Cover Story T
hroughout 2020, Action Coaches have been changing lives everywhere. Although the national lockdown presented a
challenge, Action Coaches stepped forward to support business owners in their regions. Marc Eccles at ActionCOACH Orsett & Dagenham had
been coaching one such business for less than a year when COVID-19 hit. Grayers Graphics is a one-stop shop
for printing needs based in Essex and, when Marc met with the owner Paul Grayer, they instantly connected. Paul recognised the support he could receive from the experienced business coach as he was determined to get ahead of his competitors and become the biggest and best graphics shop in the area – he just needed help in getting there.
I needed help… “As the team got bigger, so did my workload – which I knew
wasn’t sustainable. I was part of a local networking group where I
met Marc Eccles, a business growth specialist at ActionCOACH. We arranged a time to speak privately. After explaining how he could help me to achieve my business goals, I started to see the full benefits of investing in an Action business coach. “I’d reached a point where I’d become
suffocated by the business and needed a third-party perspective to hold me accountable for my actions. I always knew I had to systemise the business, but something would always pop up and stop me from achieving my goal. This was one of the first things Marc mentioned we’d work on in our coaching sessions and I was sold – our weekly sessions began in August 2019.”
How ActionCOACH shifted my perception of business “For the first 10 years, I was generating a £400,000 turnover. No matter what I did, it never grew past that – I just couldn’t break the cycle.” Marc recognised that one of
Paul’s biggest challenges was time management. He’d become so invested in creating his ‘baby’, he wanted to oversee every tiny detail. “I was effectively the reason why
my business wasn’t growing at the rate I’d have liked it to. Whether it was marketing, sales, operations or finance, I had to know what was happening. Marc understood the problem and by simply stating that business owners should work ON, not IN the business, it all made sense. My outlook shifted that day. “We started on implementing
the systems we needed to grow. By getting these in place, the team would automatically refer to these processes before coming to me with questions, immediately reducing my workload so I could spend more time on the business. As a consequence, my team actually felt more valued and appreciated because I was trusting them to complete their jobs. The results that came from this one activity alone were eye-opening. Jobs were being completed faster and more efficiently, whilst I was free to focus on building a bigger client base.” For Paul, it was almost like a switch
had been flicked on. His work with Marc allowed him to take things to the next level.
The team is fundamental to growth “The whole team knew exactly what they were doing. They were aware of their role, what it involved and where to go if they had any questions. The newly implemented systems became our bible. “Since then, I’ve invested a lot of time
into wellbeing at work, giving the team opportunities to develop themselves and really improve their skills. We began to gel like a true team and the business was soon taking shape.
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