My franchise story: Finding the building blocks to success

How ActionCOACH helped Andrew Mann to evolve, improve and grow his construction company

Before his work with ActionCOACH, Andrew Mann’s construction business, Clarity Homes, was experiencing hard times. Despite Andrew’s hard work and expertise, he was struggling like many young businesses to find the way to succeed in an unpredictable and competitive market. After reading The Business Coach book, Andrew began to lay the foundations to construct a more profitable and fulfilling business for himself and his family.

“In 2019, I had an initial meeting with my local Action Coach,” said Andrew. “I had reached a point where I was working seven days a week, but I didn’t have any grasp on where the business was going. We had a turnover of £500,000 with next-to-no profit. I knew without some support I would lose everything I had worked so hard to build.

“What I loved about my Action Coach was how he understood me. He helped me see many of the problems the business had which I couldn’t see myself. After the first few sessions, I realised ActionCOACH was exactly who I needed if I was going to transform my business into what I wanted it to be.”

Despite Andrew’s instant connection with his Action Coach, the pair still had a lot of work to do to rescue Andrew’s company. In their initial meetings, ActionCOACH outlined the blueprint of how they could help within the business, identifying the biggest challenges the business faced, so it didn’t take long to start laying the foundations for success.

Uncovering a major problem

“The first six weeks of working with ActionCOACH were pretty scary,” says Andrew. “They made me look at my books in a detail which I had never done before. I suddenly realised how we were in a worse place than I had ever imagined. One major problem identified was cash flow. I realised we didn’t have enough jobs in the pipeline to keep us in the green. My Action Coach suggested a new marketing strategy, which allowed me to grow my client leads, keeping the business viable.”

After tackling the initial issues faced by the business, the pair began to put in strategic steps to help transform the day-to-day operations of the business.

“He helped me put KPIs in place so I could keep the business on the right track. At this time, we also put in a 90-day plan to make sure we had the short-term strategies and tactics in place required to turn the business around. We recognised early on my lack of understanding of where the business was going. Before ActionCOACH, I was running on not knowing; with their support, I started to understand the masses of information my business was producing.”

A shift in strategy

“By the time the first pandemic lockdown hit, we’d already balanced our books to the point where the company wasn’t in immediate danger, as well as put the structure in place for a huge period of growth,” explains Andrew. “In the tax year up to April 2021, we generated a turnover of £1 million, and we were starting to see a good level of profit. This was especially significant as during this period we invested a lot of money into marketing and new staff recruitment.

“A big part of this success came from realigning our core client base. Traditionally we’d worked with individual clients on smaller projects which were very time-consuming and required a high level of customer interaction throughout. We’ve since moved to work with more large-scale corporate projects, allowing us to generate more turnover with larger seven-figure projects. This shift in the strategy has led to our best year yet – with us on track to make £2m this tax year, doubling our turnover from the previous year.”

Building a business empire

Despite the incredible success, Andrew is now seeing an even bigger future for Clarity Homes, with the insight from ActionCOACH.

“I really want to carry on expanding and growing the business. Before lockdown, I had one staff member and now I have nine. My goal is to have a construction and development company that uses the same processes that ActionCOACH has introduced me to. I’m still busy, but it’s a good busy caused by a developing business rather than a failing one. I now have the weekends to myself - I can use this freedom to spend time with my family.

“I wouldn’t have reached this position without the support from my Action Coach – he’s helped me find value in my business and myself. Investing in Action Coaching will make a big difference to your business. If you’re an Olympian, think of the money you would invest in a world-class coach – becoming successful in business is no different.”

The coach perspective

Derek Lancaster is an employee business coach at ActionCOACH Eastbourne & Tunbridge Wells. “What I love about Andrew is that he really wants to learn,” he says. “He takes my input and learning recommendations to heart and then implements them into his business. Someone who is so willing to learn and develop will always make it in the world of business when they choose an environment that’s conducive to growth and success. I’m incredibly privileged to work with clients like Andrew and help them transform their lives.”

Derek is part of the team that ActionCOACH franchise partner Lucy Cameron has built since launching her business coaching franchise in 2012. In the last decade, Lucy has built a thriving firm supporting hundreds of business owners. Lucy said: “Recently, I was searching for the right words to explain the reason we do this thing called business coaching and this is what I came up with… At ActionCOACH, we’re enabling business owners to love their business, enjoy the journey and live their dreams. It makes it a fantastically rewarding and fulfilling business to be in.”

If you want to build a business with scalability and longevity, make a difference in your local community like Lucy and Derek and you’re the kind of person who:

A) loves learning and developing yourself;
B) has enjoyed success in your career or sport; and
C) is willing to invest if you see substantial rewards can be made…

then find out more by heading to actioncoach.co.uk/franchise

At a glance

Year established:

1993 in Australia, 2001 in the UK

Number of franchised outlets:

200-plus in the UK

Location of units:

UK-wide

Investment range:

£69,000

Minimum required capital:

£20,000