Q!: Why did you decide to start a coaching business?
I describe the starting of my coaching business as organic, or as having sort of fell into it. I co-founded and ran a successful Information Technology consulting company, generating 7 figures annually, for over 7 years. I moved on from there when I was 6 months pregnant with my second child, and had no idea what I wanted to do with my career. I just knew it wasn’t in IT! During the next three months waiting for the baby, and then the first few months after the baby was born, I started helping family and friends out with their businesses. I helped secure a buyer and successfully sell a business, helped someone else start a business, helped a relative take on a franchise operation and also assisted a friend decide that starting a business was not for her.
Through this experience, I realised that the experience, skills and knowledge gained while establishing and running my own business were directly transferable to helping others make decisions about their businesses. I didn’t realise it until then that I was very passionate about small business itself and about providing practical assistance, mentoring and coaching to people in small business. There was virtually nothing available like that at that time. So when I decided I needed to return to work to provide income for my family, I made the decision to start a coaching business and work with small business and try and make some money from it!
Q2: How does your business differentiate itself from other coaching businesses?
My business differentiates itself from other coaching businesses in a number of ways. Firstly, almost all of my work is derived through word of mouth and referral (and has been for the more than 20 years I’ve been in this business). This means that I am differentiated due to my results. People only refer me on if I get them results.
And I get exceptional results in my coaching business by treating every client differently and working with whatever is presented. I don’t apply a formula to people or my clients. I get their objective clear, and don’t just accept what they say they need or think is the work that should be done. Sometimes these are not the same!
It’s also differentiated from other coaching businesses, interestingly, by how I have set it up and run it. I often refer to it as my ‘lifestyle practice’, I’ve set it up through the years to maintain the lifestyle I want it to support. This doesn’t just pertain to financial goals for the business, but in terms of the kind of coaching I want to do, the clients I want to work with.
Q3: What are the most common problems faced by women starting or running their own business and how can these problems be overcome?
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
The first and foremost problem faced by women starting and running their business is a lack of self-awareness and confidence. The lack of self-awareness is that women tend to downplay their strengths in the area of skills, knowledge and experience. They often don’t know what their strengths are, particularly when they are what are referred to traditionally as ‘soft skills’. When they do have some inkling of these, they don’t necessarily know how to apply them to starting a business, or the myriad of issues and situations that arise when running a business. Many women lack confidence in general about their abilities, so even when they have a strength pointed out to them, and they tentatively accept that that might be right, they still don’t have confidence in this strength. I call this stepping-into your strengths. So, being able to articulate your strengths, understand what they are and how they can be used in different situations. And then using them and showcasing them in whatever you are doing. Also prevalent is the flipside of this, that weaknesses, or learning edges or skill gaps can be seen as bigger than they are (have more impact in their life) and that these have significant impact on what they can or cannot do.
Q4: What are the key elements of a successful business?
For me, the foundational elements of a successful business are strong vision and values. When a business owner, and the people that work in that business, have a shared understanding of what they’re working towards, what they’re working for and why, and how they do business, all decisions for the business can be checked against these and become much easier or straightfoward. This also allows a very clear view of how you judge your own success, and that of your busines.
Other key elements of a successful business are getting good people, and once you’ve got them, keeping them happy – this includes the business owner. This is often the key to make and break businesses, so paying attention to what skills, knowledge and experience you need in the business at different times, and then finding and keeping them is essential. Finally, flexibility and adaptability is key. The ability to identify, and then work with, both opportunities and threats that face your business will allow it to grow, if that’s an aim, or maintain it’s status quo, even in the face of unexpected threats.
Q5: How should women business owners face the fear of failure?
Prepare and plan, look at risk management, and know thyself.
Fear can arise at any stage for women business owners: starting a new business; starting a new venture within your business; stepping up your business or facing external and/or unknown threats (such as COVID over the past few years).
Preparing and planning is essential. Thinking about, and modelling, what you think is possible and probable helps bring clarity for what you are doing or want to do in that business. Whether it is as informal as talking it through with a coach (or another person in the business) or full-on budgeting, forecasting, putting together a business plan – it’s the process of thinking it all through that’s important. What might go wrong, what might go right and what do you need to do for those different scenarios.
Risk management – what’s the worst that can happen and what’s the best that might happen. What happens in these scenarios and the ones in between. How can you circumvent some risks and mitigate others. Is the worst case scenario something you are willing to risk?
Knowing thyself refers to understanding your own limits for risk appetite, as well as your strengths. Have you failed before, what lessons did you learn when you failed? How can you bring that knowledge and experience to facing this failure? What are your strengths, particularly those around resilience and persistence and tenacity? When we have confidence that we can handle whatever happens, then that makes it easier to face failure, as then it doesn’t matter so much the outcome, as you know you’ll be able to handle it!
Q6: What three pieces of advice would you give to a woman planning to start her own business?
- Is this really what you want to do? Find out about setting up and running a business. Talk to people that already do run their business, read about the pros and cons. Understand your own strengths and weaknesses and how these will possibly impact starting and running your own business. A significant amount of my coaching is working with people who decide through the coaching NOT to start their own business. So with a good understanding of what is going to be involved, be 100% sure that this is what you want to do.
- Get straight in your own head exactly why you are getting into the business. What are your objectives? What do you want to achieve? What do you want to prove (to yourself or to others)? Know this and be able to speak about it to anyone. Then keep this front of mind at all times while setting up and running your business. That, more than anything else, is going to keep you on track.
- Ask for help – you don’t have to be on your own. Anyone starting their own business is going to run into something, at some stage, that they don’t know about or can’t do. Many people are reluctant to ask for help, for varied reasons, however my experience is most people like to help others and are happy to be asked.
BIO – KIRSTEN BRUMBY
After co-founding a consulting firm that generated seven-figures annually, Kirsten Brumby has spent over 20 years coaching, training and consulting for individuals, teams and organizations. She specializes in helping people and organizations find clarity, set outcomes and achieve them. She has facilitated initiatives in leadership, small business, not-for-profit boards, career and life coaching.
With her broad business base, Kirsten brings a wealth of lived experience. In her coaching, she provides an opportunity to examine the attitudes and beliefs that underlie the decisions that we make, and that often are out of our awareness. She works with heightening awareness and challenging usual business principles, so that people can be more choiceful about the decisions they make. Most importantly, she offers practical ideas and provides a structure of accountability for people to make change happen.
Kirsten brings 20 years’ worth of experience in managing all sorts of organisational relationships, human resources, project management, leading change and organisational development.
Drawing on her extensive business, consulting and coaching experience, Kirsten has authored two books: Now What? A step-by-Step Approach to Land Your New Job or Career and How to Write Effective Policies and Procedures.
