Setting up on your own
- The situation: L had dreamt of setting up her own boutique B&B for a while but whilst she had enjoyed working as a travel agent she had never written a business plan to present to the bank, become an employer and work out how to market her business.
- The coaching objective: Working out the steps and actions to start a business and evaluate the financial risks and needs.
The situation
L had dreamt of setting up her own boutique B&B for a while but whilst she had enjoyed working as a travel agent she had never written a business plan to present to the bank, become an employer and work out how to market her business.
She was full of enthusiasm and ideas and we started with assessing her motivating factors/drivers for setting up her own business. This showed that L was willing to take a risk and also had some savings to enable her to spend time setting up the business and manage an income drop during the initial stages. She had a clear view on the unique selling points, additional services to supplement the main income stream and understood the needs of hotel guests from her career to date.
However, she felt overwhelmed by all the business management and planning tasks and during the coaching she identified this as what had stopped her to start planning and implementing.
Working together
After brainstorming actions and putting them into a step-by -step programme with subtasks to break them into manageable tasks, L had an initial starting point to work in chunks on her business plan whilst continuing to work as travel agent. We assessed the biggest obstacles and what to do when they would arise so L was prepared for challenges rather than expecting a smooth journey. Her coaching sessions held her accountable to progress every week and provided an opportunity to assess what needed to change and what had gone well.
Bringing in my business and financial planning experience, I was able to help L to understand what risk assessment providers of finance would go through, highlighted areas of concerns I would have and allowed L to think about and provide realistic answers to these concerns.
L also was encouraged to reflect on help she could draw on for areas she was less familiar with – e.g. employment law, food hygiene and social media advertisements. With brainstorming she identified people within her networks who would be willing to help her with guidance and ideas.
The outcome
L set up her business and also had obtained a small business grant for the area she was operating in.
How did the coaching consider J’s other systems she is part of?
L considered help in exchange for an overnight stay from her network which also allowed her to gather open and honest feedback.
L also had to consider the energy she would need to invest into setting up the business, reviewed the hours needed and assessed where she would find these. She had an honest and upfront conversation with her partner so expectations were set that she would not be able to go on expensive holidays for a while and that she was seeking his support for the next year to make her dream come true. She shared the same with her friends so they were aware of her need to cut back on socialising without feeling that she was turning a cold shoulder towards them. In terms of financial commitments, we worked through her spending and she considered areas of savings but also making sure she was not depriving herself fully of any fun activities and run the risk of burning out before the business was set up.