HOW RUNNING A BUSINESS IS LIKE COACHING A FOOTBALL

Did you know that football coaches and startup business owners have a lot in common. They are both professions that require leadership, dedication, commitment and a strong work ethic in order to succeed. Just like football coaches, as a small business owner, you must take on many roles to ensure everybody is working together as a team to achieve important goals and operations run smoothly. Here are a few other ways football coaches and small business owners play a similar game:

Pre-Game

To prepare for a football game, coaches research opponents, develop game plans and determine the best lineup of players who will help the team win. When starting a small business, entrepreneurs?conduct market research?to understand the competition and the key economic conditions and indicators. Entrepreneurs also?build a business plan, which sets the strategic framework for the organization and maps out the path forward. In addition, small business owners find top talent who will help them execute the plan and beat the competition.

During The Game

Over the course of a game, head coaches make adjustments regularly, shifting tactics to put their team in a position to score and win. They consult with assistant coaches to get advice on what plays they should run. Entrepreneurs also make strategic moves to adjust to constantly changing market forces and customer demands. You can get guidance on how to set themselves for success by consulting with experts, or mentors.

Halftime

Coaches typically deliver inspiring halftime speeches that motivate players to give their all and function as a team.?You?motivate your employees by providing benefit programs and encouraging their career growth through training that will help strengthen their skills. Business owners/leaders also foster teamwork by clearly communicating the importance of each employee’s role in reaching a shared objective.

Post-Game

Following a game, coaches review footage to analyze which plays and strategies did or did not work and what improvements the team can make to defeat the next opponent. At the end of each day or period of performance, entrepreneurs crunch numbers to determine how well the business performed and identify ways to boost profits, cut costs and improve customer service.

In coaching, the job doesn’t end just after one game or one season. The same can be said for entrepreneurs who work hard every day to pursue their dream of starting, managing and growing a small business.

The majority of people, probably spend their weekends glued to the TV watching their favourite football team and frantically checking their lineup. There are actually a lot of similarities between a football team and running a business.?So, the next time you cheer on your team, see if you can notice one of the following lessons that can help you run your business owner.

Vision Will Guide You to Success

There’s one main goal for professional footballers, that’s to reach the finals or lift a trophy. To be victorious, football teams must have a vision that includes having a game plan and?the right personnel?to take the team to a championship. A business, much like a football team, must have a vision that will guide them to success. This means having a business plan, a marketing strategy, and the right team members to implement the goals, plans, and strategies that you have established for your business.

Who Will Lead Your Team on the Field?

When you think about the top football teams, you probably can notice that there’s a common thread among the elite – they have leadership. The teams have captains who are also effective leaders who can lead their teams down the field through talent, passion, and composure.

Businesses also need effective leaders to organize, execute, and inspire others around them for the best interest of the business. They also have to maintain their composure, be able to adapt to changes, and have the confidence in their skills, along with the talent of other team members, to lead the team to victory.

Resiliency

Football teams have to be resilient. They’re going to lose a star wide receiver or running back for the season. The difference between the elite teams is that they have the resiliency to keep playing until the final seconds of the game clock hit zero. If you’re running a business, you’re going to have setbacks. Instead of staying down on the ground, pick yourself up, and get ready for the next play.

Strong Work Ethic

Football players must train year-round, not just during the season. Having that type of dedication, passion, and willpower is how the players and coaches reached this level of success.

Business owners also need to have that strong work ethic in order to deliver the best product or service available, as well as achieve top-notch customer service and the ability to best the competition, to be successful. It’s not luck and it’s not about the money. It’s determination and passion that drives you to spend countless hours in your business doing tasks like conducting research, measuring results, and listening to customers. Without that work ethic your business, just like a football, won’t be able to stand toe-to-toe with the competition.

You Won’t Win Them All

People that are running a business have learned that they’re going to fail at some point.?It’s even happened to the best entrepreneurs. Football teams are also aware of this fact. While teams don’t have the intention to lose on a Sunday afternoon, it’s going to happen. To prevent this from happening again, the team takes a look back at what worked and what went wrong so that they can be victorious the following week.

Business owners must also have this mentality. For example, if a marketing campaign fails, the business owner needs to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign so that they went make the same mistakes going forward. They should also realize that just because the campaign was a failure doesn’t mean that their entire business is doomed. It was just a bad play call. Now they have to make adjustments to get back into the game to win.

Remember, as Coach Lombardi has said, “If you can accept losing, you can’t win.”

Source:

Paul Lester, SBA

Peter Daisyme is the co-founder of Palo Alto, California-based Hostt