When I first met George, I had already built a successful business turning over $3 Million per year. I have always been very ambitious and wanted to grow even more. The only problem was that the growth had been organic and largely driven by sheer will power. Therefore, there were no systems or structures in place so the business had stalled and hit a glass ceiling. I was burnt out, unmotivated and feeling “over it”.

I wanted to get my inspiration back as well as get the business pumping again. I felt I needed help from someone dynamic, who also had a great track record and most importantly, someone who could match my pace, energy and point us in the right direction. I found all this and more with George.

Business situation 18 months ago:

Financials:

• Average of $250,000 revenue per month. Slightly breaking even overall, though we would lose money for 3-4 months per year.

Team:

• 35 “B Grade” team members

Growth:

• Stalled and cash starved

Platform:

• No systems or structure in place and our internal business operations were not professional

Personal Headspace:

• Scattered, unmotivated and “over it”

With George’s help, we created a clear Strategy for growth. We diversified our product offerings which made us much more attractive and competitive to our market. We built a highly effective sales process that makes it easy to secure work and is now largely automated. We did a lot of work around Leadership Strategy and created a solid recruitment system that allows us to find high performers, as well as on board them effectively, get them inducted into our culture (which we also created) and performing at high levels very quickly.

We now have a big emphasis on our people and our systems. On top of all this, with George’s help we secured roughly $130,000 in funding to build the new software and platforms required to take our business to the next level. We also further expanded through a recent merger and acquisition.

Results and Business Situation today:

Empire Commercial Enterprises were ranked in BRW’s Fast Starters 2016, placing in the top 50 of Australia’s Fastest Growing Businesses.

Financials:

• $700,000 – $800,000 in monthly turn over (an increase of over 200%).
• Consistently average a 20% profit margin
• Secured $130,000 in funding and are on track to secure similar amounts over the next 2 years

Team:

• 55 – 60 current team members who are much more specialised and focused than before

Growth:

• Business more than doubled in the last 18 months and we now have the platform to grow even further
• We had to move and upsize our yard/offices 3 times to facilitate our growth

Platform:

• Documented and growing systems manual that runs key elements of the business
• Developed software to streamline and automate key processes
• I feel that our whole team, including myself have “grown up” and matured considerably. The business is now much more professional.

Personal Headspace:

• Energised, direct, focused and killing it!

Most of our recent results have come from a good mix of hard work, determination and seizing opportunities as they presented themselves – coupled with George’s guidance, mentorship, strategies and frameworks. Working with George has been one of the best decisions for myself as well as for Empire, and I suggest anyone in business should bend over backwards if they get the opportunity.

Chris Harris
Owner and Director
Empire Commercial Enterprises