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6 Steps

6 Steps to Massive Resultsl

RESULTS

SYNERGY

TEAM

LEVERAGE

NICHE

MASTERY

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Action COACH business coaching

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The term “6 Secrets” is ActionCOACH shorthand for, “The 6 Steps to Building a Better Business” – a proven and progressive, step by step approach that helps clarify company objectives and produces consistent profits over time. “The definition of a business in the ActionCOACH world is, ‘a commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you’ – the ‘you’ being the owner on the business.” ActionCOACH Denis Paul says, “The 6 Steps are the building blocks of creating a business that the owner can ultimately work ‘on’ and not ‘in.’” Each rung of the ladder in the 6 Steps – Mastery, Niche, Leverage, Team, Synergy, and Results – are dependent on one another and each works to propel the other forward.

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Mastery The first level, Mastery, focuses on the fundamentals of building a commercial, profitable enterprise. “Mastery is the owner taking back control.” Emerson Patton, ActionCOACH Business Coach from Milton Keynes says, “It is the first step in making sure the business delivers profit and productivity with enough information to make great decisions.” The entire process breaks down into four main areas the owner must “master” before moving forward. “Destination” - or where the business is going; “Money” – knowing what factors drive profit and what numbers to measure; “Time” – learning what is most urgent and most timely to boost overall productivity, and “Delivery” – or the process of building consistency into the what the business produces and delivers to its customers. “You have to walk before you run, and we also have to take operations as they are in reality, not as we hope they are or wish them to be,” Patton says. “Part of Mastery is getting the business out of delusion and re-focusing attention on drivers that impact overall performance.” Destination Mastery Many business owners start out with a great idea, a unique product, or a service they have developed to fill a perceived or actual need. As the business grows, however, more strategic decisions need to be made if the company is to grow and prosper over time and in the face of competition – which in the modern business environment is global in scale. “Most owners go into business knowing what they don’t want. Part of being in business for yourself is often a matter of elimination. Someone didn’t want to work for wages anymore. Someone else didn’t want to work for a boss or in a corporate environment. Another person didn’t want to travel as much away from home.”

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“The reverse of that is knowing what you do want.” Paul continues. “Destination Mastery defines where an owner is now where he or she wants to be. Only then can you build a business plan that makes sense for both the owner and the business.” As an ActionCOACH Business Coach works with owners through Destination Mastery, an owner’s focus is directed to vision, goals, and the underlying reasons why the owner is working so hard to build the business. “A lot of the Destination Mastery system is built around an individual owner’s identity, values and beliefs – which are different for every owner,” he says. “The goal is to get owners moving toward the goals they are really after – using their business to enable them to achieve their dreams.” Money Mastery Numerous studies on small business owners show poor financial management is one of the leading causes of business failure and under performance. “Good financial management is crucial to the success of business,” Martin Shimmen, Buckinghamshire based Business Coach says. “That’s what Money Mastery is all about. It’s about building a foundation to get to profit – which is the most important aspect of any business.” While profit is vital, there is one number that is equally or more important for the initial success of a company – one that many small business owners have trouble identifying when they first start working with their ActionCOACH Business Coach. “Breakeven is the most important number from a financial management standpoint,” Shimmen continues. “Most people outside of a business may wonder how an owner could operate without knowing break even. The fact is, many of the owners we work with wonder the same thing – how they could operate without knowing this on a daily and weekly basis.” Profit margins, reporting, cash flow and budget. Most owners avoid getting into a good understanding of those numbers and processes, leaving them to their accountant or bookkeeper on a monthly or quarterly basis. “Doing so leaves the owner operating in the proverbial dark,” Shimmen says. “Which leads to underperformance, or worse yet, a company that struggles to survive.”

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Time Mastery During the 1990’s, media attention was focused on the idea of productivity, mainly because business owners and policy makers realised the benefits that had been gained over the proceeding decade as a result of automation, computer technology and IT infrastructure. The goal of Time Mastery from the ActionCOACH perspective is to leverage both an owner’s effort and employee effort to be more productive – because productivity created efficiencies that lead to greater profits as a company grows and expands. “The three main areas of Time Mastery are broken down into Self Mastery, Planning Mastery, and Delegation Mastery.” ActionCOACH Business Coach George Hannides says, “Time management issues are essentially self-management issues. Does an owner do everything themselves? Why? Can they delegate and get more done?” “Inevitably, this leads to an owner facing the challenge of letting some things go – which is incredibly hard for most of them. But delegation is the first step to building a business the owner can work ‘on’ and not ‘in’.” Delivery Mastery Consistency is at the heart of building a great service reputation. Today’s large companies – which were once small businesses – all realised that at some point in their development. Delivery Mastery focuses on the factors that lead to service consistency from supply to actual delivery to service after-sale. “When we look at Delivery Mastery, we’re asking a few key questions,” ActionCOACH Business Coach Mark Cadbury says. “Can customers get what they are paying for? Can they get it on time? Is the business delivering at all levels consistently?” “Through this process, we identify the bottlenecks and obstacles both internally and externally that can hinder overall service. We also find ways to improve quality and make it easier for customers to buy,” he continues. “Ultimately, we want owners to build rapport and relationships with their customer base. Only then can we find ways to really give them more than they expect. That’s the first step in building a ‘Raving Fan’ base of customers.”

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Niche The next level, Niche, is about creating predictable cashflow for the business and operating from a position where the business has no price competition. “Niche is where the business becomes a commercial, profitable enterprise,” ActionCOACH Business Coach Mark Cadbury says. “At this level, everything is orientated around marketing.” Marketing from a point of difference, adding value to each transaction and finding a company’s USP – or Unique Selling Proposition” – are key factors at the Niche level. It is also at the Niche level that the “5 Ways” comes into play. Here we work from the premise that marketing isn’t an expense, it’s an investment – one that significantly impacts the bottom line,” he says. “The 5 Ways are a major component of showing how marketing impacts customers, revenues and profits in a highly leveraged way.” Can a business increase sales 10%, keep expenses constant and still see a 61% increase in profits? It can if it looks at the bottom line the ActionCOACH way. Conventional business looks at sales from the standpoint of three variables, namely sales, expenses and profits defined by the formula:

Sales – Expenses + Profits In this approach, each variable depends on the other, forcing business to look at either increasing sales or decreasing expenses in order to influence profitability. ActionCOACH moves away from this narrow view and breaks the sales variable into five separate components. These variables can be worked individually and across the board to leverage profits on the bottom line.

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According to the 5 Ways all business is driven by five key profit generating areas: Lead Generation, Conversion Rate, Average Sale, Average Number of Transactions and Profit Margins. A closer look at all these variables reveals how an increase in any or all of them can increase sales and profits, whilst keeping expenses consistent. The innovative idea around the 5 Ways is that businesses can leverage the concept even if it has a product or service with a long-term buying cycle or a limited number of transactions. In those cases, a business could work the other variables to improve bottom-line profit, including boosting it’s marketing efforts to capture more qualified leads, finding ways to increase conversion to customers, raising prices to leverage average amount sale or upgrade profit margins. By stepping outside the conventional accounting perspective of profit and recognising that a number of additional variables drive the bottom line – ActionCOACH gives owners a new perspective on business – and equips them with the tools that positively impact each variable of the equation.

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Leverage Leverage, in fact, is the third of the 6 Steps where systems are implemented at all levels of the company. “The ActionCOACH definition of leverage is ‘doing ever more with ever less,” ActionCOACH Business Coach Martin Shimmen says. “It’s about finding ways to systemise the routine while humanising exceptions to the routines. In our experience, we’ve found 80% of a typical company’s operations are routine at some level. Systemising that 80% frees up resources – mainly the owner’s time – toward more productive functions.” At the Leverage level, ActionCOACH also works to create Vision, Mission and Culture statements for the business, while helping implement goals, organisational structure and KPI’s – or Key Performance Indicators – number that help guide operations and check progress toward company objectives. “Leverage level gives owners great information on ‘what to manage,’” he says. “It’s a strategic way of getting to the ‘nuts and bolts’ of an operation. It can be time consuming – but the benefits at the back end far outweigh the time spent systemising up front.”

The 9 steps to Systemisation

1. Vision

2. Mission

3. Culture Statements

4. Goals

5. Organisational Chart

6. Positional Contracts

7. KPIs

8. How-to Manuals

9. Milestones

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Team The fourth level provides ownership with a structure for growth. “Up to the Team level, we build on getting the basics of the business up and running,” ActionCOACH Business Coach George Hannides says. “At Team level we work on the keys to building winning teams, namely strong leadership toward a common goal, knowing the rules of the game and following a plan of action where everyone knows ‘who needs to do what by when.’” Team building also fosters an atmosphere that encourages risk taking – with the expectation that team members participate 100% of the time with 100% of their efforts. “The outcome of the Team level is a realisation of synergy within the organisation that allows the business to function towards its maximum potential,” he says.” The Synergy level is a by-product of an integrated system that works to produce the ultimate result of a business – consistent profits on a consistent basis.” Building a Winning Team Selecting the right people is just the beginning of building a successful team for your business. However, you cannot simply expect your team alone will transform your business and take it to its next level of performance. It is equally important to have the following six elements in place:

1. Strong leadership 2. Common goals 3. Rules of the game 4. Action plan 5. Support risk taking 6. 100% inclusion and involvement

When you treat your team well, you demonstrate how to treat others, and your team learn by your example how other people should be dealt with. This idea follows the ‘trickle-down’ theory: How you respond to and work with one group impacts how they work with others. In other words, when a company’s employees are happy, customers will be as well. The best way to get a good reputation for excellent customer service is to provide an excellent, supportive and positive work environment for the team. After all, the company is the people who work there. And, happy employees work together better, and are more motivated and productive.

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Results Synergy leads to results. Ideally, the Team and Synergy levels seamlessly ladder the owner and the business to the Results level – giving the owner a variety of options he or she may have never considered before. “Maybe it’s more free time, “ Patton says, “or maybe it’s expansion, meaning duplication of the business and its systems to new locations in new markets. Who knows? What’s important is the owner has the freedom to consider those options without the burden of a chaotic workplace – knowing the business can operate profitably without his or her physical presence at the company.” Being a profitable business that works without its owner has been the goal of ActionCOACH since its inception. Together, focus on each area helps move the business and it’s owner from a chaotic environment to one that is systemised, routine based and controlled. Only then can an owner truly unlock the leverage the assets and resources that are available in the market place. The success of the “6 Steps” in the real world has been to do exactly that – giving owners the time and resources they initially wanted when they first went into business for themselves.

“Most business owners don’t realise the gold mine they have in their business,” says Patton. “Small business ownership is the fastest way to wealth for most people.

Our goal is to make sure owners get the wealth that already exists in their companies – and do it faster than they could on their own.”