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I’ve been asking myself what my clients really want, what they really, really want. Once I could get rid of that annoying Spice Girls song, I was able to think about this a lot more clearly.
We all make the mistake of thinking that our customers want what we want to sell them. But that’s not necessarily true. When I go to a restaurant, as a customer, it’s not actually the food that I want, or even the good service. What I want is the experience of going to the restaurant. Maybe I want some quality time with my partner, or an exciting taste experience. Maybe I want a good night out with friends. Whatever it is, the restaurant has to give me that experience, not just nice food and a friendly waiter.
What do you want from the Joy of Business?
- You want to learn how to make your business great
- You want to know what to do to make your business great
- You want to feel confident in what you’re doing, and know that this is the right thing
- You want to make good money, and have fun while you’re doing it.
You don’t just want a business advisor. You want someone who is on your side, and can help you to make your business great, and make sure that you’re doing the right things, not the wrong things.
What do your customers want?
What do your customers and clients really want? Is the meal or the experience of going out for the meal? How can you tell the difference?
I’ve been catching up with asking clients for testimonials for my website. These are two which made me laugh out loud.
Tim Simpson from Plunge Productions in Hove offered several versions of his testimonial:
Short and punchy…
She looked at our business, understood it, then made it grow.
Contemplative…
If we’d never been introduced to the Joy Of Business, goodness only knows what kind of pickle we’d be in by now.
Forceful…
Call Julia, Meet Julia, Thank Julia.
Effusive…
We at Plunge have been searching for years to find a Business consultant and mentor who truly understood our needs as a business. Finally we met with Julia and Ohmigod; she opened our eyes to how our business works and what we could do the develop its true potential. She’s simply amazing. Wow!
Capitalist…
She’s a bargain. A few consultations and now we’re rich. RICH I TELL YOU. RICH!!!!
Sarcastic…
Yeah, running a business is such a joy!
And Sarah Carter from WorldWide Performers offered:
Working with Julia is like having a second superior brain which is bigger, better, smarter and more experienced than mine and which can think logically and accurately when mine is ready to hit the G and T. She has helped me turn business ideas into real opportunities and has given me the confidence to make decisions which I would have found difficult to make on my own. I recommend Julia wholeheartedly though, if you are going to have a meeting with her at her place, take some milk just in case.
I’m one of the facilitators for the new Wayfinder peer support sessions run by Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce. I did my first session a few weeks ago – and it was great!
Wayfinder is a really simple idea – we get 4 business people, who are all at a similar stage of their business, together in a room. They all pick one issue they would like help with and get to speak about those issues for 20 minutes. Everyone helps to solve the problem, generate ideas or just provide emotional support by listening.
The session was a challenge for me professionally as usually I’m the one giving the advice, ideas and support. This time, my job as facilitator was just to listen hard and make sure everyone got a chance both to talk and to be heard.
What was great about it?
I had high hopes for the sessions anyway. What really blew me away was the way that everyone in the room was supportive and caring of everyone else. They all asked really great, and often surprising, questions, and were coming out with great ideas to help one another. Some of the thinking was quite profound.
Having someone else care about whether or not you do well, challenging your assumptions and coming up with ideas and practical offers of help is incredibly important in business. Although running a business is one of the most creative and rewarding things you can do in life, it can also be one of the most difficult.
Judging by this first session, Wayfinder is one way of having other people on your side.
I was at a networking event recently when Jacky Misson said that she’d had several business coaches in her career but would never use a business advisor.
I was somewhat bemused by this. I’ve never really seen much of a difference but Jacky’s feeling, based on her experience of one rather dodgy sounding business advisor, was that a coach would help you to work out how to develop your business, whereas an advisor would tell you what to do.
It seems that the dodgy advisor had completely underestimated Jacky, who is a redoubtable business woman, and had just given her a lecture. Not only a lecture, but one filled with really bad advice, of completely inappropriate and unhelpful things.
Of course that’s not the difference between a business advisor and a coach, that’s just someone being rubbish at their job. Anyway, this made me think about if there are any differences and what term I should use to describe myself and my work.
Here are some thoughts:
Business coach
A business coach might use more coaching or therapeutic techniques to explore the issues in your business. So they’re likely to focus slightly more on what you want out of the business and what it means to you, rather than wholly on the practical ‘let’s get on with it’.
Look for someone who has experience of running business, as you want at least some practical stuff, or at the very least, someone who has an understanding of what it’s like to run a small business. You don’t want someone who has only experience in the corporate world, as that’s a very different animal indeed.
Business advisor
Very similar to a coach but may be more concerned with your business and how to make it work, rather than your personal development. A business advisor might also have a specialist area they focus on – I don’t, as I like to look at the whole business, including marketing, finance, people and systems.
Look for someone who is open to dealing with the emotional side as well – you might well need both types of support.
Mentor
This can have two meanings. One is pretty much the same as a business coach or advisor and the other more specific meaning of the term ‘mentor’ is someone who has done this before. They’re older and more experienced, and have probably run several businesses.
Mentoring also tends to be an ongoing process, lasting over 6 – 12 months. Sometimes mentoring can be informal and free, for example, if you can find someone in your industry who is semi-retired and wants to help out the new generation of entrepreneurs.
Business consultant
This is another term, which might be slightly different insofar as a consultant might charge more money than an advisor, mentor or coach. I tend to think of consultants as having a specialist area, e.g. systems or HR, but this can also be a synonym for ‘business advisor’.
What do you think?
Any other words for what I do? What would you be looking for?
And finally
If you’re looking for a business advisor, a coach for your business, mentor, consultant, strategist, helper, supporter… it doesn’t really matter what you call it, but you know who to talk to – don’t you?
I’ve noticed over the years that about 60% of my business consultancy clients are women business owners. But this is far higher than the proportion of female business owners generally – about 15% of businesses are owned outright by female entrepreneurs, and another 20% of businesses are co-owned by women. See this government report for more facts and figures.
So why do I get more female clients than male?
I’m a woman
This would seem to be the most obvious factor – I’m a woman who has run businesses, and offers help and advice. However, none of my female clients have ever said that they wanted a female mentor, and they’re certainly not shy of employing men and doing deals with men, because they do this all the time. So it must be something subconscious, when we want advice we want it from someone like us.
Women are more likely to take advice
 Photo by pure9 Actually this seems more likely. There’s a definite difference between my female clients and my male clients. Women are more likely to ask for advice directly and say, What do you think I should do about this contract? , whereas men are more likely to say what they are considering doing about the contract and then I’ll come in and make recommendations. So maybe women are more likely to look for an advisor in the first place.
Women like straight talking
I’ve been doing a bit of competitor analysis recently, looking at other business advisors and coaches and how they work. What I have found is that I’m very direct compared to other people. I offer practical advice, and give my thoughts on what my client should do.
It seems that this is unusual, and most advisors are very non-directive, and prefer to talk through the issues to help the business owner make a decision. This is more of a coaching model, I guess. I, however, figure that if someone is paying me good money for my opinion, I should really give my opinion, as long as I’m making it very clear that it’s the client’s decision as to what they decide to do – it is their business after all.
So maybe this is why my client list has lots of women in it – they just like to get a clear idea of what they should do next.
If you’re male or female and would like some straight talking about your business and the way forward, buy me a coffee and I’ll give you my thoughts.
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Julia Chanteray at The Joy of Business helps small businesses to develop and grow. She uses her years of experience of running successful businesses to advise, support and mentor businesses in Brighton, Sussex and London.
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