Consulting (and contract) services

Coaching services (individual and small group)

Training programs

Business Mastermind (Support) Groups

Balanced Act assists small business, home-based businesses and solo-owner businesses through training programs, consulting, and group or individual coaching.

Consulting (and contract) services: 


Balanced Act helps you uncover and investigate problems within your business that you think need to be “fixed.” We then prescribe solutions or direct you toward resources that best fit your needs. In many cases Balanced Act provides consulting resources or expertise simply because a client does not have the internal resources to provide it. Depending on the circumstances, Balanced Act is occasionally retained on a short term, contractual basis, as an additional resource to supplement existing internal resources.

Balanced Act’s consulting and independent contract services focus primarily on: improving sales, customer service, account management, and on boosting employee productivity.

Coaching services (individual and small group):

Through business coaching, Balanced Act helps clients reach new heights or navigate uncharted waters in their businesses. Unlike consulting, there is not the automatic assumption that there are “problems” to be uncovered and resolved. In coaching, we start from the premise that our clients actually have a yet undiscovered, inner personal knowing about what they want and how to get it. We simply help direct the discovery process by asking focused, intuitive questions to help our clients access this inner wisdom. Our intention in coaching is to create an ongoing partnership that helps our clients produce fulfilling results that improves their business’ performance, and often also enhances their own quality of life.

As a small business owner or manager, coaching can help you think more strategically about your business, or develop a clear, sustainable action plan for growth. Coaching clients often discover better ways to manage their time, focus their priorities, and eliminate energy-draining or self-sabotaging habits.

Balanced Act’s coaching process focuses on where our clients are today and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future. In each session, our coaching clients choose the focus of the conversation. As coaches, our job is to listen, contribute observations, and pose thought-provoking questions. This interactive process helps our clients create clarity and accelerates them forward in their desired direction.

Do you want to take your organization to the next level? Do you want a confidential sounding board and guide to help with business decisions? If so, coaching is for you!

Training programs:

Balanced Act provides a select array of training programs that can even be customized to suit your small business’ needs.

Communicating for Results - In Person, By Telephone, Voice Mail, and Email

Participants learn how to: Select the method that best suits their message (letter, meeting, telephone call, email, fax, handwritten note); quickly compose clear and concise business letters and emails; engage in telephone conversations that lead to results; leave voice mail messages that are informative so the receiver can understand the reason for the call; and plan for and participate in results-oriented business meetings.

Dynamic Presentation Skills

Participants learn how to: plan their presentation including determining goals and purpose; effectively organize the content to align with the purpose; select the right visuals and collateral materials; deliver the presentation using professional speaking skills; conduct an effective question and answer period; deliver an effective close; and, critique each presentation for continued improvement.

Effective Communication during Conflict

Participants learn how to: understand negotiating fundamentals; win a dispute through collaboration without destroying the business relationship; and to decide when it’s prudent to get a mediator or attorney involved.

Exceptional Customer Service

Participants learn how to: recognize the essentials “How To’s” of good service; create a service culture within your organization; avoid the “deadly sins” of poor customer service; and solve problems in a way that improves, rather than destroys, customer loyalty.

Dealing with Difficult People

Participants learn how to: communicate in a mature professionally manner; understand basic communication for any productive workplace; identify an array of difficult workplace personalities and explore ways to successfully managed communication with them; basics of negotiation and collaboration; and, how to minimize stress during difficult work situations.

Essential Selling Skills – Beginner Level

Participants learn how to: focus on the essential principles that drive successful selling; use fundamental, proven selling skills; ask effective questions to better match products or services to customers’ specific needs; develop concise, easy-to-understand descriptions for your company’s products/service; and recognize and handle typical objections.

Essential Selling Skills – Advanced Level

Participants learn how to: uncover hidden or additional needs by asking the right questions; create appropriate urgency for the buyer to make a decision; create and deliver results-oriented presentations; and close sales that are complicated or difficult.

Developing a High Quality, High Performance Staff (for Owners, Managers or Supervisors)

Participants learn how to: minimize the high cost of employee turnover; communicate and monitor performance expectations; deliver an effective basic performance review, develop a strong, cooperative team; guide your business through changing times; anchor ethics, values, and integrity as essential business practices.

Business Mastermind (Support) Groups:

How do they benefit small business owners and managers? In short, they provide a forum for you to work on your business, not just in it.

As a participant in a Balanced Act group, you will be able to:

• Exchange ideas that help you and the other participants confidently position your businesses to be more successful.
• Participate in honest feedback, advice exchange, and creative brainstorming that provide you with critical insights into your business and yourself .
• Find solutions to business problems that are baffling you.
• Stop procrastinating on business decisions by creating action plans and having the group hold you accountable.
• Establish a support system so you don't need to go it alone any more.
• Sharpen your business and personal skills – receive immediate training by simply asking your Mastermind team for help.

Even though your Balanced Act Mastermind group facilitator, Carol Hartman, attends session in an administrative capacity, she is also an experienced small business consultant and coach who can, upon request, be called upon to share her knowledge, skills, and expertise during a session. More info on Mastermind Groups appears in the section specifically devoted to Mastermind Groups—and in the FAQs.