This interview is with Ronald Osborne, Founder at Ronald Osborne Business Coach.

Ronald Osborne, Founder, Ronald Osborne Business Coach

Ronald, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to becoming a successful business coach?

I became a business coach by chance. I was in the Australian Army, and then, unfortunately, I was injured. I then built a successful telecommunications company that provided telecom infrastructure services to the largest telecom providers across Australia. I grew that team to 30 employees, and we made millions of dollars a year in revenue. My friends from the army and my friends growing up were also small business owners. However, they took note of my enormous success and they just came to ask me, “Hey, how did you achieve that, Ronald? How were you able to grow the business?” That is how I started to become a business coach. I started to advise. I began to observe where their business could benefit and where they needed to improve the efficiency of something to help better their company, so I fell into business coaching.

What were some pivotal moments in your career that solidified your passion for guiding others to achieve their business goals?

I helped my client go from a stressed-out, angry business owner surviving month-to-month to having 13 employees and millions in revenue, which helped him lead a more peaceful and fulfilling life. Seeing his passion return and seeing him healthy and excited to be back doing what he loved was an amazing moment that helped me understand that business coaching was for me.

You mentioned helping an executive reinvent her self-image to achieve significant career growth. What are some common self-limiting beliefs you've encountered among your clients, and how do you guide them to overcome these beliefs?

I see a lot of clients carrying around negative self-images of themselves and their businesses. They might have a great idea or business plan, but they don't believe that they are the right person to execute that vision or business plan, which leads them to create a negative self-fulfilling prophecy. I always encourage business owners to believe in themselves and not only in their product or services.

Many entrepreneurs struggle with identifying and addressing their weaknesses. How do you approach this sensitive topic with your clients and help them develop strategies for improvement?

I start by collecting data on their overall strengths and weaknesses with a customized questionnaire I have designed over years of working with clients. Utilizing that, I begin to ask the client if those topics I have flagged as weaknesses may be accurate with the help of self-reflection. Some clients can be sensitive about their weaknesses, as many of us look at weakness in ourselves as inadequacies, which isn't true. I make sure that my business coaching client understands that. Then we put together a comprehensive plan on how to overcome said weakness. As an example, I had a client who disliked explaining herself to her employees. She felt like they were questioning her wisdom. Once I identified this, we put together a plan to help make her instructions and SOPs more detailed, so she and the employees felt great about the information.

You emphasized the importance of aligning a new hire's vision with the company's vision. Can you elaborate on how you facilitate this alignment process during the hiring phase?

If you are a roofing company looking to hire an employee, you need to make sure that the employee sees his future in the same light as the business owner. For example, if the business owner intends to work only on commercial roofs and not residential ones, but the new hire envisions himself working solely on residential roofs, there is a mismatch. This small detail is often overlooked by business owners when recruiting new hires.

In your experience, what are some key indicators that a business owner should consider hiring a business coach?

A business owner should hire a business coach when they begin to feel stuck. The business isn't going forward, and it isn't going backward. However, I believe that all business owners can benefit from an experienced business coach. I have worked with business owners that were growing at 20% year-over-year. Seems like everything was great, right? Nope, they had a huge turnover rate and terrible SOPs to help onboard new employees. Once I rectified that issue, growth year-over-year became 65%!

What advice would you give to aspiring business coaches looking to establish themselves in the industry and attract clients?

You need to have grown businesses yourself so you can 'walk the talk.' I can still remember when I went from $150K a year to $500K to millions. At all points, there were different challenges. If someone wants to be a successful business coach, they have to be able to understand those challenges. I don't work with people who have over $15 million in revenue because I have never had to deal with the pressure and challenges that would come with such a task. I believe that aspiring business coaches should have 'skin in the game' before they try to coach others.

How do you stay updated on the latest business trends and adapt your coaching strategies to meet the evolving needs of your clients?

I record all of my meetings with my clients. I have an AI system that then reviews each meeting to identify common words, and I dive deep into that. If I constantly keep hearing that the economy is slow, I need to help that business owner adapt their strategy to harder economic times.

Looking back on your career as a business coach, what are some of the most valuable lessons you've learned, and how have they shaped your approach to coaching?

It has to be that no matter what, you'd better be prepared to give your business two years of hard work if you want it to succeed. I mean, say goodbye to weekends, going out, etc. You need to be extremely focused for at least two years if you want to succeed. All of the business owners that I have worked with who have done that, succeed.