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The Best Investment for Business Owners May Be the one You Make in Yourself
By Michael J. McDermott

Inventory, supplies, marketing, advertising, personnel, support services - there is seemingly no end to the list of things in which business owners have to invest their time and money. While all of them may be necessary to the successful execution of your business plan, make sure you don’t overlook another important investment. That’s the one you make in yourself.

Two good personal investments every business owner should consider are getting help and guidance from an unbiased third party and continuing to hone skills can help you in both your professional and personal life.

Where can the leader of a small business turn for objective and trustworthy counsel on matters critical to the company’s success? If CEOs at large corporations tend to be surrounded with "yes" men and women, the situation is even more difficult for chief executives at small firms. In many cases, they work alone or very closely with just one or two key employees. Their need for honest feedback is great, but those closest to them may be understandably reluctant to provide it - especially if it entails bad news.

That’s the situation Australian entrepreneur Rebecca Rowley faced about four years ago. Some years earlier, after a successful career as national human resources manager for a telecommunications company, Rowley decided to launch her own recruitment and consulting firm. Based in Docklands, Victoria, Javrow Pty Ltd. provides recruitment and talent management services to information technology companies.

For several years, Rowley was content to keep Javrow small while she focused on raising a family. Working with just one other staff member, she carved out a solid niche for Javrow and established a good reputation for the firm. But when she decided she wanted to grow the business and expand it into new areas, she realized she needed a reliable sounding board for feedback on her ideas.

Where can the leader of a small business turn for objective and trustworthy counsel?

"As a sole director, I wanted to work with someone with whom I could table my ideas," she says. "I also wanted leadership support and leadership direction. I wanted to set some clear, aggressive business goals and work towards them, while also working on and developing my leadership skills."

There are various options open to small business owners in Rowley’s situation, one being peer advisory groups, such as Vistage International and Inner Circle (now part of Merrymeeting, Inc.). Members of those groups are small business owners who meet on a regular basis, usually monthly, to share best practices, help each other solve problems and offer peer support.

Many small business owners find peer advisory groups a valuable resource. The meetings provide them a forum to share both business and personal issues with others in similar situations and likely to be empathetic. There are usually membership requirements related to annual sales, number of employees, etc., and participation costs range from less than $1,000 to more than $10,000.

GOING PRO

Another option, the one Rowley chose, is hiring a professional coach. There are many different types of coaches with many different specialties, but in general terms, a coach straddles the line between business consultant and psychotherapist. Their services are most often retained by small business owners to help them improve their performance as leaders and to provide a trustworthy source of relevant feedback.

Rowley has been using coaches for about four years now, and she also offers coaching services to new employees as they come on board to help get them up to speed quickly. Her current coach is Karen Tweedie, president of the International Coach Federation, a Lexington, KY-based nonprofit organization with more than 13,000 members in 80 countries.

Working with Tweedie and other coaches has been "very empowering" for Rowley. "I certainly have achieved a number of key goals, both personally and professionally," she says. "Coaching takes commitment on the part of the person being coached, but you can achieve great things if you make that commitment."

Coaching doesn’t solve all her problems as CEO of a growing business, Rowley acknowledges, but it does provide great guidance. "It gives you the tools to look at things differently and solve problems for yourself," she says. "I think so much of coaching that most of the training Javrow is offering is based on a coaching methodology."

Tweedie has worked on a variety of issues with Rowley over the past four years. "Many have been related to Rebecca’s efforts to transform Javrow from a one-woman show into a proper business, something not synonymous with her as a person," she says. Her coaching has focused on helping Rowley grow the business, develop systems that are more robust and repeatable and expand into new areas such as training and contract recruitment.

Many small business owners find peer advisory groups to be a valuable resource.

But an important part of Tweedie’s role is providing the kind of honest and objective feedback Rowley is unlikely to get from her employees. 'As she brings more people on board and moves towards the business becoming more sustainable, there have to be changes in the relationships she has with her employees," she says. "I work with her to help improve her leadership skills, and she uses me as a sounding board."

Tweedie adds that a coach makes an ideal sounding board for a small business owner because the coach’s only vested interest is the continued success of the client and his or her business.

Rowley is aware of peer advisory groups and other alternatives to coaching, such as mentoring. While she has a number of business mentors to whom she continues to talk regularly, she feels coaching provides her with benefits that just can’t be duplicated anywhere else.

"My coach works with me and my style of thinking and behaving," she explains. "She helps open doors in my mind to enable me to enhance what I do as a leader, or deal with situations that come up, or achieve goals within my business. It is vastly different from having someone who gives you specific guidance on a specific industry issue." She adds that coaching can be very valuable when combined with other forms of feedback and mentoring.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

Rebecca Rowley found her coach, Karen Tweedie, through a personal connection. "I was lucky enough to be introduced to Karen by a business partner, and it was Karen who introduced the concept of coaching to me," she says.

Rowley has used other coaches to work with her on specific objectives, and she always relies on referrals. "My concern about coaching is that the barrier to entry is so low; anyone can claim to be a coach if they have done a course," she says. "It is a harrowing thing to choose a coach unless the introduction comes from a credible source."

Tweedie, who besides running her own coaching business is the current president of the International Coach Federation, suggests carefully vetting prospective coaches, referred or otherwise. "Do they have expertise in the industry? Do you get on with each other well enough that you’ll be able to work together comfortably? These are the types of questions you have to get answered," she says.

Referrals and other useful information can be obtained through professional business coach organizations, which often have local chapters in many areas. The International Coach Federation (www.coachfederation.org) offers a free referral service to anyone who’s interested. Another well-established group is the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches (www.wabccoaches.com).

If a peer advisory group sounds like it would be more your speed, consider checking out Vistage International (www.vistage.com), The Inner Circle (www.theinnercircle.com) or the Women Presidents’ Organization (www.womenpresidentsorg.com).

She feels coaching provides benefits that simply cannot be duplicated anywhere else.

"Jack of all trades, master of none," is generally used as an insult today. In its original form, however, it included an additional phrase, "though oft-times better than master of one," and was intended as a compliment.

While most small business owners are used to wearing many hats and become pretty good at doing a lot of different things, it’s the rare entrepreneur who can truly claim to be a "master" of more than just one or two. Slow periods, whether caused by seasonal or economic conditions, can be the perfect time to improve your skills in some of those other areas.

Additional training and education is available in virtually every aspect of business and from a multitude of different sources. The cost of ongoing business training runs the gamut from zilch to an Ivy League tuition bill. (Think six-week leadership programs at Wharton or Harvard Business School.) Most business owners should be able to find what they need at little or no cost through online resources, state and federal government programs, local community colleges and similar sources.

Entrepreneur Susan Ward, who runs an IT consulting business with a partner and holds a Master of Education degree, taught business education for many years before going into business herself. She’s a proponent of learning as a lifelong pursuit for small business owners. With so many options available, however, she advises spending some time determining just what you want to learn and the best way for you to learn it.

Additional training and education is available from a multitude of different sources.

"“Identifying the need you want to fill is the obvious starting point," Ward says. If you have a glaring lack of business acumen in a critical area such as marketing or finance, for example, it makes sense to look at training in that field. Whatever kind of training you choose, it is sure to involve a considerable commitment of time and, in some cases, money on your part, so make sure you choose something that will really fill a business need.

There is a cost-benefit decision to be made here in terms of both time and money, Ward stresses. Some skills take a great deal of time to learn, but if you will only be able to use that skill infrequently in your business, is it worth it? If that’s the case, it might make more sense to use an outsource provider for that particular service. Even if it’s a skill that your business does use frequently, is it one that some of your employees already have? If so, learning it yourself may not make much sense.

Once you have identified an area where business training can really benefit you and your business, you also need to determine your own learning style to choose the best type of training solution.

THREE VARIATIONS

Learning styles are simply different approaches or ways of learning. While there are more than 80 different learning style models currently in use, most involve variations on three basic types. Visual learners learn best through seeing, auditory learners through listening and tactile/kinesthetic learners through moving, doing and touching. A free test to determine your own learning style can be found at http://www.ldpride.net/learning-style-test.html.

If you plan to attend business training classes in person, scheduling is a consideration, Ward notes. Some training programs are offered as intensive, weekend-long seminars, while others are spread out over a period of weeks or months. If possible, see if you can sit in on a session before signing up.

Many small business owners find online training to be a more practical alternative, and the Internet offers a huge and ever-expanding array of options. For those interested in degree programs ranging from associate and bachelor degrees all the way up to MBAs and PhDs, WorldWideLearn (www.worldwidelearn.com) is a good starting point. The site describes itself as "the world’s premier online directory of education."

Looking for a good grounding in basic areas such as business plans, marketing, managing employees, finance, taxes, etc.? The CCH Business Owner’s ToolKit (www.toolkit.com) is a rewarding site. It offers modules on dozens of topics important to small business owners, and they’re all free.

Government and quasi-government organizations can also be valuable sources of free and low-cost business training options. SCORE, for example, offers more than 25 online courses through its virtual learning center, accessible at www.score.org/online_courses.html.

Government organizations can be valuable sources of free and low-cost training.

The SBA’s Small Business Development Centers are another rich source for business training. Centers are located throughout the country. You can find the one closest to you at http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprgrams/sbdc/sbdclocator/index.html.

Going back to school might still be a dreaded thought for school-age students everywhere. But for small business owners, resuming your education through any of the channels discussed above can present the perfect opportunity to expand your business knowledge horizons. Chances are good that both and your business will benefit.