Running a business is demanding. It can be tricky carrying the responsibility for staying clear-headed when everything seems to be pulling you in different directions. There are financial pressures, and decisions to make that don’t have obvious answers. There will be times when you’re not sure whether you’re making the right call. You might feel isolated, even lonely. Time to reach out, perhaps, and get some support?
Your accountant will be able to shed valuable light on the financial state of your business, which is obviously a key factor in being successful.
But what about your mindset? The numbers might indicate that a particular decision needs to be made, but not the reason you’re hesitating to make it. On their own, the numbers won’t help with the self-doubt that might creep in after a difficult quarter, let alone dealing with a curve ball in your personal life that’s affecting your ability to perform at your best.
Which is where we come in at Caboodle, because we provide expert accountancy with personal coaching to bridge the gap not filled by your typical accountancy.
We’re also a local small business experiencing similar issues to you, so you can trust that we can relate in real time.
Why Business Owners Often Neglect Themselves
When you’re running a business, the natural instinct is to focus on finding and winning customers, on cashflow, and the next thing on an endless list of things to do. You put your business first. That’s admirable. But without balance and perspective, you can find your energy being sapped and your focus distorted. Significantly, other areas of your life can pay the price – family, friends, health, hobbies and so on.
Many of the small business owners we work with in Salisbury and across Wiltshire come to us financially sound but personally stretched. They’re competent, capable people who’ve built something real, something to be proud of, but they’re often running on empty. They’re second-guessing themselves more than they used to, or struggling to find the clarity to make decisions with confidence.
The business is technically fine. The person running it is physically and mentally exhausted.
This is more common than people typically admit as they put on a brave face each day. And it matters, because the way you show up affects everything else – how you lead, how you communicate, how you make decisions under pressure, how you treat the people who work with you. The culture of a business – the way things are done – is invariably a reflection of the person at the top. And that person deserves non-judgemental, bespoke support, which is the essence of personal coaching.
What Personal Coaching Actually Looks Like
Think of coaching as an opportunity to take a helicopter view of your life and business. It’s a chance to see how the two overlap, and gain clarity about what’s working, what isn’t, and what you’d like to change.
A great coaching maxim is “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”. In other words, if you want to achieve a better, more helpful outcome, you’ll need to try doing something different, maybe even risk getting out of your comfort zone.
Let’s be clear: time spent with a personal coach isn’t therapy. It’s not about being fixed. Nor is it a business strategy session in which you’re told what to do. Coaching is a confidential, structured conversation with someone whose job it is to help you get out of your own way, tap into your own resources, and move forward to achieve meaningful goals.
In practice, a personal coach uses a series of questions to:
- Assess your current situation – identify what’s going on in your life and any particular challenges or opportunities.
- Gain clarity about what you actually want – for the business, yes, but very much linked to what you value in life as well. The two are connected.
- Identify behavioural patterns that are holding you back – such as procrastination, the way you respond to pressure, the story you tell yourself about what’s possible (your beliefs, which can be limiting).
- Work out your best options – assess what’s realistic in order to achieve your goals.
- Build confidence in your decision-making – so you trust your own judgement, rather than constantly seeking reassurance and putting things off.
- Decide what to do – make a plan and identify the next steps to take.
- Improve how you manage your time and energy – not necessarily doing more, but making sure the things you’re doing are the right things, in a logical order.
Coaching provides a rare opportunity to create dedicated thinking space with someone who can act as a sounding board and help you to develop novel insights into your current situation. You’ll explore what you truly value in life to ensure that your next steps are aligned with those values to achieve fulfilling goals.
The Combination That Sets Caboodle Apart
This is what makes Caboodle distinctive in Salisbury: we offer both accounting and personal coaching under one roof. You work with a team that understands both your business numbers and your dreams and aspirations. A team that is geared to helping you run a financially viable business that contributes to a fulfilling life.
We understand the value of this approach ourselves. At the outset of our business journey, we spent time identifying our core personal and business values, and adopted a coaching mindset that underpins everything we do. We’re all naturally curious, love a good story, and ask a lot of questions!
We also believe that balanced, grounded people make better business owners. When you’re clearer, calmer and more confident, the numbers tend to follow.
Who This Is For
You might be feeling out of kilter, and unsure what to do to resolve the situation, but you certainly don’t need to be in crisis to benefit from coaching. Some of the most valuable conversations happen when things are going reasonably well. Personal coaching can help to distil the essence of an opportunity just as much as a challenge. The coaching process contributes to building a business that is sustainable and underpinned by clearly defined values that provide a decision-making compass.
Our personal coaching work tends to resonate most with business owners who:
- Are doing well on paper but feel like something’s missing
- Have hit a plateau and aren’t sure how to break through it
- Are going through a significant transition – a business change, a life change, or both
- Feel like they’re constantly reacting rather than leading proactively
- Want someone outside the business to act as a sounding board – honestly, without judgement or criticism.
The Caboodle Approach
Caboodle was founded by my business partner, Karen Eyers, and myself, Ian Rowe. The business might still be young, but between us we have over 70 years of experience in accountancy and business (and 115 years in life ….. but who’s counting?)
Karen is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) with more than 30 years of experience helping small businesses get their finances right. I bring to the table over 40 years of experience working in a wide range of organisations across multiple sectors; strategic grounding by way of an MBA; and I trained as a life coach and NLP Practitioner twenty years ago.
Together with our small, dedicated, enthusiastic team, including fellow directors Roz Eyers and Caroline Livesey, we offer something genuinely different. It’s an accounting service that always starts with the question “What’s your story?”. The answer to that question – and plenty more – is the start of a deeper connection with clients that makes doing business more three dimensional and satisfying.
Caboodle is locally based in Laverstock, Salisbury, and works with business owners across Wiltshire and beyond.
If you’d like to find out more about how we work with our clients, our personal coaching offer, or the full range of services we provide, we’d love to hear from you.
If something in this blog resonates with you, please get in touch. No hard sell, just an honest conversation about where you are and whether we can help.