Baiju Solanki is a Performance Coach and is Managing Director of Performance Coaching and Training Limited. The company was formed with the objective of helping local businesses and individuals to fulfil their potential through understating what they CAN do to be able to perform at the best more often. Performance Coaching and Training act for numerous businesses in the Essex area including Southend Council – Teachers, BRS Associate, Southend Hospital, Liberty Hygiene and South East Essex College

My passion has always been in educating, motivating and inspiring. In my formative years I used to teach Psychology and the satisfaction I got when I knew I could make a difference to people was immense. Having trained as a Performance Coach the last number of years, while working full-time, it was a natural progression for me to start my own company where I could assist individuals and business is be the best they can.

Before starting up my main obstacle was leaving a secured well paid full time job as a Sales Director and start of on my own with no security of income. I have had this ambition since 2001, but only really decided that I was going to start up on my own in 2006. Once I decided to leave it was easy, both from the point of view of how I started to think and the opportunities that come up for me, that enabled me to leave my job and pursuer my ambition of being a full-time Performance Coach and Trainer.

Talk to more people about starting out on your own; you can never get too much advice. In hindsight maybe start to actually pitch for the kind of business I was looking for. Because of the nature of what I do, I completely understood the right mindset needed. I actually decided to leave my job and start on my own 18months before I actually quit. This meant I could get my mindset and circumstances in a state such that It was the most natural thing for me to do. When you actually make a decision with conviction its amazing how your mind and thinking leads you towards opportunities and events that will assist you when starting on your own.

The obvious is to generate enough cash flow and profit to keep going. However the biggest challenge is to ensure you never give up. One thing I know that is certain is that I WILL have bad days and I WILL have good days. When there are good days it’s great, you go with the flow, you can only think positive things and see the light. When you have bad days, this is the time when your conviction passion desire etc needs to kick in. Its very easy, when you are having the bad days to think, well I’ll just get a job, regular income, its not worth the hassle, I’ll probably won’t succeed anyway, and guess what you’ll be right. Whatever you believe you’re right.

The biggest challenge is how you react to those bad days, will you allow yourself to stay with the bad thoughts and feeling or do you do something about it. What you can do, and the one saving grace you have when you start your own business, is to associate yourself with like minded people. NETWORK. There are more people than you may think, in exactly the same position, and networking is the way business is done in today’s world. Networking is also a great way to talk and exchange ideas about what is working and what isn’t. I probably go to about 2-3 networking events per week. Over 80% of the business I have generated is a result of the networking events I have attended. However it does take time.

My aim is to give business and individuals a way to understand how they can perform at the best more often. The reason we don’t perform at our best is because ‘stuff’ happens in our life. I love the fact I have the opportunity coach people to be the best they can. As a former lecturer in Psychology, I loved it when a student understood and developed as a result of my teachings. Being able to coach and train for a living gives me that same satisfaction.

The stuff for me, is all the admin bits, accounts, and the waiting for decisions. You find that although my business is about Coaching and Training, the majority of my time is spent generating business. i.e. marketing, networking, sales etc that can challenge you if you don’t have the right mindset.

For exactly the reasons I have mentioned before. They haven’t got the right mindset or at least are not prepared to understand what that mindset needs to be. Fear of Failure, Fear of Success and Fear of the Unknown are common drivers for people to stay in their jobs. The job gives you a secure income, but guess what job stands for Just Over Broke! In order to start your own business you have to come out of your comfort zones, and this can be painful. Many would be entrepreneurs stay in their jobs because the pain of leaving their jobs, to follow their dream, is just that, too painful. The pain to stay in their job is less painful than the pain of leaving and creating their business. Until the pain of staying in their job becomes greater that the pain of starting their business they will never leave.

It goes back to the pain. When there is enough pain they will do something about it. The way to overcome fears is to truly understand your WHY? This means having reasons for the change. Fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. When looking at the fears people have about change, most of the concerns are based on assumptions they have made about starting out. By tackling some of these assumptions and challenging their limiting beliefs you realise some fears are unfounded. Having said this there will still be some concerns about starting a business, this goes back to what mindset is needed to give you the best chance to succeed. What I can give you are tools and techniques that enable you to overcome these fears when they occur. A series of coaching sessions will give you a different perspective on how you look at things and an understanding on how to better deal with your fears.

Talk to people. There is a presumption that people want you to fail. This couldn’t be further from the truth. What you will find is that the people who having already running their own business will be more than happy to talk about what works and what doesn’t and the people who are still in a job will be, on the most par, very supportive and quite impressed that you made the jump. Some will even be quite envious that you had the courage to take the plunge and they are still at the beck and call of their employers.

Why not? What are you doing that means you are not reaching your potential. When we are in business it is very easy to ensure that procedures are in place and you know your market etc. However how much time have you invested in ensuring that you are at your best more often? You probably still have the motivation and desire, however are you working in your business or on your business? What would be the payoff if you were able to perform to your potential more often? Investing in yourself stays with you forever it is priceless. Even by answering these questions you may still be wondering what you can do to reach at your potential. A coach will challenge you about how you are performing and see if you are operating within your comfort zones. As your coach I will be the person who holds you accountable to ensure you are at your best and you are getting the results you are looking for.

Exactly, how do you? We all have a honeymoon period when we start our own business, the excitement of going alone, being your own boss, work when you want, its great. Then reality kicks in and you doing everything, from banking, sales, marketing, admin, meetings, delivery. To ensure you are kept motivated and more importantly kept on the right path to meet your goals and objectives you would benefit from using a coach. The coach’s role is to ensure you keep on the right path and help you deal with the ‘stuff’ that prevents you from being at your best and produce the results you want

I have a beautiful family, my wife Sangita and three lovely children Sapna(12), Milan (10), Suraj (5), take up a lot of my time. I play cricket for Southend-on-Sea Cricket club and am the Secretary of the club. In addition to this I am involved with Essex CCC organising the Southend Cricket Festival. Relaxation for me is doing something that makes me feel good, family, cricket and socialising with like mined people.