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Managing a rapidly growing business

GoSkydive

Running a rapidly-expanding enterprise sounds like a key to a bright future, but often part of the challenge for business owners is keeping pace with the accelerating growth of their companies.

In 2012, GoSkydive was helping 1,800 customers to throw themselves from a plane every year, with the help of three full-time staff and eight part-timers. The annual turnover was around £400,000.

By 2014, 4,000 customers a year were taking a leap of faith – just over twice the number – and turnover has trebled to around £1.4m. The company employed 23 full-time staff, with 10 more working part-time.

Nigel has made a very significant impact on the success of GoSkydive

The average sale value has increased from £280 per customer to £330 per customer. That’s one of the things Nigel helped us to do. We have Key Performance Indicators and targets in place to help us measure the value of each sale. We’ve invested heavily in marketing, and in bigger, faster aircraft, which gives us the opportunity to up-sell.

We also do a lot more direct booking now. Two years ago agency bookings accounted for around fifty percent of our business, which brought pressure on margins. Now agencies account for around 15 percent, so the combination of better sales mix and higher average sale per customers has a big impact on profit. Nigel has had a huge influence in these areas.

When I started out, I knew a lot about skydiving, but not a lot about running a business. Nigel’s had a real input in the growth of the business, from marketing and methods to team management. I’ve also been able to adopt more of a management role, which allows me to focus on the future development of the business.

I expect we would have got into difficulties during the growth period without Nigel’s input. We were investing a lot in infrastructure and in the future, and we needed to be able to handle the cashflow.

Revenue-wise we are growing fifty percent faster than we would have done had Nigel not been involved.

Nigel has made a very significant impact on the success of GoSkydive. To any director of a growing business, I would recommend Nigel.

Gordon Blamire – GoSkydive

The Coach's Perspective

The key challenges for the owners of rapidly-growing businesses, and my tips for success, are:
People: find really great people whom you can trust to take on day-to-day responsibility of the business while you concentrate on the future.
Managing the money: Growth eats up cash. It’s important to have a handle on the cashflow.
Sustainability: Have continuous sales and marketing efforts to keep the show on the road. Monitor your activity rigorously.

At GoSkydive, we implemented annual goals and a 90-day plan for the whole team, looking at areas like sales and marketing, operations, and financial planning. They conformed to the ActionCOACH mantra of Plan, Do, Review. It is important for everyone to understand what is working, and what isn’t working so well by testing, measuring, and making sure the money is well spent.

GoSkydive continues to go from strength to strength and has an exciting future ahead.

Managing a rapidly growing business

GoSkydive

Nigel has made a very significant impact on the success of GoSkydive

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Nigel has made a very significant impact on the success of GoSkydive

The Coach's Perspective

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