Business coaching

Our Solutions ~ Business Coaching

Wood and Disney ~ Business Coaching but with a difference.

Wood and Disney offer business coaching but with a big difference from the business coaches you are likely to meet on the networking circuit. We combine the financial expertise and experience we've gained over many years advising our clients as chartered accountants, with the best practices from the world of business coaching. Plus we are with you for the long term, providing on-going monitoring, control and pro-active advice to keep your business thriving with sustainable growth and profitability into the future. Our raison d'être is to Build Better Futures for our clients. Pro-active advice is at the very core of our business and the relationships we have with our clients.

Why is the Wood and Disney way so different?

Most accountants do not offer business coaching preferring to stick to traditional compliance accounting.
Most business coaches offer a more generalist approach without the financial expertise, practical implementation and ongoing practical support delivering solutions in the long term.

Wood and Disney are unique in that they have developed over many years their own coaching system called Your Journey To Freedom. It differs from ordinary coaching in the following ways:

Wood and Disney: Your Journey to Freedom

Both personal and business focus
Professional support
Resolve challenges and find solutions
Practical issues as well as cultural issues
Guidance and teaching
Results oriented
Specialist and in-depth knowledge
Asks questions and delivers expert advice tailored for your business
You don't have the time to solve all the issues yourself
Helps you identify what you can do yourself but also provides solutions
Listens but helps with actions when you are overwhelmed
Works alongside you and assists in delivering solutions
Objective
Detailed and focused but wide ranging over time
Provides additional skills and expertise
Reviews options and provides recommendations
Authoritative backed by experience

Coaching

Personal and individual focus
Emotional support
Inspire confidence in leader
Behaviours and motivations
Empowerment
Goal oriented
Generalist
Asks questions
Assumes you have the time to solve the issues yourself
Draws solution from you
Listens but takes no action
You deliver your own solutions
Subjective
Wide ranging
Assumes you already have the skills and expertise
Explore possibilities
Guidance only

I need solutions today - I haven't got time to follow through on a long programme.

Turning the fortunes of a business round takes time. Wood and Disney will be by your side in the short and long term as our aim is to build lasting relationships with our clients. Having said that, there are often some quick fixes to solve immediate problems but building sustainable success takes time. Wood and Disney's Your Journey To Freedom is a modular toolkit from which we pick different elements to apply to each client and their own unique situation and set of challenges. We do not force you to start at the beginning and work through every module because all businesses come to us at different stages in their life cycle. We select the most appropriate elements for each individual client.

Surely Wood and Disney can't be experts in all areas of running a business?

No, we don’t claim to be “all things to all men” and instead help you identify your need and introduce you to experts and specialists who we trust and are happy to recommend.

For example, recently a manufacturing company talked to us about their business and their goal of opening an Eastern European manufacturing facility for their products. We were able to introduce them to an expert, we have successfully worked with before, in offshore manufacturing with connections to legal and financial advisors in their country of interest.

What can I expect in terms of practical actions from Wood and Disney?

The best way to illustrate the deliverables that you can expect after appointing Wood and Disney, is to give you a real world example:

The following is an example of a simple short term coaching program for a Digital Marketing Agency which had hit a ceiling in its growth and needed to reassess where they were going but even each agency is unique so this would be adapted to suit the specific needs of the business.

Phase 1: Discovery & Assessment (2-4 weeks)

Initial Meeting: Understand the agency's vision, goals, and current capabilities. Analyse their service offerings, client base, and competitive landscape.
Client Portfolio Review: Assess the health and profitability of existing client relationships.
Team Skills & Talent Assessment: Help business owner evaluate the skills and experience of their team to identify strengths and areas for development.
Technology Stack Audit: Discuss the agency's current technology tools and platforms to identify opportunities for optimisation and automation.
Define Success Metrics: Establish clear performance indicators to track progress, such as client acquisition cost, revenue growth, employee retention, and client satisfaction.

Phase 2: Strategy & Planning (4-6 weeks)

Niche & Target Market Focus: Help refine the agency's focus on specific industry verticals, client sizes, or service specialties based on market demand and expertise.
Craft a Differentiating Value Proposition: Help client to define what makes their agency unique and valuable to its target audience.
Refine Service Offerings: Consider how to optimise the service portfolio to attract higher-value clients, offer managed services, or specialise in emerging areas like influencer marketing or voice search.
Develop a Multi-Channel Marketing & Sales Plan: Review client’s strategy to leverage inbound marketing, outbound sales, content marketing, social media marketing, and networking to attract and convert leads.
Strengthen Proposal & Client Onboarding Process: Refine the proposal process to win high-value clients and streamline onboarding for smooth client relationships.

Phase 3: Implementation & Support (8-12 weeks)

Marketing & Sales Execution: Review how client launches and manages their marketing campaigns, how they track their results, and how they refine strategies based on data insights.
Develop Sales Funnel Optimisation Strategies: Ensure client implements testing, landing page optimisation, and lead nurturing practices to improve conversion rates.
Build a Data-Driven Culture: Help empower the team to utilise data analysis to properly inform decision-making and refine campaign strategies.
Talent Development & Retention: Review how client invests in team training, mentorship programs, and competitive compensation packages to attract and retain top talent.
Implement Agile Project Management: Introduce basic ideas to boost project efficiency and client satisfaction.

Business coaches tend to only operate on short term contracts because although what they offer allows a step up in performance for the business owner they can only have declining incremental affects over time. Wood and Disney both through their Your Journey To Freedom program and their intimate knowledge of numbers as chartered accountants can offer on-going value.

Phase 4: Growth & Optimisation (Ongoing)

Performance Monitoring & Analysis: Track key metrics, analyse data regularly, and identify areas for continuous improvement.
Expand Service Offerings & Market Reach: Explore opportunities for strategic growth based on market trends and agency expertise, such as expanding geographically.
Develop Value-Added Services: Consider offering retainer packages, strategic consulting, or white-label services to increase client lifetime value.
Build Strong Client Partnerships: Help client develop closer relationships with key clients to understand their needs and foster long-term partnerships.
Ongoing Coaching & Support: Provide regular guidance and support to the agency leadership and senior team members to facilitate sustained growth and success.

This ongoing support and guidance ensure that our clients defy the norm of business failure statistics by surviving more than 10 years and create a genuine asset to pass onto the next generation.