“In the first 2 years of coaching profits have grown by £262k."

“It’s been great. My hours and stress levels have reduced and more time is devoted to the key tasks that really matter. I’ve learnt so much. I feel much more entrepreneurial and focused on developing my team, so they continue to perform to an even higher standard. They are incredibly excited about our transformation through coaching and our future direction.”

Serena Cook, Founder & CEO

The Challenge

Serial entrepreneur Serena Cook founded the luxury concierge and events company Deliciously Sorted in 2001. Despite being the market leader and having a client list to die for – Mick Jagger, Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Campbell and Hugh Grant to name just a few – Serena admitted that she felt frustrated and trapped.

• Serena was constantly sucked into day-to-day client operations and chronically overworked
• Her team performed well but required her constant supervision
• Serena’s time in day-to-day operations left little time for working on company growth
• Serena was still involved in admin and accounting which should have been delegated or outsourced long ago
• Long work hours and repetitive work left Serena feeling stressed and unfulfilled

The Solution

To help Serena overcome her challenges we focused on 2 main areas – training her team and systemising her business. Here’s what we agreed on together…

Systems

• Compile the ‘Deliciously Sorted Bible’ a continually updated ops manual that defines the company’s key processes and tasks
• Define and rigorously measure company, product and individual KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
• Use a high quality CRM to better manage leads & the entire sales process
• 90 day goal setting and review process

Leadership

• Intensive 1-to-1 coaching with Serena on defining vision, thinking bigger, leadership and creation of passive income streams
• Identify and delegate all low value tasks where Serena was wasting time, and replace with the highest value tasks such as networking globally with partners and mentoring her managers

Team

• Create a clear definition of company culture and rules
• Annual team alignment and training days
• Provide education and tools to empower Serena’s 3 key managers: time management and use of default diaries, delegation, management style, structuring meetings, systemisation and sales

Marketing

• Refocus marketing messages: USPs to differentiate from competitors and strong guarantees to build credibility
• Measure sales conversion rates across all products and identify strategies to increase conversion
• Create call scripts and training programme for the sales team

The Results

Serena continues to be an inspirational leader at Deliciously Sorted. However she’s now able to split her time between working on the business and pursuing her other passions in life.

Financial

• Net profit increased by 20% in 2013
• Gross profit increased by 54% to £746k in 2 years
• Average sale per customer increased by 21%
• Sales conversion rate up 57% in the events department• Event department gross profit doubled

Personal

• Team now performing to consistently high standards without Serena’s supervision or involvement
• Serena able to significantly reduce her hours to 10 hours per week on average and use her time on other projects including founding the Ibiza Preservation Fund which has raised more than €400,000 for charity and to run the “Ibiza Says No” (to oil drilling) campaign which generated coverage and awareness in the Sunday Times & various UK publications
• Serena now building her own property investment portfolio