Over the past eight years, career coach Bob Miller has worked with hundreds of people who are in business for themselves or who are considering a move in that direction. He’s self-employed himself, working as a franchisee with The Entrepreneur’s Source, North America’s leading business and franchise-coaching organization.
PBN: What is career coaching?
MILLER: A career coach is someone who works with an individual looking to make a life transition, someone who listens to that person and helps them to understand their goals. A coach helps a person define what they want their lifestyle to be. It’s really a discovery process.
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PBN: What happens when you go to a coach?
MILLER: The knowledgeable coach can offer options that maybe the individual has yet to explore. A coach has the ability to help an individual identify their core strengths, and how to leverage them. A coach can help the individual with an objective, outsider perspective.
Part of what I do is talk some people out of the making the transition. I’ve suggested to some people [that] they should not be self-employed. Surveys show 75 percent of the American public would like to own their own business but in reality, only 5 percent of new businesses ever make it. Some people may not have the skills. They may not have the financing they’ll need. They may not have the intestinal fortitude.
Whether you’re working with someone who’s already in business, or someone who’s looking to start one, coaching is about helping them remove the blinders, so that they can see things objectively and make decisions based on facts and information, not emotion.
PBN: Do you work only with entrepreneurs and the self-employed?
MILLER: I work with people who are in a career transition, or people who are unhappy with their current careers – the laid off, the burnt out, the under-employed, maybe younger people who are looking to start their own business, or the executive who’s been in business 30 years and isn’t ready to end his career.
PBN: How does someone become a coach?
MILLER: First of all, you have to assess yourself. It’s always a good thing to go through the same discovery route you intend to lead others through. You should probably have a business background, with the knowledge of what it takes to be in business today, a knowledge of people and how they react in the business world. You have to understand yourself and be a good listener. You have to be able to help people come to their own conclusions, and not answer for them.
PBN: It’s been said that many entrepreneurs do a poor job of marketing and planning before launching a new business?
MILLER: Yes, they do, and there are a lot of reasons. Sometimes a new business doesn’t have the funds to do the marketing they really need. Often it really comes down to how well capitalized they are. And some people who go into business don’t understand the marketing tools available. They don’t understand direct mail versus display advertising versus Internet advertising. Or they’ll use something but they don’t give it enough time to assess whether it’s working.
Some people simply don’t understand or realize that marketing needs to be done. They don’t believe in this kind or that kind of advertising. They say to themselves, “when I get that stuff in my mailbox I throw it away, so why should I spend money on that?”
PBN: What are some of the potential pitfalls you’ve helped clients deal with?
MILLER: Lack of funding is a big one. Ideally, it’s best to be certain you have enough money before you get started. Some people run out of money, and then they have to decide where they’re going to go. Will they get a loan from the bank? Will they use equity from their home? Their credit cards? Often they don’t know what kind of help is available. There’s the Small Business Administration. And angel investors — people who have money, and are looking to put it to work in a business. Or venture capital _ there are all sorts of things available that people might not consider. •
