“When Jason Rogers of Pinnacle Chauffeur Transport Bristol met his local Business Doctor at a networking event, he was looking for help with translating his turnover into profit. Despite being part of a franchised network of executive chauffeurs, Jason felt he needed the support of a mentor from completely outside of the business.
He said: “Having worked in middle management for the last 15 years, I felt I had a fairly good knowledge and skill set for running a business. But being on your own, and not having direct access to others to bounce ideas off and discuss challenges with is very difficult.
“I felt I needed someone who sits outside the business to act as my mentor, and most importantly, could be very honest and direct in helping me grow and develop my business.”
Business Doctor for Avon & Somerset Richard Tidswell said: “When I first met Jason, he had recently established his business and was looking to develop a clear plan for growth.
“He had realised it was easy to become very busy, but that he was not necessarily growing his business profitably”.
Richard’s first piece of advice was for Jason to focus hardest on the clients that value most what he does best – that is providing highly personalised, professional, comfortable and cost-effective executive transport and corporate business travel.
He explained: “The clients with the strongest buy in to Jason’s unique offer are the ones he is the most likely to retain – and are also the most likely to recommend him to others. We agreed that these core clients were the ones that Jason needed to nurture and we talked about how he could do this.
“I helped Jason to identify how his offer is differentiated from other competitors in the market and how to use this source of competitive advantage to reach out and grow his client base through marketing and sales planning”.
Richard also helped Jason to identify a clear roadmap for the growth of his business. This included building his capacity for growth by taking on additional drivers.
Jason embraced the change Richard was suggesting and implemented initiatives including improved route planning to increase driver productivity, targeted marketing driving awareness of how cost effective chauffeur travel can be and putting in place KPI measures to track the effectiveness and efficiency of service.
And all the hard work was certainly not without its reward. Sales have more than doubled and are forecast to grow a further 20 percent this year. Productivity has increased by more than 10 percent and the all important bottom line is up an impressive 110 percent.
Said Jason: “Working with Richard has been a tremendous help and support to my small business.
“I now have a five year business plan with accountable actions and achievable goals. This is allowing me to really start driving my business forward.
“I am now much more aware of my target markets and the true costs of running the business, as well as how to use my time more effectively.
“My sessions with Richard have given me the confidence and support to develop an achievable and profitable strategy to grow my business, leaving me focused and highly enthusiastic about the future.
“Richard is an energetic and commercially minded individual. He made it his personal business to fully understand both me as a person and the ins and outs of my business.
“I enjoy working with Richard and appreciate his honesty, integrity and non-judgmental ideas and advice in improving my profit margins.”