You know, there’s all sorts of stuff you need in order to succeed as a business coach.

You need knowledge of new developments that can support your clients; you need the skills to build your own practice; you need to have a vision and direction to what you do; you need the right platforms to promote yourself be that a website or social media profiles; you need the ability and confidence to sit down with a client and help them unpick their business; you need…in fact, I won’t go on because it would just take too long!

But all that is useless without action!

I mean real, sustained action that gets results.

It’s one thing to set up your Facebook page and look at it with pride – it’s another to consistently reach out to your market place and offer quality content that engages people.  It’s one thing to learn a new skill such as how to run a webinar, it’s another to set up a series of webinars and go hell-for-leather to market them.

In fact, speaking of webinars; a while ago I taught around twelve people a step-by-step process to launch a simple product using a webinar and nine of them committed to following it in the next month.  To my knowledge, four months later, only two of the nine did it.

Why?  What’s that missing ingredient that leads to inaction as opposed to being in action?

Fear? Lack of motivation? Confusion? lack of readiness? Time?

Whatever it was the fact is that nothing changes in the outside world without action.

So the question is: Are you taking enough of it?  And of the right sort?

Just for a moment, stop and honestly reflect on how you would assess the level of action you’re taking and the results you’re getting?  Does it feel good?  Great!

Or does it feel like you’re not doing what you really need to?

If that’s the case, I want you to figure out what’s stopping you.

Ask yourself these four questions:

1. What am I afraid might happen if I take this action?
2. What am I uncertain of about this action?
3. Where is the lack of motivation around this action?
4. When is the right time for this action (and yes, it’s possible to have better and worse times to act.  Just think about stepping out of a car!)

Go ahead and ask yourself.  And let me know your thoughts below.

As a business coach you’re also a business owner.  And this post applies to you in both capacities.  With the work you do with your clients and the work you do for yourself to grow your business.

You see, I believe there are two fundamental qualities you need to survive in business.  Notice I say qualities not skills.

They can’t be learned but they CAN be developed.

Without these skills, you’ll not survive in business. Period.

For me the two most important qualities are tenacity and flexibility.

Tenacity because business is a long haul over lumps and bumps that bruise you and knock you.  It’s made up of peaks and troughs that inflate and deflate in equal measure.  You really have to be tenacious, determined, persistent and dedicated to keep going when times are tough.  You have to be tenacious to rise through the mud, blood and guts that building a business can put you through.

I have no facts to back this up, this is a gut feel – but from my experience, many business owners don’t so much fail as give up.  The owner, sole-trader, entrepreneur just gives up before he or she makes it over the crest.  They lacked tenacity.

And flexibility because you have to know when to change, when to grab a new opportunity and run with it.  Tenacity without flexibility is just stubbornness, foolish hope without the adaptability to change with the circumstances.  A limpet tenaciously sticking to a sinking ship is still going down!

Put together though and they offer the most powerful combination you can have as a business owner and a business coach.

So when you’re facing a tough time or when you’re helping your coaching client, the questions are how tenacious will you be and how can you adapt to the changing conditions.

Now maybe this is just my model of the world after 12 years of ups and downs in running a business.  But let’s face it, we can only ever reflect our own model.  Maybe you see it differently.  I’d love to hear what you think the two top qualities are.  What do you think?

To discover how you can become a small business coach at the Smart School.