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- Articles:
Sarah Takes the Plunge
The Courier Newspaper - "Dear Coach"
Recently local Life Coach Annabel
Sutton offered Courier readers the chance to try life coaching free
for two months. We decided to follow the fortunes of one of our
readers who took her up on her offer.
Sarah is divorced and a single mum
with two sons aged 17 and 9. Having qualified in garden design, she’s
decided to start her own business as a Garden Design Consultant. She
says, "I read the article and I thought, 'this sounds as if it could
really help'. I needed help starting the business and with some other
issues and Annabel sounded really nice, so I thought I'd bite the
bullet and give it a try. After all, what did I have to lose?"
The first thing Sarah did was to
complete an assessment called the "Clean Sweep Programme". Says
Annabel, "The Clean Sweep is a real eye-opener for most people. There
are 100 statements relating to your physical environment, money,
relationships and emotional and physical well-being. Ideally, if your
life is in good shape you should be able to tick all 100 boxes. Most
people score well below 50 on the first try!"
Sarah scored 24. She says, "I was
horrified! I realised I’d been concentrating on a lot of the wrong
things and that I had quite a lot of work to do to get my life in
shape."
Next, Annabel and Sarah looked at
Sarah's short and long-term goals and things she wanted to change.
"Some of the things seemed straightforward," says Sarah, "but they
were things I'd been meaning to do for ages, but just couldn't seem to
get round to. It said in the article that part of coaching was being
accountable to your coach for getting things done. So hopefully this
will be the end of procrastination!"
They made a list of Sarah's goals:
The most immediate problem was cash
flow. Annabel gave Sarah an ‘Income and Expenditure Worksheet’ to fill
out to see exactly how much money was coming in and where it was being
spent. This prompted Sarah to send off for a long outstanding tax
rebate, which would help towards buying the computer she wanted. It
also helped her to see ways she could cut down on spending and start
to save each month.
The next thing to tackle was Sarah's
cluttered and disorganised office. "Things are all over the place,"
she said, "And even if something's in the right place, the cat's
probably sitting on it!"
Sarah agreed with Annabel that the
clutter and mess was draining a disproportionate amount of her energy
- energy which could be put to good use in other areas. It was also a
huge time waster, as she could never find things and took ages
searching for them. Sarah made a commitment to start a major sort out
and to get organised. She also promised to get a reliable telephone
answering system. This would ensure potential customers could always
get hold of her - and that her business sounded professional.
They discussed strategies for Sarah to
market her garden design business. Annabel suggested that one way to
build a business and ensure referrals is to provide a 'royal' service
for your clients - to go the extra mile and exceed expectations.
Sarah decided that a way to give
'added value' to her clients was to produce information sheets
relating to their specific gardening needs. Part of her coaching
homework was to start compiling scrapbooks of handy hints and tips for
customers.
Another improvement was to write
follow-up letters, checking that her customers were satisfied with her
service, and, at Annabel's suggestion, giving them permission to refer
her to anyone they know who might need a garden designer.
"It's one of the hardest things for
people with their own businesses to do, but it's so important," says
Annabel. "Letting people know you would welcome referrals from them is
crucial. People like to help. However, it's also really important to
thank them if they do send business your way."
Six weeks later, how has Sarah got on?
So far so good. She's started to generate work through word of mouth
and referrals and her customers have been pleased with the extras she
provides. She raised her prices which has helped with savings and
enabled her to buy the computer she wanted.
She's made excellent headway with
organising her office (though not with training the cat!) and has
raised her Clean Sweep score to 41.
So what's next? Now that some of her
short-term goals have been addressed, and her life is feeling
generally more in control, Sarah is turning her energies towards the
more complex issues in her life. She and Annabel discussed her current
relationship which she's been unhappy with for some time.
"He's just not able to make a
commitment," Sarah told Annabel. "Not only that, but I don't feel any
support from him regarding my business and my determination to make a
success of my life. I'm making huge changes to improve my life, and I
want to be with someone who'll support me, not drag me down!"
After a few thought provoking
questions from Annabel, Sarah has made the tough decision to take
control of the situation and give him an ultimatum. "I'm fed up with
being in limbo," she said. "After 5 years, I think he can make a
decision about us, don't you?"
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