CASE STUDY
Pelican Point Windsurfing
This was my business, Pelican Point Windsurfing I stared it in 1989 and ran it (or did it run me?!?) till 2005 when we sold it. For all those years it was my 24/7 focus but the return I was getting was less than I was paying the guys who worked for me. I knew it was capable of more, but for all my experience running it, I discovered there was a science to growing a business. Here's the story of how we tripled the revenue, halfed my working hours, and ultimately sold it to a competitor in a market where selling this type of business was as rare as hen's teeth.
The Story
Pelican Point Windsurfing started in 1989 from my old windsurfing school, which I set up in the mid 80's.
It evolved into a hire and lesson centre and later we added 2 stores.
We were dealers for some of the biggest and best brands in the sport.
We also had on our team many champion sports people who serviced the customers to a very high level.
Since 1989 the business had some ups and downs but as a lifestyle, it was a good business.
I enjoyed earning an income from doing what I loved.
Reality was it wasn’t making anywhere near the profit I needed to get ahead.
I always thought that that this was how it was when one owned a business, work hard, pay the bills, enjoy life…
UNTIL… I ran into some friends who had gone from struggle street to having time to relax and money to help.
They had grown their business using a system which they didn't want to share with anyone as they had paid a lot for it.
This got me thinking and started me on a journey of discovery to see what I could do to get more success in my business.
That journey led me to attend many seminars and presentations on business.
The stand out was a presentation by Brad Sugars, it was an eye opening experience.
During the presentation I saw the systems, process and thinking that needed to happen to have more success.
My take away was that business had so much more potential than I had considered.
With my wife involved, we made the decision to get a coach on board and start a growth journey.
It was a lot of money, more than I was paying myself each month, but I had faith.
After a few months of little or no progress I started to question it all and reconsider what to do.
I considered cancelling the coaching and going it alone for a while.
After a chat with my coach, he convinced me to hang in and attend a 1 day quarterly planning day, that was the game changer for me.
I saw other business owners no smarter than me with normal businesses and they were making leaps and bounds in growth, so I thought if they can do it I can do it.
I learned about the process of
DREAM GOALS PLANS ACTION and from there
made a plan and focused on the things that would make the difference.
I was the implementer, the coach was there to make sure I stayed on track and focussed on my targets.
One sad moment was when I discovered that I was the worst sales guy in the business ( sold heaps but at little or no profit as margins were tight).
Because it was lifestyle business, everyone was my friend (turns out everyone has polygamous loyalty google it) and so I sold evertyhting at ‘Mates rates’.
After sacking me from that job the team went on to record our highest profits since the business started!
There was a system we adhered to where we measured everything to do with money, leads, conversion, average dollar sale, profit margin, repeat sales…
The result? We tripled our revenue in less than 9 months! Increased profit by almost 50%
Even better… as I wasn't the sales guy I could focus on making sure the team had everything they needed to deliver the best service to our customers.
This was an awesome win 'cos it gave me back 3 – 4 days a week where I didn’t have to be at the business.
The end result was that one of our competitors came to us and offered to buy the business.
We accepted their offer and sold the Windsurfing business.
A bit like that shaver advert, I was so impressed with the results that I wanted to buy the company.
It's not what I had in mind when I started the windsurfing business and it wasn't on my horizon for many years, but once I understood it I was ready when the day came.
Below is a short summary of what made the difference for us.
I hope it helps you out of your ‘Groundhog Day’
· including how, and what, to plan
· How to decide what to focus on for growth
· How to systematically grow revenue and profit
· How to get control of your time and free up your life.
· How to build simple systems for repeat tasks (so anyone can follow)
· How to build and lead a winning team
· how to find the hidden gold in the business
· how to make it unique in the market
· how to get customers referring and coming back over and over
· How to have the business ready for sale at any time and get a premium price for it
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