?

Not all these are essential.  But the third and last compete for your attention.  If offering a discount to a client in need, effectively means you can’t take your children on holiday, which do you choose?

Marketers will say in those circumstances you need to earn more.  Yes, I could earn more if I did something else, the question for me is do I want to do something else?  The choice is much deeper than: how do I spend the money I have?  It can amount to: am I doing the right thing?

How to Increase Income

So, what are the options, besides changing to another business?

The last three are all options that take time and time can be as scarce as money!  They are all worth considering.  Are there more?

Support for the Local Economy

Once you decide your lifestyle and find a way to generate the income you need, you have yet another choice.  One effective way to make a difference is support for your local economy.

To purchase from a local business achieves a number of things:

In summary, our purchasing power has an impact locally and so we should consider it a serious benefit our success brings to community.

Let me know if you found this post helpful.  Are there related topics you would like me to write about?

Do You Undervalue Your Business?

Whilst it is possible to overcharge for your services, most coaches and consultants undercharge.  When your prices are too low, you undervalue your business.  This is the fifth post in my series about money and pricing your business.

Undercharging is a real problem for your business and the wider business community.  You make a statement about the value of your work.  You may be brilliant at what you do but your message to the world is “meh”! 

Perhaps worse is the possibility you undercut your competitors.  Perhaps you have too many clients because you have a good reputation and low prices.  Then the chances are you are running yourself ragged and collaborating with others to keep their prices down.

I said competitors, didn’t I?  Leaving aside some of these may be potential collaborators, the chances are they have a niche next to yours and distinct.  They may seem to be competitors but if there are enough clients to go round, what’s the problem?  Of course, if you undercharge and they do, sharing clients is harder because you all need more clients.  If everyone increased their fees they would all need fewer clients and offer them a better service.

How to Increase Your Prices

You should charge what you think you are worth.  Indeed, charge more than that!  It is not difficult to increase prices.  Just do it!  However, here are a few things to consider :

So, let’s consider strategies to raise your prices:

How to Manage Overcharging

Don’t bring your charges down!  Perhaps you find it hard to sell at your current prices.  Reducing the price devalues your offer, so what to do?  Here are a few possibilities to consider.  You may need to find a strategy that fits your business, don’t assume it’s the same for everyone.

Remember, this is always to some degree trial and error.  As you get to know your market and offer, you become more adept at delivering something of value for what it is worth.

How do you keep your offers fresh, available to all pockets with realistic prices?   Tell me if this post is helpful.  If you have any questions about prices I would be delighted to have a go!

Making Profit Saves Time

Most coaches and consultants undercharge for their work.  It is just as easy to overcharge.  If you are not finding clients perhaps you are overcharging, although it is usually not a good idea to bring your prices down.  I shall explore this in more detail next Wednesday.  Today I shall explain how making profit saves time.

Work Life Balance

We hear a lot about work life balance, primarily because so many people in employment work overtime.  When the demands of work are excessive, to the extent there is little time to do anything else, many people start to question why they are doing it.  The question may be a response to some life changing event such as a heart attack or diagnosis with a problem such as diabetes or stress.  Sometimes someone will simply realise other people have time to do stuff other than work.

The same applies when you are self-employed.  There may be fewer checks on your excessive working because you don’t have managers or colleagues to question it.

I met someone the other day who told me she can offer 3 one-hour consultancy sessions seven days a week.  That’s 21 sessions a week.  So, I asked her wouldn’t she rather work only 4 days a week.  She would – the question is: how?   She needs higher prices.  How to get to higher prices is a non-trivial question but at this stage I’m making the point.

You may be good at something you enjoy doing but the pleasure begins to pall if you have an endless sea of working days ahead with no let up.

Anything you do below the market value is an act of charity.  There is nothing wrong with that but understand what it means.  Imagine the balance sheet of a conventional business, where you subtract expenditure from income to calculate your profit.  If you work at a low rate or for free, you are in effect donating your profit.  If you work out the cost of your charitable work, you can add it to your income.

You may find you would make a profit if you charged for charitable work.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with pro bono work.  Many social enterprises do this and record the costs of what they give away as part of their profit.  This is sometimes called the triple bottom line, where you account for social and environmental benefits as well as financial profit.

There’s no reason a self-employed person can’t do the same but be clear.  It reduces your profit and increases the time you put into your paid work.  Perhaps it would be better to wait until you are making a profit and then spend it!

Spending the Time Profit Generates

So, let’s consider the time you spend if you have time to spare.

First, the internet marketing gurus will tell you about the wonderful leisure activities you can partake in once you have money.  You can pay for staff, not only for your business but also for domestic life.  Staff free up time.  Now you can sit back and enjoy life!

Of course, life isn’t like that.  Leisure time may be eaten up by domestic responsibilities.  You could employ a nanny to look after your children.  Is that what you really want?

So-called leisure time is the time you need to pay attention to other aspects of life.  Family, health, education are all aspects of a fulfilled life.  They are essential and you will certainly feel pain if you neglect them.

Employing staff is not a bad idea.  I won’t enter into the pros and cons here but point out something you may not have spotted.  When you have time freed by your higher income, you have more time for your business.

The business owner I mentioned earlier explained if she filled 21 sessions, she would have 60-80 clients.  Now I think these would be 60-80 unhappy clients.  If she could generate income to cover her needs from just a few clients she could spend more time with them (they’re paying her more remember), do research on their behalf, improve her skills through training and genuinely have time to develop her business.

The extra staff may not be needed; the extra time may be sufficient.  But staff do free up time you need to do what you do best, while they do the routine stuff you don’t really need to do but do now because there is no-one else to do it.

And with more time, you can invest further in your community.  I shall write about spending money on charitable or community work in a later post.  With more time you can afford to seek new investments of time or money in projects that interest you and benefit others.

Conclusion

So, more time for leisure and family, for doing your business better and for making investments in your community or charity work.

The challenge is to get there.  I may move onto this in later posts.  My non-directive consultancy specialises in how to get into this enviable position.  I’m happy to talk to anyone interested with no obligation.

Let me know if this post is helpful and if you have any questions for me to write about later.