Small Business Coach: ready to grow!?
Meet Anne, our wonderful small business coach – helping businesses to get off the ground and grow. From goal setting to balancing the books, she’s who you need on your team! Read on to find out more about the support she offers:
What support do you offer to businesses?
I work with small business owners, usually at an early stage in their business journey, when things are terrifying, and you start to realise how much you don’t know! I don’t think anyone is really prepared for the reality of running their first business. There’s so much you need to do and know, and it gets overwhelming quickly. That’s where I come in.
I work with my clients on four main areas:
- Mindset and self-belief – getting this right is so important. You are the foundation of your business when you start out, so you have to make sure you’re in a great place. I see so many new business owners paralysed by fear or self-doubt, and they stop taking action. Not taking action in business is generally not a good thing. It is important to make decisions and get moving, or you miss out on opportunities.
- Goal setting – loads of people start businesses without knowing what they are trying to achieve. Making sure you know where you want to get to is really important, you wouldn’t jump in the car and start driving without knowing where you were headed, and the same applies to business. Having long term goals and then breaking them down into short term goals will help you to work out what you should be doing every single day.
- Strategy and business plans – this sounds a bit corporate but it is just as important for a small business as for a big corporate business. Unlike a big corporate you don’t need the fancy PowerPoint presentation, but you do need to know how you’re going to achieve your goals and that is what strategy and business planning is all about.
- Action and accountability – Consistency is one of the keys to creating a business, doing the same things repeatedly will get you to your goals. Firstly, you need to try things (consistently) and work out what will work for your business, and then do them every single day. This is particularly important in sales and marketing. Having accountability helps with that consistency of action. One of the things that you lose when you leave employment and start out on your own is accountability, suddenly you are answerable to nobody, and many people find this hard. The manager you couldn’t wait to get away from suddenly doesn’t look so bad, at least they kept you on track. You need to find a way to hold yourself accountable or get someone else to do it for you. Many of my clients say that the accountability they get from me is the thing that keeps them on track.
How did you get into coaching?
I’ve always used elements of coaching throughout my accountancy career when managing people, but I officially got into coaching in 2016, when I studied personal training and nutrition coaching at the European Institute of fitness. I’ve always been interested in health and fitness, so I thought I’d give personal training a shot. I started my first business, which was a personal training business, in the same year. This business taught me an awful lot about being a business owner, and I use the lessons I learned in my coaching today, but ultimately, I realised this wasn’t the business I wanted to run long term. My interest in coaching stuck with me though, and I went back to university and studied positive psychology and coaching psychology before launching my current business.
Does your background in accountancy play a role in what you do?
Absolutely, my accountancy background plays a huge role in what I do now. I pair my accountancy skills and experience with coaching and psychology so that I can help business owners overcome self-doubt and fear, but also with practical business advice. One of the things that business owners have the most challenges around is earning enough money, how to make sure that they can pay all their bills and how to structure their business in such a way that they can maximise their earning potential. This is where I use both my accountancy experience and psychology skills, as mindset has a big impact on this, as well as the practical business skills.
What would you most like people to know about what you do?
That there are different ways to work with me that will suit all budgets and stages of your business journey. I understand how hard things are when you just start out and don’t have much money to spend, so I offer a membership programme that is really affordable so that early-stage business owners can get the help and support that they need.
Are there any top tips you’d give to business owners?
Yes, loads! This could be a very long list, but I’ll try to keep it brief.
- Have a great network around you for support and encouragement. There are times when you will feel like giving up, but a great network can pick you up.
- Know your numbers – I can’t stress this one enough, it could be the difference between running out of money or not!
- Be consistent and don’t give up – you will feel like giving up at times, but consistency pays off.
- See failure as a learning opportunity – have a growth mindset.
- Invest in good advisers, it will be worth it!
How can people get in touch with you?
I love chatting about businesses, so please contact me using any of the following methods:
Email: hello@annegwilliam.com
Website: www.annegwilliam.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annegwilliam/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annegwilliam/
Join my Facebook group for small business owners (or people planning to start a business): https://www.facebook.com/groups/127989920345730