Feeling helpless
When Helen confessed she was thinking of quitting her business and getting a job at Bunnings, we urgently had to find out what aspects of the business were making it so toxic. She was overworked and underpaid, but the biggest concern was her loss of confidence.
Finding the cause of illness
During a complete review of her business we identified the following sources of dysfunction.
1. Low profitability. Revenue was growing, but profit had not increased as expected. Helen did not have the visibility of key numbers to diagnose the profit leaks that needed fixing.
2. Time-poor owner. Helen’s time and emotional energy was being consumed by the day-to-day management of the spa, leaving no time to work on her plans to boost profits. In her own words “I was overwhelmed, wearing so many hats, I didn’t know where to focus my attention”.
3. Dependence. When a business depends on its owner to survive, the owner is trapped in a wage-earning role of running the business, instead of a CEO role where they can improve profits and get paid from the profits they earn (i.e. get paid what they’re worth).
52 weeks of execution
1-1 Advisory provided the individualised feedback that Helen could never get from business books, group coaching, or online resources. In 12 months the following initiatives were achieved.
- Stage 1 – Customer Acquisition. With no regular marketing in place, Helen got more customers from a series of low-effort, low-cost activities taking no more than 2 hrs/wk.
- Stage 2 – Leadership. In order to find time to be the CEO she needed to delegate day-to-day management. Handing over this task required mentoring of her manager, as well as some personal mindset shifts to fully commit to stepping back from operations.
- Stage 3 – Profit. Once we improved her financial oversight, the causes of low profit were obvious, and Helen was able to make improvements in lead generation, staff efficiency, spa capacity, product sales, and pricing.
- Stage 4 – Staffing & Management. As a business grows it needs things it didn’t need before. Growing the team demanded a reliable process to find, hire, onboard, and manage new staff without the owner present. Previously staffing had been a consistent barrier to growth.
Results: Business growth and motherhood
- More revenue. Revenue increased from $250,000 to $400,000.
- More profit. Profit doubled.
- More confidence. “The support and the reassurance was next level. I was able to build my confidence and realised that I was capable and able to make changes.”
- More freedom. Helen extracted herself from the business so well that she was able to take extended maternity leave to have a child. This has allowed her to become a parent without having to close down the business. “I now find myself in my ideal place. My son is nearly 1 yo now and the business pretty much runs it’s self.”
Helen reaching her potential was the key to results
“Dave helped me rebuild my confidence. He helped me put all the pieces together and reminded me of my why. Dave has helped me understand my role as a business owner.”
HC, Day Spa Owner