Business Coach in Kent - Nick Dougan from ActionCOACH

Business Advice for companies in Kent

You’ve come to the right place if you are looking for effective business advice in Kent. What is your business development strategy? Are you getting the number of sales that you want or do you need to improve your marketing? Do you have a business plan to keep you focused on moving your business forward? Do you need some new business ideas, some new business solutions? Would you like to improve your business education in general? I’m Nick Dougan, and I’m an ActionCOACH business coach based in Kent. I’ve worked with businesses in Sevenoaks, Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells, the Medway towns and further afield too. Whether you want to maximise your profits or whether you’re thinking of putting your business up for sale and you’d like to maximise its value, I can give you the business advice that you need.

A little about me:

I am a Business Coach with ActionCOACH, the World’s #1 Business Coaching Firm.

I have a passion for making sure that businesses run efficiently and effectively. Small and medium-sized businesses, with which I work most of the time, often have an opportunity to offer distinctive and personal services, but have you noticed that too often they don’t quite deliver their potential? Have you, for example, ever visited a café for lunch and wished that you’d gone to McDonalds instead? Or dealt with a local kitchen installer and wished that you had used a national chain? Good smaller businesses can be so much better than that – and I joined ActionCOACH to help more of them achieve the highest levels in all areas of performance.

Before joining ActionCOACH, I had enjoyed a wide variety of management and leadership roles over a period of 25 years. I have had the privilege of working in communications, exhibition management and professional service sectors, latterly in the “general manager” position. My roles have embraced human resources management, training, communications, sales, marketing, accounting, financial analysis, facilities, health and safety and even IT management. Like most small business owners, however, I generally had to take responsibility for several or all of these areas at the same time rather than specialising in one at any one time.

I have seen what works, and also, sometimes the hard way, what does not. I have had many successes, experiencing sustained year on year growth in revenue and profits, and the satisfaction of seeing new systems embed themselves in a business making life easier – and output better – for everyone. But I have also seen businesses through difficult times. I have learned, for example, how to deal with the difficulty and stress of dealing with under-performing members of staff. I know, too, what it is to have to update cash-flow predictions daily and to think carefully before paying every single invoice. And I know that surviving the difficult times can make us stronger – in the latter business, for example, I saw the effect that a good credit control system, consistently applied, can have on cash flow. 

The businesses that I have worked in had turnovers ranging from about £1.5m to £25m, so my experience has mainly been gained in much the same size of businesses as those owned by my coaching clients.

Business Coaching with ActionCOACH:

I like to say that my role,  as an ActionCOACH, is to help clients in four ways: 

1.         Awareness. As an outsider to your business, a coach is well placed to help make you aware of those issues that you don’t see for yourself because you are too close to your operations, or just because you are working such long hours in your business. As your coach, I can also work with you to help you see the gap between your vision and dreams for your business and the reality, and to show you that the gap can be bridged.
To be aware of a single shortcoming in oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in someone else.” The Dalai Lama

2.         Education. Coaches are able to teach their clients ActionCOACH’s proven strategies to improve business performance. These methods designed primarily for small and medium sized owner-managed businesses, and the education is practical and focussed on the particular stage of development of an individual client’s business. One of the aims of coaching, in contrast to consultancy, is that I aim to educate my clients so that they can take responsibility for their own businesses, so that they don’t have to “call in the consultants” next time a similar problem arises.
You are the same today you’ll be in five years except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read.” Charlie “Tremendous” Jones

3.         Implementation. Education is of little value if you can’t put what you have learned into effect. In addition to my own experience in successful businesses, as an ActionCOACH I bring the accumulated experience of the World’s #1 Business Coaching Firm – 1,200 coaches, operating in 27 countries – to help my clients. There can be few sectors or types of business where ActionCOACH does not have experience. ActionCOACH also has a unique approach to team building and motivation, which will help get members of staff on-side and determined to help implement changes, rather than ignoring or obstructing them.
Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.” -Jim Rohn

4.         Accountability. Many of us know what we should be doing to make things better, but we keep on doing the same old thing. A coach, whether coaching in the sporting or the business arena, helps the “player” divide the ultimate goal into a series of achievable steps, and then holds him or her accountable to sticking to the programme. I will function as an unreasonable friend who tells it like it is and keeps you working on the path toward your destination.
We know what to do, we know why we should do it, and we know how to do it. Yet most businesses and individuals don’t do what’s good for them.” David Maister

Working together…  

My goal is to help small business owners, such as yourself, spend less time working in your business and more time working on your business. We define a successful business as “a commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you” and whether your vision is to keep building up your business or businesses, or to maximise its value when you sell it,  that should be your aim. That way you’ll be spending less total time working, will be making more money, and you’ll be having more fun, both in your business and in the rest of your life. 

So, as your coach, I am here to help you make significant changes. We will work together to redefine your dreams and vision, and then we will put into place the necessary systems, strategies, and tactics that will allow you to turn your business venture into a really successful one. We will work systematically together through five key areas.  The order we tackle them and the emphasis on each  depend on your needs, the type of business you have, and your goals.  The key areas are: Sales; Marketing and Advertising; Team Building and Recruitment; Systems and Business Development; and Customer Service.

There is no time like the present - and I mean right now! - to get started on realising your dreams and goals.  Every month I offer the first ten business owners, CEOs or managers who call in a COMPLIMENTARY business coaching session.  So, if you are based in Kent, Surrey or Sussex and if you are ready to move your business to the next level, contact me today. Let’s explore how you can change the way you do business to achieve the results you deserve.
P.S. If you are a business owner, the first step to getting your business going is to take the "Business Health Check." Click here to get started.


 

Call me on 01732 668984


Benefits of working with an ActionCOACH

 

So, whether your main challenge is around marketing, team development or just getting your business better organised, if you need business advice in Kent just give me a call on 01732 668984. I offer a few complimentary business advice sessions each month – ask me when the next one is available.