Award winning business coach Andrew Priestley talks about the four big problems found in any business.

1. “Great tutorial if you run a business.”
4 Problems
That Will Impact
Your Bottomline
A lot of people think that if their
business is successful they will not have
any problems. The truth is if you run a
successful business you will have more
problems! Problems come with the
territory of having a good business.
This is very handy information to know.
In this tutorial, award-winning
business coach Andrew Priestley talks
about the four key places where most of
your problems will show up no matter
how big or small your business.
In addition, you will discover how those
problems impact your bottomline.

2. Where your main problems live and
how they impact your bottom-line
Help and distinctions
Andrew Priestley is an award-winning
internationally recognised business coach,
mentor, speaker and author.
I have two types of clients: those who need
help and those who need distinctions. High
performance really comes about as you make
that shift from needing help … to wanting
distinctions.
In this interview, he gives you a really useful
financial context for high performance.
As you read on, you might ask yourself
‘Which one do I need the most, right now?’
I’m frustrated. I need help now …
Typically those clients who need help, need
help now and in either two key areas:
business and/or personal.
If you’re frustrated because you’ve got a
great business that could or should run
better, then you need help. You’ll recognize
things like sales problems, staff issues, stuff
not happening on time, as agreed or at all, or
you’re not profitable or growing. All of these
symptoms indicate the need for help in your
business.
If you are worried or anxious a lot of the time,
lack confidence in your role, if your partner
says you work too much and neglect your
family, if your values and behaviors are
misaligned or you feel defensive and angry
then you need help with your personal game.
Business
When I work with any client I start by getting
them to complete either a
a) 90-minute strategic session; or
b) a pre-coaching assessment tool
called the Business Leadership Profile
(BLP). This gives you a very clear
picture of what’s working and what
isn’t and why.
c) Or both.
The 90-minute strategic session
In this session we perform an eight point
strategic review of your business. This may
not sound like a lot but there are really only
eight big strategic questions that need to be
clarified.
If you’d like to do one of those 90-minute
strategic sessions contact me.
© 2014 The Coaching Experience www.andrewpriestley.com
1

3. The Business Leadership Profile (BLP)
The BLP gives you a great heads up on your
strengths and weaknesses in a business
leadership role. You answer a questionnaire
which generates a series of charts. You then
receive a comprehensive 2.5 hours feedback
session.
(We can include a full or mini 360 staff
feedback appraisal as well, to add additional
depth to the baseline assessment.)
The purpose of the 90-minute strategy
session and/or BLP is to clearly identify
business related issues. And that’s when we
narrow thing s right down to four main areas.
If you’re going to experience problems it will
be in these four key areas.
So very handy to know. Ok …
Problems in your Business
The BLP enables me to identify key problems
in your business and importantly how you
will typically handle those problems. As a
coach we need to clearly identify the issues in
your business if you are to get any benefit
moving forward.
I believe most coaches guess at this, but very
few can actually nail this with any degree of
accuracy.
time or resources to do that activity well or at
all. Invariably it created delays and
frustrations.
Eventually we would get there but collating
that information was an obstacle and a
barrier to moving forward. The assumption
was we couldn’t proceed unless we had that
information.
I found a way around that. (Understand we
still might request a full review later) but it
was no longer the stalling point to progress).
Here’s what I realized. If I ask you. You can
give me a reasonably accurate snapshot of
your business. You pretty much know what
was happening in your business and industry
especially if we contain it to four key areas.
It’s the way you accountant or an investor
looks at it anyway. As an example, if you
watch shows like Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank,
they ask four types of questions.
Specifically, the questions relate to four areas of
your business.
Here’s how your accountant or an investor
looks at your business
So I started to look at your business the way
an accountant or an investor would.
Particularly an investor.
When I first started coaching I would do a
very detailed business ‘audit’ not unlike a fullblown SWOT or gaps analysis.
If you look at the executive summary of a
standard business plan it will include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Marketing and sales
The economy
Anything to do with
political/legal/compliance/environment
al/ workplace health and safety
obligations
Your marketplace
Technology
Competitors
…and so on.
Last Christmas, I read 60 business plans. You
know what? After a while, you stop reading in
detail. You can skim read the business plan
and get a very clear idea of the potential of
that business.
I’ve worked with one of the UK’s savviest
venture capitalists and he rarely reads past
page one! He’s pretty much ‘got it’ within a
few minutes of scanning the executive
summary.
I’ve worked with several of the most
proactive business accountants and they can
size up a business very quickly too.
But how? What are they looking for?
The problem was it took so much time and
money to do that analysis well. I had to
gather loads of data before we could
proceed. And often clients didn’t have the
© 2014 The Coaching Experience www.andrewpriestley.com
2

4. What they look for
At the most basic level they look for
opportunities and inhibitors to Growth, Profit
and Liquidity.
•
•
•
Growth is about the Value of the
business
Profit is about the Vitality of the
business.
Liquidity is about the Health of the
business.
Revenues and Costs
The two drivers of Growth, Profit and
Liquidity are Revenues and Costs – so they
are looking for what makes money and what
will cost (or lose) you money.
Revenues is about making money and
typically includes marketing and sales. (But it
also includes product creation and servicing).
Costs is about saving or keeping money and
includes management and administration;
operations; and financial control.
So those are the four areas:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Marketing and Sales
Administration and Management
Operations
Financial Control
And if you have problems in your business
that’s EXACTLY where they will show up.
You don’t have to look or think too hard
about it. It seems like investors have inbuilt
radar that detects problems in those four
areas.
Importantly, that’s where I start looking. And
that’s where you should start looking, too.
To make it easy here’s all of that information
in a simple table.
Growth
Revenues
Profit
Costs
Liquidity
1. Marketing
Sales
2. Management, Admin, HR
(By the way, accountants will generate
management accounts to assess the same
information. You assess growth and value
when you look at the Balance Sheet. To
assess Vitality and Profit you look at the
Income Statement. To assess Health and
Liquidity you look at the Cash flow
Statement).
Here’s an example
Poor sales is a Revenues problem … that will
impact Growth, Profit and Liquidity.
Poor operations is a Costs problem. Problems
here will impact Growth, Profit and Liquidity
Problems in either area are costing you a lot
of money.
One last point. You might have great sales …
but waste a lot of money delivering the
product or service. In other words you spend
$1.39 to make a $1.
So when I start working with a business
coaching client I start by looking at these four
areas.
Here’s what you can do. Start collecting
problems
1. The first thing I get you to do is collect
problems in your business.
My clients carry a small notebook and simply
write down as many problems that they
encounter over a six-week period.
2. Next I get my clients to categorize the
problems into the above four key areas.
For example, a truck that breaks down is an
Operations problem. Slow-paying customers
is Financial Control problem. Staff who arrive
late for shifts is a management problem.
(You might notice that a staff member who is
arriving late might also be an Operations
problem too.)
3. Operations, Logistics, IT
Keep it simple though. Don’t think too hard
about it just yet. After a while you get pretty
good at identifying where your problems live.
4. Financial Control
Now why do I do this?
Need an example?
© 2014 The Coaching Experience www.andrewpriestley.com
3

5. Because most of my clients have mountains
of problems.
By the way, don’t think that if your business
becomes more successful your problems will
stop. The reverse is true. The more successful
you become the more problems you deal
with. Coaching initially is about recognizing
where your problems live – most; and then
handling them effectively.
You will already know that your problems will
live on a scale of benign to serious but no
matter what shows up, write it down and
categorise it.
Pit Stop
A great idea would be to stop reading and take a
few minutes to reflect on what I’ve been saying.
Grab a piece of paper and draw line down the
middle and write revenues on one column and
costs on another.
Under Revenues write Sales … leave a gap and
write Marketing.
Under Costs write Mgt/Admin; leave a gap and
write Ops and ditto for Fin Control.
Then write down any problems you can think of
under those headings. Just pick the obvious
ones. Don’t go too deep for now. But generate a
quick list.
Revenues
Costs
Marketing
Poor social
media
Management, Admin, HR
Filing issues
Sales
Not enough
sales
Operations, Logistics, IT
Loads of waste on deliveries,
mistakes
Financial Control
Late paying customers
Get the idea?
Its important to see that problems impact your
business and the most powerful insight I can
deliver a new client is to get them to clearly see
that problems are either revenues or cost
problems.
© 2014 The Coaching Experience www.andrewpriestley.com
I’ve run businesses and when you are
responsible 24/7 for the success or failure of a
business this activity gives you a healthy dose
of commercial reality or a rude wake up call!
Your eyes open.
You start to see how a late arriving staff
member is actually an inefficiency and a cost
that IS impacting either growth, profit or
liquidity … or all three.
Train your brain: benefits
The great by-product of this very simple
activity is you start to think more
strategically.
It’s just like taking a helicopter ride above
your business. As soon as that happens you
start thinking more clearly.
From this perspective problems change from
appearing as a complicated mess to clearly
defined issues to be handled … with a great
context for sorting problems.
And problems become projects.
As a rule of thumb I start working on any cost
related problems. Here’s an example.
Case Study:
Adam started collecting problems. At first his
notebook was empty. He forgot to write them
down. They slipped by. (As his coach I followed
up each week to ensure he was ‘collecting’).
After about three weeks he was jotting down
problems as he became aware of them.
Each week we simply segmented them into one
of those four categories: marketing and sales;
management and admin; operations; and
financial control.
For example a truck that breaks down was an
operations issue. (It might also be a
management issue or a financial control issue
too). Over time you will easily start seeing those
relationships as well.
After about six weeks, Adam reported that he
felt a lot calmer. Not because his problems went
away but because he knew where they were!
4

6. Problem Generators
Interestingly, he started to notice who the
problems affected, impacted or circled around.
He noticed that a very small number of people
actually generated most of problems
(customers, suppliers and staff).
3. Pick somewhere to start; pick something
small and easy
There is an old coaching rule I’ve followed for
years based on a mountain of research about
change and motivation1. Basically it says pick
about three things to work on but pick two
easy things and perhaps one bigger project.
This approach comes from working with
serious behavior change cases i.e., drug
addicts.
Adam decided to get a full list of late paying
customers and amounts and start chasing
them up. He could have focused on a major
IT issue but the wrap up date was something
like six months. I wanted a quick win – a
quick run on the board.
The momentum he gained from that quick
win spurred him on to resolving his next
problem.
The BLP shows how you will consistently
handle problems in your business under
pressure.
Our job is to decide if that’s working for you or
not.
When a client completes the BLP
questionnaire, I generate a set of charts and
spend about 2.5 hours going through the
report.
Basically, we show you want’s working for
and what isn’t and clearly identify some
coaching targets.
A case will illustrate.
Nice guys finish last
Bill (let’s call him Bill) runs a great business but
his ‘valued customers’ are almost uniformly late
paying. If you understand Accounts Receivables
and Aging of Debts his average Debtor Days was
90 days plus.
That’s a problem that lives in Financial Control.
Say he sends an invoice on January 1. That
invoice won’t get paid until about March 30.
4. Pay attention to who brings problems to
you.
You cannot run a business like this without cash
flow problems that impact Operating Cash Flow.
Bill’s solution is to keep extending his overdraft
(bank loan).
Once you get the hang of identifying
problems your next step up is to observe who
generates the most problems … most often.
Problems can come from internal or external
sources.
That is a real problem that lives in the Costs
column under financial control. When I asked Bill
why he didn’t chase late paying customer he
said, “I don’t want to upset them. They are good
customers.”
For example:
I think the definition of a good customer is
someone who pays their bills on time. And a
good customer will understand if you ring up
and ask to be paid. If they don’t, then they aren’t
really a good customer which means you should
chase them harder!
Internal
External
Staff
Suppliers
Customers
Government
Bill couldn’t do this.
Let’s wrap it up.
Its very handy to know where your problems
live. In coaching what I’m more interested in
is how you typically handle those problems.
Solve the real problem
Do you get the idea that late-paying
customers aren’t the real problem?
In this case Bill IS the problem!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1
Prochanska. J, Norcross, J and Diclemente, C. (1994).
Change for Good.. Collins Living.
© 2014 The Coaching Experience www.andrewpriestley.com
5

7. The BLP identified that Bill is a massive nice
guy. It shows up as low assertiveness, fear of
conflict and putting the needs and priorities
of others way ahead of his own …
Need help?
You might want to do either the strategic
session or the BLP. If so, email me at
Andrew@andrewpriestley.com
… beyond good judgment.
And Bill applies this ‘nice guy’ strategy to just
about everything situation especially if he’s
under pressure. Bill is still very successful but
if he can avoid what he feels is conflict, he
will.
Here’s the thing. Bill knows he does this.
Plus he knows what to do about late-paying
customers. And he can do something about
it. But he doesn’t.
I work with clients worldwide, face-to-face
and via skype – so I am literally a call away.
Testimonials
If you think this material was useful I’d love to
hear how you used it and how it benefitted.
In short love to include your comments and
testimonials on the reprint.
“Brilliant. Suddenly got a very clear picture of
this business.”
Dr Brendon M, Dental practice.
If Bill knew how to fix this, he would have
done so. That’s why he needs a coach.
The BLP clearly identifies why Bill has
problems in his business it also tells us how
Bill behaves under pressure.
How you handle problems – and behave
under pressure – is the subject of my next
‘white paper’.
Before you go
•
Take a moment to understand the
Revenues/Costs model and where
your problems will show up. Most of
my clients are very savvy people but
this one little tool saves them loads
of time and helps them take a
snapshot of the business.
•
Try collecting problems for a week
and see what shows up and where it
shows up most.
•
See who is the main problem.
•
Pay attention to how you are
handling those problems. What do
you typically do under pressure?
About Andrew
Andrew 1-2-1 coaching, workshops and
training he works with owner/managers usually managing directors - running
established mid-sized companies across the
UK, Australia and the USA.
Typical results are certainly increased
revenues and profits and higher performing
teams. And the coaching definitely helps you
resolve challenges or problems associated
with business leadership.
Andrew developed this coaching programme
after working with senior managers in highcompliance environments. He discovered
highly effective leaders are doing five things
really well. He now applies what he learned in
those environments to his coaching clients.
Contact Andrew Priestley
Web: www.andrewpriestley.com or
www.the-coaching-experience.com
Email: info@andrewpriestley.com
Hope that helps.
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/TCE.HQ
Andrew Priestley
PS Love to hear any feedback.
Twitter @arpriestley
Skype: priestley1
Phone: +44 (0) 7879 330060!
© 2014 The Coaching Experience www.andrewpriestley.com
6