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Are You Getting the Right Help You Need to Succeed?

Guest post by: Janis Pettit

Article Overview: The most important reason you need training, coaching or mentoring is so you can master skills like marketing, mindset, pricing, financial strategy, sales, business strategy and managing. If you’re solo this is just as crucial or you’ll be stuck selling time for dollars and you’ll struggle to achieve financial freedom… or even to take a vacation! So what type of help do you need?

Are You Getting the Right Help You Need to Succeed?

You're smart, skilled, knowledgeable, passionate, and yet you're still struggling to make enough money doing what you love. I've seen this over and over so you're certainly not alone. When people get fed up trying to figure it out on their own, they finally take the advice they've been hearing all along and they get expert help so they can learn the skills they need to become a successful entrepreneur. This skill set is completely different and separate from the one you need to create products or deliver your services. Yet many small business owners, particularly solo and home based business owners, think they need to figure it out all on their own, or they think they don't have the money needed to invest in the help they need. Notice I said invest. If you have the right expert or mentor working with you, and if you follow through on what you learn from them, you will make much more back than you spent and you will increase your income so much faster.

Many years ago I was a corporate trainer. Larger companies know how crucial training is and that's why they invest in it regularly. Successful entrepreneurs continuously invest in training and mentoring because they see the necessity to be continually "sharpening the saw".

The most important reason you need training, coaching or mentoring is so you can master skills like marketing, mindset, pricing, financial strategy, sales, business strategy and managing. If you're solo this is just as crucial or you'll be stuck selling time for dollars and you'll struggle to achieve financial freedom... or even to take a vacation! So what type of help do you need?

Here are some the best learning options currently available for you, followed by some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Private coaching

Advantage

Good business coaches are in demand because coaching is the most focused, customized way to reach your goals fast, increase your income, save time, money and struggle. It also boosts your productivity, since someone is holding you accountable, guiding your actions and keeping you focused and motivated. A good coach will help you make the fastest progress, but you need to be sure you resonate with a coach, that they are a seasoned and successful entrepreneur and that they have successfully coached others before hiring them. And most importantly, you need to follow through on all of the action steps you're being asked to take.

Disadvantage

This type of coaching requires a bigger investment of time and money, but the payoff is bigger.

Group coaching

Advantage

Group coaching works well for those who are at the beginning stages and need more general help, or who need help with one particular skill that is the focus of the group coaching program. Group coaching allows you to interact with an expert coach as well as other members of the group which can be a wonderful support system. Also, because it is a group setting, the investment is usually much lower.

Group coaching mastermind groups also work well if you are already successful and want to participate in a small, high level mastermind with a few other successful people and learn higher level strategies from your expert coach. You should consider the type of help you want, whether you'll be motivated by working within a group setting as well as the specific type of help you need.

Disadvantage

You won't get the level of customization of personal help that you get with private coaching.

Web based training or Home Study Programs

Includes Webinars, CD's, Webcasts, audios, tele-seminars, or downloadable lessons...any type of training that can be viewed on your computer or printed out.

Advantage

There is a huge array of possibilities from which to choose. Some web based training or home study programs are minimally interactive, while others are simply viewed by the participant, who then completes a written or online follow-up assignment. Since the training can be viewed multiple times, you'll master more of the material than with one time live workshops or single tele-classes. Convenience is a big factor, since you can learn at any time and at your own pace.

Disadvantage

Web based training as well as home study is somewhat generic and impersonal, as it is often developed to appeal to a wider audience, rather than customized to meet your specific needs. It is often not as thorough as other types because the length is rarely more than 60 minutes for each segment, although multi-unit courses are available. If you consider interaction with others to be important, or if you have trouble focusing and following through without anyone holding you accountable, this might not be for you.

Live workshop and events

Advantage

Nothing can beat the impact of a live workshop or event for "aha" moments, motivation, and for forming valuable new business relationships. It's important to pick events that are led by experts you respect, who you want to meet and learn from, and where you know you will meet people more successful than you are, since these are the people you want in your corner. I speak and attend many live events and it's had a huge impact on my success.

Disadvantage

Time involved, travel time and costs (but well worth the price). It's often more expensive than several of the previous options. And you'll want to consider finding a way to continue working on and implementing what you learn at the live workshop so it has a lasting impact.

Take an honest look at where your business is now and where you want it to be and make a commitment to get past the fear, take a leap of faith and invest in getting the help you need!

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Article Tags: small business coaching, small business training, web based training



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Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ - Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed Ronna Lichtenberg 2005 From the inside cover: "As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want." WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype. However, as she continued to give examples of women who had high paying jobs but were routinely not paid as much as men because it hadn't occurred to them to ask for raises, etc., I decided it was probably true for a majority of businesswomen... Anyway, more of the info from the jacket: "Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work." The TOC: 1. Pink and Blue 2. The Quck-dry Chapter 3. What's In your head that's not in his 4. The Me, Inc Mindset 5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want 6. Identifying Prospects 7. Pre-pitch homework and heartwork 8. Crafting the pitch 9. Pricing the pitch 10. Packaging the pitch 11. Delivering the pitch 12. Closing Conclusion A Word to the guys The Empathy Quotient The Systemizing Quotient Bibliography And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.
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Napoleon on Project Management - Why do I include this in a list of books aimed at female entrepreneurs? Well...in the expectation that there are as many female history buffs as male ones, and in the belief that anyone interested in history will find this book fascinating, while those interested in project management will learn a thing or two. I think this was the first "gimmick" book - an author using a historical figure (usually a male, military figure, it must be admitted) to talk about modern day business management. I refuse to read any of the kind that advocates - even obliquely - the techniques of the Sopranos or the Mossad - but these military ones are pretty fun. Anyway: Only in the understanding of history, Napoleon might say, do we gain an understanding of strategy in the present. In the same spirit, Napoleon on Project Management offers the recipe for successfully managing your commitments using the strategies, tactics and priorities that propelled Napoleon himself to victory. [The book doesn't gloss over how Napolean eventually fell in defeat, of course, and there's lessons to be learned there as well. TOC Foreword by Douglas James Allan (Napoleanic Society of America) 1. The Rise to Power -The Skills to Succeed -A Compelling Vision -Diplomacy and Networking -Lessons from the Great Campaigns 2. Napoleon's 6 Winning Principles -Introduction -Exactitude -Speed -Flexibility -Simplicity -Character -Moral Force 3. The Downfall -What Went Wrong -Lessons from the Russian Invasion and Waterloo -The Four Critical Warning Signs -Napoleon's Legacy


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