Ian Christelow, ActionCOACH’s UK Managing Director, understands that his network of franchise partners enjoy excellent financial returns from their business coaching activities but in an interview with us he explains why the benefits are so much more than just financial.

“When I first joined ActionCOACH in 2002, I had to work hard to change people’s perceptions the value of engaging a business coach and for those looking at our franchise opportunity, what being an ActionCOACH would actually entail. Initially, it was just explaining what a business coach was – nobody I spoke to about ActionCOACH in my first 12 months knew!  Secondly, it was finding one or two visionary pioneers to prove this model worked in the UK. Everywhere we went, people said that it might work in The States or Australia but it won’t work here!  Ten years on, our top performing UK franchise partners are billing over £50k per month and the results of ActionCOACH’s clients are even more incredible.”

Today, ActionCOACH is the world’s number one business coaching franchise, with more than 1,000 business coaches in 40 countries and their business continues to have an exceptional growth pattern in the UK. Founded in 1993 in Australia by Brad Sugars, ActionCOACH’s business coaching is based on tried and tested systems that increase profit, improve time management and create better performing teams. It’s used on over 10,000 businesses every month with huge success worldwide.

“One of our franchise partners, Shweta Jhajharia, was banking over £48k in October 2012 and smashed through the £50k per month mark in November 2012 – not even 4 years into her first business and she also has to juggle being a mum to a lively 6 year old boy.”

Ian believes strongly in the power of a good franchise business:

“Michael Gerber was spot on in his book “The E-Myth revisited” where he explains that only about 20% of all businesses survive the first five years, whereas 75% of franchised businesses do.  The latest NatWest/BFA survey revealed that 90% of franchised businesses they surveyed were profitable.  You just can’t ignore the numbers. It is an undeniable fact that building a successful business is hard, so why wouldn’t you want to do it with a proven business model to give you the best chance of success?  I believe the two most expensive things in business are buying customers and trial and error – a good franchise should cut out the trial and error and give you tried and tested processes for getting customers.”  

However, in Ian’s experience making money out of your franchise business isn’t the only benefit when you are an ActionCOACH franchise partner:

“I believe that making a meaningful difference to someone’s life and hearing and receiving a “thank you” is probably the most rewarding thing you can do.  Our business owner clients say things like, “I love my coach” … when was the last time you heard that about a banker, lawyer or accountant?”

“The other huge intangible is the team around you … as well as world class support from the franchisor (as you’d expect from a business coaching and training organisation!), there are 1,000 ActionCOACH business coaches around the world happy to help a team mate, sharing best practises and successful innovations.  In a profession where it’s nigh on impossible to succeed on your own, that’s a priceless asset to have on your side in this increasingly competitive market place.”