Is a coach or mentor essential to success?
Richard Emmons 
Every business owner faces challenges. Every student has questions about difficult topics. Both are easier to overcome when you can ask for help.
For seven years I helped middle
and high school students improve their public speaking and debating skills in
the NCFCA. In Toastmasters, I’ve helped hundreds of business professionals
improve their public speaking skills. All could learn about public speaking by
reading books and watching YouTube videos. However, weekly coaching accelerated
learning and helped each maximize their potential.
Having a mentor or coach sure would have helped me in my early days.
When I was 12 years old, I launched my first business selling Hershey bars to my elementary school classmates. I bought them for 15 cents and sold them for a quarter. It failed after several profitable weeks.
Did I lack customers? No, I had
lots of hungry customers. I was selling a highly desired product with a healthy
profit margin. I even had a business partner, Eric, who shared in the fun and
profits. Until one day...
My business was shut down by a government official: My 6th grade teacher. I had stretched the school rule about going home for lunch into going to Thrifty Drug Store to buy candy bars for my classmates.
For decades I blamed my teacher Mr. Funk for my business tale of woe. Later it dawned on me my business failed because I did not have a mentor or business coach. A mentor might have asked me, "Have you considered buying the candy bars on Saturday?" That one business tip would have saved my business!
The good news about launching a business in elementary school (or high school) is that if it closes down for any reason you won’t lose access to the refrigerator, the Internet, or a warm place to sleep!
Before creating the Launch Your Business: Coached program, I joined a coaching program to learn how to create hybrid courses which combine video lectures, live training, and coaching support. This training helped me take my existing business course and improve it with coaching and much more.
Ben Franklin said to “Remember
that time is money.” Investing money to get qualified coaching saves me time,
helps avoid expensive mistakes, and pays for itself many times
over. The same can be true for your
son or daughter.
"Do you offer the Launch Your Business program without coaching?"
Yes. Your son or daughter may be in Middle School. You feel comfortable coaching your son or daughter through the projects and grading the assignments. Or you may want one student to take this course with coaching while another son or daughter wants the course without coaching. For these students we created Launch Your Business: Self-Guided to get the full content of the course but without coaching.
Categories: : coaching, young entrepreneurs