Deciding to jump

Prior to setting up Breathe Business, I was a successful ‘one man band’ coaching practice. I called it ‘jump coaching’ because I knew that clients wanting to further their success would have to ‘jump’ at some point to effect the changes they wanted both in their professional and personal lives.  Being a coach means this: when your clients jump, you must stand shoulder to shoulder with them to make sure that they don’t fall.

Recently, I was invited to an open evening at a new specialist endodontic practice in Richmond. Endocare is owned by Breathe client Michael Sultan, who has created the first corporate endodontic specialist business.

The event was themed ‘A sushi and salsa evening’, and many local practice owners turned up to see the fabulous practice, enjoy the food and amazingly, some of them even danced.

Not being a gifted salsa dancer myself, I found a quiet moment to walk around Michael’s new practice and tick off his list of achievements:

• He’s found a gap in the market and has acted fast (during a recession).
• His new practice is situated in a great high street location.
• His new practice is beautifully and skillfully branded everywhere, from the illuminated signage and welcome packs to the interior colours and uniforms.
• The fit-out, both clinical and non-clinical, is state-of-the-art, leaving no-one in any doubt that the owner is serious about the environment he wishes to provide for patients and his team. It is clearly HTM01/05 and Care Quality Commission compliant.
• He’s recruited three great, young, specialist endodontists who have the clinical and interpersonal skills to look after patients.
• He has recruited an experienced support team who can sell to potential referring dentists and to walk-in patients.
• The PR and marketing are well underway.

So, my client has ‘jumped’, the evidence is all around me. This was a really sobering moment for me as I consider my role in making this happen, and our future role in making sure that Michael succeeds, and quickly. What the practice needs now is patients and turnover. Then Michael (and his potential backers) will be confident his business model works and there can be many more practices like this one and the Endocare brand will grow.

Michael’s vision is to develop a dental business rather than to own a dental practice. The difference is this: a practice only really works when you are there (in terms of making a profit), whereas a business works when you are not there, in all aspects, including making a profit. A practice and a business require the owner to behave in an entrepreneurial way, and my favorite definition of an entrepreneur comes from my coach, Dan Sullivan (of The Strategic Coach): ‘An entrepreneur is someone with more confidence than most and less of the facts.’

At Breathe Business we understand confidence is crucial to our client’s entrepreneurial success, and as a result we prioritise supporting and encouraging this when we work together. Recently, we set up an ‘Entrepreneurs club’ to help some of our clients who are intent on opening more than one practice and building their brands.

Entrepreneurial success is the result of mastering the fundamentals. It’s about approaching the task as a problem to be solved, as a set of skills to be learned and applied. I have the privilege of observing our successful clients and here are the top 10 entrepreneurial skills they demonstrate:   

1. They have a dream, which they have turned into a clear vision for their future. They are not just driven by the need to make money, but also by the need to make their dreams a reality. More often than not, money is a by-product of their motivation rather than the motivation itself.
2. They are clear about their motive. They know what they want and, importantly, why they want it. Success comes from purpose and passion, from having powerful reasons for success.
3. They are relentlessly tenacious. It’s not about starting over or giving up when things get hard. They are rarely distracted, seldom confused and they never give up. It’s often impossible to tell whether they have a dream or the dream has them. They stay the course because it’s important to them.
4. They give themselves prime time to review and reflect on how their project is progressing, and to think about what’s next.
5. They have separated ‘leadership’ from ‘management’ and they have found the right team to do the management.
6. They have great communications with their team.
7. They have not sacrificed their work/life balance to their dream. Success comes to people who are balanced, healthy, and structured. Success is not attracted to scenes of chaos, drama, confusion or impulsivity. 
8. They have great strategies, solid plans, a budget, a schedule and talented partners, coaches and teammates. Success comes to those who know how. 
9. They have spent a lot of time planning and developing their blueprint or business model. They know what differentiates their business from all the others. Eager, impulsive failures tend to launch before they are ready. Winners focus on their plan. They know how their plan is going to work, and they work their plan.
10. They have chosen a successful attitude. They use specific skills, behaviours and attitudes to help their businesses grow and develop. 

Nobody, least of all me, is pretending that any of this is easy. However, I believe the chances are high that if you do what successful people have done, you will get the results successful people have achieved.

Contact Breathe Business by calling 0845 299 7209 or email ernie@nowbreathe.co.uk