We Push Entrepreneurs
to their next level
Being an entrepreneur is an everyday challenge, but Impactified is on a mission to make your entrepreneurial life more Impactful. Maybe your business needs a boost, maybe you need to scale-up, or maybe you need new orientation. Better teams, new business models, or even more time for you!
In each and every case, a business coach can help you get to your next step – or you can decide to coach yourself to move forward!
We Make entrepreneurs solve real problems and grow.
What's in it for you?
Get Challenged
The greatest entrepreneurs never build anything on their own. They get challenged to go further, so why shouldn't you?
Think Differently
Need to (re)think your business model and revise your value proposition to make a greater impact? We can help!
Regain Control
Want help with time management, decision-making, process development, and team management? Search no more!
At Impactified, we believe that the benefit of business coaching lies in being challenged week after week, because moving forward is the best way to make that Impact we all want. And you, what Impact do you have?
Antoine Martin, Co-Founder
Every day thousands of entrepreneurs fight to make the most of their time, money and energy. But are their efforts Impactful enough?
Being in a dynamic place is important when it comes to doing business, but sometimes “too dynamic” pushes you in the wrong direction. When rents are high and time becomes a luxury, entrepreneurs focus their attention on the urgent, because the urgent is what pays the bills.
Except that in reality, the urgent is usually what makes you drawn.
Running a business is a challenge: it’s a long-term race which require resistance, preparation, and a strong ability to look ahead, all the time. But how can you take the time to focus on the long-term when what matters is today more than tomorrow?
A typical entrepreneur's profile
looks like this
In our experience, most entrepreneurs face the same difficulties. Beyond their expertise, they need to organize themselves, build strategies, and implement them. Beyond these necessities, what they want is someone they can talk to in private. Someone to challenge them and help them think differently, because making decisions on their own is difficult. And that’s where we step in.
Being an Entrepreneur is a Builder’s Job.
Being business advisers is a privileged life. We gain access to the most amazing entrepreneurial stories, we meet fascinating and ambitious people, and we get to challenge their ideas, decisions and move for a living.
Beyond the thrill of helping and being useful, however, we see day after day than entrepreneurs are builders who need to be equipped with proper tools and methods in order to strive and excel at what they do.
Yet, more often than not, entrepreneurs have no access to such tools. Large cities have business schools and entrepreneurs can join MBA programs, but is running a business a matter of holding an MBA? Not really.
Some management skills and methods can be learned in books, but here in the field what makes a difference is your ability to be ready (for starters) and to be strategic.
Except that with your routine, business strategy is easier said than done. So what is the solution?
Being an Entrepreneur is also a Marathon.
The solution is first of all to realize (and act on the fact) that being an entrepreneur, especially these days, is an absolute marathon, and that trying to win on your own makes no sense whatsoever. Think about it…
Would you run a marathon without preparation? No.
Do you have any idea where to start? Hm.
Would you feel confident preparing on your own? Hm.
Would you consider hiring a sports coach to get ready? Ahah…
The good news is, business is like sports. There are things you can do on your own, but when the time comes to do more seriously, getting help is necessary because it is the only way to get to the next stage.
As it turns out, when it comes to helping entrepreneurs with Impactful business coaching, we rock.
Entrepreneurs Need a boost.
Business Coaching makes THE difference
Curious to find out more?
what our clients have to say
Let us be straightforward here: we rock because we know you, and your business is our business.
Whether you sell products on Amazon, create new technologies, build a family office, run an architecture firm or a law firm does not matter. As an entrepreneur, your ability to think differently is your most important strength. And our job is to make you think just like that.
Having recourse to business coaching is a matter of thinking differently, which in turn is a matter of being smarter. The point is not to do more. And the point is certainly not to do better and faster than today’s crazy rhythms and paces.
No. The point is to start thinking like the entrepreneur you are supposed to be.
As an entrepreneur, your job is not to manage the daily fires, and it is certainly not to get stuck in a routine that gets you nowhere but in a trap. The word sounds strong?
Well, it’s a matter of perspective. Where are you heading as an entrepreneur if you don’t think ahead now? Into a wall? Yes, and that’s what we call a trap.
This trap is a trap many entrepreneurs fall into, however, and it’s easy to understand why!
Routines take over, daily emergencies take over. The urgent takes over. And the time that you can allocate to strategic thinking – let alone money – shrinks, and shrinks, and shrinks irresistibly.
Said differently? Entrepreneurs need help, and business coaching can help in ways you don’t even imagine.
Why Would Business Coaching Make a difference?
Let Us Explain.
Simply put, what makes the difference between a business that survives and a business that moves on is an entrepreneur’s ability to focus, think forward, plan and follow-up on execution. And business coaching sessions are precisely about helping you to do that.
Yes, building a business is easy and cheap, all it takes is a good idea, really. Yet, when cash runs out and competition hits you hard, your only way to survive is to think beyond survival.
You need to think critically. You need to question the way you run your operations. You need to wonder whether you have the right processes into place. You need to make sure that your business model is the right one, and you need to make sure that your value proposition really creates value. By the way, can you name precisely your value proposition, right now?
So, given this background, the big idea here is that hiring a business coach is the best way to equip yourself with an opportunity to prepare what needs to be prepared, and to question what needs to be questioned. Starting with yourself, obviously.
Business Coaching, Business Planning.
Running a business without a proper business strategy is probably the most common source of inefficiency out there. Many entrepreneurs have no vision, because having a vision doesn’t get cash in. They don’t have time to allocate to long-term thinking either, because there are more urgent things to do. And there is no time for business model questioning, of course, because what matters is tomorrow and, after all, keeping your nose on the grindstone is the norm.
Except that sooner or later, the long-term and non-urgent part of the big picture will catch up. And the later, the more difficult to manage.
But there is an alternative.
Need a hint? Something related to keeping your head up, to looking forward and focusing on the big picture, to building a vision people want to turn into reality. Things like having recourse to business coaching can really help with. And things we’re good at.
On a daily basis, we help entrepreneurs with an international reach to control fires by putting the right processes into place and we use business coaching, leadership coaching and design thinking methods to help them think strategically. We push them to review and revise their business models, and we push them to think about their next smart moves.
Then, implementing.
Having a plan makes it easier when it comes to putting things into place, week after week, quarter after quarter, year after year.
Like it or not, but without a direction and without goals to achieve, your business can’t rely on any roadmap, and without a roadmap, well…
The good news is, business coaching will help you with building AND implementing your strategy – provided that you dare doing what needs to be done, of course.
Monitoring.
Unless you are looking for a quick fix, business coaching sessions should also be an opportunity to monitor your results.
Working harder is not the point! You should aim to work smarter, make your efforts and your allocation of resources more Impactful.
Because we work with our clients on the long-term, our business coaches will not push you to implement short-sighted solutions which make no sense. By pushing you to set goals and by helping you to implement sensible action plans, every Impactified business coach will help you monitor progress over time, so you can think critically and revise your trajectory if needed.
Ultimately, business coaching will help you work ON your business rather than into it.
Have you ever considered the idea that you should be working ON your business rather than INTO it? By giving entrepreneurs a chance to look ahead on a regular basis, your business coach will push you to realize than working ON your business – developing strategies, implementing them and monitoring them – is far more efficient than merely working INTO your business.
Your job as an entrepreneur is not to do fire control on a routine basis. It is to set directions and to guide the company towards its destination.
And our job is to help you do just that.
Business Coaching by Impactified
So, will you turn your business into a new entrepreneurial experience
Running a business and being an entrepreneur are two, very different things. One is about running, the other is about mastering. Business coaching can help you do just that. All it takes is a decision to try!
Thinking about trying business coaching?
5 Questions To Ask Yourself When Hiring a Business Coach
If your business needs a push, chances are that we can provide some assistance. Some questions are worth exploring, however, as our clients usually come from two horizons: some need to scale up a business which works, others need to fix a problem – because something is wrong and their business is on life support.
So, before hiring a business coach, here is a series of questions you should ask yourself.
#1: How do you and your business get along?
The question is often difficult to answer, but how do you and your business work along? If you are (still) reading this page, it probably means that some parts of your relationship with your business are not optimal. So, here is a couple of questions to get you in the right direction.
Does your business have the right 80/20 balance? Pareto developed this law: 80% of your results should flow from 20% of your time and efforts. So how is that working for you? Are you happy with your effort/income ratio – really happy, we mean?
Can your business work without you for a couple of months? This question is key, because it helps you figure out whether the right persons are in the right seats, and whether the right processes have been put into place to help those persons.
Is your business a burden more than a source of satisfaction? There is no point in being an entrepreneur if your job does not constitute a source of personal satisfaction, Yet, running and pushing a business is easier said than done hence knowing why you do what you do is key.
Do you happen to feel lonely despite being so busy? Many entrepreneurs don’t get along very well with their business (especially as time passes) because making decisions with yourself is a nasty challenge. Entrepreneurs need mirroring, feedback and challenging – and the good news is that your Impactified business coach will be able to provide all that.
Overall? Business coaching will help with those questions. Finding the right balance makes part of our job, and so is helping entrepreneurs to better organize their business.
#2: Does your business need scaling-up?
If your business needs scaling up, business coaching can provide a range of tools and questions to help you get to the next step. Your next step, actually.
Is your positioning robust enough? Does your business have a differentiating factor and a strong value proposition? Does your business have the right processes in place to help you scale up?
If your business is rather on the difficult side of the slope, your Impactified business coach – and our business coaching framework – will get you back to the basics.
From vision and mission to value proposition definition and strategic planning, we can help you build a roadmap while testing and, ultimately, pivoting your business.
#3: Are you ready to let someone challenge you?
It goes without saying, but the core aspect of business coaching is that your business coach is there to challenge you. We ask questions, we push you with ideas you didn’t think about, or with ideas you might have discarded. We invite you to review your operations as well as your business model, and we make you work on your personal organization because that point is always problematic.
Because fire control is often part of your routine, we also push you to make sure that you stay on schedule, and we help you with implementing and monitoring your progress, week after week, and quarter after quarter.
Your business coach becomes your ally, if you prefer. All it takes is a willingness to dare.
#4: Can you see your business coach as a private Number 2?
This point relates to the previous one. Business coaching is like hiring a private Number 2 for your company, whose job is not to run the organization but to work exclusively with you to challenge you and support your decision-making process week after week.
In such a case, the business coach’s mission is not to replace the Number 2 who is already in place to run teams and operations but to make sure that you have all the support you need to make decisions you are happy to live with. Big dilemmas may be solved in a matter of minutes when a trusted third party is involved, but you have to dare first.
The point of business coaching is to feel encouraged and supported, but beware of the type of expert you pick. Someone with a “life coach” etiquette is likely to be great for lifestyle improvement, but when it comes to business model and business operations, you might want to focus on us!
#5: When do you start?
The question of “when” is our favorite, because without a “when” every intention we have remains wishful thinking. The point is not whether you need help with your business, it is “when” you plan on getting going.
When do you decide to do something about improving your situation, for starters? And when do you plan on acting to make a difference?
When you figure that out, drop us an email but beware, those who delay the decision-making moment rarely do anything. Just saying!
Still Thinking about trying business coaching?
3 Key Ideas on How Your Business Coaching Actually Works
If you are looking for business coaching, it seems relevant to take a look at how an Impactified business coach actually works.
In the main, our role is to accompany you during your entrepreneurial journey, whether that’s a matter of helping you to plan what comes next, of organizing your business, of helping you reshuffle your business model, or a matter of playing mirrors with you.
Idea #1: the Impactified business coaching method will help you plan what comes next
The first role of your Impactified business coach is always to help you plan what comes next. It may sound irrelevant, but running a business without knowing where you go and what you are trying to achieve makes no sense.
Think in terms of GPS here: would you step in your car and go random, without a destination in mind? No, and that’s the same for a business. In theory at least, because in reality many entrepreneurs just take things as they come and never take the time to plan and build.
Now of course, you can keep running a business without a goal, but chances are that not much will happen apart from routines and a bad allocation of resources focused on emergency management.
Business coaching will help you with setting goals that make sense, but he will also help you with putting an action plan into place and with implementing it over time.
Idea #2: Business coaching will help you organize your business
It flows from the previous point that in addition to helping you set and implement your goals, business coaching will help you organize your business.
In our experience as business advisers, many entrepreneurs have a hard time with organization. Typically, things get done because they are urgent and that level of emergency leads to mistakes and poor follow up.
Quality control tends to be a problem because no adequate processes are in place. Teams don’t work efficiently because processes and responsibilities are not set. You get the picture.
So, part of our job as your business coach relates to making your business organization more efficient and we often do that by helping you to look at your methods and processes with a critical eye.
Note, also, that working on organization often helps our entrepreneurs to save several hours of work each week, which can then be used for better work or for some well deserved time off…
Idea #3: Business coaching will help you reshuffle your business model
In many cases, entrepreneurs also need to rethink their business model, but that exercise is complex and going through it alone is often mission impossible. Hence business coaching gives you an opportunity to re-think your action plans critically.
As a business strategy expert, your Impactified business coach will help you reshuffle your business model so that your can set your business in a better direction. We use various tools to do that, from positioning to pricing or DFV analysis and, of course, vision clarification and value proposition formulation.
Business models are at the core of what entrepreneurs do, but they often get relegated as being not that important because the urgent stuff is what pays the bills. This is wrong, however, and you will benefit from rethinking yours every once in a while!
Idea #4: Your Impactified business coach will mirror your thoughts to get you to move on
Last but not least, business coaching will provide you with repeated discussions to help you see through your business issues. The point is never to tell you what you do but to help you see things differently, so that you feel more comfortable with making decisions you struggle with.
Discussions can relate to business model evolution and pricing, but they also deal with process development, time management, employee management and hiring policy development.
Confidentiality is at the core of what we do, obviously, which means that our clients routinely have very deep conversations with us. And that makes a big difference in their routine.
Being an entrepreneur is often a lonely journey, but you don’t have to be alone. All it takes is an email!
Still Thinking about trying business coaching?
Business Coaching Tips: 30 Reasons Why Working with a Coach Makes You More Impactful
Let us speculate for a minute. You work. A lot. And things tend to get out of control rather rapidly. Files pile up on your desk, your to-do list keeps expanding so much that it kinda controls your life, one way or another.
Of course, the simple idea of going to work is probably starting to become painful because, well, running after tasks and spending your time extinguishing fires is not fun. And exhausting. And exasperating. Right?
Who knows, some tiny voices in your head perhaps whisper that you should think about finding yourself another job, because the money you make is not worth the effort and energy you put into things? The problem, though, is that you don’t actually have time to look for another job. Maybe you are a business owner, actually, in which case whatever you do is much more than a job you can change overnight.
So, what do you do next?
In our experience as business coaching experts, this type of situation is more than common. In fact, if you somehow recognized yourself in the above descriptions, chances are that you are like most people out there.
If that’s the case, the best solution you have is probably to start doing things differently. Simply put? Well, instead of spending your life working FOR your business and INTO your business, think about working ON your business and make it work for you.
In this business coaching tips article , we explore this “ON” mindset. When most people do everything they can to work as hard as possible, we give you tips on how to work smarter. Because nothing else makes sense, if you think about it.
Seems relevant to you? Are you good to go? Perfect. Keep reading.
Business Coaching Tip #1: Work ON your business to stop thinking short-term
Fact: working ON your business is the best way to stop thinking short-term, but putting a mew working method in place usually proves tricky. Freeing a couple of hours every week and using them to start thinking ahead is the best way, if you ask our opinion.
Look back, figure out what works and what doesn’t. And think strategically. What needs to be done to get to the next stage? Why? How? When? Thinking forward is key, all it takes is a decision to start, really…
Business Coaching Tip #2: Work ON your business to realize that urgent and important are not the same …
A major benefit of the “ON your business” approach is that it gives you an opportunity to reflect on what is important and what is not. The point is more serious than it seems: urgent and important are two dramatically different concepts!
Now. We know. Whatever is urgent tends to become important, so trying to differentiate both concepts is illusory. We hear that a lot, yet the reality is different and things don’t work this way.
First, most urgent things are urgent because someone else exercises a form of pressure on you. Said differently, the urgent thing on your plate might not be urgent nor important to you.
Second, the urgent is all over the place but the important is often difficult to spot. For instance? Well, long-term strategy is intangible and difficult to apprehend so it is rarely seen as urgent – let alone important – but it is super important if you want your business to move on.
Think about it, how often do you take time to work on ways to turn your business from brick and mortar to digital? When was the last time you worked on planning your future cashflow instead of just looking at the past one? When did you last think about the problem you solve and about the vision behind whatever you do? What Impact are you trying to make exactly?
Business Coaching Tip #3: Work ON your business to stop playing firefighter
This point won’t be a surprise considering what we wrote previously, but in our business coaching experience working ON your business is the best way to stop spending your time on fire control. Why? Because fire control is a matter of compensating for organizational deficiencies, and it turns out that taking some time to see the big picture helps with reviewing how things work. Really.
Working ON your business will give you time to set goals and priorities (more on this in a minute), but it will also give you a chance to think in terms of process development. Which is precisely what you typically miss when your energy is spent on managing the urgent stuff. Right?
Business Coaching Tip #4: Work ON your business to get some time to reflect on how things have been working so far
Often, working ON your business gives you an opportunity to reflect on yourself – and that normally makes a big difference. As an entrepreneur, as an executive, and even as a regular staffer, looking for the big picture in everything you do creates a unique opportunity to look back and consider how have been working so far. For the business. But also for you.
Business coaching gives you an opportunity to think about what has worked well, but use the opportunity to also put your finger on those things that typically don’t work that well.
What is missing?
What can be improved?
What should be stopped once and for all?
Think about it.
And act.
Business Coaching Tip #5: Get a chance to reflect on what the priorities are
The priorities point is very relevant, because having no priorities means that all you can do is struggle and cope with the flow. But where to start? Again, business coaching and a few hours with an Impactified business coach can make a big difference.
To set priorities, the best option is to think in terms of annual and quarterly goals. Clarify what you are trying to achieve by the end of the year, formalize it in words, then convert that into quarterly goals and the big picture is there. End of the year goals are like smelling the air, whereas quarterly objectives are a matter of short-term implementation and action.
The next step is to think in terms of actions and to determine what needs to be done strategically speaking, over the next months. The exercise is interesting, overall, because it gives you a way to refocus your attention on what really matters. It’s as simple as that. Give it a try and see for yourself!
Want to find out about our 25 other business coaching tips? Read our full article “30 Reasons Why Working ON Your Business Makes You More Impactful”