Bill’s Story

After running the business for 11 years, things were getting better but we’d only had a 100% increase in 10 years – that’s only about 7-8% per year growth.

We were marking time and wondering if we’d be able to reach our retirement goals. We were actually running at a Net Loss. The GST had really impinged on cashflow. Morale was very low, and we felt we were at the mercy of our subcontractors as we relied on them for the manufacture and installation of our products.

We actually didn’t know how we could improve the business, other than just putting our heads down and working harder. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that we didn’t even know if our business was improvable! I mean, it had been in existence since 1955 and when we bought it, we simply continued doing what had been done all along. We thought our performance was normal for the type of business we were in, even though we would have liked better results.

We were worried that it was looking more and more like we would fall far short of our long-term retirement goals, but then again, that’s what most people feel, isn’t it?

The Moment Of Truth

I guess our “Moment Of Truth” arrived by way of a single phone call out of the blue. It was from ActionCOACH and it forced me to face up to my worst business fears. Or the reality of my situation. It made me confront reality, even though my initial reaction was to dismiss it by treating it like just another unsolicited piece of speculative marketing.

In retrospect, I have to say that this one phone call really changed our lives …