A few years ago, I featured Yossi Gottehrer, often referred to as “Yossi G,” as in the name of his high-end interior design company, YossiG. Recently, we had a chance to catch up, and he said to me, “Nesanel, we have been working with a coach, and I can’t tell you the difference it makes. I really think you should let your readers know about the value of a business coach. It’s not just for beginners, it’s also for people like myself with established companies.”
Because of their own experience, Yossi and his COO Simcha Beller have become passionate advocates of business coaching. When Yossi agreed to share publicly about his coaching journey, even being open about the flaws in his company that needed correcting, I realized that he was onto something—readers can really benefit from this.
My conversation with Yossi and Simcha covered why they chose to work with a business coach, specific ways that the coach has helped the company, and more importantly, the long-lasting changes they have implemented. They both want others to know that just because your company is successful that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for growth. In their words, the right coach can be the catalyst for explosive growth. There will definitely be something here that you can implement to run your own business—or even, for that matter, your life—more effectively.
–Nesanel
Let’s start from the beginning and remind our readers how YossiG started and what it was like before you hired your coach.
Yossi: Ten years ago, I started YossiG, my interior design firm, as a one-man show designing building exteriors and interiors. Over the years, we grew and took on lots of different projects. We designed multi-family developments, private homes, shuls, mikvahs, retail stores, commercial spaces and offices—any space that needed a design. Our company would do all the design tasks, from space planning and the design itself to taking care of the clients till the end of construction.
As the number of projects grew, I hired more team members, designers, drafters and renderers to help me deliver the best to my clients. As we grew, I always made sure that we didn’t lose the soul and passion that I had from the start. I never wanted to sacrifice the dedication to every single client, the attention to every detail and the obsession with delighting my clients. To date, we have completed over 500 projects, with lots more to come.
Around two years ago I hired my COO, Simcha Beller, to run the operations and growth of the business so that I could continue focusing on my clients and the designs of every single project.
Where did you get the idea to hire a coach?
Yossi: After a few months at our company, Simcha mentioned that he would like to join a coaching group for $1,000 a month. He was willing to pay for it himself. He told me that besides working with a coach, he would get to be part of a unique business community where he could gain knowledge from other business owners, and all this would help grow the business.
I asked him how much it was annually, and he said $6k for six months. I agreed to pay it in full, because I loved the idea that an employee was willing to spend his own money to help grow my company. I never asked him to do it, and he was doing a wonderful job in my company as it was.
What were the first things you started working on with the coach?
Simcha: The first thing I started working on was answering the three fundamental questions that every leader and team member needs to be able to answer: why do we exist (mission), what do we stand for (core values), and where are we going (compelling vision)? Many businesses are very focused on financial growth. I focus on creating a healthy foundation that leads to healthy growth. That will yield financial benefits as a byproduct of a healthy ecosystem.
Some companies make lots of money within a few years, but they are standing on shaky ground. The employees are miserable, the owner lost his or her passion, and although they are making money now, they are not a healthy, stable and scalable company poised for long-term success.
Through coaching, I learned that the key to company success is healthy growth, both on a personal and business scale. When you have passionate, happy employees and customers, then the money and success will come in as a result. Meaning, if the company is aligned with its mission, core values and vision, then financial growth comes automatically. But the focus is not on the finances, it’s on having a healthy company. That’s what coaching did for us.
Yossi: What coaching did for me was create true focus and intentionality. When you are running a business, especially if you are a visionary, you have hundreds of ideas a day. The challenge is what to focus on and how to stay focused. Making the right decision is hard to do on your own. But with the right questions and guidance, you are able to make the decision much more easily. Coaching helps us invest our time and talents in the areas that will create the greatest return for our business.
For example, Simcha started asking me lots of questions about where we were headed as a company, and I didn’t have any answers for him. He asked why we did things a certain way, and he brought up some real issues and challenges we had with certain employees that I was either avoiding or not even noticing.
I was thinking about seriously expanding our company this year to possibly opening ten more locations. Our coach is great at helping me figure out what I really want. The question was: Would I rather focus on the quality of the product I deliver, or would I rather that the company just grow?
Now, if you recall the Lunchbreak article we did together a few years ago, you’ll remember that I take real pride in delivering a platinum experience with heart and soul. I want people to be able to see a project we worked on and say, “Wow, I take pride in that project.” We decided to stick to our one location and focus on delivering a high-quality product that becomes a more valued product and service as we grow. You can grow by offering the same service to many people, but you can also grow because your product is more valued; I learned that I prefer the latter. Now we focus on high-end residential homes as well as high-end commercial spaces such as retail stores, office spaces and shuls. We want to be able to give our special touch to create a bespoke design. I have never felt so passionate about coming to work as when I see clearly what my vision is and how to get there. Delivering platinum experiences is our mission.
How do you create a “platinum experience,” as you call it?
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The post Why We Recommend a Business Coach // Yossi G explains how to supercharge your work appeared first on Ami Magazine.
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