Me and a few fellow investors meet once a month for an hour or so over a cup of coffee, talking to a business owner about their business. It’s about creating opportunities where currently there aren’t any. It’s about discovering a new path, not following one that leads to a place where the business already is at. This group can be as small as two like-minded people talking about their journey or half-a-dozen business owners relaying their results on prior suggested actions and changes.
We also want results quickly and that means taking action and going for opportunities with people that can make decisions quickly.
In our first meeting, we ask them to share their business, their challenges, their hopes and dreams with us. A business owner rarely gets a chance to talk candidly. They always have to have to be positive and sell their vision to the team, customers and clients. Our monthly meeting-over-coffee offers the owner an environment where he/she can speak candidly about his or her challenges.
Basically, what we do is :
- Ask smart questions
Why are you doing things the way you do? If you were to start from scratch, would you do it the same way?
Why/why not?
Coaching is not easy and the better the questions, the better the advice becomes. We basically assist the owner to arrive at their own decisions.
- Accountability
Have you done what you said you were going to do? Why not? What needs to change? What will you do by our next meeting that will have moved the business forward?
- Do no harm, words have power
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. ‘Do no harm’ is a reminds us that advice might be dangerous when used at
the wrong time and place. Coaching & Accountability can get us a long way with minimal risk to the company we’re trying to help. It takes is some smart questions and a desire to learn and help the business owner getting past his hurdles.
At the end of the day, each member of the advisory board tries to add value to the results of the board, ultimately increasing the business’ results and value.
Want to join? Let me know.