“Coaching is about asking questions, probing for answers and holding people accountable for what they say they are willing to do. The key question you must answer yourself if you are considering hiring a coach, is ‘am I willing to be coached … and be held accountable to getting results?’”

- Brad Sugars -

The Business

Name: Taplin Security Products

Address: Northgate, Queensland, Australia.

Owners: Bill and Pam Ruddle (and son Bill, Jr.)

Type Of Business: Security barrier manufacturers and retailers

Business Sector: Manufacturing

The Challenge

As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, business owners these days tend to spend far too much time working IN their business rather than ON it.

But if they want to really produce spectacular results, this has to change. This basic problem has got to be the single biggest impediment to success I’ve come across in all the thousands of companies I’ve worked with.

And it’s not something that only the most basic owner-operators do — it’s common practice across the board.

Even those who have a detailed understanding or working experience of business principles do it. They find themselves operating at the specialist level rather than concentrating on becoming a generalist.

Take Bill Ruddle of Taplin Security Products, for example. Before he bought his business, he had extensive corporate experience that included Australian College of Management training, so he could be forgiven for thinking he was well equipped for running his own show.

Believe me – he’s not alone. To his credit, though, he had the foresight to recognize the signs and take on a Business Coach.

So, what was the nature of the problem that led him to seek outside professional assistance?

Bill’s original goal was to increase turnover by 100%. He recognized the need to work more on, rather than in, the business, and desired to make a minimum of $100,000 profit, to take a holiday, improve product quality, to be the best in customer service, and to allow Pam to retire.

Nothing wrong with that.

So what happened?

The Ruddles quickly lost sight of where they were heading and how they were going to get there. They became bogged down in the day-to-day routine of running the business and became enslaved by outmoded industry cultures and entrenched ways of operating …