Business book blog of B/Right Business Coaching

As a business coach I often pick up materials relating to the business and I have to say having trained with Brad in the early part of this decade I picked up this book with great interest. For those people that can’t afford working with a coach in their business due to costs or whatever else, this book provides a good starting point.

It tells the story of the owners of a small bakery and how they transform whilst hitting various stumbling blocks along the line, yet thanks to the assistance of their coach they manage to come out at the other end and make a success of their business and gain the lifestyle that they went into business for in the first place. The book offers some practical ideas, which business owners can implement without the assistance of a coach. If you liked the e-myth, then you will also enjoy reading this book, because it actually gives even more practical hints and suggestions than the e-myth by Michael Gerber did.

Most business owners make the same mistake as the couple in the book and don’t every measure the effectiveness of their campaigns, their business and for most the figure side of things is left to the accountant or bookkeeper and they don’t even know the basic things to look for in their own books. I also find when I ask my clients to have their accountant explain the key ratios, some accountant aren’t willing to impart their knowledge and sometimes it begs the question whether they understand it on behalf of their clients.

I guess because I was trained by Brad, I understood the systems used and the concepts in the book very quickly and I wonder if there is enough detail for the outsider to really take the individual parts on board and be able to implement. If in doubt I can explain the how and what of business coaching and drive you forward in your business. One thing I often find with clients and I also often questioned whilst working with Brad’s organisation is the need for 12 month packages, in my view not every client needs 12 months of intensive coaching, for some it is a short-term intervention and a long-term relationship of short term interventions is what I have with most of my clients. I rarely deliver a 12 month package with me driving the agenda, I guess that is where my service offering is different and in my view more client centred whilst still keeping an eye on key results, just like his coaches would do.

As with all things in life there is always more than one way to reach a destination, as long as the client reaches success in business coaching I would say that is the main thing. This book can definitely set you on the path of focusing your mind on key result areas for your business and then subsequently creating leverage to duplicate your efforts with your team and to other businesses.

The unique design and layout of this book is attractive and easy to follow and built to be a reference book. Tom Peters who wrote about business success in the past, has very distinct ideas where business is headed in the future. I actually think he is absolutely on the mark when he identifies women and the older generations as the next two major growth areas for business. The theory is quite fascinating, women are more often than not the real decision makers or influencers when it comes to buying decisions even in corporation and there you thought the secretary or receptionist has no influence. When it comes to home life, most men already knew that ’she must be obeyed’ has true decision making influence and buys a lot more than the male family members.

The older generation is healthier and lives longer than ever before, they have disposable income and are often interested in staying involved in their careers either a few hours a week and are actively looking or interesting and stimulating things to do. In my own case my mother is on an early retirement package and at first she actually felt devalued, because work was no longer her identification method or where she had a recognised place in society. Once she accepted her retirement, she is now busier than ever before, travelling, learning new things in all sorts of courses and helpign out in businesses where they need a hand. Only thanks to a not so visionary government structure she can’t earn money by giving people a hand in business, or she risks losing her pension. I think there is a definitely call for revision on this policy, especially since most older people are well able and have a wealth of knowledge and first hand experience to pass on.

Tom’s take on the professional service industry is one I definitely see happening all around me in my field and yes, new experts and guru’s are apparently born every day. If nothing else a lot of us areinvesting heavily in crating our knowledge niche and a personal brand. With social media and our current societal adoration of everything star related this trend really comes as no great surprise. Again Tom Peters is giving some interesting perspective on professional services, new technology, adding value and personal branding.

If you want refreshing thinking and some challenges to maybe the set ways that you might have adopted in our every day society, this book will give you just that. I personally really like the layout and style of the book, but I have heard some say they found it hard to read, in the end of the day what is most important is what you do with the information you gained.

Here is another great book with one-minute wisdom. I have always been a great fan of the Ken Blanchard materials from one-minute manager to raving fans, fish, high five and some of the other gems that he has produced and this book is another fantastic book full of nuggets of brilliance in terms of business sense. The story follows a budding speaker and the development of his business and the various challenges he encounters in deciding to go out and work for himself, then to work as a partnership as well as the different challenges and pitfalls they faced in pursuing growth.

The challenges are very real from not having enough cashflow, to generating substantial growth and ego’s growing out of proportion as well as listening to customers. Each of the issues is portrayed as if it was happening to you right now in your own business (and for some readers it may well be) and the various mentors come up with stories of their own which entail the answers to the questions and brilliant nuggets of advice.

One of the mentors throughout the book is Charlie ‘Tremendous’ Jones, which I happened to meet before I ever set up my own business and guess what he gave the exact same advice to me as he gave to Judd in the book, he said you need a supportive partner to make a self-employed business work. He has always been a mentor I had great time and respect for, and the piece of advice he also gave at the particular seminar that day is that ‘leaders are readers’, which to this day I always find of all my successful clients. All of them are avid readers of information that will help them go to the next level.

In my view the One-Minute Entrepreneur is a must-read for all individuals contemplating self-employment and/or currently running their own business. Whilst some of the advice may sound like common sense, are you actually putting it into practice?

If you have never heard of servant leadership as a management strategy, as well as the technique of managing like an eagle or a duck; then this a book to read and refer back to on a regular basis. As a bonus they have a questionnaire around your entrepreneurial strenghts and how to develop your weaker points on www.estrengths.com, which for me made interesting reading.

When it comes to biographies, I do enjoy reading success stories of public figures such as successful business people, politicians, sports people and the odd celebrity actor/singer, just to have an insight into how they think and make decisions. I suppose what fascinates me most is how they overcame the obstacles they were faced with at any given time.

I have to say in that regards Duncan Bannatyne’s book is a great read, talk about obstacles, he did jump a few and found ways around others and unlike other biographies he seems quite blunt and open about how he did things even when not everyone agreed with his approach.

For most people in business showing emotions seems a bit of a no-go zone, which I often challenge. What is the point of hiding behind a mask and dying on the inside, when you feel strongly about something express it with appropriate moderation, but by all means address it. I think that is what impressed me in reading this book, throughout his life Duncan didn’t hide his emotions and yet he comes across as a well rounded and successful business man. It takes a big person to share the personal side.

In my view that’s what we often forget in business, whilst most of us are dealing with people all the time, the vast majority of us tend to operate within a number of parameters of socially acceptable behaviour and if you dare to step out of line society will respond and believe me not always in your favour. Because I was born with a fierce independent streak and equally the eldest of the family, I could so identify with a lot of his experiences throughout the book.

In working with my clients I often would challenge them to do what feels right for them, evn if that isn’t necessarily the done thing and seeing them following their path is always great to watch because invariable they are more motivated and driven by an internal passion and guess what, also more likely to succeed.

I have to say after reading this biography, I really felt good about my independent streak, I also learnt a lot about scaling deals as costs don’t always rise with size and was once again more motivated to continue doing things differently.

Sometimes people give up too soon because they are too old, too young, too…..whatever the excuse is. This book definitely challenges this kind of thinking. It doesn’t matter when you decide to start making changes towards success, as long as you start and persist even it looks like a hurdles course. Very motivational and interesting read.

Here is a book I enjoyed reading from a relevant business perspective first of all, because as a coach I am always persuading people to take action, to buy, to commit, to…. (fill in your own blank). Then a few weeks ago I also had the pleasure of spending time with Dave on a trip to Cambodia and whilst I love reading, books only come to life through the meaning we give to them as well as meeting the people that wrote the book.

I can honestly say this man is speaking from experience when it comes to persuasion, his own background and study of cults and other manipulative means of changing people’s behaviour has given great insight in what makes a difference. The moment we met Dave; he commanded respect and throughout the trip he had a very approachable, yet knowledgeable and trustable manner about him. For those of you reading his book this is not a surprise.

Some of his material is based on neuro linguistic programming as well as more general techniques of persuasion, such as developing an image through your dresscode, books, websites, etc.

Perception is everything really. Just before Christmas I had an intereting discussion with a fellow coach on why some coaches are more successful than others. His point was that most business people will buy into success principles, yet a lot of coaches don’t dress for success, have a car, office, house or presence to match their message and hence send a confusing message out into the wider business world. At the time I challenged him on it, that success can mean different things to different people and for those of you that know me a flash car is not one of mine, but being able to go on trips such as Cambodia and experience life-enriching events is. However I wasn’t leveraging that message effectively, hence word around town had it that I couldn’t be very successful if I drove a 13 year old VW Golf and yet for me being able to go on inspiring holidays is way more important on the living my dream scale. Interesting how perception works!

In Cambodia the discussion came up about the adventure club title, namely ‘Billionaire Adventure Club’, which is the name Christopher Howard gave to his brainchild of a networking group for successful entrepreneurs with a contribution element to it. Most of us in the group didn’t use this title, for fear of being ridiculed, or being perceived as wealthy and hence drawing risks to safety or even just out of modesty. Dave leveraged the message, Christopher Howard leveraged the message, so here I am taking a lesson from my mentors and leveraging this message. The reality is I am proud to be part of this group, believe in it’s mission of eradicating poverty through education and enterprise and also feel accepted as an equal amongst the rest of the group, so why hide a potential success indicator.

In my view all of us running a business, could learn from reading this book. Personally this blog page and my personal blog are a direct result of reading this book and some of the more subtle techniques my clients receive the benefit of. I can’t wait to read his next book on subliminal persuasion. Find out more about Dave Lakhani and his books on www.boldapproach.com or www.thepowerofpersuasion.com.

A couple of years ago I came accross a gentleman called Charlie ‘Tremendous’ Jones and his point at the seminar was that all leaders had one thing in common, namely they were also all readers! So welcome to the business book blog of B/Right Business Coaching.

As the head coach and managing director of B/Right Business Coaching, I read on average between 1 nd 5 books a month and sometimes more. I have always enjoyed reading and I am also making sure that I stay ahead of the game in terms of learning new ideas, sometimes even from old books.

In this blog I will share my thoughts, reflections and opinions on the books I am reading and I hope they will inspire you to take on board the ideas or to read the actual for yourself.

Enjoy,

An Coppens