Many of my clients have ideas formulated, a business plan (or ten) and desire that next step. But not knowing where the “tenth” step is somehow prevents the “first” step.

Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul) used a great analogy. You can drive from Maine to California at night with just your headlights on.

Trust that as long as your vision (destination) is true, all you need to see is what’s right in front of you.

Take the step.

NPR recently interviewed a 13 year old CEO and asked his advice for other aspiring entrpreneurs. He said “find something you’re passionate about and go do it”.

Can it be that easy? Trust your vision, harness your passion, and do it.

I also recommend using your values and operating principles as guide wires. Default thinking often puts “creating values” into the “just anther task” category. But knowing you need to make hundreds of decisions a month, having a default set of rules by which to simplify

Running a business can be like riding down an Olympic Louge. Higher walls ( your guiding principles and values) the more likely you are to stay on course.

Successful business development often requires a multi-disciplinary approach beyond just “a sale to a customer.” A detailed strategy for growing the business in desirable ways is frequently necessary, which may involve financial, legal and advertising skills. Business development cannot be reduced to simple templates applicable to all or even most situations faced by real-world enterprises. Creativity in meeting new and unforeseen challenges is necessary to keep an enterprise on a path of sustainable growth.

Small to medium-sized companies often do not establish procedures for business development, instead relying on their existing contacts. Other times they assume that because they know people in high places that their business development problems are solved and that somehow new business will come to them. The ramifications of such thinking can be significant in the event they are unable to leverage those relationships, which very often are personal or weak. Then they will have no new business in the pipeline.

The pipeline refers to flow of potential clients whom the company is in the process of developing. Each potential client in the pipeline is given a percent chance of success with projected sales volumes attached. The weighted average of all the potential clients in the pipeline can be used for staffing to manage the new business when it comes in.

For larger and more well-established companies, especially in technology-related industries, business development often refers to creating and managing strategic relationships and alliances with other, third party companies. In these instances the companies will leverage one anothers’ expertise, technologies or other intellectual property to expand their products, services, functionality and/or market reach without having to invest in building or acquiring these with internal resources. Revenues are typically shared in some sort of royalty arrangement. For example, a company with a successful technology will partner with a company that has an existing customer base and sales force, and together they will penetrate that market, sharing the proceeds.

The set of efforts for identifying, researching, analyzing and bringing to market new businesses and new products, business development focuses on implementation of the strategic business plan through equity financing, acquisition/divestiture of technologies, products, and companies, plus the establishment of strategic partnerships where appropriate

Coaching - The Definition

This article refers to the act of coaching people. For sports coaching, see coach (sport). For other uses of the word, see coach (disambiguation) or coaching inn.

A coach is a person who supports people (clients) to achieve their goals, with goal setting, encouragement and questions. Unlike a counselor or mentor, a coach rarely offers advice. However, term coaching is often misused in situations where the “coach” provides expert opinion and “how to” answers and advice. Coaching does not include the given solution for the problem but will energize the coachee to solve the problem. Typically, a coach helps clients to find their own solutions, by asking questions that give them insight into their situations. A coach holds a client accountable, so if a client agrees to a plan to achieve a goal, a coach will help motivate them to complete their plan.

This use of the term “coaching” appears to have origins in English traditional university “cramming” in the mid-19th century. (The name allegedly recalls the multitasking skills associated with controlling the team of a horse-drawn stagecoach.) By the 1880s American college sports teams had — in addition to managers — coaches. Some time in the 20th century, non-sporting coaches emerged: non-experts in the specific technical skills of their clients, but who nevertheless ventured to offer generalised motivational or inspirational advice.

Current practices in performance coaching in non-sporting environments focus on non-directive questioning, provocation and helping clients to analyse and solve their own challenges, rather than offering advice or direction (see Tim Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis or Myles Downey’s Effective Coaching).

Source - Wikipedia 6/26/07