Company profile - Saffron Interiors
- Design, supply and fit high quality kitchens, home studies, bathrooms and bedrooms, projects valued between £2,000 and £70,000.
- Employing a direct and indirect team of up to 7.
- A small but very active showroom. (South East England).
Business situation
The business owner Gary and his wife and partner Katrina were unhappy with the progress they were making in their business. Profit was low, when business did come in the response was somewhat chaotic.
There were few systems in place to ensure that delivery of their service had any degree of consistency.
Sales were made but whilst handling one enquiry, others suffered, because of the work load.
Generating enquiries was dependant on passing traffic and referrals from existing clients and some local advertising.
Recruiting someone to help with the busy times was difficult to justify in case things went quiet again, so it seemed to be feast or famine but extremely busy all the time.
Katrina was expecting their first baby so her help in running the business was coming to an end putting extra importance on recruiting a good right hand person for Gary.
There was some good data available (albeit incomplete) on the businesses commercial activity, but it was looked at rarely and was not used to make informed decisions.
Solution
Gary decided that something had to change so he decided that the “Kickstart” coaching programme was the right solution for them.
He met with Steve Shaw and they agreed to work together.
The starting point was to discuss and agree clear 3 to 5 year goals both for Gary and for the business.
Gary started doing the things he knew he should have been doing and now he had someone to bounce ideas off each week, someone to hold him accountable and someone who could keep him on track with the important things that needed to be done.
Recruitment, systemisation, testing and measuring, more effective marketing, optimizing use of time were some of the many things that Steve suggested would benefit from reviewing. These were discussed and reviewed, strategies were acted upon which resulted in improving average sale value and sales conversion rates.
The number and cost of enquiries improved significantly and solid systems were created all aimed at efficiently delivering a consistent high quality service and product.
Benefits
The improved profitability of the business has allowed for the investment in more effective leverage through developing the team, new systems and new sales processes. Improved communications with clients and prospects has been critical to improving the profitability of the business.
Making better use of time has allowed Gary to Work ON his business more and through this enabling him the time to develop a new business venture and start looking for acquisitions.
Average order value has increased by 27%, revenue has increased by 80% in the last year and profits have increased by 70%.
Gary has changed the way he thinks about himself and is a far more confident in his role leading his business; he now is well informed and confident enough to start looking for acquisitions. His personal identity is now very firmly a business owner.
