Like any good mentor, Growth Coach doesn’t just want to make entrepreneurs better at what they do; the company wants to help business owners have better lives.
In business for 23 years and franchising for 13 of those years, Growth Coach can be likened to a navigation system for businesses.
“We’re not consultants. We don’t tell people how to run their business,” Growth Coach president Ray Fabik said during a recent interview from the company’s headquarters in Cincinnati, OH. “We act more as a GPS and help guide them to get more out of their business and more out of where they want to go. A consultant says; ‘This is where you should go.’ We ask them where they want to go and help them get there.”
For many small business owners, Fabik said, the focus isn’t just on making more money or expanding their business; they also want to return some balance to their lives as they do that. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t want to spend 90 hours at work each week and travel constantly, which many of them end up having to do. Growth Coach steps in and helps these small business owners make more money while working less.
A Born Coach
Growth Coach was founded by accountant Dan Murphy. As an accountant, Murphy worked for a firm that had several small businesses as clients and while doing the books for these clients, he was able to observe numerous hurdles they stumbled on as they attempted to grow.
Murphy asked the accounting firm he worked for if, in addition to his accounting duties, he could also coach these small business clients to help them become better businesses. The accounting firm said no, so he quit and ventured out on his own to start Growth Coach.
Murphy came up with a process for coaching small businesses and one of his clients that had several franchises suggested he start franchising his coaching business. Now, the company boasts 80 franchisees in about 150 markets throughout the US. Internationally, the company has a presence in 15 countries.
Internationally, Growth Coach is looking to expand into different countries, particularly in South America. Inside the United States, the company wants to continue expansion in all markets across the country.
The More, the Merrier
Designed for both small business owners and small business sales teams, the proven Growth Coach method features something that most business coaching methods lack; group coaching.
“The group coaching concept puts eight, ten, fifteen people in a room at once so I can coach all of them through the process at the same time,” Fabik said. “It’s good for them because they will learn from different business owners who are going through the process at the same time and facing similar challenges.”
Experience Makes for Great Coaching
Generally, a Growth Coach franchisee is a former executive between 45 – 60 years old who has been through the corporate grind at a top executive level for years and just wants to get out of the corporate cycle, Fabik outlined. They often come out of positions where they were required to travel 40 plus weeks per year and just want to stop living in hotels and run their own business instead.
Growth Coach’s franchisees have a lot of business knowledge to share and want to help small business owners avoid costly mistakes and give these business owners lessons that they’ve learned during their corporate tenure.
The Need for Growth Coach
A lot of people open their own business because they have experience in a particular trade or interest, but don’t have actual business experience, Fabik said. This lack of business experience can get them in trouble. Plus, it’s always helpful to business owners to have an outside perspective into how their business is being run, particularly from knowledgeable people.
Growth Coach provides the business knowledge infrastructure and support that many of these businesses lack, allowing them to step up to the next tier.
Coaching the Coaches
Not only does Growth Coach use its proven business coaching system for its clients, the company also uses it to help their own franchisees become better coaches and grow their business.
When they first join and buy a franchise, new franchisees go through Growth Coach’s Jump Start Program, which starts six weeks before they actually come to the Cincinnati offices for training. New franchisees start working one-on-one with one of the company’s internal coaches from that time. After their six weeks of Jump Start training, they then have a week of live training in the corporate offices in Ohio. After this week of live training, new franchisees also have follow-up training.
Growth Coach also utilizes its 90-day success check list, which spells out what a franchisee should be doing for the first 90 days to be successful, including social media, website, networking and events. The whole process is laid out for them, Fabik explained, and their assigned coach helps them through it. The company also helps to jump start its franchisees’ referral list by making pre-set appointments for them.
For potential franchisees who feel they have business knowledge to impart, Growth Coach can be a lucrative mentoring opportunity.