Coaches Corner~Business

As an extraordinary coach, you may want to be present to the fact that a skill set to be a coach is different from a skill set to be in the coaching business. Coaching, like many other skills and talents that a person can have, is a good thing. Running a business is something completely different. There are payrolls. There are employees. There are standard operating procedures. There are management of employees. When you're talking about running a business, running a business is a different skill set from being an extraordinary coach. Part of your job as an extraordinary coach, is to make people present to the fact that you got a whole different set of skills that you need to own and run a business, than you need to perform a task. Take my friend Bill. Bill makes the best biscuits in the world. Bill's been making biscuits for many, many years. People have always loved his biscuits and everybody has always wanted him to open a restaurant. Bill would be mistaken to open a restaurant. He'd be more useful if he could find somebody that owned a restaurant, and then make biscuits for them.

Let's talk about a guy that everybody knows, Colonel Sanders. Colonel Sanders has a business called Kentucky Fried Chicken. K.F.C's been around for a lot of years. When he wanted to start his business, he first had to find somebody to buy into the fact that he could cook great tasting chicken, and he could cook great tasting chicken. He went around to over 1,000 restaurants before he found someone willing to take a chance on his chicken recipes. He knew his chicken was good because all of his friends told him so. He was ecstatic when he found out that this restaurant  would serve his chicken, but that's only part of the story. People tell that story as a way to get you motivated, as a way to help you overcome obstacles, but that really is only part of the story. The K.F.C franchise, as you know it now, is a far cry from what Colonel Harlan Sanders had in mind when he went around trying to find someone to use his chicken, to get the recipe out to let people know how good his chicken was.

If you are an extraordinary coach, and you could be just like I am, you too must be present to the fact that maybe as simple as you requiring someone else to run your business, someone to schedule your clients, someone to collect the money, someone to pay the over-head. A good example of what I'm talking about is physicians, particularly surgeons. When I was a registered nurse, some years ago, I was really touched, moved, and inspired as I interacted with the surgeons. Before they were going to perform surgery, particularly the Heart Surgeons, they would be walking around the ICU, walking around the recovery room, and they would be really excited. You could see them as they opened and closed their fists walking around, as they were hyperventilating because they were getting ready to hold someone's heart in their hands. That is what surgeons do. As far as the scheduling of the surgery, as far as making sure that the room was sterile, as far as making sure that the family knew where to go and sit down, as far as making sure that the nurses were available to take care of the patients once they came out of surgery, the surgeon had nothing to do with that.

No matter how good a surgeon is, those are not places that he finds himself. He doesn't need a skill of running a business. What he needs more than anything, is an outside, objective opinion to tell him what it's going to take to be a world class surgeon. That outside objective opinion, that may come from you, will advise him to hire a business manger. That's why there exists a thing as a business manager. Someone needs to manage your business no matter what kind of business you are in. That includes the coaching business. The purpose of this blog is, just because you know how to do something and your skill is phenomenal, does not mean that you need to go into business doing that. Just because you're a good cook, just because you're a good speaker, just because you're a good coach, that doesn't dictate that you want to start a business of your own. As you begin to counsel your clients on being an entrepreneur, as you begin to, maybe even, counsel some coaches about how to be a good coach, stay present to the fact that running a business takes an entirely different skill set from being a technician. Michael Gerber, and his break-through book called, The E-Myth, talks about that particular distinction.
The distinction of being a business person and the distinction of being good at a particular skill does not need to be confused, does not need to be mixed up. If this gives you an idea, if this helps you go into business, fantastic. If this stops you from going into business, fantastic. Count the costs. Pay attention to what is needed if you want to be a business man. Being a business man is different from being a good salesman. If you got a skill to do anything at all, remember it takes an entirely different skill to be a business man. I end this blog like I enjoy ending all of my blogs, by telling you to have a good time until the next time, and if it has blessed you or helped you in any way, or given you any good ideas, by all means, share it with your friends and/or your family.