From Cape Cod Times, October 20, 2002

Excerpts from:
Hold that bottom line!
By Marilee Crocker, Contributing Writer

Among successful small business owners and entrepreneurs, Trish Machaby's story has an all-too-familiar ring. A year ago, four years after Machaby and her husband had launched their property management and short-term rental company, Machaby found herself overwhelmed by a business that had grown so rapidly it threatened to consume her life.

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Another is Linda Davies, who holds a masters in social work and is a personal and business coach. Davies works out of her home office in Orleans. She says she helps clients clarify their goals, values and vision for themselves, then create action plans. Her own business experience is based on running her therapy practice and coaching business, as well as owning and managing investment properties.

Davies, who launched Rainbow Coaching five years ago, emphasized that coaching is more than talking. "You have homework, action steps. It's very much of a partnership." One way coaching differs from other services for small businesses is that rather than simply working with individuals to develop a business or marketing plan, coaches often encourage clients to look at issues that are more abstract, even philosophical, and to explore questions like, "What do I want out of life?"

Davies said her coaching work with business and professional clients not only addresses leadership, communication and management skills, but also how a balanced life can help an individual be more effective in their work.

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Another fan is Patrick Golinski, an engineer who sought out Linda Davies' coaching services in part because he was frustrated with his job at a plastics company. "I got tired of not being treated with respect," said Golinski, who moved from Eastham to Ware earlier this year and plans to move to Yarmouth later this fall.

Golinski said Davies helped him identify "what kind of income I wanted to make, what position I wanted to achieve, and what time period I wanted to make this happen in." Their sessions also addressed strategies for freeing him and his wife from personal debt and dealing with several family issues.

"My ultimate goal was to start my own business," he said.

Golinski met with Davies for half-hour phone sessions three times a month over a period of three months in 2000. During each session, Golinski agreed to accomplish three or four tasks before his next coaching session.

"Maybe one of them was to sit down with the owner of the company this week and discuss where my future should go. The next week, what came out of that meeting and how I was going to change what I'm doing. After a month's time, I progressed quite a bit."

Six months ago, Golinski launched a home-based plastics engineering design firm. Now, he said, he works fewer hours than in his previous job and earns more money.

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As for whether personal or life coaches are qualified to work with business clients, Davies said that while it helps to have business experience, coaches without a business background also can be effective.

"So often, people have the answers within themselves. Coaching is a place to take [an issue] out and look at it and figure out the steps to take. Part of coaches' training is in figuring out the steps to take."

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