Business Driving You Insane? Busting Your Guts to Grow Only To Sink Even Deeper?
- Business slowed down? Or never got off the ground?
- Need to make cash NOW, but can’t grow without cash?
- Exhausted but can’t take a holiday?
- Feel like your business has you trapped in a job? And you can’t even take a sickie!
- No-one to ask for advice?
My team and I can help!
Hi, I’m Rick Chisholm, Serial Entrepreneur and now business mentor. I’ve successfully founded 28 businesses over the last 35 years, seven of them multi-million dollar enterprises and turned over $300mill in direct sales. I’ve pulled myself up by my bootstraps, so to speak, and I got where I am without the aid of big money, partners, or capital funding.
These are some of the businesses that we founded and managed (or still manage) over the last 35 years in the industries of: Hospitality, Retail, Hire, Wholesale, ECommerce, Manufacturing, Training, Consulting, Fitness, Education and Entertainment
In 2016 I sold 3 of my businesses and now have more time available to dedicate to my first passion: investing in small business & startups. I love helping other business owners shave years off their learning curve and become profitable much more quickly. This is what floats my boat.
Did you know that…
- 90% of successful businesses maintain written goals and planning
- However sadly: 6% only of Businesses have written goals and plans
- Which is therefore no surprise that 80% of Businesses fail within the first 5 years
- 76% of business failures are due to the lack of Strategic Business Knowledge
So, I’ve decided to do something about it. I don’t want to see people with passion and determination end up a statistic. I also know that many would have had a completely different ending to their entrepreneurial story if they only had the chance and the knowledge at the right time in their journey.
Which is why we’ve set up these monthly group coaching sessions for startups and small businesses.
These sessions are perfect for you if you:
- Are a Startup or small business owner.
- Want to learn about the practical business skills that academia won’t teach you.
- Are overworked, overwhelmed and just over it – aka burned out.
- Are owned by your business rather than you owning “it” – so you just bought yourself a JOB!.
- Are unable to, or don’t know how to scale quickly or collapsing under the pressure of massive success
- Are essential to your business. If you’re not there, there IS NO business
- Are generating leads but are having difficulty closing them and generating enough sales.
- Look forward to the support and input of a community of similarly motivated small business owners and experienced serial Entrepreneurs and small business investors.
If any of the above describes you, then we can help!
What you will get in our monthly live 3 ½ hour sessions:
- Breakfast and Networking: Meet other members of the group and join a closely-knit community of like-minded business owners who will support you and refer business to you as you merge lasting relationship with them.
- Business Training topic: Each session we cover a different topic of business training for at least one complete hour. It’s pretty much everything I could have done with 20 and 30 years ago. So if you don’t want to take the long winding, lonely and often frustrating road of trying to figure it all out yourself, then why not learn from someone who’s done it all before?
See below for more information on the Training topics we cover.
- ‘My Business Spotlight’ segment with your group: We split into subgroups, usually 3-4 members. One person presents their business to their sub-group each time. This helps you build your confidence, perfect your pitch and seek market feedback and clarity on your USPs (Unique Selling Points).
- Accountability & KPI Session with your group: Research shows that accountability is one of the fastest ways to achieving your goals! During this segment you are being held accountable by your our small sub-group to ensure you keep progressing every day. You share your planned outcomes for the month and share what you have achieved from last month’s goals. These are done in the small private groups and not shared across the whole group.
- Hotseat Mastermind Discussion: Where members can seek input from the whole group and myself on a particular issue they are facing in their business. One session will usually focus on one member’s issues and allows for brainstorming that helps not only the member in the Hot Seat, but ALL members who derive immense knowledge and problem solving skills through the process.
Since business problems are rarely unique, you’ll have another wonderful opportunity to learn how to manage similar issues with your own business when a group mate goes up on the Hot Seat for his turn.
- Open Q&A sessions with the Mentor – ask me anything: In this segment you are encouraged to ask me for advice on any business matter. In my experience as an Entrepreneur over the last 30 years, there haven’t been too many cases where I have not been able to either answer the question or point you in the right direction for an answer
Groups will rarely exceed 16 members.
At this stage, sessions are held in our training facility in Kingsgrove and Sydney CBD.
Book yourself in for a risk-free membership of our group for free for the first month’s group meeting, which also includes breakfast.
Membership to our program is competitively priced at $297 per month.
If you like what you experience in your first meeting, you are welcome to join the monthly group. Meetings typically take place one morning per month from 7:30-11:00.
No contracts, no commitments, no strings.
All applications are screened by me for compatibility. If you do not end up being able to join this group, then your payment will be refunded.
Here is a summary of the benefits you will receive from our Innovest SME Small business Mentoring group sessions:
- Business Mentors
- SEO
- SEM
- PR & media
- Government grants
- Graphic arts
- Sales training
- Digital marketing
- Social Media marketing
- Website & App development
- Linkedin marketing
- Risk management
- Financial planning
- Bookkeepers
- HR
- Capital raising
- Outsourcing
- Trademark attorney
- Commercial lawyer
- Mortgage broker
- Videographer
- Life insurance
- Insurance
- Finance / lending
- Accountant
- SMSF
- Business continuity
- Asset & property protection
- Conveyancing
- 6 sigma/QA
- Coaching
- Training
- RTO & RPL
- Audio visual
- Event management
- Referral marketing
- Reputation repair
- Customs / freight forwarding
- Logistics & 3PL
Some of our Group Training topics: (in no particular order)
- Business Planning: putting together business plans and effective goal setting
- Business Systems and processes: how systems can help you scale your business, delegate work and free your time
- Time and Productivity: increase your revenue and productivity whilst reducing your hours, hacks and automation tools.
- Advanced problem solving: addressing your day to day challenges like the multi-nationals. How advanced quality assurance techniques can improve efficiencies and significantly speed up your growth.
- Sales Mastery: Learn how to convert the highest number of leads using various persuasion and communication skills
- Negotiation Skills: how to masterfully control negotiations and get your way
- Accounting and Finance Essentials: Understanding accounting essentials, you financial statements, budgeting, knowing your critical numbers
- Cashflow and Funding: unlocking cashfllow in your business, managing payables and receivables, raising finance and investor capital.
- Financial intelligence: reaching your financial end-goal, how can money work for you, creating passive income streams
- Outsourcing essentials: when and how to outsource, pitfalls and hacks to save you time
- Attracting attention: most effective methods of attracting YOUR type of prospects, avoiding costly marketing mistakes and not following the herd
- Marketing Planning: building your 12 month Marketing calendar, identifying your ideal marketing medium, measuring marketing metrics.
- Digital marketing essentials: understanding important digital marketing concepts and traffic sources, successfully converting online.
- Referral Marketing: the art and science of receiving more business through referrals. How to approach existing customers and successfully ask for referrals.
- Business Communication: professional communication can achieve many objectives not limited to: increased sales conversions, decreased error rates, happier customers, more engaged staff and much more.
- Mastering Communication: public speaking and becoming a key person of influence, how to develop a magnetic presence
- Delivering unforgettable customer experiences: business is no longer about customer service, it’s about customer experience. Learn about some simple techniques to completely transform your customer experience.
- Staff supervision and management: giving good feedback to staff, effective delegation, project management essentials, etc.
- Leadership: leading an engaged team goes beyond good management and delegation. How to inspire others inside and outside your organisation.
- Staff and contractor recruitment: most important interviewing questions and diagnostic tools to ensure you’re not putting square pegs in round holes
- Refining your Business model: understand different business models and identify the strategies of highly successful businesses that will help you maximise profits
- Minimising Risk: avoid or mitigate risks associated with protecting you and your business assets from client interactions, ACCC, staffing and much more.
- Protecting your investment: Understanding useful structure options to best maximise profitability, protect your assets and optimize tax.
- Investing your earnings: having a plan B is smart business. Your have long term investments outside of the business et al.
- And much more
Book yourself in for a risk-free session of our group for free for initial meeting, which includes breakfast.
Membership to our program is competitively priced at $297 per month.
You might be asking yourself…
Q: So why is an experienced entrepreneur and mentor like you running such a low priced program?
- A: I invest in Startups myself as I’ve been doing throughout my career and I like the idea of being part of the next great thing! So, in short, I’m looking for investment opportunities here myself. I also believe it makes good sense to use the power of a group to make such a powerful program more affordable for businesses that otherwise might not have had access to quality one-on-one business coaching. So it makes sense to both sides.
Q: Why should I spend all this time learning about all these other business topics when I’m still trying to work out how to sell products and meet cashflow requirements?
- A: Because knowledge is power and knowing about all these business areas will help you make decisions in how you are going to structure things in your business and build it on the right foundations.
Q: What’s the benefit of segments like ‘Mastermind/Brainstorming’ hotseat sessions?
- A: The Hotseat segment revolves around one business in the group who volunteers to ask the group for their feedback on a burning business question or suggestions on how to handle a certain challenge. Fresh ideas and group problem solving will re- invigorate your business as you start receiving suggestions from other businesses in the room as well as my personal experience in business.
Q: What’s the benefit of the accountability segment?
- A: Being kept accountable to the group heightens your urge to achieve your goals. Once you have made your goals and priorities public to your subgroup (this segment is done in smaller groups), you feel the positive peer pressure and the urge to stand by your commitments. This alone has the power to transform your behaviour as you feel the necessity to not let your peers down and in the process, push yourself to perform at a much higher level.
Here’s what some of our members say about the program
Rick has been my coach and mentor ever since I met him a few years ago. He has always been a great resource for me and helped me review my path many times along the way. I cannot thank him enough for his guidance and motivation. He has helped me with my business and personal development and I will owe him for a long time to come! – Raghid Alchikh, Australian Immigration Law Advice, Translator
Shortly after transitioning my part-time business to a full-time venture, I found myself needing to secure more regular, on-going business opportunities. I have worked with Rick and Tala for some time and found that their no-fuss approach to business resonated with me. I decided to join their coaching club to gain access to structured business advice that has helped improve the way I go about my business. Right from the start, the Coaching Club helped me to clarify my thoughts and begin to structure some robust business processes, delivering immediate results.
The Coaching Club delivers material that is more practical than academic and I would recommend this program to anybody who wants to improve their business success without investing huge amounts of time and money. – Michel Nicholson, Automation Squared
Rick helps us focus on what we’re good at, stay on course and implement new strategies, cut costs, and not make the same mistakes him himself made in his many businesses over the last thirty years. He also helped expand our wholesale arm by licensing our brand to other retailers whilst maintaining total control. He’s also taught us about the importance of KPI’s and how to formulate internal systems to reduce my time in the business so I can spend more time ON the business. – Veronica Avila, Co-owner, The Latin Store
“Recently I attended the mastermind Coaching group. In the first session I got to review my goals in business, which was a wake up call.
Sometimes as a sole operator running my own small business, there’s a limit to how much knowledge and skill I have about business. So having someone coaching me helps me with accountability and knowledge. Getting the support and feedback and having someone to ask for advice is very helpful for me.
At the end of the day if I’m not generating a profit, then I might as well go and get a job by the hour for my time. But I wanted to be a successful business owner in my own right to have the possibility of an unlimited income. So as small business owners we need to know our figures and what we can do to generate that extra revenue.
Rick and Tala have run, bought and sold businesses all their lives, they’ve been there and done that for many many years. And I want a piece of that!” – Heidi Yi, Make Up Tutorials By Heidi
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