We recently sat down with Nichole Morales to discuss her dramatic transition from buying herself a job to investing in a successful business!
Life Before Business Coaching…
Prior to coaching Nichole Morales describes life as hectic, almost as frustrating as a dog chasing it’s tail. Being passionate about customer service had become almost a curse for Nichole as she felt the need to do things herself to provide quality customer service for her clients, leaving her ability to delegate difficult at best.
Like many small business owners, working 50-60 hour weeks consistently had taken it’s toll. Morales & Associates and had capped out on their capacity to take on new clients, while still maintaining the custom level of services it offered. “We had no systems in place to manage growth, services and process – and while we were growing in number of clients, we were not growing in profitability.” Morales recalls. Commonly for many business owners, she noticed she just kept working harder and there was no real money—essentially she had bought herself a job.
Life After Starting Business Coaching…
Nichole met Juliet at a chamber event and after multiple interactions with her she decided to sit down with her one-on-one and really recognized that she needed help and started coaching. In the two and a half years that have proceeded that meeting, Morales and Associates has grown over 30% consistently year over year for the last two years, with net profit up 1011%! She has also added two key employees to her team and purchased and moved into her own office building.
After working with Juliet on establishing a number of systems and consistency in services, the clients Morales is acquiring are much more targeted. “We were able to develop packages allowing us to still offer customized services in a format that make more sense for our clients.”
“I have more freedom to take off time for myself in the off season and our staff is able to assist in a lot of the day-to-day responsibilities and I feel comfortable with that delegation” says Nichole.
That delegation came as a direct result of ActionCOACH helping Morales and Associates to recruit and hire the right staff that was able to help drive growth and develop the trust Nichole needed to have to be able to hand off responsibility.
The Coaching Experience…
For Nichole a huge benefit of coaching is having someone that she can bounce ideas off of who has experience in multiple backgrounds to know if that would work, whether its staffing, marketing or business strategy. “By having a business coach, it allows me to have someone else I am accountable to by eliminating being able to push things off that are going to help us be a better business.” says Morales. Business owners have a tendency to push things aside and not treat yourself as a client and Nichole’s business had to learn to change that habit.
What Would You Say to Anyone Looking at Coaching?
Nichole truly looks at coaching as a continuous investment, not a one-time thing to fix problems you have and move on. She tells others that as your business changes and grows and as you get better at what you are doing, there are always new challenges that arise and new goals to be set. A business owner’s need for assistance to work on new business opportunities and growth doesn’t ever end, meaning continuous coaching equals continuous growth.
“Whether your goals are to make your business run without you, increase profit or just make the business better—all of those things can be accomplished and your coaching can be customized to help bring all of that!” exclaims Morales.