When our ActionCOACH Business Coach first met Scott, John and Heather for the first time in a very small and dingy office, I’m sure he wondered how he could help them
They were a fairly typical trades-type company where they did everything themselves – there were no systems and they had no real team. But they had the desire to move beyond where they were at the time.
They were, however, owners who never made excuses; they just asked, “What can we do?”

We stagnated for the next 6 to 8 months. We weren’t doing any better, but we weren’t doing any worse either. Something kept worrying me as we had grown fairly fast until then. To go from a rapid growth-rate rate to suddenly standing still scared me. I began to wonder whether the company was actually in decline and started thinking that we should sell before it was too late. I began to think about looking for another job again, and wondered when I should start firing people.

My previous experience is in optics. I worked as an Optical Mechanic and an Optical Dispenser for a period of 10 years. During that time, I had no experience in graffiti removal whatsoever, I also had no interest in the subject at all.
I thought my future was going to be in optics. I could see myself moving up the corporate ladder, and this is something I wanted to do.

The Paterson brothers came into this business from different routes – Scott from the world of optics and John from plumbing.
Both could be regarded as fairly typical trades-people, and neither had any real business expertise to speak of.
They did, however, have something going for them. They were enthusiastic, dedicated and hard working. And they happened to stumble across a product they believed could sell well.

After just 3-months, Tim was spending 1-day a week less at work. He re-evaluated the team and introduced testing and measuring, as well as sales training. The company conversion rate increased from 50% to 70%. Discounting is now a thing of the past. Prices have actually been increased, and profit has gone from negative to +11%.

After 6 months, cashflow forecasts indicated an inventory challenge. This was tackled with new contracts put in place and ‘dead’ stock cleared. The conversion rate was now better than 80%. A 10% increase in profit per month became our target. A new key team member was employed when an existing salesperson was promoted to General Manger, freeing up the owner. 500 people were enrolled in the VIP program.