Is Your Business Forest Lost in the Trees?

You’ve worked hard to start your business.  You’ve struggled to find clients and get your business to grow.  You’ve worked hard to get where you are.  So why are you content to stop there?

Lots of small business owners lose sight of the business ‘forest’ due to all the trees.  And by trees I mean the actual day in, day out activities that it takes to run your business and provide services to your clients. And you’re so busy focusing on these ‘trees’ that you effectively stunt the growth of your own business.

Sure, you mean to learn that new software, take that business class or re-evaluate your pricing structure, but you’re just so busy taking care of your clients’ needs that you haven’t found the time.  Because after all, you rely on those clients to pay the bills, right?  It ends up becoming a vicious circle. And your business remains stuck in that place where you’re one client away from business failure while the ‘trees’ keep you too busy to see the business forest before you.

This is when you need another perspective.  You need the insight of a person who isn’t blinded by your trees that can show you the path through them to the forest. You can call it business coaching, consulting, tutoring or mentoring; it all helps you accomplish the same thing.  Growing your business.

As someone who always found ways to improve the productivity of my former positions in my career by doing things like building databases,  automating processes and creating templates, it was only natural that same ability to see ways to improve how things were being done would eventually impact my own business.   But because I was deep in my own ‘trees’ I didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t until I asked for help from a mentor of my own that they pointed out the fact that I was actually ‘coaching’ all of those virtual professionals contacting me.  And then they laid out a way that I could add coaching and tutoring to my services.
I was still skeptical.  But I trusted my mentor and what they could see that I could not.  It wasn’t until one of my coaching clients contacted me, explaining that I had given them the confidence to quote the $65 an hour rate we had determined for their services to a potential client, who proceeded to sign with them with no mention of the cost.   That was followed by other clients giving me updates about how their businesses were running smoother and growing faster because they were now aware of the ways they could improve the way they were doing things.  My mentor was right.

I’d bet you’re a lot like I was.  I guarantee you there are things you could be doing differently in your business that would help it grow, help you find more clients and/or get paid what you’re really worth.  I also know that one of the first excuses you’re going to make is that you can’t afford a coach/consultant/tutor/mentor.  But the truth of the matter may be that you can’t afford not to find one.

I’ve teamed up with Vicki Voisin; the Paralegal Mentor for a low-cost 90-minute webinar for virtual professionals working within the legal field.  Virtual paralegals, virtual legal assistants and others providing services virtually to attorneys We’re Listening!  Now all virtual professionals can get the benefit of my coaching on Finding & Claiming Your Value and learn how to determine and charge what you are really worth.  (You get an hour and a half of my best advice about setting and presenting your rates for less than it would cost you for 20 minutes of my coaching. This is the same advice that led my client to claim her $65 per hour rate and get it!)

But don’t procrastinate or let those ‘trees’ get in the way.  The webinar is tomorrow;  Wednesday, June 22 at 1pm so **Vicki and I postponed our webinar so that we could include all virtual professionals. The additional time will allow us to adjust the content of the class to address all virtual professionals from generalist Virtual Assistant to Virtual Paralegals! sign up today to attend the class on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011.

Take a step toward finding your business forest.