” The Secret of Change is to Focus all of your Energy not on Fighting the Old, but on Building the New” – Socrates
There’s no denying that Covid has changed a lot of things. Business as we know it is completely different, and will be for quite some time.
Personally, I think we will end up finding a ‘new way of working’, instead of returning exactly to the way things were.
That means a lot of the changes you’re making to your business now, could be more permanent than you think. Or if you’ve been holding back on making any changes, maybe you really should make a start….
Here are just a few changes that I have made to my coaching business.
1. Even More Support
The first big change for me was that my clients needed more support. Now!
Lockdown changed a lot of things for many business owners really quickly and most got, understandably, very worried.
There was a lot to take in, a lot of new things to do and a lot of changes that needed to be made. Businesses that had been doing things one way for years suddenly had to adapt, and that’s not always an easy thing to do.
So, my first response was to upgrade all of my clients onto weekly coaching, free of charge. The world was changing so quickly and I wanted to make sure that I was there for them, every step of the way.
I also started sending daily text messages to check in:
Did they need extra support that day? What was their current mindset score? Or just keeping them focused on their top 5 priorities for that day.
Plus I created a few extra support programmes to help clients adjust to their new ways of working.
2. Automated Diary
One of the big things I’ve changed – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – is put my diary online. I have always been a paper diary girl….
I’ve set myself up with a diary management solution, which means people can book time slots into my diary by clicking a link. Those appointments (including a Zoom link) just appear in both our calendars like magic.
It’s made me more easily accessible to my clients, who can just book as and when they need to talk to me.
Plus it’s massively cut down on the amount of email tennis when trying to get a meeting in the diary. It’s so great that I recommend it to anyone who’s fed up of double booking, or spending too much time booking appointments.
3. Online Coaching
Of course, with physical meetings no longer on the cards, all of my coaching sessions have now been moved online.
You might think that wouldn’t work – actually it’s been great for me and my clients.
For one, it’s massively cut down on expenses (petrol and coffees bought), time investment (no travelling) and overall made the whole process much more efficient. We still managed to get some great work done on their business, as well as keeping everything green and eco-friendly.
Going forward, all my group coaching is staying online. My 1-1 clients have the option to come back into the office as we can safely keep our distance.
4. Focused online Growth Club
Once a quarter all of my clients get together and we do a 90-day planning session, called Growth Club.
This session usually takes the whole day, in a hotel, putting together their action plans for the next 90 days.
Since planning and adapting is even more important, we’ve kept these going and during lockdown I ran them far more frequently.
Because they’re all being done on Zoom, we’re actually able to fit a full day session into just 3.5 hours!
It’s still a fun and interactive session, just much more focused and streamlined, so everyone gets the same amount of work done, but in half the time.
This has been so popular that I might actually keeping doing it after lockdown is over. Watch this space!
5. New Services
Lockdown has also given me the chance to launch some new services to support business owners, no matter where they are in the country.
My personal favourite is my book club . We get together once a month to talk about a business book. What are our thoughts and learnings? What can we apply to our own businesses?
It’s a “Bring Your Own Drink” affair that lets people socialise a bit more while still talking business, and learning some new things.
This is something I’d been thinking about starting for a while. I decided to launch sooner than planned to provide a nice distraction through lockdown.
How has your business adapted to Covid? Do you need some guidance to help you understand how Covid has impacted your business? Are you stuck on what changes you could make to adapt?
Are you unsure what you need to do next to recover from this bump in the road, yet also protect against anything similar happening again in the future?
Then I’d love to talk to you! Just click this link here to book 45-minute coffee chat with me on Zoom.
