Business Coaching to Help You Grow Your Business and Achieve Your Personal Best!

Tag: Coaching

The Dominance of Small Businesses and Word of Mouth Referrals: Did You Know?

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Last month, we listed some stats in our newsletter. If you read that, you know that 99.9% of businesses across the US are small businesses with nearly half of all U.S. employees being employed by a small business. Yet, over 8 out of 10 small businesses have no employees and just 16% of small businesses have 1-19 employees.*

Small businesses rule. So that’s interesting!

Also interesting, advertising accounts for just 1% of a business’s revenue on average.* So what gives? Aren’t we supposed to spend a bunch of money on advertising? Of course we can, if we want to see a low ROI. Or, we can go a better route.

Did you know, 85% of small businesses get customers through word of mouth referrals?!** It’s the number one way to generate revenue with search engines coming in at number two and 59%. Word of mouth referrals have the least cost in out-of-pocket expenditures and is based on the Know You, Like You, Trust You Principle and it works!

SO, WHAT TO DO?

  • Build and maintain your online presence, social media, GMB page, etc. Customers will check you out online to verify what they hear from others.
  • Survey your customers to understand what it is they Know, Like, and Trust about you.
  • Focus on customer service to create Raving Fans.
  • Ask for referrals and testimonials from those Raving Fans to help create buzz and spread the word!

* Forbes Advisor Small Business Statistics Of 2023

** Small Business Trends Philadelphia Survey 2014

Humor Is In the Eye of the Beholder!

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It’s good to have fun at work but you need to be careful with how fun and humor is defined. Horseplay is usually not recommended and often not allowed for good reason. Humor on the other hand is often allowed and even encouraged but it’s still good to be careful. It is useful to know that there are several types of humor that may, or may not, be appropriate in the workplace and when used inappropriately, can get you into hot water. When used appropriately, i.e., “Humor is in the eye of the beholder,” it can raise morale, build team spirit, and improve productivity!

Dr. Rod Martin, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, and his fellow researchers have devised the Humor Styles Questionnaire that allows us to determine which of four styles of humor is being used more often in an organization. The four styles are Self-enhancing, Affiliative, Aggressive, and Self-defeating.

  • Self-enhancing humor is a type of mild humor used to enhance oneself.
  • Affiliative humor is used to enhance one’s relationships with others.
  • Aggressive humor is used to enhance the self at the expense of others.
  • Self-defeating humor is used to enhance relationships at the expense of oneself.

It’s fairly obvious that Self -enhancing and Affiliative humor can be more beneficial than Self-defeating and Aggressive humor. Most organizations have a combination of all four types of humor being displayed at various times and situations.

It’s always good to remember: Humor is in the eye of the beholder! If even one person thinks it’s not funny, it’s not funny. Most businesses don’t think about this, many don’t teach it to their employees, and many don’t consider how it impacts company culture, morale, and employee productivity.

If you are not sure how well your team is doing with humor, Give Us a Shout, so we can help you build a better workplace through positive humor for small business success!

Positive Pressure for the Long Game and Small Business Success!

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The journey of a thousand miles, as Lao Tzu said, begins with a single step. This ancient wisdom also applies to the world of small business where the prospect of starting a business from scratch, building a business over the long term, and achieving small business success, can often overshadow the significance and value of short-term objectives.

I often preach, play the long game. Start with the vision and work backwards to your daily task list. This works well but sometimes steps in the middle, such as quarterly or monthly goals, get missed. These short-term goals are important, for small business owners as well as their employees, to pay attention to but often get put on the back burner to make time and energy for the daily firefighting.

Short-term goals serve as a powerful catalyst for long term success, providing positive pressure and motivation that can move small business owners towards their vision. Specific and challenging goals lead to higher performance compared to easy or vague goals. Short-term goals, defined as objectives achievable within a year or less, offer immediate feedback and motivation, allowing business owners to adjust strategies and maintain momentum.

For employees, the benefits are just as great!

  • The immediacy of short-term goals provides a sense of urgency, creating positive pressure that can motivate employee action and foster a culture of achievement within the organization.
  • Short-term goals can also enhance one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed. Achieving them can boost employee confidence, reinforcing the belief that larger objectives are attainable. As motivational guru Tony Robbins once said, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”  
  • Short-term goals can serve as steppingstones towards long-term objectives, breaking down complex tasks into manageable parts. Known as “chunking,” this process can reduce mental stress and improve employee productivity. It also allows one to leave their comfort zone much more easily. Only through discomfort can we achieve more.

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” – Brian Tracy

Unlock Your Business Superpowers! – Socratic Dialogue and High-Performance Coaching for Greater Success

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High-performance coaching involves supporting individuals, business owners, and their team, so they are able to achieve high powered results. Socratic dialogue, a back-and-forth questioning process and a tool in the EA Lewis & Associates toolbox, is highly effective for high performance coaching due to its emphasis on critical thinking, reflection, and self-awareness.

If you want high powered results to grow your business more efficiently and more effectively, whether by defining your USP, creating a new service offering, or getting your team members to lean in, Socratic dialogue can help. Here’s how it works:

  1. Self-awareness: High performance requires a deep understanding of oneself, one’s strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and personal roadblocks. Socratic dialogue, with its emphasis on introspective questioning, can facilitate this self-understanding. A coach will help you answer questions about your own beliefs, actions, and motivations and help you discover insights about yourself that you may not have been aware of.
  2. Critical Thinking: High performance is often about solving complex problems, and this requires strong critical thinking skills. Through Socratic dialogue, a coach can guide you to challenge your own assumptions and consider different perspectives, fostering your ability to think critically and solve problems effectively.
  3. Goal Setting and Achievement: Socratic dialogue can be used to support setting and achieving your goals. By questioning you about your goals, why you want to achieve them, and how you plan to do so, a coach can help you develop a clear and achievable action plan.
  4. Breaking Through Barriers: Often, what stands in the way of high performance are mental roadblocks, such as limiting beliefs or fears. Socratic dialogue can be used to uncover these barriers and challenge them. For example, if you believe that you are not capable of achieving a certain goal, your coach might use Socratic questioning to challenge this belief and help you see that you are indeed capable.
  5. Continuous Improvement: High performance requires continuous improvement, and Socratic dialogue fosters a mindset of continual learning. By repeatedly questioning and reflecting on one’s actions and beliefs over time, one can consistently identify areas for improvement and take action to develop in these areas.

Ready to unlock your true potential and take your business to the next level? EA Lewis & Associates is here to help you do just that. Click HERE to set up a free chat with one of our high-performance coaches who will help you figure out how to excel in what you love doing! Just tell us what you love, what you want to do, and we will match you with a coach to get started!

Work from Home & the Long Game

Posted by on in Business Coaching, Change, Covid-19, Executive Coaching, Success Quotes2 Comments

As the economy opens back up, many people will be finding working from home as part of the new norm. Some business owners and employees want it, some not so much. Wherever you stand, if you have not settled into the WFH format yet, here are a few tips to get you there.:

Think Habits – Our habits determine our success. Do the right things, do them consistently.

Establish Routines – Get into a rhythm and stay there as best you can. Map out your days and your ideal calendar to help you stay on task and avoid distractions. If the first Monday of the month from 8:00 – 12:00 works best for admin work, make it so every month.

Be Professional – Some people can be productive in their jammies. If that is you, awesome. If you need to shower, shave, and put on a suit, do that. If you need to do a Zoom meeting, be sure to follow the prescribed dress code!

Find Your Space – If you do not have a separate home office space with a door, do your best to create a space that will work for you. Find a corner of the family room or basement, set-up a desk, put a calendar on the wall, and whatever else you need to say, “This is my work space and don’t bother me when I am here.” Train family to respect the work schedule and workspace as best as possible.

Self-Care – Be careful this does not get lost in the confusion of being at home vs being at work. Take care of yourself first so that you can take care of everything else.

• Take frequent breaks – get up and walk around, get a drink of water, etc.
• Disconnect when you need to especially from the social media blitz.
• Remember, me time is allowed and necessary.

Finally, WFH is likely to be a large part of the new norm. We were trending that way before Covid-19 and we are definitely there now. So, plan for the long term to WFH and remember a key element to a successful work from home effort is communication. When people are at a distance, we can lose sight of the need for and the effectiveness of our communication so…

Include this last tip into your routine: Call first, call often!

Let me know, how do you find success with WFH?

It’s Not About Change…

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It’s about adapting to change.

Change is the norm. Always has been. Covid-19 has been a big change for sure and it’s effects are likely to continue for some time to come. So, the key is adapting and doing our best to adapt well for the long term. Here are a few key points for adapting to change. 

The Three P’s

Be Positive – As much as possible, keep it optimistic. Our tendency is to initially fear the sky is falling but that rarely happens. Think about worst case and be prepared as best you can but hope for the best.

“Optimism, when applied to your life, develops strength and peace within you.”

– Norman Vincent Peale

Be proactive – Sudden change will give rise to fear and put us in a reactive mode, i.e. fight or flight. Self-directed change or change we prepare for allows us to respond in a more logical manner for better results. Develop contingency plans and robust systems so when the need arises, you are ready to go.

“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.

– George Eliot

Be Purposeful – Set your goals, both short term and long term, based on your core values. Doing so allows you to go after them and move with purpose. That purpose gets you out of bed in the morning, it helps you dispel any doubts, and it helps you to be ready for any storm that may come.

“Occupy your thoughts with purpose and you will be so busy pursuing a meaningful future there will be no time for doubt, chaos and disappointment.

– Carlos Wallace

Do your best to be positive, proactive and purposeful and you will weather the storm.

Let me know…how are you handling the change?

Rock on!

Batten down the hatches…

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shipstorm
Batten down the hatches!

Weathering the storm is the norm right now.  Battening down the hatches is necessary to help ships keep water out and stay afloat in stormy waters.  In days long gone, the key elements “to batten” include the wooden grates over the hatches in the ships deck, the tarps thrown over the hatches, and furring strips nailed around the edges or ropes to hold the tarps in place.

Four key business elements that help batten down the hatches during troubled times include:

  1. Map out your marketing strategy – having this in place and effective implementation are critical always but especially during the storm.  Keeping your marketing active versus cost cutting approaches makes all the difference between businesses that survive and those that thrive.
  2. Diversify your customer base and service offerings – As a part of 1. above, diversity helps to keep your business off the revenue rollercoaster through tough times as well as any usual seasonal effects.
  3. Plan worst case…sound strategic planning includes what if worst case scenarios most of which won’t ever happen.  But if they did, you are more likely to have a contingency plan ready to go and even if you don’t have just the right plan, working through scenarios is good practice and helps to ensure you and your team can meet the challenge when the need arises.
  4. Set aside a rainy day fund – Every cent counts and even a small rainy day fund sets the right tone for your team from core values to daily cash flow management.

“If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.”
Benjamin Franklin

If you didn’t have these four key business elements in place before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, you might be feeling the pain.  If so, triage your business and get through as best you can.  When you get a moment and catch your breath, schedule a time for you and your team to take a look at the four key elements above so when the next storm comes, you can batten down the hatches!

Covid-19 Anxiety, Find Your One Thing…

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Covid-19 and social distancing for the last couple of weeks has been stressing me to my limit as it probably has for you too.  Being off my routine, in lockdown mode (I know, safe at home) worrying about business stuff and family stuff and with a lot fewer warm hugs has really knocked me off my game.  Can’t sleep, stress eating, not getting out to run (worsens everything) and a low level anxiety from everywhere have been the new norm…the negativity creeps on you and before you know it, it’s hitting you hard.  Thankfully, my friend Tim Cole sent me a link to an insightful article by Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press which I really needed today.  Mitch writes about Knox who has an incredible story…a blessed ray of sunshine all the way from Haiti that helped Mitch find his one thing.BikeRideJoy

My one thing…this weekend, my 9 year old son finally learned to ride his bike overcoming a ton of anxiety.  He’s been putting it off for years.  There was a super stress moment and some tears but he pushed through and of course, once he got the hang of it he didn’t want to stop.  He rode about 8 miles before the day was done and he didn’t let me help in any of it except to cheer him from a distance and adjust the seat and the brakes a few times.  This win was all him!  I got a long warm hug for the assist and then he let go but came back and gave me a second long warm hug, bonus!  :)

In writing this I also realize for the umpteenth time, that we have rays of sunshine all around us all day every day.  We just have to get out of our funk and look for them.  Life’s best things are the littlest things right under our noses.

As these next days and weeks come and go, find your one thing(s), your rays of sunshine, and count your blessings.  And if you can, help someone else find theirs because we are all of us everywhere on quite the rollercoaster.  Thank you Mitch and thank you Tim!

What is your one thing?

 

Motivation

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IT'S A CHOICE!
IT’S A CHOICE!

“Motivation is simple.  You eliminate those who are not motivated.”
                                                – Lou Holtz

It’s called…
Self-motivation
Real, honest, practical, necessary
Personal accountability
Tough love

What does it mean to you?

When People Miss the Mark…

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Lift people up!
Lift people up!

When people miss the mark, screw up, under perform or just seem to not get it, it’s good to keep in mind:

They may be looking at a different target – My idea of “clean” is probably not the same as your idea of “clean.”

It may be the system – There may be things outside of their control that introduces variation in results, i.e. change in wind speed, different equipment, poor communication…

It could be the consequences – Very often the best employees get “stuck” doing what no one else will and their reward for doing their best is actually a punishment.

Solutions?

Start at home first – It’s our job as leaders to do everything we can to help them do the best job they can.  Make sure you are doing that and…

  • Get on the same page
  • Improve the system
  • Focus on and reward the right behaviors
  • Be a people builder!
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