29-Point Business Evaluation + Business Coach

You can take our FREE 29-Point Business Coach Self-Evaluation over at Thrive15.com/Evaluation.

I had one client who I business coach take this evaluation and his overall score of 58% indicated that he had many problems (which we call “opportunities for growth”) that he needed to address including:

1. He did not have any turnkey marketing systems.
2. He did not have any proven turnkey advertisements he used throughout the year.
3. He did not have any formalized inbound sales scripts, pre-written emails, or sales presentation processes.
4. He did not have an inbound sales call script.
5. He did not have an outbound sales call script.
6. He did not have a formalized up-selling / cross-selling sales presentation script.
7. He did not have a systematic customer “wow experience” baked into his workflow. He did not have a documented workflow at all.
8. He did not have a way to scalably deliver his coaching services without physically being the coach.
9. He did not have any understanding of his break-even point, his goal achievement point, when his taxes were due, and how much money he was making or losing each week.
10. He had no concept of his overall profitability per customer.
11. He did not have a cause-based marketing or public relations campaign in place.
12. He did not have any file organization or existing nomenclature rules in place.
13. He did not have talent recruitment and scripted job posting, inquiring, responding, or interviewing processes in place.
14. He did not have an ongoing training program in place for his staff.
15. He was not being intentional about developing banking relationships or friendships with those who have the ability to invest in businesses.
16. He was not doing anything intentionally to become a leader that his employees would follow.
17. He did not have a management, follow-up, or delegation system in place.
18. He did not have a system in place to motivate himself and keep himself engaged and excited about the vision of his company.
19. He did not have a time management system in place to block out distractions and to create time to focus on the important aspects of his business.
20. His overall growth was stagnant.
21. He was spending everything he made and was actually behind in many of his financial responsibilities.
22. He did have a proof of concept and he knew from first-hand experience that people were willing to pay for professional soccer coaching services, especially if a parent believed that their kid had the potential to play soccer at the Division 1 NCAA college level on a full-scholarship basis.
23. He did not have any documented processes in place indicating how the company would eventually scale (expand rapidly) to different markets in the event that their marketing efforts were successful and their trainings were shown to be effective.
24. He did not have financial peace, and in fact, was actually quite stressed out financially most of the time.
25. He did not have any formalized goals for his life in the areas of Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness, and Friendships.
26. He did not have any formalized or accurate checklists in place and thus, all questions from employees and customers were consistently being directed toward him.
27. He did have effective communication skills, yet he was terrible at communicating with his loyal, ongoing customers in an effective manner (via text message, email, social media, and mass voice mail).
28. He had very little documentation for anything including his passwords, processes, the service experience delivery, the bathroom cleaning checklists, and the actual coaching process itself.
29. He did not have customer relationship management software in place, despite having worked with over 10,000 paying customers throughout his 30-year career.

To make long story short, this incredible man was a loyal father, a committed husband, and an outstanding coach, but he was way down the road toward something I call the “Proven Path to Small Business Death” which includes:

1. Running out of health.
2. Running out of money.
3. Running out of time.

However, I am proud to say that nearly four years after our first meeting, this is no longer the case. This coach has made SIGNIFICANT improvement in 25 of the 29 areas of weakness we originally discovered in his 29-Point Business Evaluation and he is finally financially free. Recently, he unfortunately had to have another surgery, but when he did, he had a team of employees and a staff of coaches prepared, trained, and ready to fill in for their mentor and leader.

My friend, have you ever taken a timeout from the busyness of your day to ask yourself why it seems as though a few people have a natural ability to move from one successful venture to another with little or no drama, while most business owners seem to never be able to figure out the magic formula? Why do some college basketball coaches seem to win everywhere they go, while others just can’t seem to ever win? Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to become friends with the legendary Hall of Fame Division 1 college basketball coach, Eddie Sutton, who was able to take four schools to the NCAA Tournament and to take both Arkansas and Oklahoma State to the Final Four. During his career, he was one of only eight college basketball coaches to have ever won over 800 games. That was because he knew HOW TO WIN. Athletic directors knew that no matter where Eddie Sutton coached, he was going to win because he knew the methodology, the resources, the systems, the processes, and the priorities needed to win.

“Resources are what he uses to do it, processes are how he does it, and priorities are why he does it.” -Clayton M. Christensen (Professor at Harvard Business College)

My friend, you must become like one of these legendary coaches. YOU MUST LEARN THAT THE PARALLELS AND COMMON DENOMINATORS FOUND IN RUNNING MOST BUSINESSES FAR OUTWEIGH THE DIFFERENCES OF EACH BUSINESS TYPE AND INDUSTRY. The great business coach entrepreneurs have learned this and their wallets are much bigger as a result. For example, one of my clients now owns a sushi bar, a neurological center, a testosterone clinic, a cosmetic surgery business, and a liquor store. What do all these businesses have in common? They all allow him to exchange goods and services for the monetary compensation we all seek.

“Most entrepreneurs are merely technicians with an entrepreneurial seizure. Most entrepreneurs fail because you are working IN your business rather than ON your business.”-Michael Gerber (Bestselling author of the E-Myth book series)

For your benefit, I need for you to take the following business coach pledge:

I, ___________, believe that although my business does have unique variables and specialized aspects, I know that the similarities of successful businesses greatly outweigh their differences. I realize that saying, “Yes, but my type of business is very different” is not helpful and is a limiting belief.

Signed: _________________________

Date: ___________________________

Take the business coach pledge so you do not allow differences between business models and industries keep you from implementing best practice systems.