• already have a (more or less concrete) idea about what your step into entrepreneurship could be
• have at least a moderate idea about how you would have to continue (e.g. seeking advice from a business consultant, quit your job or just found a company)
• are HOWEVER vaguely fearful about getting started

 IMPORTANT!

This Coaching Pill will help you to build a business that you LOVE! Often times people believe if they become rich and famous, THEN they have this business. This might be true for SOME people, but definitely is NOT for all!

Becoming “rich and famous” (unless you are very very lucky) usually involves work! For around 90% of the people we coach, this happens: Once they are faced with the intensity and the magnitude by which they have to grow e.g. regarding their money mindset, business education, team leadership skills, they are disappointed and not seldomly quit.

So: Do not mix up “a business that you LOVE” with “becoming rich and famous”. Here we believe: Love first, money second! If you do wanna make A LOT OF money, yes, it’s possible, BUT if that is your primary focus, you will suck as a sales person (and at the end of the day 90% of entrepreneurship is still: Sales ;))

You think just thinking about sales this is capitalist? Annoying? The wrong way to approach things?

Stop asking yourself this question. Watch this video instead: <3

Write down ANY NUMBER THAT EXCITES YOU!

By that we mean: Something that is still potentially realistic, but actually excites you!

For the sake of being simple, we now ONLY talk about revenues i.e. the money that you earn. We (for now) ignore costs. Obviously: What you are making PERSONALLY with your business will largely depend on THIS magic formula:

Revenues – costs = profit

THE QUESTION

What are the best results that I have ever reached for: 

• myself
• a team I was working with
• an organisation or anything bigger than that (if you are involved in politics: Maybe you have even changed the course of history of an entire country – who knows!)

These results CAN be related to your work, but don’t have to. They often occur in the realm of our work, cos that tends to be an area in which we have special expertise. But the REASON why you were so successful is often some amazing quality that is unique to yourself!

Examples (these are REAL people who I coached):

You might think now:

“But I am different! I don’t have such results! These are crazy people and The Arc is only picking the crazy stars here!”

Our answer is: NO! Dig deep enough and you WILL find something that is really cool! We NEVER had a coachee who didn’t find anything that knocked her/him out of her/his socks. Seriously.

THE QUESTION:

Who are those people you are getting these great (not just good, but breathtakingly great) results with? 

What’s their background? Their story? Their motivation to work with you?

Especially: What’s on their mind?

• A) What is their personal sense of “hell”: What is this person worried about day and night, what is their pain point?(ideally this has something to do with your service/product)
• B) What is their personal sense of “heaven”: What has changes in that person’s life once they have used your service/product?

Some inspiration:

You can fine-tune AFTER the 20min of this Coaching Pill are over.

Come up with something that – in marketing lingo – is called “customer avatar” or “persona”. That means: An imagined representation of your ideal customer. Think about:

If you want concrete examples, just google “Customer avatar/ persona/ marketing” and you will find lots of stuff.

You can add more bullet points to the list above of course. BUT at the end make sure that you end up with one bullet point on demographics and max. 3 other bullet points containing more information.

THE QUESTION:

Out of THAT group of people: Who would you absolutely LOVE working together with? 

To your persona add one more aspect and that is:

• What characteristics does this person have that really make you L.O.V.E. this person (for instance “The person REALLY wants to work with you” or “The person is looking to hire someone like you for an even bigger project”)

WHY do you do this? Why stating the obvious?

I often get asked: “Why should I state these characteristics? Of course I only wanna work with nice people. This sounds so obvious!” Well! If you NEVER make loving your customers a decision criteria, there is a much higher chance that you will end up with quite some customers that you really don’t love/ dislike/ hate. Needless to say: If you LOVE your customers, you will have an infinitely better time building products for them, having rockstar customer support etc. etc..

Example (again… a real person):

I once coached the founder of an app that offered blended learning opportunities. Their excitement was to follow the Coursera and Udemy examples and to grow big B2C. Yet, they also had quite some B2B customers knocking their doors.

The avatars of a B2C customer and B2B customer were pretty similar and they both provided good business opportunities. As a characteristic that he “L.O.V.E.D.” about his ideal customer was that this customer would really take immense value out of this education. Now, in reality this happened partially in the B2C market, but drop out rates from online seminars were pretty high and hard to get up. On the B2B end however employers instructed their employees to finish the course – which maybe unsurprisingly – led to much better evaluations.

At the time the founder wasn’t ready to fully give up on the B2C segment. Yet, 5 months later, they did exactly that. For exactly the reason he had predicted in our session: The team just didn’t love it. Which led to a deterioration of customer support, a couple of devastating reviews and ultimately: They ended that line of business.

THE QUESTION(S):

Recap: What are the 2-3 elements that make the current state “hell” for your ideal customers? And what are 2-3 elements that make the future desired state “heaven” for them? 

And: How would your ideal customers’ life be different if they – through your service or product – stepped from “hell” into “heaven”?  

Are we serious about this?

Yes, we are! Unless your customers’ life is sh** without you and massively great with you, do rethink the service or product you are planning to launch! It is SO MUCH easier to sell something which solves a real pain – rather than something that is just a “nice to have”.

Examples (Do we have to mention that these are real people?):

THE QUESTION:

How much is that change worth?

Now you are going to put figure behind this! Be that in Euros, Pounds, Dollars! This is where MOST PEOPLE start to really struggle.

If this is easy for you, you are almost done!

If this is HARD for you, do this:

1. Ignore the fact that you are sweating and suddenly fearful
2. Think of a person who really loves you (your mum? your best friend? your partner?)
3. What number would THAT person put?
4. Use that number.
5. Optional: Add 10% more 😀

Now from step 0, take your ideal revenues. Make THIS calculation:

Then write down the following phrases:

I, [your first and last name(s)] support [representative name of your ideal customer] in getting from [their sense of hell] to [their sense of heaven].

This in itself is worth [price of your service/product].

And in order to earn [ideal monthly revenues] I ONLY have to get [number of customers you need to get] per month.

Enjoy the fact that you are amazing. Feel it! Whohoooo!

Are you wow-ed? Well done!

Are you somewhat thinking:

“Eeeeew, this doesn’t work?” Read on!

What to do the above-written statement doesn’t feel right?

Category A (95% of the cases): Either your revenue expectations are too high, your price is too low, or the pain you are solving is not too big enough! The answer is hence: You tweak your statement until it makes sense!

Category B (5% of the cases): You have high costs (which we have obviously ignored here). In that case let us know here and we will write another blog post on how to deal with this.

If it still doesn’t work for you, maybe you are a very very special case 😉 Just write us an email with your question. Let’s see, maybe there will be another Coaching Pill.

• A feeling of “WHOA! – That is some serious sh**!”
• A lot of homework!
• A glimpse of: “Holy moly! If only I got started….” (You always can! We are The Arc after all)

• Love yourself
• Complete the homework
• Get a coach! DO IT! (and let us know if you did!)
• Join one of our events on The Arc and get more amazing stuff like this