This post is very personal to us. It is sometimes difficult to admit your vulnerabilities as a business owner, but we decided that we need to be honest with our clients, employees and wider community so that we could in turn be honest with ourselves. Business is hard, and we needed help.
We have been working together since 2002, first in the restaurant business. We purchased our WSI franchise in 2008 and have been operating it since 2009. That equates to a lot of experience. What we have learned, however, is that even experience needs a helping hand every now and again. We have built a solid business based on service and skills, but we lacked systems and an overall plan. As we grew, it became more stressful and less planned. With the decision to acquire a footing in the UK, we knew that we were going to grow – faster and further than ever before.
That is when we decided that we needed ActionCoach.
Our coaching journey with ActionCoach Ignite started in January with the incredible Deborah Coskey. Debs is exactly what we needed – straight talking, no nonsense and super-practical. The most eye opening exercise was the prep we needed to do for our goal setting session at the beginning of February. It was the first time we had a clear idea of where we are in the business, and where we want to go. After 9 years, we had a clear idea of what our business looked like. It was quite scary, a little intimidating while at the same time being unbelievably empowering.
Our first quarter is almost up, and we can quite easily say that the decision to engage in coaching is one of the best decisions we have ever made – both for our business, and for ourselves personally. We will update this post with our achievements and our journey.
Mel & Nick