Emma Ranson Bellamy goes speed-coaching and offers HR Zone members the exclusive opportunity to be selected for some complimentary coaching.

Sophie, a client in the beauty trade has gone freelance. She has a number of challenges facing her which centre upon childcare concerns, money worries and confidence that she is ‘the right character’ to run her own business. She has been living in Spain for the past couple of years and like many ex-pats is trying to earn a living in a holiday destination.

Discussions have been afoot regarding the opportunity to advertise her business through a friends holiday letting website – she would also like to get some brochures printed and leave them in the holiday houses.

Sophie is concerned that she cannot see the wood from the trees and is currently viewing all the challenges as problems. These common issues hark back to the analogy of the ant and the eagle.

The ant can only see what is directly in front of its small nose. It has incredible power, it can lift huge weights in comparison to its body weight and can travel long distances, travel quickly and work long hours. However, because it is so near to the ground and so close to the task it cannot do anything else but push dirt around. The eagle on the other hand soars above the trees and can see the whole forest having the pick of the best food and nest building materials. Who has the better view? Of course it’s the eagle. How can we get a better view of our own problems or challenges? By rising above them like the eagle and looking at the bigger picture.

Sophie began the session with lots of ‘I can’t’ because … and what ifs. I challenged her to think of the situation as it could be, if she knew she couldn’t fail and with that she listed her goals and objectives for her burgeoning business.

Her goal is to make an independent living. Not only independent of her husband but also of an employer.

She wants to have a flexible work/life balance that will enable her to care for her young children during holidays and after school.

It could be a business that will grow with her, stimulate her and allow her to use her skills which are varied in holistic massage as well as general beauty procedures.

Once she knew what she wanted to achieve she was able to look at her ‘offering’ rather than worrying about small incidentals. She decided to ‘go for it’ and list on her friends website what she wanted to sell rather than what she did not want to sell. This sounds very simple. However, it is quite common for small businesses to add offerings onto their services which are actually more trouble than they are worth. In her situation she did not want to traipse all across town for one waxing booking where she had to worry about how hot the wax was.

She therefore decided to package all her offerings into ‘holiday massage’ or ‘holiday pampering packages’ which meant that she could do at least one a day when the children were in school, if she got any more it would be worth her while to get a child minder and because her time was limited she could encourage people to book before they came on holiday.

In the course of the session she went from having an idea that she thought would not sustain her and therefore her talents becoming stale and wasted. Feeling that she didn’t have a lot to offer anyone and that she was wholly grateful for her friends generosity in allowing her website space to feeling that she was offering a fantastic service to those people who have come away on holiday without having had time to trim, pluck and tan the bits on show!

Offering her friend a unique selling point that only much larger holiday operators could offer. All this and also being flexible, working the time she wanted to work and contributing substantially to the household finances so her dream of opening a salon was in her control.

And all this came from her, her ideas and her vision from above the trees rather than down on the ground.

Coaching tip: try looking at your challenges not as problems but as part of the solution. Look from above the tree like the eagle and ask ‘If I knew I couldn’t fail, what would I like the outcome to be?” Once you know where you want your destination to be, it’s much easier to draw a map.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail Ralph Waldo Emerson.

HR Zone members’ offer
Emma Ranson Bellamy is offering HR Zone members the exclusive opportunity for some coaching. Simply contact her at the email address listed below for your chance to be selected to sit on the couch. Applicants must include details of the topic they’re looking for coaching on, together with reasons and a brief outline on what they’d like to gain from the session. Selected applicants must agree to have details of their sessions replayed as part of the editorial series, names may be changed to protect identities.

Emma can be contacted at emmarb@blueyonder.co.uk

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