Case Study: Managing Cash Flow in a Small to Medium Business

This week I spoke with another of our hard working clients about how BGL business coaching helps them to successfully deliver a nationwide aged care health training service…

Jodie’s business story…

Jodie is a small business owner with a contagious enthusiasm for what she does.  You see, Jodie runs a business that provides nationwide training to aged care and community service professionals and aspirants.  She got into the business simply because she thought she could do it better than anybody else and in terms in of her passion for better health care training, you can’t disagree.

But like many entrepreneurs, Jodie’s passion for delivering quality services far exceeded her level of interest or awareness for some key business facets required for success.  And Jodie’s blind spot hurt her business – something needed to change.

Client Profile

Business Name: deFaye College
Description: Nationally registered aged care health training company
Inception: 2005
Owner: Jodie Shannon
Coaching Start Date: 2009
Coach: Geoff Currie
Size: < 10
Location: Maclean, NSW
Website: www.defaye.com.au

Jodie’s business blind spot:  Cash flow

Jodie tried using a business coach before.  It didn’t work.  She says, “…it wasn’t meeting my needs, in that I had no communication with the coach at all and he didn’t understand what I needed; he didn’t understand my business.”

But you guessed it… things weren’t to remain that way.  Enter Geoff.

“I started working with Geoff in November, 2009”, Jodie said.

“It was more personal.  It was a one on one session. He really got to understand the business; and I wasn’t just another number in a group of ‘coaches’ that would log into a webinar for the week.”

Now these aren’t ‘koombiyaa’ sessions where we hold hands, and tell each other secrets.  These are highly focused performance sessions, geared to tune the business to get results you can bank.  And for deFaye College, Geoff’s focus was on cash flow.

Improving cash flow…

“That’s been a really big area for me because I don’t have the financial figures and I’m hopeless at maths…. it’s not ‘my’ area so I try not to deal with it”, she said.  But one of the benefits of a coach is having someone to motivate you into action – someone who is driven to see you get results and succeed on and (subsequently) off the business field.  “He just kept saying ‘you need to do, you need to do’ he was encouraging but not forceful [where] I felt it was over the top and wanted to back away”, she said.

What’s more… Jodie says, the impressive thing about Geoff is he actually started to see it as a problem before I did; that’s the benefit of an external set of eyes on your business – they pick up what you sometimes miss.  “He just knew that it was important that I do it and obviously once I did it I knew it was important that I did it.”

And now that the building blocks to better financial management are in place, Jodie says, she wishes she had done it earlier.

“People see it as money spent that doesn’t need to spent but they are so wrong.  So deadly wrong.  It is the best investment to be made,” she said.

So, what’s unique about business coaching with Geoff Currie?

Jodie says, Geoff doesn’t appear to be in it for the money.  He’s in it to see clients get their wins – whether it’d be fixing up cash flow, or running a better team.  “The focus is me as the business”.

And what about team building & development?  How did you find Geoff working with your team?

My team have a really good relationship with Geoff and have “faith in what he is saying needs to be done,” Jodie said.  “So when I say we need to do this for these reasons and Geoff suggests we do it this way… they’re like ‘OK’.  Sometimes [they agree to actions] better than when I say, ‘ok I suggest we do this…’, she said.

“They’re always keen to know after my phone calls what suggestions has he made, [and] what can we do differently”, she said.

“There is no loss of control.  In fact, it actually brings the team together because there’s someone on the outside looking in.  For me my team has actually worked better”, Jodie said.

“If it wasn’t for Geoff, my business wouldn’t be running today… I think all small to medium businesses should have a business coach”, she said.

And for Jodie, she believes that statement to be especially true if that coach is Geoff.  “If they were considering using Geoff I would highly, highly recommend it.  I think he goes above and beyond what is expected from a general coach.  He has a real enthusiasm for [my] business and for what he does,” she said.

“If I hadn’t of done [business coaching with Geoff], I don’t believe I’d still be in business”, she said.

So what about you?

Is it time you called 61 3 5338 1234 and arranged a Free Business Performance Assessement with a fellow business owner and coach to get the focus you need to get more from your business?