Overview
Brother and sister Jamie and Joanne Beasley found themselves in need of some guidance to get their business moving in a clear direction. A friend recommended ActionCOACH Rob Pickering and with his help they’ve made amazing progress. They’re about to sign a new lease on their building and are on track to double their turnover!
Background
Berkshire Office Furniture (BOF) was set up over 25 years ago by brother and sister Jamie and Joanne Beasley. The company originally specialised in upholstery and renovation, but over time broadened its offering to include the supply of new office and educational furniture. Based in Reading, BOF now employs 20 staff and the future is looking bright…but it wasn’t always so.
Only a few years ago, Jamie and Joanne were considering downsizing the business and giving notice on their lease.
Meeting an ActionCOACH
“I came across Rob almost by accident”, explained Joanne, “having been recommended him by a friend, who was a fellow school governor with Rob. She knew that we were in need of some direction and advised that we spoke with him. I’m so glad that we did.”
At the time, BOF was suffering from both financial difficulties and staff issues. Its lease was due up for renewal, and to exit with 1 year’s notice, it would have had to give notice within 5 months, so time was very pressing. “We were pretty much at breaking point – luckily, Rob came along just at the right time”.
First improvements
The company was not short of business (there were plenty of orders), nor did it lack for e ort (the sta were always working hard), it was just that BOF wasn’t working smart. Jamie summed it up thus: “We needed to inject growth into our business – revenue and profits had essentially been stagnant for the past 10 years”
Jamie and Joanne had never considered coaching before, and at this particular point in time with money being so tight, they weren’t sure they would have the necessary funds. However, with the help of Growth Accelerator funding Rob managed to make it affordable, so they signed up.
Setting guidance and direction
“We desperately needed some guidance and direction – this was the priority”, admitted Jamie. Although BOF had always collected data on its customers and the nature of the jobs undertaken, they had never sat down and properly analyzed this data. Furthermore, since management:staff relations had started to deteriorate, neither side was now engaging with each other. As a result, when Rob sat down with Jamie and Joanne and reviewed the numbers in detail, it was clear that a complete overhaul was required.
Getting the staff back onside
Back to Jamie: “The first challenge was to get the staff back onside. One of the reasons why we’d debated not renewing the lease was because relations between the staff and management had broken down. We didn’t really know what they were doing, and they didn’t really look to us for guidance”
Rob’s first step was to introduce Monday ‘1-to-1’s’; a series of individual meetings with all the staff at which Jamie and Joanne discussed what they would be working on for the week, how much time it should be taking them, and what prices were being charged. By systematically analyzing and following up on the data, it was quickly possible to ascertain which customers were loss leaders, time wasters, or simply troublesome.
Jamie continues: “By putting into place a clear communication structure, Rob managed to do away with the ‘us & them’ mentality at a stroke. At the time we weren’t sure whether we were the right people to undertake the weekly 1 to 1’s, but Rob insisted and gave us pointers on ‘soft skills’ to help manage the meetings. It was incredibly reassuring to have him there in the background.”
It had all become too decentralised and we had lost a lot of control. The 1-1’s brought about the biggest change in mentality – for the first time we started to analyse the financial information we had been assiduosly collecting over all these years, finding out which customers were profitable, which were time-wasters, which were over demanding. Rob gave us the confidence to prune our customer base which is something we’d never have done previously”
Targeted marketing
In the past, BOF had suffered from a dearth of marketing. “All of our business had previously come either from repeat customers or from referrals – we weren’t marketing ourselves well enough”, admitted Jamie.
Jamie continues: “It’s very different now though – everything is planned. For example, our mailshot to schools is thought out well in advance and now goes out towards the end of the Spring term, with an organized follow-up. Previously, we were chasing the wrong people at the wrong time with the wrong message.”
By attending regular 90-day Planning Workshops that Rob organises for a group of clients, BOF is able to set short-term realizable goals, which delivers the structure and direction that was so desperately needed at the outset. Jamie enthuses about this: “Another benefit of having a Marketing Campaign is that we can now vary our offering according to the time of year. Previously we were always very busy over the Summer months, but were then scratching around over the Winter and all our profits drifted away. We now plan to be busy all year round.”
The future
BOF is currently on track to double its turnover for 2016, staff relations have never been better, and the company is in negotiations regarding a new lease to stay on in its current premises. Jamie and Joanne recognise the importance of ActionCOACH and Rob’s involvement, so much so that they insisted on continuing with the coaching after the Growth Accelerator programme finished.
“We really look forward to our fortnightly conference calls and meetings with Rob – it keeps us focused and on track. Actually, I think Rob enjoys them as well, since we’re prepared to try anything he suggests and to really give it 100%.”
Finally, any suggestions as to how ActionCOACH could improve its offering? “Yes, they could buy more furniture from us”, laughs Jamie.
