Mr Entrepreneur , You are the competitive advantage !

I had an opportunity to participate in a session & learn from an experienced HR leader on the subject of “Training & Retention in Small & Medium Enterprises”. The audience comprised of entrepreneurs of start- ups and steady state medium sized enterprises in Hyderabad, India.


Apart from speaker, the nature of questions and information sharing amongst the entrepreneur audience was of immense value & brought new insights for me.  I share some of these and more.


Similar to any career, entrepreneurial endeavors are a journey. Entrepreneurs really measure their success or failure at the end, not at the milestones. Like corporate leadership, entrepreneurs also pursue a very lonely path. It is also akin to individual sport where you are practicing alone to be the best among the best and yet you do not know what best is your competitor preparing for. Tiger Woods, Venus Williams besides being world class athletes, what do they all have in common? They all have a coach. If world class athletes have coaches, why wouldn’t it be appropriate for those in the business world to avail of coaching?

The issue of coaching is interesting and especially valuable in the context of business. My premise is simple: coaching, properly defined and applied, is a competitive if not essential advantage, especially for those in the small & medium business environment.

The coach serves as an external “conscience,” holding the entrepreneur accountable to execute those things standing between him or her and self-actualization, realizing full potential as a person“ the focus is to help the client thrive in professional life and maximize effectiveness in the workplace.”

A coach’s role is focused on helping to develop or increase skills that make the person more effective in a given job. This includes balancing and integrating personal and professional attributes and considerations, but the focus is to help the client thrive in professional life and maximize effectiveness in the workplace (everything from internal meetings to partner negotiations).

Why Entrepreneurs Need Coaching:

Whoever coined the phrase “It’s lonely at the top” must have had the entrepreneur in mind. It doesn’t get any lonelier. Entrepreneurs, as individuals, are the business in many cases. They have direct reports, family, maybe even a board; but there is no “organization” to hire a coach if they need additional resources, or even to require or suggest benefits from coaching.

They face the same issue as the “corporate” CEO; however, the entrepreneur often doesn’t have access to the same resources. I have found most of the successful entrepreneurs that I have worked with or known to have a number of characteristics in common; they are visionary, driven to the point of obsession, have a high need for control, and in business dealings these entrepreneurs may tend to be more loners. They have built the business from the ground up, they made the decisions and founded the key relationships often alone.

Skills like delegation, collaboration, and process management don’t come naturally to entrepreneurs. I have seen them struggle with issues such as delegation, staff selection, succession planning, and team or collaborative -based decision -making. They will seek advice from technical advisers such as accountants, attorneys, but many of the business skills learned in corporate world aren’t part of an entrepreneur’s experiential base. Bluntly, many of the “technical” advisers have limited experience outside of their core competency areas.

‘It’s lonely at the top.’

As businesses move forward and evolve, an entrepreneur will find that it’s critical to do several things:

- Co-relate “human” processes and business results.


- Develop and strengthen relationships with the “team”, including succession planning for oneself and other key staff.


- Articulate personal mission and vision, especially as the business grows



- Create opportunities for staff to discuss their needs and opportunities for development

I also believe that in smaller or closely held businesses, some of the issues targeted by executive coaches are even more critical. In the small organization every hire is a key hire, every decision is a key decision. A significant erroneous business decision doesn’t mean I don’t get my “bonus,” it means I might lose my life savings and my home.

A few significant statistics support the value of coaching:

· A return –on -investment study from Fortune 1000 companies showed an average of a 600% return on the dollars they invested in executive coaching. They saw specific improvements in productivity, quality, organizational strength, and customer satisfaction.

· Another study showed a 529% ROI directly attributable to coaching and other intangible benefits.


I believe these are the kind of numbers that get anyone attention ! . Here is the business case for entrepreneurs & it also makes you feel a lot less lonelier at the top too !