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Business advisor vs. business coach

We believe that the sign of a trusted advisor is when we are asked ‘What do you think?’ about every major strategic decision of a client. We work alongside and within management teams, helping them to decide what competitive advantage really looks like, and we have a deserved reputation for remaining as advisors in the longer term – despite there being no long-term contract “tying” us to our clients.

And this is why we don’t describe ourselves as ‘coaches’. As opposed to business coaches, we work within your organisation and don’t operate from the sidelines. We capitalise on decades of combined specialist business expertise to develop a deep understanding of each client’s particular business – including the people who run it, and their motivations and aspirations – and of the markets in which they operate.

Particularly for growing companies who are not yet at the stage where it can be justified procuring a fulltime executive manager, we can provide ongoing part-time management of your in-house resources, and advice and guidance from highly experienced executives.

This provides an alternative to hiring full-time in-house business management, allows an experienced executive to mentor less experienced in-house staff, and continuously monitors your business activities and results to ensure that your business plans are implemented to full capacity.

In much the same way we offer ongoing business development and marketing assistance through our Retainer Program, you are able to utilise our skills and knowledge in specific areas of the business, dependent upon your needs and desired outcomes.

Benefits

A commitment to your ongoing business success enables us to monitor and adjust the business activities to ensure that they continue to meet your immediate and future financial goals.

The goals of our business advisory program are to encourage business owners and general managers to:

► Become strategists. Make and execute plans and keep a watchful eye on the strategic picture rather than concentrating on day to day operational tasks, including:

• setting realistic and achievable goals.

• creating a strong business model supported by powerful plans to achieve these goals.

• measuring and comparing outcomes against goals.

• concentrating on the key areas of revenue, margin and cash-flow rather than reacting to daily bank account balances.

► Have access to an advisor—and a confidant—and a mentor—who is also an experienced and successful business manager. It is lonely at the top, and a good mentor will provide:

• objective advice on the business conditions and operations.

• unbiased opinions.

• assistance in your decision-making process.

• someone to whom the business owner is accountable.

► Increase business skills and knowledge. Your own personal development is an important outcome of a business support relationship and will be vital as your business continues to grow.

► Create successful businesses—in terms of profitability, personal satisfaction, as a valuable asset for its shareholders, and being ‘sale-ready’. (If you are thinking of selling your business within the next five years, you would benefit from our Sales Ready Strategies.)

► Improve ‘business as usual’. View problem-solving and process improvement as a continuous operation. This helps to stop managers concentrating on ‘putting out fires’.

► Save time—both in terms of reaching your goals quicker and in the amount of time you need to spend in your business.

Experienced business advisors

Our advisory and consulting services are delivered by a team of experienced executives who have successful track records in growing businesses, and who have held previous roles such as general manager, commercial manager and marketing managers—state and national—for large and iconic national and international companies. The quality of our staff is what enables Plenty Systems to deliver highly effective and measurable business growth, business development and marketing solutions to our clients.

Read about our Outsourced Managers and the calibre of our business advisors.

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Business focus areas

We concentrate on seven business areas, with the amount of effort devoted to each area being dependent upon the specifics of you, your business and your goals.

These key areas are:

► The profit equation

► Business processes

► Marketing and promotions

► Sales

► Customer service

► Operations and logistics

► HR and team building

Our mentoring programs

The first step is to design a ‘plan of attack’ tailored to your unique requirements—co-authored by you and your business advisor. This will define the goals, objectives and schedule of the coaching program, with emphasis upon creating “SMART” (specific, measurable, attainable/realistic and time-bound) goals and objectives.

This initial meeting with your business advisor will take between 4-8 hours to complete, and enables them to learn as much as possible about you and your business by reviewing your current business state and analysing historical trends. We’ll look at your business and marketing plans, and review with you all of the key business knowledge areas to help identify areas of personal weakness.

The plan will then:

► Establish and prioritise the goals— defining where you are currently and where you really want to be.

► Establish the benchmarks. How will progress be measured? How do we collect and quantify the evidence proving beneficial outcomes?

► Set timeframes

► Define the mentoring process—deciding when and where you will meet, and how and what you will review.

Your individualised business support plan will cover the next 12 months and will contain the step-by-step procedures that you and your business advisor will work through as you proceed through the program—essentially a ‘road map’ for your business development. You'll walk away with a complete list of strategies and ideas that you're not currently using in your business, as well as having identified those you're using that can be improved.

We then help you to make your goals a reality. You will engage in weekly coaching meetings and calls where, together, we review your company’s ongoing performance—and your personal performance—and determine how to resolve problems, how to improve processes, and how to create new solutions, strategies and business systems that allow you to achieve more and work less.

If you still wish to know more about his program, read our common questions about business advice.

Investment

Our business advisory program commences at $2,000 per month (excluding GST) which provides up to 10 contact hours per month. This represents a very cost-effective, flexible solution in comparison to other, more traditional coaching programs.

This support service is an on-going relationship, however it can be terminated at will by either party and at any time.

Complete our enquiry form now to discuss your business support requirements.