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talks to... Colin
How are you set for 2024 and beyond - and do you think you could do better with a bit of outside help from a professional business coach? I talked with ‘The Online print Coach’ on providing such a service to those running print operations in the large- format digital inkjet sector.
Sinclair McDermott
Colin, your background is in print but last year you trained with The Business Coaching Academy to become a fully certified corporate coach. The fact that you are out doing what you do proves there is a call for such services in this sector, but have you identified any kind of pattern as yet in relation to those asking for help? I think every business should work with a coach regardless of their size. I personally have coached sole traders right through to businesses with 100+ staff turning-over in excess of £10m. The main motive for me entering the world of coaching was recognising that I could help others through my own positive and negative experiences as a print business owner. I’ve worked with around 150 businesses over the past few years. Some work with me as regularly as two or three times each month for ongoing strategy and accountability, others just bring me in to support them with ad hoc projects such as conflict resolution or change management. From the feedback I receive, people like working with me because I’ve owned a print business. I’ve experienced success and failure as a business owner and having someone that can relate to their day-to-day challenges goes a long way.
In your experience, is it ‘good’ or ‘poor’ management teams that gain the most from employing a business coach? From my experience, all kinds of management teams can benefit. For example, let’s look at a team that might be struggling with progress. I can come in and help turn things around. Because I work with a vast number of businesses in the industry, I can offer quick insight into what is working and what is not for others. I can make suggestions for new tools to use, different strategies that deliver better results. On the flip side, even successful management teams can benefit from working with a coach if they are willing to push their boundaries even further and be open to trying other innovative ways to enter new markets and scale their business. My role as a coach is to challenge my clients to think more creatively outside of the box and explore avenues they might not have otherwise considered.
20 | December 2023 / January 2024
When do you think business coaching is most - and least - successful? I often joke that the best time for a business to start with a coach was yesterday. The second best time is now. As I’ve already mentioned, I feel all businesses can benefit. The issue is, there’s a misconception that I’m going to come in and do all the work for them. I can often be seen as a last resort for some people and in many cases I can quickly identify some immediate scenarios to help them turn a corner. The earlier a coach can get involved though the better.
Coaching only works when the people being coached are open to fresh thinking, are willing to adapt to change and prepared to put the work in themselves. Where I fit in is by challenging them, helping provide strategy and structure and guiding them to their desired end goal through accountability.
What type of coaching best suits what kind of scenario? There are times where the role can switch between coaching and mentoring depending on the client objectives. The mentoring hat typically gets put on when I can utilise my own experiences of being a print business owner to help the client. I’ll give a couple of scenarios. I am working with a business in the start-up phase at the moment. The business owner is still in part-time employment elsewhere whilst trying to get the company to a point where they can leave employment and go all in. They have a very niche market and have displayed fairly rapid growth so far. My role here is to help the owner build the foundations of a strong business and implement the right systems and processes to continue that growth and give them the confidence to make that next leap. In another scenario, I’m working with a business owner with multiple manufacturing sites who wants to build a network of franchises, something I have experience in myself. The business is well-established but needs some improvements operationally before we can consider rolling out any further locations. My role in this situation is to coach the owner to make the appropriate and necessary changes and strengthen the company’s proposition.
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