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.

Reg and Sophie were very skilled in the IT world working as contractors because it suited their lifestyle and their passion - travel!

A couple of years ago they decided they would start a family and part of their planning was to own and run their own profitable business.  The purchased a franchise as they wanted a ready made business with systems, marketing and general business support in their chosen industry.

Neither Reg nor Sophie sought a great deal of independent  professsional advice as they trusted the Franchisor and his lawyer without doing due diligence ..... a recipe for disaster!

They obtained a high profile location for their franchise with thousands of people passing daily.  Their fit-out was up-market to present a professional image to their potential customers.  However things didn't work out as they anticipated and people just walked past their door.  Soon overheads were eating into their capital and they realised something was wrong.

YBM met with Reg and Sophie about 12 months after they began trading and they said "We want you to get us $8,000 per week in sales".  They had a great location, no direct competitor for 4 klm and a large number of potential customers as passing trade.  So YBM set to work.

It didn't take long to realise they had paid too much for the business both directly and indirectly, there was no real business model or systems and in fact they had just paid for a bunch of ideas with a Franchisor who was both aggressive and contemputuous to the extent he was harming their business too!

YBM introduced strategies to achieve their goal and profits grew to almost $8,000 in just a couple of months.  In the meantime YBM recommended a lawyer to assist them resolve the mess they had purchased as it many major faults.  The lawyer and YBM worked with them so they could recoup the cost for the orginal franchise and fit-out expenses.

Reg and Sophie have now been forced to sell the franchise due to family circumstances however YBM has worked with them so they surpassed their goals, and in addition provided them with the expertise and guidance to work their way to recovering what could have been a disastrous situation.

This is yet another example of the broad degree of experience and depth of skill YBM operatives with as a result of their combined 70 years commercial experience and almost 10 years of trading as business mentors.

Casey was just 28 years old, had a 4 year old business and was keen to really make it develop into a profitable, vibrant business which would be a national leader!

She and her team of dedicated staff had worked to grow the business to a stage where it was turning over some $4 million a year however had reached a plateau and didn't know what to do to increase the profits of the business any further - they had hit a "glass ceiling".

That's when Carol met her one afternoon and talked with her about her goals, dreams and ambitions.  Casey didn't want to simply be one of a group of businesses servicing the industry, she wanted to become the best and the leader Australia-wide.

Before putting cutting-edge strategies into place, Casey identified her 5, 3 and 1 year goals, not just for the business but herself too.  She had just got married and naturally had lots of plans for the future with her new husband.  Once these were identified it was off to work to determine the profit margins, finances, client base, systems, and suppliers.

It became obvious importing quality products into the country would provide the business with greater profits and flexibility in terms of the range of products available to her customers.  Casey worked on her website and developed it to an extent where anyone looking for her products would find her in the internet, top of page 1 every time!

Overseas research trips sourced reliable factories which produced high quality goods.  This was trialled over the next 12 months, working through the little teething problems associated with dealing with people who spoke another language.  The finances necessary to ensure the smooth payment of accounts, hedging against the risks associated with foreign monetary transactions and managing the shipping and storage facilities became an everyday learning curve for Casey who worked diligently with her business mentor.

The results have been outstanding, and today the business is now tracking to have an annual turnover of more than $6 million by the end of the current financial year.  An excellent result, and a classic example of how an experienced YBM business mentor guides a young, hard-working and enthusiastic student!  

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), a former client, recently sent this updated testimonial well worth inclusion here  ........

Although we are no longer working together I want to pass you my thoughts on something special that has happened. When I started working with YBM we created 1,3 and 5 year goals.  I was going through some old files and found that we have achieved many of the goals (and indeed a lot when we were working together) and many since we have parted.  It was these early foundations that has enabled us to reach our major goal of buying our first house.

I think the moral of this testimonial for your clients now and in the future is "get the fundamentals right with Your Business Mentor and you can achieve any business or personal goal you set out to achieve".  Thank you.

Ray (not his real name) was a sales agent for a real estate group - successful; however an old relative passed away and Ray and his brother were beneficiaries of a substantial sum of money from the Estate.

Ray, being interested in cars and skilled in the repair industry (having served his apprenticeship previously) decided to buy a business in his chosen trade witha view to working at its development in the area where it had been located for some years.

Having taken over the business in late 2007 and working it for a number of months, he realised things were not happening;  in fact the business was stagnant, if not going backwards on a long-term projection.  Ray was very disappointed, believing his purchase was not what he thought, and he felt his goal of $300,000 profit (before tax) was totally unrealistic.

Then Ray found the YBM website, completed the Business Health Check and his score confirmed his worst fears .... he needed some professional assistance if he was to succeed with his dream of $300,000 in pre-tax profits.

Geoff Golding, the YBM operative commenced mentoring Ray and identified some costing issues where materials and shop supplies were being wasted, over-payment of wages, poor product quality control, a poor attitude displayed by staff, no real marketing strategies resulting in ineffective marketing outcomes and wasted resources.  The business was certainly going backwards and it was going to get worse as time went on unless something was done - quickly!

There were many issues to be addressed, so appropriate branding and marketing commenced and staff attitude was attended to which almost immediately produced positive results.  The financial side of the business was reviewed and by using the YBM Smart $ Software 4 SMEs" Ray had the business back in profit by a slim margin at the end of June 2008.  Ray had turned the corner!

The staff issues are now resolved with high staff morale, quality control is good and quality of work has improved dramatically.  A budget is in place with an expected growth in sales for 2008-09 projected to be increased by 38%, with pre-tax profits budgeted at $587,000 (almost 100% above Ray's goal).

The July 2008 trading figures are to hand and Ray has come within 5% of his budgeted profit for the month and already has work in the pipeline which will see him achieve the projected profit for August, if not exceed it!

This is a great result "in the making"!  With the aid of YBM and their ability to look objectively at a business and find business solutions - YBM is a results-oriented business.

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?