John was 21 years with his own business and loved it.
Working 70 to 80 hours a week didn’t seem out of the ordinary. John fully accepted that he was a workaholic, but his only focus was on keeping his haulage business: 20 trucks and 26 staff members up and running.
Then John had a massive heart attack. The doctor told him that if he didn’t reduce the stress in his life, and work less than 40 hours a week, he would be dead within six months. Change became a life or death scenario.
A number of immediate tactical changes were made to place John, and his business, on a stronger footing:
Processes were also put in place to reduce stress and increase operational excellence:
Within six weeks, John was regularly working a 20 hour week.
This transformation inspired John to take coaching on Sales and Business Development after six months. Simply put, he didn’t have enough to do in his allocated working week of 20 hours.
Within two months, he had acquired three new key accounts. This increased the number of key accounts from 16 to 18, adding more than €600k Revenue and €120k Contribution/Margin. Of particular pleasure to John was the opportunity to cull his most challenging and unprofitable account. Giving them three months’ notice was a career highlight for him.
From a profitability perspective, prior to John receiving the wake-up call from his doctor his company had made a €50k loss in the first six months of the year.
After implementing the strategies we worked on together, the business made €30k profit for the full year. Furthermore, future projected profits and positive cash flow amounted to €150k for the following year.
‘I’ve never been happier or fitter or had more time off. I never realised what people were talking about when they spoke of a work life balance and my relationships with my wife and son have improved immeasurably.’
John
