“We are a small restaurant group with 3 individual sites and plans for 2 more.

The main challenges we were facing at the time we engaged with Marco were that we were about to take on our second site, essentially doubling our sales and team, which seemed pretty daunting at the time.

Our coaching sessions kept me accountable, Marco challenged me and my beliefs, he encouraged me to open my mind more than I would if left on my own and as a result we’ve grown in a way before I thought wasn’t possible. Our existing restaurant, a 13-year-old business, increased sales by 27% and profits by 35% in our first full year of coaching. I’ve also seen huge benefits in my personal, my outlook on my business has changed, I enjoy challenges more and I really do look forward to going to work (before coaching I enjoyed the money, choices, and the flexibility my business gave me but to be honest I didn’t enjoy the job so much).

I want to grow the business far more than I used to and I don’t take all of the challenges of the business home, I don’t worry so much anymore! I just look at what I need to do, write that s**t down, and then make a plan to actually do it!”

Jim Cleaver, Beach Street Restaurants

“We are a construction company that works in the domestic, commercial and industrial sectors.

The main challenges we were facing at the time we engaged Marco were the constraints that our lack of financial knowledge, support and struggles to find and recruit staff were placing on our expansion plans.

We immediately liked Marco’s calm, no nonsense approach and he had the financial knowledge we needed. He knows so much about so much, and if he doesn’t have the answer, he researches it for us. We knew he would push us out of our comfort zone in order to achieve our goals.

Since working with Marco, we have both grown personally, we now appreciate there are techniques to managing people and also what we are prepared to tolerate. Coaching makes you check yourself on a regular basis and gives you goals to aim for. It helps to keep you on track and not be distracted.

Being married and running a company together has huge challenges and coaching has transformed how we approach the business and making a break, so it doesn’t influence our home life now. It helps to give purpose to our lives by setting both the business goals and personal goals, so that you are not just slugging your guts out with no ultimate aim (What’s it all for?) It is also a neutral ground where we can sound out ideas and issues and get unbiased and sensible feedback from Marco.

We now feel more in control of our business, running it from the outside, not inside struggling to keep our heads above water. We have a more positive mindset that if we want it to work we will make it work, and would recommend coaching to anyone as it gives you guidance and purpose”

Sarra Hawes, Hawes Building Ltd

“Statius is a niche player in the management consultancy sector specialising in management systems and real, quantifiable and statistically verifiable process improvement. The company was very exposed to the construction sector and took a big hit in the financial crisis … and as a result, Statius had to retrench and suffered a significant blow to confidence.

I had heard about Marco from a business associate that I very much respected for the holistic way he viewed and thought about (with some depth) his own firm, and Marco was held in high regard by him.  On meeting Marco he seemed very sales and marketing focused, a focus we were in need of to complement our technical skills.

I’d like to think that being management consultants we are reasonably well read and in tune with the various subjects encompassed within management.  However, I’d view us as “technicians” and not sales or marketing people.  Since working with Marco, the changes made, many of which I initially (mistakenly) pushed back on, have to date, predominantly been sales / marketing focused.  The benefit has been a much better understanding of the various parts of the sales process along with better and more consistent sales results.  Marco pushes to make you think hard about the business, how it works and what you need to do to make it work better.

Being coached is energising! There is someone (relatively) impartial that has your best interests at heart with a wealth of experience, information and a number of ready-made but very tailorable systems and processes in place to give you a jump start in pretty much any direction.

Since I started coaching, I am a lot more confident about the business going forward, I am enjoying it more than I have done for a long time. The work life balance has (hopefully temporarily) gone in the wrong direction but instead of, as previously, resenting having to work the additional time I am relishing it; in the realisation that at some point in the future there will be a better and stronger me and a better and stronger firm”

Mark Woods, Statius Management Services Ltd