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How to Take Your Business to the Next Level

  Forging a bond while working in a highly demanding, toxic environment, Carmen and Inez brought their work friendship and capabilities together to develop their own company 3 years ago. This start-up literally “exploded” into being. Offering the exact same legal services, family, friends and professional colleagues beat a path to their door to work for this woman owned, minority owned new venture. Work poured in and the coffers filled. Why? Because they made a cultural “promise,” based on their authentic values to interact with employees and customers alike from a place of collaboration, mutual communication and responsiveness. Totally unlike their previous toxic environment. And... they delivered. It’s been a thrilling 3 year ride! (Hear outtakes: Massive applause and cheers, awards ceremonies and testimonials, cha-ching and more cha-ching.) New owners like Carmen and Inez come to their business with well-honed professional expertise for which they have been acknowledged as they climbed their career ladders. Strong personalities, they are used to the limelight from their hard won achievements. But…. like all start-ups, these 3 years have also been exhausting. (Hear outtakes: Moans, groans and sighs, subtle sounds of irritation and disgruntlement. All behind closed doors.) No matter how much pre-planning—for any new owners—running The Business-of-the-Business is a whole new set of skills. New owners are juggling demands of employees and customers, crash-coursing their way into new skills from tech to HR, confronting roles and responsibilities, policies and procedures, often colliding headlong into communication and style differences between themselves (difficulties they never [...]

Coaching Helps to Evaluate the Next Stage of Your Career

  These past few years have catapulted some personal and professional lives forward. Yours may have been one of them. Especially if you were in the right industry at the right time. Or if you were lean, mean, and agile. Maybe you took the time to explore or add on a new skill that's paying off now, post-pandemic. You may even have have been one of the fortunates if your position was indispensable to the company. You'd have been a lucky one—staying on securely in the midst of other's cutbacks. Working from home (WFH) may have been seamless for you and your employer or your business. It was comfortable for many. Unless they shared a small space with mates and kids schooling on zoom. Pets roaming in and out. Yet many professionals and families settled in and are now weighing the consequences of employers reinstating back to the office or hybrid schedules. This shuffle is disrupting what may have become comfortable. Or you may be part of The Great Resignation 2021 an example of which is a record 4.4 million Americans who quit their jobs in September 2021. The trend continued through 2022 with another record 4.2 million voluntarily resigned in November 2022—millions more than anything ever seen before. With a backdrop of market slump and recession talk going on all that year.  This chart of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics highlights a continuing trend.   With fewer workers across many industries, the trend toward negotiating a high wage and [...]

Facing the Challenges of Taking on a Business Partner

When a solo-owner or entrepreneur knows that partnering is the next best business decision—be it for start-up, expansion, for future transition, or sale—paving the way with a well discussed, communicated, thought-out relating style is essential to avoid future conflicts. Consciously facing the need to come together with one or more business partners and pairing that with one's own strengths and weaknesses around communication and expectations demands clarity and choices about where change will be necessary—and just where it "ain't going to happen." Choosing the right business partner That's where an expert in both relationships and business comes in to guide you to help you clarify what you want in your business and how a business partner relationship fits your end goal. A business partner coach can then help you assess the candidates and coach you in discussions to ferret out that fit so you stay on track with your ultimate desired outcomes. Challenges of Communication in Business Partnerships The personality characteristics and strengths of the entrepreneur or business owner often run counter to, or do not co-exist well with, the needs of a mutual on-going working business partner relationship, let alone a binding partnership. It's a well-known fact that many (but not all) founder, owner, entrepreneurs are visionaries who follow their own drumbeat. They do not necessarily "play well with others." It's not that they don't care about others, it's that they tend to be self-focused on the business they develop. They want to be in control of [...]

Choosing Among 4 Business Partnering Styles to Understand Their Impacts Your Business

Business partners work successfully together when they are coached to acknowledge individual differences but work toward common agreements. By doing so, they acquire the mindset, tools, and skills of a long-lasting and successful partnership. In this article, you’ll be introduced to four relationship styles entered into by business partners. In the four articles indicated throughout and at the end of this overview, each style will be discussed in greater detail. Unlike relationship therapy or counseling, coaching for relationship style empowers you with skills and tools so you start and stay aligned as business partners. This way you can focus on building your business together! Unconscious Assumptions and Expectations of Varying Relationship Styles Each business partnering style comes with conscious or unconscious assumptions and expectations. These in turn contribute in different ways to the communication and decision-making between the business partners or owners. These interpersonal aspects include: Feelings of ease, trust, respect, and the ability to count on one another. A sense of individual contribution, recognition, and loyalty. Ease and openness of communication. Invitation, support, and encouragement of unique perspectives as part of creative culture. A commitment to working on the “same team,” An attitude that “We can resolve anything together,” in navigating decisions and differences that impact personal satisfaction, as well as business success. Unique Differences Between Relationship Styles Each style is briefly analyzed along the following dimensions: The conscious or unconscious relationship mindset or perspective. This dimension is about ultimate decision-making power within the partnerships. It [...]

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