an email regarding Business Coaching and the Economy from Dominic Rubino to a reporter/ researcher

This is a copy of an email that Dominic Rubino, Our Executive Vice President sent off to a well known reporter who is looking for story ideas....In red is the original question...

Questions About Pricing and Wage Pressures -- please share your quick feedback. I'm getting called almost daily by the media asking what I'm hearing from the mid-market segment of the economy. With increased food and fuel costs they are asking two specific questions: 1) are you feeling the pressure to raise your own prices and by how much; and 2) are your employees asking for increased wages to offset their own increased costs of putting food on the table and commuting to work? I'll keep your responses anonymous unless I get your permission to share with the media that contact me.

Hi Vic,
Just saw your call for input. As you know, Business Coaches are in a bit of a different spot in this conversation, as we actively work to show business owners the roses in the thorns. In this case, opportunities among the threats.

Over the various cycles we've seen, we've noticed that companies who are aggressive in a downturn, really launch rapidly ( we call it boomeranging) at the first sign of an upturn.

A case in point is the Bosa Construction Group in Canada. At the start of the 80's downturn, they were just another construction company specialising in residential homes. Early to mid 80's - They went into acquisition mode, buying up "odd" parcels of land. Things like Blueberry Farms, Mountainside Farm land, and low- low-low rent apartment buildings etc.

Fast forward to now and they ( along with their numerous spin off company's) spent all of the 90's and the first part of the 00's building huge mega -high rises and town home complexes. The Vancouver boom is done , and Bosa has already leapt into other markets. Let me reiterate, in 1980, they built 2 story homes! ( their Sandbox changed)

Here's what our business coaches are seeing North America wide. Fear and Uncertainty

Business Owners are afraid to raise prices, or make the changes they know they need to make.
So compensating for fuel and wages is something they typically look internally for as opposed to being critical of their operations and making changes there.

One of our Coaches ( Dulcee Loehn, Florida) has a client who makes this point well. One of her clients is a Commercial Electrical Contractor. When she began the FocalPoint Coaching Process , the owners had a dim view of the future, but knew something had to change. In 9 weeks she's found them savings in how they run their business. One operational change will net them around 8k per year, and another of about 11k annually. Those savings will now continue annually.

She's only 2 1/2 months into coaching with them. A 7 million dollar company today and that's already a significant uptick in profitability. Coaching will really take them into a new level of business.

Brad Ness is another FocalPoint Business Coach in Columbus, Ohio. Brad is an excellent coach who delvers results. He works with a client who is a Civil Engineer. Aside from making a living from his company, profits were approximately 30 k annually.

With coaching, and quite a bit of strategic planning, this client is now looking at providing a contract that will net him 300k in profit annually. He simply started the coaching relationship hoping to "get a better handle on his business". The FocalPoint System is based on the work of Brian Tracy who has been the leader of Business Growth and Sales Growth of over 3o years.

I think the business public would be surprised to learn how few main street businesses ( 1 to 40 mill/yr) do job costing or profitability analysis. Or how many of them proactively approach hiring , training, or "topgrading" their people.

It seems that the last thing on a business owners mind is making a change in their business,. We all know these are all brilliant people. They just don't know where to start. Fair enough.

What do do first, what to ignore, and what to do last can be a significant challenge.

Vic, I know telling this to you is singing with the choir, but Coaching really works!
I hope these stories helped you out. If your magazine need a hand with a story, let me know, we have lots of them, and we're glad to help.
Talk to you soon,
Dom

*****
I've shared this with you as I think it gives a pretty good perspective on the Business of Business Coaching.

Your comments?
Thanks,
Steve Thompson, FocalPoint Coaching