Pete and Dianne (not real names) purchased a business in the building industry early 2007 from a brother and sister-in-law. Neither Pete nor Dianne had worked in the building industry previously although Pete had owned a business.
They were working very long hours and growing the business at a reasonable rate but had the feeling that things were not right and they should be producing better results.
Following an interview with Geoff & Carol from Your Business Mentor Pty Ltd (YBM); Pete and Dianne decided they would ask YBM to assist them with the development of their business.
One of the first things which became clear was that Pete and Dianne had set themselves a basic goal to have sales of $2M in the 2007-8 Financial Year - with a profit and genuine cash flow; sufficient to enable them to look at purchasing their own home, and to show the bank they could service a realistic mortgage.
It quickly became obvious to YBM the business was not trading as well as it could, in fact, due to incorrect advice by their former accountant, they were paying tax on tax, they had no idea of the margins they were making on the products and services they were providing to the commercial world, and Dianne was doing the quarterly GST return (and making errors) – in short the business was not giving them the return they had wished, but they could not work out why this was so.
YBM quickly identified the branding was tired and needed upgrading, a system was installed using the YBM - Smart $ Software 4 SMEs where Pete and Dianne identified where their margins were out of step. These inadequacies were rectified, a good bookkeeper was employed and needless to say the original accountant, who gave the incorrect advice was shown the door; with the result that by the end of Jan 2008 “a light was appearing at the end of the tunnel”.
By 30th April 2008, Pete and Dianne knew they were making money and would have a profit. Tax planning has been undertaken and a budget is now in place for the 2008-9 Financial Year which will see Pete and Dianne buy that home they dream of sometime before Xmas 2008 and operate the business from an office which will be far more suitable for their needs.
This is another example of how YBM objectivity and skills have turned another business from disaster to a profitable position with the business foundations in place to release the untapped resources which existed in the first place.
Frank (not real name) had a business retailing items that are a part of the “DIY home improvement” market struggling to survive and was losing money.
His business was located in the southern suburbs of Sydney metropolitan area on a main road but the shop was “battle-axe” in shape i.e. had a very narrow entrance which did not indicate the real size of the store. It certainly was not a good retail site.
When Frank met his YBM mentor he had been trading for several years, and had extensive knowledge of all his products. At the time the only “marketing” he was doing was to rely on a nearby major store selling the same product but giving absolutely no service to customers. These disenchanted purchasers, seeing Frank’s shop sign, walked 80 metres down the road, were delighted by the range of products Frank had in stock, and appreciated the service and advice he provided.
Whilst he improved the customer flow and sales his shop front and location did not do the business justice. When the opportunity was presented by his lease expiring, his mentor strongly recommended he vacate the premises and relocate. Initially the idea was much to Frank’s consternation, with him saying “I will lose all my customers, I’ll go broke”.
The YBM mentor gave Frank an assignment to find better suited premises (same floor area at 20% less rent, on a main road, suited to retailing). Within 2 weeks new premises had been sourced, a rent free period was negotiated by Frank with his mentor’s support and a month later the business had moved having had an interior designer provide smart colours, layout and fit-out ideas.
Two and a half years later this business is trading profitably; its turnover is well over $100,000 per month thanks to the YBM objectivity process and taking Frank out of his comfort zone.
Elizabeth (not her real name) is a very well qualified professional working with some of Australia’s major corporations as a Human Resources contractor.
When she first met her YBM mentor she explained that some years were very successful when she would earn $200,000 plus per year; other years Elizabeth would struggle to pay her mortgage. The YBM terms of reference were to take the peaks and troughs out of Elizabeth’s income cycle and she only wanted to work 4 days per week.
After some considerable discussion her mentor realized that Elizabeth, while very well skilled, could not identify her “product/skills” let alone sell it to a Managing Director or CEO of a major corporate. As a result, Elizabeth had an issue about confidence in herself and her business.
After just five months of working out what her product was, re-branding the business in a way that made the product very easy to identify and sell, Elizabeth achieved her goal of working 4 days a week and has an on-going series of contracts that see her income in the area of $250,000 p.a.
David (not his real name) was referred to YBM by an existing client, Peter, who was chatting with David on Saturday morning about his products.
The conversation turned to marketing and David was saying how hard it was to get customers to come to his premises, let alone buy the highly-priced but very high quality products.
Peter, who had been a YBM mentoree was very pleased with his outcome, referred David to YBM and it was quickly recognized that David was the “best kept secret in his industry” in that he had incredible technical skills, yet by his own admission knew nothing about "the business of business".
David’s YBM mentor started by looking objectively to see where the biggest improvement could be made to the business so that existing stock could be sold to get liquidity back into the business which was also a problem.
After several sessions with his mentor, David realized that his situation was not good so it was agreed to look at alternative ways of “creative financing” his stock which would free up liquidity and in fact allowed David to increase his range of products which would make the business/products more attractive to all his customers.
David’s mentor introduced him to a finance broker who put together a finance package tailored to David’s requirements and with some targeted marketing customers starting to come through David’s doors again.
David was given a sales-tip during his first business mentoring session and was asked to try it for a week. The first time he used this strategy a $600 sale became a $1,100 sale, and this technique is now being employed by all David’s team with great results on the weekly sales figures.
Mike and Jill (not their real names) are extremely well qualified to in the I.T. world, decide several years ago to set up a very specialist business, providing technical advice to multi-national companies………..things were not going very well, in fact they were going out the door backwards at a “reasonable rate of knots”.
Your Business Mentors met Mike and Jill socially, subsequently we were asked to look at the business and what they were doing wrong and why it was not working as they believed they had a great service and product.
After just one session, Your Business Mentors had identified the problem and when Mike and Jill were given the explanation they could see why they were going wrong and they also identified the weakness in what they had been doing and why they had wasted so much of their capital over the previous couple of years.
The objectivity YBM bought to this client was very powerful, then over a period of 7 months we mutually put in place a some branding and a marketing program where selling their product became quite straight forward with a result that the first major order generated over $40,000 in fees and then in the same week they received another order from a second client of $120,000 in fees…WOW!.
These days Mike and Jill, whilst doing it very tough for some time before YBM started working with them and even in the early days of our assignment, they could see the light at the end of the tunnel. With YBM guidance and their perseverance they now enjoy the benefits of a profitable and successful business, a great life style in a great bush land environment on the edge of the Sydney Metropolitan area.
This case study is about two guys; Andrew and Graham (not their real names) who started a business almost 5 years ago in the I.T. world. Things went well until early 2005 when they recognized they could not, and did not know how, to get the business to the next level in its development.
What frustrated them particularly was despite their best efforts they could not see why the transition would not occur.
In trying to find the answer to their problem, they spoke with a number of professionals, attended Seminars and due to the continual changes in the I.T. industry worked hard at staying on top of their field.
At this point YBM was asked to work with them. Having identified the problem with the YBM objectivity and skills, Andrew and Graham were asked to make a commitment to work IN the business for a minimum of 4 hours per week.
Three months down the track nothing was happening, the commitment that Andrew and Graham had made was not being exercised. The extra tasks to move the business and the owners out of their old habits was not occurring with a result the business was stagnant, the owners were working very long hours, signing up clients not knowing if the new business was going to be profitable with a result they were not making a particularly good return on their time and money investment.
In this case YBM resigned the assignment. The real problem was not the business but the owners who were holding the business back, worrying about “the grains of sand on the beach” and what they looked like rather than worrying “about the beach” i.e. the big picture.
Can you relate to these circumstances? YBM finds in a large number of cases the Business Owners are experts in holding their business back from its natural development.
Some business owners cannot be coached with a result they become disillusioned with their business, burnt out, tired and go back to just a job (which really means Just Over Broke) with “a corporation”……….working long hours and being paid possibly less than they should, these days with virtually no job security!
A well run business is your Best Investment……..better than shares, property, classic cars none of these will give an annual return (profit after all expenses and before tax) of 25, 30, or even 40% return per year. Some YBM clients have annual profits above 45% per year with growth of 150-200% p.a.
Ian (not his real name) is a young fellow with a dream and a lot of skills in the Web-building world.
He was made redundant from a major sporting organization in 2005. He has a young family and as you would imagine this was a body blow to him from many points of view.
Naturally he started looking for a job where he could use his skills to the employer's best advantage, but doors kept being slammed in his face and things were getting desperate in a financial sense.
So he decided to start his own business. Not much capital, his skills, enthusiasm and a will to succeed, working out of dingy shared offices with another group of people all in pretty much the same boat i.e. starting businesses. At least Ian had someone to share his experience with on a day to day basis.
Ian's first real break came when he was offered an office within a much bigger office in the CBD of Sydney at a very attractive rental. As you would imagine this helped with credibility and Ian’s outlook changed resulting in him meeting YBM at the end of May 2005.
At this stage he knew he needed some assistance with the development of his business but was unsure if he could afford YBM. YBM used his financial details and addressed this affordability question and it was then Ian realized he could afford our services.
The outcome of almost 12 months mentoring from YBM has now got Ian, to the point where he has a good cash flow, a strong, developing client base and a string of opportunities for work from some of Australia’s major companies.
Ian’s Xmas present for 2006? ………..He was approached by a large company to buy a substantial shareholding in the business for a very considerable amount of money. How do you think Ian felt after less than 2 years hard work in his business with this happening?.............WOW!
On one hand YBM is sorry to lose Ian as a client, but on the other we are very proud and happy YBM has played a part in Ian’s success.
So to those people who may doubt the wisdom of business mentoring/coaching; we can say that the methods employed by YBM get great results regardless of the size of your business.
We pose just one question to you, the browser and business owner of the YBM web-site………Can you afford NOT to use YBM as your business mentor/coach?
Rachel and husband Justin (not their real names) have a great business which has been trading for about 10 years in the western suburbs of Sydney.
The business originally was started by Rachel, “on the dining room table” and when it grew too big for the home environs they moved the business to a small, but adequate factory complex near by, and Justin quit his corporate job and came on to the payroll at this stage also.
“YBM” were referred to Rachel and Justin by their Financial Planner who was concerned the business was not developing the funds to see their financial plan being fulfilled and something had to be done, as of course the business was not giving the cash resources to give the anticipated retirement that both Rachel and Justin wanted.
What was very concerning, and it came out in the course of conversation when “YBM” met initially with Rachel and Justin, they had been working with a Business Coach for about 2 years and they were struggled to make a small profit for the Financial Year
2004-5, the last year the previous business coach was working with Rachel and Justin.
Rachel and Justin’s business, in the 5 months “YBM” have been working with them (and they are still clients these days) developed a cash flow budget, implemented some initial strategies and after just 3 months trading in the 2005-6 Financial Year are showing a profit (before tax) of just over $40,000.
One strategy that “YBM” introduced generated significant savings that will put an estimated $20,000 (on an annual basis) profit which is just some of the untapped potential that exists in this business.
After 3 months figures have been prepared and using the exclusive “YBM” cash flow software “YBM” has been able to project that Rachel and Justin will make an estimated before tax profit in the order of $165,000 for the 2005-6 Financial Year.
A case of “Growth and Objectivity” using the “YBM” expertise.
Can you afford not to take on board this valuable resource to develop your business?
