Thursday morning and it’s nearly nine o’clock and one of my hugely enjoyable and satisfying days is about to start. Mug of tea on the table, laptop connected through 3G, mobile at the ready and my weekly coaching/mentoring day at Vision Works – part of the Coventry University’s flagship enterprise centre – is about to begin.  Here I have the pleasure and honour of helping a variety of people through the process of turning their business ideas into reality.

The fact remains that with many would-be entrepreneurs they never know when that idea is going to come forth and this was certainly the case for Vivien Long and Dawn Turner.  Both of them had been involved with training for most of their careers but it wasn’t until they met in December 2005 that they had their “Eureka!” moment.

Their idea was to produce a variety of Training Tool Kits packed into a portable carry case that would have everything needed for a training session – training manual, pens, paper, training aids, examples and even certificates of attendance.  They decided to call the company OutsideTheBox, which would enable employees – including those who have never trained before – to use the incisive, step-by-step, detailed training manuals to deliver courses that would help their colleagues become more effective, and without the need for costly external trainers or the need to take staff off-site.
When I first met Dawn and Vivien, who by the way are mature single mothers, with grown up children, I was struck by three things:

• They had very different personalities, which made a perfect team because – as I went on to find – they complemented each other’s skills very well. Dawn is pragmatic, measured, proactive, planned and thoughtful, whilst Vivien’s words seemed to tumble out of her mouth and her behaviour was much more reactive, creative and spontaneous.
  
  
• Their deep respect for each other – both bringing over 20 years of experience of training to their business – demonstrated by listening intently to what each was saying.  They supported each others’ ideas, laughed and joked with their learning and their inexperience and had fun even though at times they discovered that the life of a start-up company was at times very stressful.
  
  
• They exhibited a huge amount of courage, that had already see them invest some of their limited funds and a huge amount of time into their idea, even though they had never started a business before.

The monthly hour long coaching/mentoring sessions during the nine months we met were structured around the T-GROW model, which is a well known coaching and mentoring process. It can also be used for any meeting or project.

The acronym stands for:
T – Topic for discussion during the session
G – Goal or outcome wanted for the session
R – Reality of where one is, which in the main includes actions already taken and results achieved
O – Options going forward, bearing in mind everything that is known
W – Work out a plan of Action taking into consideration all of the above

We worked through a huge number of topics, right from the start to when they launched their website. All of the topics formed part of Dawn’s and Vivien’s business plan and some of them were about:

• deciding on their own personal agendas and objectives and then dovetailing them with those of OutsideTheBox
• the results of their market research that they had carried out before we even met.  This involved in-depth conversations with about 25 potential customers
• lots of discussion around what was going to be the overall marketing strategy – the basic 7 P’s including Product, Pricing, Promotion, Place, People, Process, Paperwork
  o   as their product was global that their marketing focus would be their website and it was launched in September. They are very proud of their now fully operational website www.otbltd.co.uk with shopping cart and rightly so. Click on it and see for yourself what they have achieved
  o   they decided that the OutsideTheBox product was going to be based around the twelve different subjects.
  o   in fact most of the meetings involved Marketing in some shape or other, like combining the efforts of their graphics and website designers, sorting out the tele-sales and direct mail campaign, preparing the PR campaign and launching.
• during all this time the business plan was continually being modified and the cash flow altered to take into consideration all the changes that were decided

As we progressed I discovered a few more things more about them:

• they were extremely willing to learn new things, take on board new ideas, set challenging goals, brainstorm on demand, admit to their worries and talk openly about themselves to a relative stranger
• their consistency in showing up at the mentoring sessions - even when progress seemed to be slow or even a few steps backwards were taken
• their tenacity to keep going even in the face of personal difficulties and business setbacks and to conquer what were seen as insurmountable obstacles.

During the nine months of continuous hard work and effort, I saw something else happen that they were unaware of: decision making was more measured; meetings were more focused; their opinion was sought by others and they literally grew in stature – walking taller and talking more confidently.

They now have a very solid information and ordering base to work from, that can of course be accessed from around the UK and the globe, something that nine months ago was just a far off thought. They are now telephoning with confidence a specific list of targeted names and companies, some of whom were involved in the original market research and the orders are starting to flow.

Looking back at where Dawn and Vivien started last year and to see where they are now, they have made great progress.  They were 110% committed to the mentoring process and were very open to questions and the ideas that came from them.

Mentoring and coaching is extremely powerful and I have many clients that have completely transformed their lives and their businesses, but the essential ingredient is the client’s input.  To get the most out of coaching and to ensure that the hour or so that we spend has maximum impact my clients must be open and honest. Clients must want to change and it is this desire to move forward – in whatever way moving forward means for them – that allows real, long-term personal development to take place.

In some cases this means that some of my clients have to face the fact that they’re not cut out for that kind of life or, if they’re adamant that they want their own business, that we create the right team to ensure (as far as we can) success.

The process of getting a new business off the ground can be a long and challenging process, and whilst no mentor can guarantee that the business idea is a winner, it is crucial to have a guide through the minefield, provide support at difficult times, energise them along the journey, shout encouragement from the side lines and help overcome the seemingly insurmountable.

©William Barron
Creating Insight
May 2006
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