One year on...

This time last year, I was considering engaging personal and professional guidance and coaching in order to help develop Harbour House Associates. The concerns that I had were;

• firstly, the cost that such a service would be;
• secondly, making sure that whoever was appointed fully understood the business, the marketplace in which Harbour House Associates operates and could also easily empathise with me personally; and
• thirdly, the overall value that such coaching could actually deliver to the business.

 The first concern was quickly addressed through accessing the Growth Accelerator programme, which delivers grant assisted financing to businesses in order to allow growth through activities such as business and management coaching. This allowed me to access a wide pool of business coaches registered with the Growth Accelerator programme.

 The second issue was solved very quickly upon a chance meeting with David Cliff of Gedanken. Talking through my business aspirations and hurdles with David, as well as my prior experiences of coaching and counselling, I immediately felt that a great rapport existed between David and I. David's background, professionalism, qualifications, empathy and understanding demonstrated how he could very quickly get under the skin of many types of business and business manager, applying a wide range of techniques and styles to maximise results.

David explained the overall value that Gedanken's approach to business coaching could deliver, in a format and at a pace that I was immediately familiar and comfortable with. David's track record with a number of companies and individuals that I knew personally helped reassure me about the value of coaching delivered. When I found out that Gedanken were registered providers in the Growth Accelerator programme, the final piece of the jigsaw fell into place and the decision was made to engage with Gedanken through the grant support of Growth Accelerator.

David very quickly helped me identify how my business activities could be re-focussed and made more engaging, relevant and understandable to the marketplace. The early driver was to make the business areas in which Harbour House Associates operates 'sexy' and approachable; quite a challenge, given that the traditional view of business compliance, health and safety, regulatory controls and risk aversion was as dry as sticks and caused people to disengage very quickly with the topic. The end result was a total re-centring of the Harbour House Associates message, to deliver business compliance advice and allowing all types of organisation to be "fit, competent and business ready".

Identifying new market opportunities was the next thing, and David's network of business contacts and experience in showcasing niche business offerings to wide audiences under a new light has proven really beneficial.   To this end, Harbour House Associates is now accessing third sector organisations (charities, social enterprises), the leisure sector and food/catering markets (amongst others) which previously were not previously interested in the Harbour House Associates delivery.

Another advantage that I advocate strongly, through engaging with a professional business coach and mentor, is the opportunity to bounce ideas around and mull over issues. This is especially valued because I own and operate Harbour House Associates on my own. Once my mind was made up to engage with David, I looked on him as my part-time Business Development Manager. Effectively, David became an extra resource within the company to help strengthen and grow the business to a new level.

The coaching sessions with Gedanken have given me an opportunity to step outside of the day to day running of the business to reflect, take stock, review and analyse my own characteristics and identify how to use these to the best advantage.  The help David has given me over the last 12 months has really helped open up new avenues of business, and to channel the strongest aspects of my personality and business style into a clear, distinct and unique message. Without this support, I thinks that I'd still be flailing around trying different ways to develop Harbour House Associates. Now, after one year working with David, the business has accessed new markets and clients, has identified objectives to achieve over the coming year and I have learned about my own business management style, strengths and weaknesses that I was not previously aware of.