Podcast Guest is Business Coach and Author, Warren Coughlin from Toronto. Warren is a dad and business coach to entrepreneurs since 2002.

Warren believes “deeply in the core of my being that entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful forces for positive social change.”

The first part of the discussion centers around business coaching and operational strategy:

Business coaching is not the same as life coaching for business folks.

Business coaching is about integrating the organization: All the specific business skills, mindsets, the systems, even the tools to help the owner reach his or her goals.

Business Coaching involves some training and consulting as well as that kind of goal setting envisioning and that kind of thing. Business coaching isn't pure coaching, it's a combination of coaching, training and consulting on the strategy piece.

Entrepreneurs face many challenges:

Don’t confuse symptoms with the problems.

Utilize tools (like this one created by Warren Coughlin) to help with strategic planning. In this case, the tool automates the entire front end of the strategic planning process. 

Once you’ve identified issues, make sure to build out an actionable plan, perhaps monthly, perhaps quarterly. But set real goals and make real changes.

As an entrepreneur, don’t play whack-a-mole.

Consider the impact you could have on your business if you made two significant improvements per quarter.

Business is like poker, particularly when considering long term strategy:

Make sure you don’t dwell on short-term thinking. Focus on strategic long-term thinking.

Business is similar to poker. Business is a game of skill, but there is much uncertainty and an array of probabilities.

In both business and poker, the professionals will when the game, even if they don’t win the hand. This is due to strategic thinking.

Are you focusing on winning the hand or the game? Long term thinking will focus your attention on the game. Consider your business a game. Why are you in this game? What game are you playing? What do you want out of the game?

If you don’t focus on strategic planning, your business will face danger.  Don’t overlook the risks. There will be another pandemic, economic crisis, weather crisis. A downturn is always around the corner.

If you're only focused on the short term, you're not going to build for the eventual downturn.

And that's just because, so when you, you know, when you say stories like that, hopefully help people go, Oh, maybe I shouldn't just be thinking about the next two or three months. I need to be thinking. Long-Term.

It's okay to spend some time on short-term thinking, but your focus should be on strategic long-term thinking.

Make sure your decisions are based off of planning rather than off of fear:

In the face of an uncertain environment, don’t tortoise. Instead, plan.

Don't spend all of our time on short-term results. Make sure to look at the bigger picture.

In the face of uncertainty or fear, there is a natural human instinct to go into a protective mode – go into your shell.

Focus on the underlying needs of your clients. Even if there is a disruption that changes the way you deliver your service or product, the underlying needs of your clients still exist.

Consider pivoting, morphing, adding or modifying your business, your career, your life:

Pivot general means, “I’m here and now I’m going there,” which is something totally different. A pivot is a fundamental change for a business.

Most businesses don’t necessarily need a "fundamental change."

Impact your culture in other ways that can lead to change, morphing, adding.