One year on... An action-packed year
Laurence Duncan runs his ActionCOACH franchise in the East Midlands. Here, he talks about his fi rst year...
What did you do before buying your franchise? Prior to purchasing my franchise, I was involved in a renewable energy solar farm. I began to realise I was living by other people’s agendas. I wanted to take control of the direction my life was going, not be at the beck and call of others or subject to the fallout from changing government legislation. In short, I wanted to take charge and lead my life rather than just be a hostage to fortune.
Funnily enough, my clients often feel very similar to how I felt then. Hiring an Action Coach means they are taking control rather than being restrained by their businesses. ActionCOACH is a solution for them and, as I saw the renewable energy project coming to an end, I began to look at the ActionCOACH franchise as an option for my future.
How have you found the past year? The past year has been a rollercoaster. You go through a massive amount of personal change and development, and you really have to question personal attitudes, personal habits and the way you approach business.
My clients began to show signifi cant
improvements in their work-life balance, the performance of their businesses and teams only six months into coaching. It was then that I took on the mantra of the system works, it’s what I’ve paid for, let’s stick to it and have some fun!
What has been your most memorable moment of the past year? There have been several memorable moments over the past year. I would say taking seven of my clients to ActionCOACH’s Business Excellence Forum & Awards this year probably tops the list. Seven strangers with only me to link them together, standing formally and rigidly shaking hands on Wednesday night. Seven friends hugging each other and looking forward to seeing each other at next year’s conference on Friday evening – what an amazing transformation. Have I got seven clients for another 12 months? Most defi nitely.
What would you do diff erently if you could start all over again? I would focus more in the early months.
Laurence Duncan
There was so much good advice, but I tried to chase all of it instead of fi nding my own fl ow. Having said that, would I be the coach I am now if I had not been through the trials and tribulations of my formative months? I have yet to lose a single client, something I am very proud of, and I recently became one of 35 UK Coaches in The ActionCOACH Global Top 100!
What are the benefi ts of running an ActionCOACH franchise? The franchise gives you several things: community, training, innovation and encouragement. Community is probably the most important factor and being able to reach out to other Action Coaches or the 60-strong UK support team is awesome. The training is fantastic with world-class
regular webinars and MasterCLASSES. It gives me confi dence to know that I am delivering cutting-edge material. The ActionCOACH off ering keeps on growing with innovations such as the
Engage & Grow employee engagement programme and PlanningCLUB. Encouragement is probably the least talked about benefi t but, to me, is crucial. Everything I have dreamt of doing has been backed up by my peers and colleagues.
What are your plans for next year? My plans for the coming year include adding to my existing 14 clients and recruiting a full-time business coach to work with me. This will double my franchise’s capacity to help local businesses as well as the profi tability of my own!
My plan is to leverage off ActionCOACH founder Brad Sugars’ October speaking tour of the UK, in particular, his performance at the Leicester Tigers Stadium, to create enough interest to book both of us solid. Ask me in a year’s time how we got on!
ukrecruitment@actioncoach.com July/August 2017 |
BusinessFranchise.com | 41
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
