Robert Hargrove

Add Power and Velocity to Launching a New Business or Making a Breakthrough

One of the areas we will be breaking ground in this year at Masterful Coaching is a new program for entrepreneurs called Mastering Entrepreneurship. This one-year coaching program is designed for entrepreneurs who are in the start up phase, or small business owners who wake up every day staring at a wall and want to break through.

In the program, I will meet with a small group of budding CEOs (five people), four times a year, backed up with individual monthly coaching calls and a monthly group lunch for team learning. In conjunction with this new program, Vivian Song, President of Masterful Coaching Global, will be heading up a new chapter of the Boston Entrepreneurs Club, in part to launch this new venture, which is based on a whole new concept.

Why is coaching entrepreneurs relevant today? For one thing, entrepreneurship is a great way to create jobs in a sputtering economy. It also is a critical aspect of the trend towards globalization with $3 billion new capitalists. Interestingly enough, Congress is even considering passing a Start Up Visa Act to help foreign entrepreneurs with hot ideas and $250k to invest to come to America and go straight to Silicon Valley. The proposed act is being backed by Republicans, Democrats, and 126 venture capital firms. This is a great expression of globalization, and we want to be a part of it.

Beyond that, one of the main reasons we are starting this program is that the rate of “necessity entrepreneurship” (people starting businesses because other income opportunities are gone) increased to 24.7% of new U.S. ventures in 2009, up from 16.3% in 2007. For some of these entrepreneurs, getting laid off has presented them the opportunity to pursue business ideas they have long had, but didn’t try because they were getting a paycheck. These newly minted CEOs not only need help in launching their new business ventures, but need to generate a cash flow before their money runs out.

In our view, the MC Entrepreneurship Coaching Program will add tremendous power and velocity to the process of launching a new business, much more so than your typical three-day program, in part because instead of just focusing on teaching theory, we actually roll up our sleeves and work hand-in-hand with people over the course of the year to get their business off the ground.

Today, over 2000 B-schools teach classes in entrepreneurship, taking all comers: corporate refugees, striving immigrants, bored housewives, social workers, musicians. While there are a lot of people studying entrepreneurship, a new study by the Kaufman Foundation indicates that most of the B-schools haven’t figured out how to teach it. As evidence of this, less than 2% of the graduates of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business Entrepreneur program actually start their own business. The same pattern follows with other schools.

In thinking about the Masterful Coaching Entrepreneurship program, we asked ourselves: “What’s missing from this picture?” First of all, most B-schools and adult-ed programs tend to focus on coming up with a great business idea. While this is obviously important, the Masterful Coaching program will focus on follow through. We believe that coaching people in the process is the fastest, most powerful way for people to start their own business or achieving a business breakthrough.

It’s been my experience in working with hundreds of entrepreneurs that the acid test of whether a new venture is going to fly or not is not how great the business plan is (although this is important), but whether people get out of their chairs and take immediate action. The role of the coach is to create a climate of accountability and breakthrough that gets people into action that results in a rallying momentum.

If you or someone you know would like more info about the Entrepreneurs Club or who would like to participate in the Mastering Entrepreneurship Coaching Program, please contact Vivian Song at Vivian.Song@MasterfulCoachingGlobal.com.