For a long time, we thought our company was a self-development company or a business coach. Thanks to a few clients now we have found out that we were labelling ourselves the wrong way! Go figure.
We have finally realized that we provide systems and processes in the form of strategy, operations, leadership, marketing, human resources and innovation that help businesses and staff inside of it to become better. Businesses make more profit and staff have a healthier work life.
So why did we think we were a self-development company? We thought we just provided people with motivational type information so they could move forward in business and life.
A business management consultant is going to provide you with the systems and processes you need to run your company and staff. These systems and processes are already out in the world for anyone to access, only business consultants have researched and put together specific plans for each business they work for.
Self-Development or business coaches spend a lot of time working on an individual’s mindset towards success in the future.
Our experience has been working with companies that range in size from $500K a year to $25M a year and after talking with them over the years, they believe a consultant is needed over a coach at the beginning. Consultants will build the structure you need to move forward. Coaches will then help with your mindset to accel as an owner and leader. We have found that coaches are ineffective in the approach towards junior or intermediate staff. The staff just want to go to work and go home, they don’t want to hear about mindset.
The next time you are considering the difference between a coach and a consultant, these are the best terms we can use to describe them above. Understand what your business needs and move forward. Some business consultants can direct you and help with mindset, but it is done through consistency and action.
There is a place and need for both in the economy, we just hope we are adding some light into the business world on these topics.
I have not had much luck with business coaches and self-development. I have an engineering and general earth moving contracting background and I have the requirement to learn through actions and applications, not from someone telling me the positive mindset.
I need actionable steps that I can find in most books being written today if you read the right ones! For most self-development groups they give less than desirable action steps to move forward that are too broad and not specific to a person or business.
The world is full of information and you have access to a lot of things. Trying to decipher it all gives most people headaches and a lack of action!
How staff work and create a culture in a $500K company is different from a $25M company. Yes, the actions are the same, but the process is different. What makes it different is the access to people. It is much easier to communicate with everyone in a small company versus a large one.
For your job and self-development, research for yourself what applies to you as a staff member, so that you can be informed when leaders and owner set up consultants or coaches to come into the business. They are bringing in outside help to improve morale and business structure. Leaders and owners typically already have a plan forward, they bring in self-development to improve communication.
Hopefully, this post didn’t ramble too much and gave a little more clarity on coaches and consultants. Money being spent by any business should produce a viable result. If you need help building systems and processes inside of your company, reach out to our team at Future to Now Consulting.
