Amazon UK wants to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) using their Amazon Marketplace to increase exports that surged to £2.3 billion last year. And to make it happen, they are offering a short-term training programme designed to teach online store owners what they need to know. Amazon’s training is an example of micro small business coaching.
I’ve chosen the term ‘micro’ for a specific reason. The dictionary defines this term as being something extremely small by comparison. Amazon’s free training may not be so small to the companies who benefit from it, but trainers will only be dealing with improving exports. In other words, Amazon is only offering a limited amount of small business coaching aimed at a particular target.
As a small business mentor myself, I take a much broader approach. Most business coaches do. We work with clients over periods stretching from months to years, working with them on everything from improving the bottom line to recruiting top talent. A broad-based approach to business coaching looks at the big picture and then fills in all the small pieces that complete it.
Micro Coaching Is a Good Thing
All of this is not to say that micro small business coaching is unwise or a bad thing. It’s not. Amazon is the clear leader in e-commerce; they obviously know what they are doing. Few businesses given the opportunity to access free training under the tutelage of Amazon experts would turn down that opportunity. But the internet giant is not offering training in other equally important areas of business.
Micro small business coaching is a good option when a company has a specific problem they are trying to address. Bringing in experts in that field makes sense. A small business mentor would likely do the same thing. If he or she is not an expert on a particular area that needs to be addressed, an expert would be brought in to pick up the slack.
Good Coaching Is the Goal
The point I am making here is that finding success through small business coaching is more about having the right coach for your needs than who the coach actually is. I take great pride in being a small business mentor more than capable of helping my clients succeed in what they do. Yet I don’t know everything. There are times when my clients need to turn to someone else who has more expertise in a given area.
Similarly, there are lots of things I can do for my clients that Amazon cannot. Amazon’s free training to help SMEs improve exports is rather limited in scope. They are not going to be there to continue offering guidance to those businesses once training ends. Small business coaches like me will be.
If your organisation would benefit from small business coaching, give me a call or send me a message. Let’s talk about how we can make your business better moving forward.
Sources:
E-Commerce Bytes – https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2018/02/04/amazon-kicks-off-small-business-training-programme-uk/
By Peter Smith.
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