Anyone in business knows that making decisions and choosing direction is hard. A business coach can guide you through this, as event management company Pretty Clever found out when they engaged Shirlaws expert Ron Tanner. Over the next few months, we'll be following their progress.

The Client

Pretty Clever was set up when we realised there really wasn't a dedicated event management company in our area, covering what we thought we could excel at. Corporate events, private events, team building, incentives - the burgeoning events industry seemed to be sorely under-represented here, so we thought we'd do something about it.

More and more companies are now seeing the importance of team activities, for example. Conferences are far more creative than the old three-day sit-down-and-listen torture of the past. And as for parties - theming has never been so big. It seems like everyone wants to dress up and play pretend these days! Anyway, we felt strongly that although there were companies offering various individual services, there was a need for a dynamic force like us to offer a one-stop shop. As we passed our third year, we breathed a tiny sigh of relief. It's no secret that the first three years are the toughest and boy, is that ever an understatement. It seemed like the first couple of years were spent setting up, and earning little - building mutually trusting relationships with suppliers, seeking clients, and learning how to ‘be in business'. Heading up a team, department or even a company is not the same as having a business yourself. Nothing like.

Anyway, moving into our fourth year, we realised we were at that point where the company is inevitably going to expand further: we need more staff, bigger space, productivity was hugely on the increase. We were standing on a very clear ‘next step' and realised we could use some help - there was no way we wanted to go wrong after the graft we'd put into setting up. Enter Ron Tanner.

We never realised until we met Ron Tanner that running a successful business is down to very basic formulae. Our initial meeting was a fact-finder on both sides. We needed to understand what a business coach did, and he needed to know what was involved in event management. What really stunned us is the predictability of running a business. You really can shape the future if you know what you're doing. We couldn't wait to get started....

Pretty Clever Events 01273 441848 - info@prettyclever.co.uk - http://www.prettyclever.co.uk

The Coach

Meeting the Pretty Clever directors was like a breath of fresh air. Their enthusiasm and excitement for their business was infectious. At the same time of course there was a "how the hell are we going to do this?" question.

My first step was to find out whether they actually needed a business coach and if so, if I was the right match for them. When I meet a prospective client for the first time they often want me to fix a specific problem in their business. It could be "How do I get more sales?" or, "How do I get my staff more engaged?" The girls' problem was interesting - they didn't really have one. They just wanted to get it all right.

I explained how consultants and business coaches differ. Business coaching is a relatively new industry and many business owners don't fully understand what we do. Consultants fix ‘problems' in businesses. Coaching is different; it's about the client acquiring the skills themselves to deal with the issues that arise day to day in their businesses. The expressions on their faces showed this had struck a chord.

They immediately jumped in with a tirade of experiences they'd had in previous working lives. It never ceases to surprise me how easy it is to identify what goes wrong in business and have an opinion about it, but at the end of the day it doesn't really help anyone. How does coaching help then? I took the golfing analogy (even though it looked like they'd never been on a golf course in their lives). In essence Pretty Clever was doing very well three years in. On the course they are playing off about a 15 handicap. The simple questions I asked them were "what handicap do you want to go down to?" and "how long do you want to take to get there?" Although we were in a fairly busy café it felt like a strange silence had just flooded over the floor. After an unusually long pause one of the girls asked another question: "Can you help us with that?"

Yes, is the simple answer. It's my job as the business coach to provide the framework for you to see your business issues and have the clarity and confidence to act accordingly.

Ron Tanner is a Business Coach with Shirlaws - rtanner@shirlaws.biz

This article appears courtesy of Business First Magazine