Part 2 of 2

In February I wrote about some successes we have recently seen with business owners who have added significant dollars to cash flow. In this article, I continue their stories of results they are experiencing. These difficult economic times are causing many business owners to rethink their strategies, lower expenses, and to get more creative in doing things better.

Struggling Business Owners Working With a Business Coach

These challenges have also caused many business owners to open their minds to the idea of working with a business coach. As a result of getting help, the business owners that we are working with are experiencing more cash flow and they are growing their businesses.

Here’s an update on some business client results and some new examples:

1. One business owner ($275,000 in annual revenues) made several small revenue modifications and several expense item changes that increased the profit of the business by more than $51,000.
2. A service biz owner ($1.2 million in annual revenues) made two changes to sales and pricing that added $75,000 in profits. In March we worked with the owner and his employees to identify five areas of cost savings, for a total of $101,000. The total amount added to his bottom line: $176,000 per year!
3. A service company owner ($440,000 in annual revenues) added $30,000 to her cash flow with one sales strategy. In April we helped her to add an additional $22,000 to her cash flow with one very simple idea. In five minutes she had increased her monthly cash flow by nearly $2,000! Total money in her pocket: $52,000 per year.
4. A retail business owner hired us to do a business evaluation. He was able to use the evaluation to help him sell his business to one of his employees.

Update on John,* a service company owner

John has been making on average about $40,000 per year for the last ten years. He is an excellent technician and innovative business person, very advanced in his area of expertise. He has excellent values and treats his employees well. Unfortunately, he has been working approximately 80 hours per week during that time. Do the math: he is probably making less than minimum wage. He said that the thing that he wanted most was a date with his wife.

We started out by helping John get a clear personal vision, then worked with his management team, and then his employees. In the first three sessions with John and his team, we added $176,000 to his cash flows, and I have recommended an additional improvement of $72,000 per year. We also showed John how to focus on what he loves the most while finding others in his business to do work that keeps him in the office late. He said, “I came to the realization that I love to fix problems, but I’m not a very good manager of this business. We have been just barely getting by for years, even when economic times were good. Now I realize that we have left a huge amount of money on the table.”

Blind spots in Your Business

The fact is that we all have blind spots. Many people could come into our coaching practice and find areas of improvements. As business coaches, we had the benefit of running our own businesses and hiring a coach. That led to being successful in our own businesses. Additionally, we have the advantage of working with many other business owners in learning what works and what doesn’t work well.

A common malady of being in our own business is becoming burned out. We can get “foggy thinking.” We tend to work too much. We get bogged down in the day to day issues. We don’t know how to improve our cash flow. We get too stressed out. We end up on a treadmill and don’t know how to get off.

Business Coaching works for Business Owners

Coaching works, or I should say that it works for many business owners. There are some business owners who are not good candidates for coaching.

Are you ready to take advantage of difficult times by growing your business and overcoming cash flow problems? Would you like some sound business ideas?

Questions about our small business coaching services?

Call us at 1-888-504-0777,

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