Frequently Asked Questions

As the world of business moves faster and gets more competitive it is difficult to keep up with both the changes in your industry as well as the innovations in sales, marketing and management strategies. Having a Business Coach isn’t a luxury you don’t need, it is a necessity your business must have.

A Business Coach is just like a sporting coach. A sporting coach pushes an athlete to achieve optimum performance, provides support when they are exhausted and teaches the athlete to execute plays that their competition does not anticipate.

A sporting coach will make you run more laps than you feel like. A sporting coach will tell it like it is. And a sporting coach will listen.

The role of the Business Coach is to coach business owners to improve their business through guidance, support and encouragement. They help the owners of a small and medium sized businesses with their sales, marketing, management, team building and so much more. Just like a sporting coach, your Business Coach will make you focus on the game.

The owners of small to medium sized businesses find it hard enough to keep pace with all the changes and innovations going on in today’s modern world, let alone to find the time to devote to sales, marketing, systems, planning and team management, and then to run their businesses as well!

Your ActionCOACH will become your marketing manager, your sales director, your training co-ordinator; your confidant, your mentor.

If I asked you the following questions right now:

* Are you running your business the way you choose to, or because you can’t find an alternative?
* Are you achieving the aspirations you set out to achieve when you started in business?
* Are you in control of your business, or is your business controlling you?
* Do you have a clear vision for the next 1 - 5 years?
* Do you know what your business will look like when it's finished?
* Do you have a clear plan right now to transform your business?

Would you feel positive about your response?

If I asked you if you were feeling...

* That you are working long hours at the expense of your health and family.
* Unhappy with the profitability of your business.
* That you are constantly working reactively without a clear action plan in place.
* Like your business can’t run without you, even for a short period.
* Frustrated that you and your team appear to be pulling in different directions.
* That you have a great business but are unclear how to grow it to the next level.
* You’re lacking in focus and have no-one to bounce ideas off when things get tough.

Would any of these sound familiar to you? If yes, then it could be time to make a change and take that first step towards a better future.

Ask yourself…

* Do I want to grow as a person?
* Do I want to become a better leader?
* Do I want to progress my business to the next level?
* Do I long for better results than I’m currently getting?
* Do I want to transform the type of life I lead?
* Do I need a higher performing team?
* Do I wish I had additional support in uncertain and tough times?
* Do I wish I had more free time to focus on what matters most to me?

If you answered yes to any of the above then I can safely say ‘yes!’, coaching is probably right for you!

Coaching is about both you and your business in equal measure. Your business simply won’t grow if you don’t grow with it!

This is why coaching with me will benefit you and your business in two distinct ways:

Transactional Benefits - These tend to be more practical , focusing on organisation and performance, helping your business to:

* Become more profitable
* Deliver better results
* Drive more sales
* Recruit and retain great talent
* Systemise your business

Transformational Benefits - These tend to be more personal, enabling you to learn and grow as an individual by:

* Increasing your confidence and self-belief
* Identifying and removing the biggest things that are holding you back
* Helping you become a better leader
* Becoming the best version of yourself

Right now! Before you take another step, waste any more money, lose another sale, work too many more hours, miss another family event, or forget another special occasion.

Far too many business people wait and see… mistaken in thinking that working harder will make everything better. Remember, what you know got you where you are today. To get where you want to go, you’ve got to make some changes and most likely, you’ll have to learn something new…

There’s no time like the present to get started on your dreams and goals.

Introductory Call

If you’ve decided that coaching might be right for you and you’re ready to take the first steps to transforming your business and living a more rewarding life, just get in touch for an introductory call. This will be an informal chat to determine if I can help you grow your business. If it looks like I can, we’ll arrange a time to speak in more detail to work out how that might look.

Complimentary Coaching Session

There is no better way of knowing if we should be working together other than to have a coaching session, and the first one's on me! Throughout this complimentary session we’ll look at where your business is now compared to where you want it to be. We’ll discuss what type of roadblocks you’ve hit, or expect to hit, as you progress towards your goal.

By the end of this coaching session, it will be clear as to whether coaching is right for you, and if we should be working together! If we’re the right fit for each other, you then choose the coaching programme that’s best for you and your business.

At any time, it looks like coaching is not for you, I’m not the right fit, or the timing isn’t right, we won’t proceed. However if I know someone that would be better suited to help you then I’ll be happy to put you in touch with them.

The first few months will be the toughest… not because of extra work, but because of new tasks. Your ActionCOACH will show you how, on a day to day basis, to get more done with less effort.

After those first few months you’ll find you’re not working more, just differently. Then, depending of course on your goals, from about month six onward, you’ll begin to see the results of all your efforts… and, if you choose, you can begin working less than ever before. It’s important to remember that it’s about changing what you do with your time… not putting in more of it.

Whether you want to increase profitability, grow your business, achieve financial freedom, improve your work life balance, create more productive teams or become a better leader, I’ll ensure you see the results you want.

To ensure you take action and reach your goals, I’ll be here to hold you accountable every step of the way. This means keeping you laser focussed and making sure you work on the things that will grow your business.

Working in your business can mean it’s difficult to look at ideas objectively. As a coach, we will be there to give you an honest opinion and be your sounding board to bounce ideas off. You will also get considerable support throughout your coaching.

With this kind of approach, you will see positive change, you will start to take more of the right actions. You will have greater clarity and focus on where you are going, and crucially what steps to take to get there. You will have a better idea of the numbers in your business, and a better hold on your team's performance and how you manage your time.

I choose my clients and my clients choose me. Its important to me that my clients have the right attitude and drive – there is nothing worse as a coach when you want someone’s success more than they do! I want to work with people who have passion, drive and the determination to improve their personal and business skills to enable them to perform at their best. If this sounds like you, we will probably be a good fit.

What about the ActionCOACH Community?

We have an active community in ACtionCOACH… you can choose a level of engagement that suits you. We have an annual conference for our clients called BizX where we have industry leading speakers to share their expertise.

Our ActionCOACH clients often get to know each other very well, and in many instances do business with each other. The Business owners share a common drive, passion and determination to succeed. It's a very positive community to be part of.

Our "5 Ways" and "6 Steps" are two of the most powerful formulas in business, which we will utilise in all areas of your business to multiply revenues and profitability. When we work together, the emphasis taken will depend on you, your business, and of course your individual goals and aspirations.

Once we complete your initial business strategy and alignment session, we will have a blueprint of where you want to take your business. We will then work back on what the key drivers are to help you get there. Typically, the key areas are:

Sales and Finance - You can't know if your winning if you don't have a full understanding of your scorecard. This is the backbone for creating a profitable business, and one of the areas we will help you get great at.

Marketing - If you want to make a sale, Customers must find you, and you need to find them. We will teach you some powerful, yet simple marketing techniques and approaches to optimise your performance and drive up your profits in this area.

Team Building and Recruitement - getting the right people on the bus and keeping them there. We will show you how to attract, retain and motivate a high performing team for your business.

Systems - business is run on systems, and people run the systems. We will work on this to ensure your business runs as smoothly as possible.

Customer Service - We will work with you to ensure that your products and services consistently, making it easy for your customers to buy and leaving them feeling delighted with your service. You will also learn new ways to motivate your current customers to give you referrals and to ensure their repeat business.

Time - how well do you manage both your time and that of your team? Often with business owners this is a barrier for them. I’ll work with you to show you how to manage this more effectively, providing you with more time to work on growing your business.

Yes … in fact, we believe training your people is almost as important as coaching you. Your coach can provide you and your business with many different training modules. You’ll be amazed at how much enthusiasm and commitment comes from your team as they experience each of our training programmes.

We can also provide testing and evaluation to help you gain perspective on opportunities for team development, hiring, discovering individual strengths, and more. Your coach will discuss these with you, should they be required.

Our recommendation is for a period of at least 12 months. If you’ve been in business for more than a few months, you’ve seen at least one or two quick fixes… Most consultants seem to act as if they can solve all your problems in a few hours or days. We believe long-term success is not gained by just scratching the surface and then doing it for you… rather it means doing it with you, showing you how to do it, working alongside you, and crating your success… together. Over the period we’ll work on different areas of your business. Month by month you’ll not only see your goals become reality, but you’ll have the confidence, knowledge, and skills to make it happen, again and again.

Your investment will depend on the size of your business and the scope of our undertaking together. Your ActionCOACH will work this out with you so it’s appropriate for your business and the goals and challenges you are committed to and the speed at which you want to progress your business.

Everything you do with us, and your ActionCOACH, is a true investment in your future. Not only will you begin to create great results in your business, but you’ll end up with both an entrepreneurial education second to none, and the knowledge that you can repeat your business success over and over again on other ventures. We also guarantee a return on your investment.

As a guide, our group coaching programmes start at £495 + VAT per month. The most popular programme clients choose is our one-on-one coaching programme which start at £1,695 + VAT per month.

Our clients have consistently seen more profitability growth, more time released for themselves and a better team working on improved systems.

The results will speak for themselves, but take a look at any of the many client videos on our website for specific examples of our real clients, with real businesses, getting real results.

There are three fundamental reasons our approach will work for you in your business…

First, your coach will help you become 100% focused on your goals and the step-by-step processes to help you achieve them. This focus alone will have an extraordinary effect on both you and your business results.

Second, we will hold you accountable to get the things done you’ve committed to, not just for the day-to-day running of your business, but for the dynamic growth your business will experience. You’re investing in your success and we’re going to help you get there.

Third, we’re going to teach you, on a one-on-one basis, as many of the hundreds of profit and business building strategies and approaches as you need. So, whether your goal is to be making more money, or working fewer hours — or both — your goals can become a reality, and all within the next 12 months.

Again, just review some of the videos to hear about the specific results other business owners just like you have achieved.

Give us just a half an hour and you’ll see how to turn your marketing effort into an investment that will yield sales and profits rather than just running up your expenses.

In most cases, we’ll actually save you money by exposing approaches that aren’t working for you. And yes, you’ll likely have to spend some money to make some.

When you follow our simple testing and measuring systems you’ll never again risk more than a comparatively few pounds on any one campaign. When we establish the ones that do work, we make sure you keep profiting from them, time, and time again.
Remember, if you use the traditional ‘accounting’ way of reducing costs, you will only ever add just a few percentage points to your bottom line.

Following our formula, you’ll soon appreciate that by driving sales, marketing, and income growth, your possible returns become exponential…

I’ll never begin coaching with someone if I don’t see an opportunity to make a real difference to their business. The bottom line is that I expect you to make a strong return on investment from coaching.

As we all know, nothing in life is guaranteed... well sometimes!

As long as you make the good-faith effort, do all the required work assigned to you, attend your coaching sessions, and complete your committed decisions and actions by the agreed-upon dates, we guarantee that after six or twelve months (depending on the coaching programme you choose), if we haven't increased your profits by more than your investment in coaching, we will refund you double the difference. Simple as that!

The Alignment Consultation is where we start out with all of our one-on-one coaching clients, and is usually conducted in the first month of coaching. During this session your coach will learn as much as possible about you and your business - your goals, your challenges, your sales, your marketing, your financials, and so much more...

A major focus and output of the Alignment session are gathering together all the potential goals into a plan with time scales. You will have greater clarity on your “why” and not just your “how” and “when”. Within 2 weeks of your alignment session, you’ll have a clear plan for the next 12 months, broken into quarters and months so that you know exactly what needs to be done and the confidence that you can achieve it.