Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in leadership development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Bill Munn, Founder of Bill Munn Coaching, located in Bellaire, MI, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I am a leadership coach, but I have a specific focus. Simply put, I specialize in people issues, whether helping executives lead teams to their greatest potential or helping individuals define a vision and map a path to career and personal goals.

With a focus on specific, usable tools, I zoom in on the HOW over the WHAT: how to improve engagement and performance by maximizing the effectiveness of human beings. Because over time, it’s people that make the difference.

My seminars, training programs, and one-on-one coaching services have supported hundreds of business leaders with practical wisdom, real-world action tools, and unbiased insight.

Tell us about yourself

As a former top-level executive of a Dow 30 and Fortune 500 company, I have a truth to share: I did NOT learn leadership excellence in any of the classrooms I'd occupied in my journey to an MBA, nor afterward when I taught finance at the university level. Rather, I learned it first and foremost by functioning as a conscientious, intentional leader myself—out in the real world of business. I invested in my team. I tried different things and paid attention to what improved engagement and outcomes—and what did not. And I learned a great deal.

In the past 30 years, I've taken those invaluable lessons to leaders around the world. And not only have I personally learned a great deal more in the process, but I've also had the opportunity to see how coaching others in leadership excellence is a gift on many levels. It directly feeds the person I'm coaching, and it also influences every one of their team members, as well as their organizations.

The quality of a leader can make or break the quality of many individuals' work lives, as well as the success of a business. It's an honor to be a part of such meaningful growth.

In more recent years, I've had the wonderful opportunity to share some of my most valuable coaching material via other means that are more accessible to even wider audiences: 2 online courses offered at billmunncoachingacademy.com, as well as two books—Lead or Be Led: A Guide for Intentional Living and Why Make Eagles Swim? Embracing Natural Strengths in Leadership and Life.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My greatest accomplishment as a business owner is the wonderful relationships I have with my family. This may sound counterintuitive, so I'll explain: I coach a great deal on vision—business as well as personal vision. The fact is, many people spend their entire lives climbing a ladder only to get to the "top" and realize that all along, their ladder has been leaning against the wrong building. They've reached a destination, but it wasn't where they really meant to end up.

When we set a vision for our ideal destination from the outset, we increase our odds of getting to that place by about a bazillion percent. The reason I have a great relationship with my wife, children, and grandchildren is because I mapped out that vision BEFORE starting my business. If I hadn't done that, I might still be sitting in this beautiful home thinking of all my great clients and the difference I've made in their business growth, but would it matter?

I'm so grateful for my stellar client list and helping them is central to my BUSINESS vision and one of the joys of my life and career. But fighting for my family amidst all that? That was an even more important component of my PERSONAL vision. It took intentionality. It took a constantly flowing stream of small choices and decisions that pointed to that family. All of which happened because of vision.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

For many people, the risk is the great difficulty of owning your own business. I'm pretty darn risk tolerant, so this is less of an issue for me. But it can still be a challenge at times. Now, I've written before about the fact that we need to redefine risk when it comes to launching our own business. I think our paradigm around this is pretty out of whack—that it's actually a lot LESS risky than we think. I won't get into that here, but I've addressed it on my blog, and it's worth considering.

Nonetheless, before you make the leap, it's important to get realistic about whether or not you (and/or, if applicable, your spouse) are highly risk averse. This can be a major stumbling block for people, so I recommend you get clear on your risk tolerance right away.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

I'm a huge fan of entrepreneurship and small business. But I'll also be the first to admit that starting a business is not right for everyone. If you’re thinking about it, it’s important to hold onto your big, audacious dream—but also get very practical about what it would look like to make such a big leap.

There are many factors to consider when you're deciding whether or not to start a business, and in one way or another, each one is related to people (including you, of course). Here are 3 considerations to start with:

  1. What is your vision? If you're having trouble defining this, try writing a press release about your new business. This forces you to think about how you would present it, and it can get you started on visioning.
  2. What are your attributes? What inherent strengths—what I call power-alley attributes or the natural traits you can't turn off—do you have? How do your attributes align with your business concept?
  3. Where will you focus your initial growth efforts? The faster you can make your business "real" in some way—even if that's just one customer—the faster you can start learning HUGE amounts.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

What’s your largest business operating cost? Materials? Salaries and benefits? You might know the answer right away.

But is your answer correct? Most business actually IGNORE their largest cost—the equivalent of the CFO saying, "Let's just throw that entire category of invoices away when we pay them. We won't record them at all."

The spending waste associated with this oversight drains most businesses every single day, but since they never get an invoice for the amount they're losing, they're not registering its importance.

What is this hidden cost? You’re not getting the most from your people. Invest in people management. Invest in their growth, engagement, and team dynamics. Invest in leadership. Your business will thank you for it.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://billmunncoaching.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/billmunncoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billmunncoaching/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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