who am i?
My name is Ron Tester. I've been a small business owner for more than 20 years, I’ve been coaching small business owners for more than 7 years, and I have two coaching certifications: Book Yourself Solid ® and The Center for Executive Coaching.
why does that matter?
As I was building my first small business, I realized there were lots and lots ofthings I didn’t know. I had many sleepless nights worrying about “what I don’t know that I don’t know.” Eventually, I knew I needed to get some help. So I started Googling “small business coach,” “small business advisor,” and the like. And eventually I spoke with someone who talked to me about their advising team, how they were the high-powered MBA-types who knew what I didn’t know. He assured me that, if I hired hire them as advisors, they would come in and assess my situation, help me get my business going so that it ran better and more profitably, and I would finally know what I didn’t know.
And so I hired them. And they were smart. And they probably had MBA’s. But they had NO IDEA how to run a small business from the perspective of someone who had actually run a small business. They had experience in big companies with big budgets, giant businesses with giant bank accounts. That wasn’t me or my business. After spending deep into five figures, they gave me a binder full of templates and cookie cutter forms.And for just about every problem, they had a fortune cookie answer. "Spend more on marketing." "Hire better people."
I wish I were making this up, but I am not.
When I asked them specifically what kind of marketing I should spend more money on, they didn’t know. Should I advertise on the radio or run a weekly ad in the newspaper? No idea. Should I advertise on the internet or take out a full-page ad in a magazine? Not sure. And how can I hire better people? I was already hiring the best people I knew. At no time did I ever think, “Joe is a much more qualified candidate, but I think I’ll hire less-qualified Bill instead.” I was doing the best I could, and their general (and obvious) answers weren’t any help at all.
Lesson learned. It was painful, but I got it.
so why am i different?
Because I’ve sat in your seat. I’ve sweated making payroll. I’ve worked all night to keep my promises to my customers and my employees. I’ve maxed out my credit cards to make payroll. I’ve been in the trenches. I’ve learned the lessons the hard way.
I’ve also been able to take years off from my work after building a team that could run my company in my absence. I was able to successfully exit that business and now I do what I want when I want. I can work from anywhere and I have my freedom. So why do I still coach? Because I love it. And I’m good at it. And I love making a difference in the lives of the people I work with, in the lives of their families, their employees and their communities.
My goal is to be the person I wished that I had in my corner 20 years ago, back when I was making all the mistakes and learning the hard way. Because the truth is, building a business is hard, but it doesn’t have to be that hard. That’s why I started coaching, that’s why I got my coaching certifications, and that’s why small business owners hire me.
If you’d like to discuss your situation and see if we’d be a good fit, you can book a strategy session here: https://bookme.name/rontester/30-minute-strategy-session.