Support systems buoy us up and help us navigate the waters of business development. To a degree, the more successful a person is, the more structured and vast their support network and resources. Some support will come from others, some comes from within you, and some support is a structure or system -- a smart way of getting something done over and over.

The time to set up support for your business is right now - as soon as you decide to become a coach, or whenever you realize something is holding you back from your success.

How do you know if you need more or stronger support systems? Here are the symptoms:

• Your momentum is flagging - Set up an accountability system with a mentor or colleague and develop deeper reserves of energy.
• You're not getting the results you want - Set up an educational system, strategic plans, and follow-through systems.
• You feel overwhelmed or under-focused - Set up a strategic plan, model someone who has already succeeded at what you want, and set up practices to clear your head and stay grounded.
• You feel disorganized - Set up organizational systems, tweak existing systems.
• You need knowledge beyond your skill set - Consult subject matter experts and mentors, get more training.

To foster your success, build these external and internal support systems.

External Support

External support comes from outside of you in the form of other people and structural systems that you put in place. They are like the bones of your business, supporting you and growing with you as you develop. External support includes:

1. Helpful Allies
2. Systems

Helpful Allies - It takes a village

Any successful person will tell you they didn't get there alone. I started my business as a loner with a kind of pride in the do-it-yourself mentality. But I quickly learned that it's smarter to walk the path paved by the success of others.

Now, I like to think that I have creative and technical teams for my business. My creative team provides inspiration and emotional support. My technical team is full of subject matter experts that provide sound advice and know how. While none of these people are actual employees, they all provide real support to me when I need it.

Give some thought to this now: Who do you want on your team?

• Friends/Family - At times like this, you need people around you who support you to be your best rather than people who want you to play it safe and stay small in your thinking. Look around. If you have those supportive kinds of people around you, ask them to help you keep moving forward toward your goals. If you don't have that kind of support in friends and family, consider building a network of colleagues and new friends who will.
    
• Subject Matter Experts/Consultants - At times, every business owner needs the support of subject matter experts, such as a computer consultant, CPA, bookkeeper, lawyer, editor, copywriter, office organizer, virtual assistant, web designer, etc. Develop a technical team that can step in and help you when you need it. 
   
• Teachers, Trainers and Mentors - What do you want your business to be like? Who do you know that has that business now or does what you want to do? Look for people you can emulate and who will mentor you. Get involved in their programs or networks. Often the fastest way to success is to follow in the steps of someone who has gone before you. 
   
• Collegial Networks and Communities - Associating with other coaches helps reduce the feeling of isolation. Prosperous Coach provides a forum for engaging with your peers. And consider developing your own mastermind group with a subset of the coaches you meet in the coaching community. Commiserate, hold each other's visions, and pass on tools and ideas already working.

Systems

A good system is an efficient way of getting something done. The bests systems are simple and easy to create. They save you time and money by keeping you organized, focused, on pace and on track. Made up of interconnected steps or parts, the system leverages what you already know works well. As you learn and grow, continually update and sometimes expand your systems. Occasionally, a system will need to be completely retooled if it breaks down.

1. Accountability Systems

Your mentor coach and colleagues can be great partners for holding you accountable to your goals and objectives. Set up a reporting system where you plan specific tasks and report back your results each week. It's amazing how much more you'll get done if you know someone is holding your intention with you and inspecting the results.

2. Organizational Systems

Get organized and stay that way. If this isn't your forte, hire the support of a subject matter expert - an office organizer or virtual assistant - to help you set up organizational systems that work for your business. Also read Keeping it All Together - Organizational Wizardry in the Client and Practice Management section of the Wisdom Vault.

3. Strategic Planning

Often, what keeps a coach from being successful comes down to poor planning and execution on the things that will have the greatest impact on their success. If marketing and follow through are the breakdown areas for you, it may be time for a better system or set of systems.

Have you created a business plan, revenue and expense projections, and a marketing plan with SMART goals that detail specific tasks and timelines? If not, this is your #1 highest payoff activity! Do it now and then use it.

Plan for your success and execute the plan every day. Do you want 10 clients in your practice every month? What is your plan? And have you set up systems to attract and keep those clients? Do you want to have a website and ezine? What is your timeline for creating them? What are all the tasks that will make your vision of 10 ideal clients become a reality? Who and what have you set up to help you?

Read this related article and this ebook:

Simple But Essential Business Plan in Visioning and Goal Setting

Working Websites for Coaches in Step-by-Step Guides

4. Time Management Systems/Calendar

There is no finer organizational management tool than a simple calendar. Whatever your preference -- paper daytimer, computer-based calendar, PDA -- use it to not only plan your time but also as an accountability tool and tracking device. Often the electronic calendars create trouble when syncing up to a home system. If necessary, create a tracking system to keep your calendar in check or simplify to a paper system.

Internal Support

Equally as important as external support are the internal systems that help you manage your states of being -- your internal emotional and mental environment. When challenged, we don't just need our brains in gear. We want inner reserves of "the right stuff" -- the attitudes and mindsets that go with success.

Internal support systems include:

1. Powerful Mindsets
2. Creativity and Skills
3. Daily Practices

Powerful Mindsets

Whatever you want to achieve in life will be possible if you have a prosperous mindset. Essentially, we're talking about the stuff everyday heroes are made of. When you want something enough, you can reach inside and find this stuff, which will help you go and get it! Just engaging this part of you expands it, like building a muscle you might not have known you had.

Start accessing your powerful mindset by:

• Tapping into your passion -- reconnecting with your original calling to be a coach.
• Fleshing out your vision -- see, feel, experience in your imagination what you want. (Then put that vision to paper in your business plan.)
• Making a commitment to your success (and backing it up with your time, intention and money).
• Being faithful. Trusting yourself and the process of growth.
• Building your integrity, being impeccable in what you say and do.

All of these things are a part of prosperity thinking. They work together to make you magnetically attractive to what you want.

Read more about powerful mindsets and do the assessment in Are You Ready to Be a Prosperous Coach? found in the Prosperity Actions and Attitudes section of the Wisdom Vault.

Creativity and Skills

Creativity is a force of nature inherent within each of us. Be a creator in your own life. Shift from being at the effect of everything (victimized by circumstances) to being at choice and at cause in your life. Find the gift in everything and stay open to learning from everything and everyone, even if they seem adversarial.

Daily Practices

To build inner reserves of strength and peace, feed your body and soul. Regular exercise, good nutrition, restful sleep and things like meditation, yoga and prayer will ground you for the tasks you need to get done and for managing your inner states of being.

Your Spiritual Team

Whatever your beliefs, consider developing your "spiritual team." Years ago when I was struggling with my coaching business, a colleague and friend gave me a bit of tough love one day that still resounds in my mind. She said, "You're not God - why are you trying to do this all on your own?" It has changed the way I operate in my coaching business and in every other aspect of my life.

Every day I consult with my spiritual team - with Spirit - acknowledging myself as part of the creative force, and opening my heart and mind to the information, teachers and lessons blessing me. I'm never alone. It's never all up to me.

Gather your creative, technical and spiritual teams, set up smart systems and keep them alive, and resource from within yourself all the chutzpah and wisdom already there. Then see how different the landscape of your business looks, and watch as you become more successful day by day!

Rhonda Hess is Founder of Prosperous Coach™ and a business success coach for professional coaches. She is co-author of the Coach Training accelerator, a comprehensive coach training manual, and senior trainer for Coach Training Alliance. She also wrote Working Websites for Coaches, an ebook available in Resources for Coaches. For more information about Rhonda, see: Contributors. For more information about Prosperous Coach, see: About Us.

Copyright © 2007 Bubbling Well Inc. All rights reserved.

If you want to reprint or share this article, please send your request to: support@prosperouscoach.com