FOCUS – Entrepreneurs Strategic Tools

A Coaching Model By Heather Nickel, Business/Executive Coach, CANADA

FOCUS – Business Made Better

Better business is about being more connected. Connected to the important things: your business, people, and life.  

Business Made Better keeps things simple so business owners and their businesses can grow and succeed, giving business owners freedom to focus on what’s important.

Owning a business comes with both challenges and opportunities. More often than not, the challenges are linked to the opportunities.

BMB is about bridging these gaps between challenge and opportunity. To do this, we will help you connect strategy, people, finance, and operations in a cohesive system. This system is not based on theories; it’s battle-tested.  It’s the result of a lot of trial and error made by real businesses into what is now called the Business Operating System (BOS).

In 2013 I received my Bachelor of Arts degree and began working in a corporate setting through various management positions. 5 years ago, I began contracting and developing the Business Operating System (BOS) through Business Made Better (BMB) with an agricultural business called Nutriva Group. I coach the 14 Nutriva Group business managers and am the BOS coach for external clients.

In the early days, Nutriva Group worked to develop BOS solely for the benefit of their own company. The GM, Bill Vanderkooi, and his team were trying to be consistent with their systems and processes while operating multiple business units. Once they achieved a certain level of success with BOS, it didn’t take long to recognize how other businesses could benefit from it.

In 2019, we completed the BOS survey to investigate how closely our solution aligned with the needs of other business leaders and teams. Through this survey, we connected with 66 Canadian CEOs with between 11-100 employees.

The survey results showed that these were the top challenges facing their businesses today:

• Strategy: Unclear corporate identity
• Operations: Lack of focus on priorities and accountability
• People: Challenges with recruiting, hiring, and retaining star team members
• Finance: Limited line of sight for budget versus actual performance

With these priorities in mind, we completed the BOS Guide and our Tools and Training program in 2020. In 2021, we started beta testing BOS with several local businesses to help refine the system in a blended coaching model. Now, the two-year BMB program’s objective is to coach managers into graduates who are capable of facilitating BOS within their businesses.

BOS Clients

When entrepreneurs start their businesses, they are often the expert in their trade. They are extremely skilled at offering the product or service and the demand continues to grow their business. However, as their business grows, they become less involved in their trade and more involved in the continued demands of their growing business. Often, they are so busy working IN their business that they are unable to work ON their business. This can lead to burnout, overwhelm, and a lack of work/life balance.

In my coaching model, I use strategic tools to define FOCUS, which results in freedom to do what matters most to the business owner.

FOCUS Coaching Model (For Strategy)

Foundation – Define mission, vision, values, core values, and ideal clients

Overview – SWOT, Product, Price, Place, and Promotion

Connection – Long-term, short-term, immediate goals and MAP

Utilization–Workplan and SalesScript

Strategizing–Regular meeting rhythms to connect and strategize

The FOCUS model is implemented through the Strategy Workbook that consists of the following:

Operations Strategy One Page Plan

Identifying Who You Are; Including Mission, Vision, Values, Competitive Advantage and Strengths & Weaknesses

The Operations Strategy One Page Plan starts with identifying the Mission, Vision, Values, and Competitive Advantage of your business. These define the business and articulate why everyone gets out of bed every morning to come to work. The process also helps to shape the preferred future for business and what sets your business apart from competitors. It is the heart and soul of the business because it covers the foundation. 

The next step is to review the internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats (S.W.O.T), which help to inform and prioritize goal development. It is a transparent assessment of the business.

Finally, the goals for the business are set with the 3-year objectives, the 1-year goals, short-term strategies (3-4 months), and metrics for the 1-year goals, which are transferred to the business Workplan.

Business Workplan 

The Business Workplan is updated once the Strategy Workbook is reviewed and updated. The 1-year goals and short-term strategies are automatically updated from the operations strategy worksheet and the leads, due dates, and the team is updated.

Marketing Strategy One Page Plan

Providing a Solution to a Problem

The Marketing Strategy One Page Plan is a one-page document that focuses on who you are selling to and how you are going to effectively get them to take an interest in your product or service. It addresses the business’ target customers, their problems, your solutions, and your unique value proposition. The next step is to figure out your brand promise, price, place, and proposed promotional activities. The promotional activities flow to the Marketing Action Plan (MAP), which is the tactical plan for implementing the marketing activities. 

SalesScript One Page Plan 

Talk Less & Listen More – Guiding Your Customer to the Solution to Their Problem.

Have you ever been asked, “What does your company do?” and then proceed to ramble about various aspects of your business? Eyes glaze over, people lose interest and you’ve even confused yourself. You know your business offers value, but you’re unsure of how to communicate it.

A SalesScript helps to integrate your product or service solution into the customer’s story. In their story, you are a guide that has a plan to help solve one of their problems causing them frustration. SalesScript is a simple tool that effectively repositions your brand message so that it connects with the customer in a meaningful way.

Focus Model Strategic Business Planning 

Business owners can become trapped and overwhelmed in their business, but the Business Operating System and Focus model for strategy help to clarify the business foundation and actionable plan. Once a business owner can define their operational, marketing, and sales strategy, it enables them to create actionable goals and enables them to be free to pursue what matters most to them. This results in a business being made better.