Action Coach Portsmouth

Action Coach Portsmouth

Beth Theobald-Morgan

From firefighting to freedom: the ActionCOACH Business Operating System

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If you run your own business, you probably know the feeling. The phone rings before you’ve had your coffee. A customer needs an answer, a team member needs a decision, and the invoices still haven’t gone out. You started the business for more freedom, but most days it feels like the business is running you.

You’re not alone, and it isn’t a personal failing. Most owners were never shown how to build a business that can run without them. That’s exactly what the ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABOS) is designed to do.

What is ABOS?

ABOS is a step-by-step framework, backed by a diagnostic platform, that moves owners out of daily firefighting and towards a profitable business that runs itself. It draws on more than 30 years of ActionCOACH experience with hundreds of thousands of business owners around the world.

At its heart is a simple definition of a real business: a commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you. In other words, the business does the work, so you don’t have to.

The end goal is freedom across four areas: your time, your team, your money and your motivation. You also end up with something valuable, a business you could sell if you ever chose to.

ABOS gets you there in six steps. Here’s how each one works.

How ABOS is installed

Your journey starts with an ABOS Assessment. It shows where your business stands today and which areas need attention first. From there, your coach works through the six steps with you, using two main tools:

  • Strategy Cards: focused, practical actions that tackle one specific area of your business.
  • Playbooks: fuller guides that walk you through installing a complete system.

An ongoing ABOS Dashboard then tracks your progress, so you can see the results building over time.

Step 1: Mastery, from chaos to control

The first step is about taking back the driving seat. Many owners are stuck in reactive mode. Some are just about keeping up with the bills. Others are doing well but still believe that if a job needs doing properly, they have to do it themselves.

Mastery builds a solid foundation through four areas:

  • Destination Mastery brings clarity. Planning and goal-setting systems help you lead the business day to day and steer it over the long term.
  • Time Mastery brings productivity. Systems for managing yourself and your people create small gains that add up to bigger bottom-line results.
  • Delivery Mastery brings consistency. Simple process improvements and checklists mean customers get the same great experience every time, so they come back and recommend you.
  • Financial Mastery brings profit. You learn to read your historical numbers, and also the predictive ones that show where you’re heading. That gives you the confidence to make real decisions.

The mindset at this stage is to be patient with growth but impatient for profit every single day.

Step 2: Marketing, turning up the cash flow

With the foundations in place, it’s time to grow. ActionCOACH defines marketing as profitably buying lifetime customers. Every pound you spend should bring back more than a pound in extra profit. Through testing and measuring, marketing stops being a cost and becomes an investment, with a return on ad spend you can track and celebrate.

This step centres on the 5 Ways formula. Improve each of these five areas a little, and the gains multiply across your bottom line:

  1. Leads: attracting the right number of potential customers for steady growth that your team and cash flow can handle.
  2. Conversion rate: building a sales process that nurtures prospects and turns more of them into customers.
  3. Number of transactions: encouraging past customers to buy again, which is where most profit comes from.
  4. Average sale: increasing the value of each sale to each customer.
  5. Margins: making sure every sale delivers the best possible gross profit.

Each area comes with dozens of Strategy Cards to choose from. A strong brand boosts the results across all five.

Alongside the 5 Ways sits the Ladder of Loyalty. It’s a system for moving people from someone in your target market, all the way up to a raving fan. Raving fans buy often, refer people like themselves and talk about you online. Get this right and your customer experience becomes one of your best sources of new business.

Step 3: Systems, making the business work

In ABOS, SYSTEM stands for Save Your Self Time, Energy and Money. This step delivers the “works” part of a business that works without you.

The principle is simple. You build the systems, the systems run the business, and your team runs the systems. Your role shifts to leading and managing the people. Growth becomes far more predictable as a result.

Your coach takes you through nine steps to systemise the business:

  • Steps 1 to 4 set direction. You define your vision, mission, values and company goals.
  • Steps 5 to 7 shape the team. You work out the size and structure of the team you’ll need to make the vision real.
  • Steps 8 and 9 make it repeatable. You install the systems and create the manuals and checklists that let the business run consistently.

Once this is done, you can start stepping back from the daily detail.

Step 4: Team, building people who build the business

TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More. To get your freedom, you need people who can deliver results whether you’re in the building or not.

ABOS uses six keys to build a winning team:

  1. Strong leadership: it starts with you, your leadership skills and your personal leadership style.
  2. A common goal: something everyone knows, believes in and benefits from.
  3. Culture and the rules of the game: a clear, written agreement on how the team works together.
  4. An action plan: everyone knows who does what, and by when.
  5. Support for risk taking: room to try new things as the business grows.
  6. 100% involvement and inclusion: every team member plays a part.

Add strong management, leadership and communication systems, and the business starts to feel like a well-oiled machine. Your trust in the team grows, and you can choose to step back or step up.

Step 5: Scale, from steady growth to multiplied growth

Scale is about taking the model you’ve built and expanding it to whatever size you want. Not every owner wants to grow this far, and that’s fine. For those who do, this is where growth stops being a percentage and starts to multiply.

Scaling rests on five core disciplines that work together:

  • Strategy
  • Business development
  • People
  • Execution
  • Mission

Each discipline breaks down into several key functions, supported by more than 500 Strategy Cards and a range of Playbooks. Growth at this level needs to be funded, balanced and built on great people, with a great coach alongside you.

Step 6: Freedom, a business that works without you

This is where everything comes together. You now have a business you could sell, or at least one you could choose to sell.

Every owner leaves their business one day. Too many simply close the doors because of their own ill health or the ill health of the business. ABOS aims for a planned exit instead. That might mean a company that runs happily without you, or one you sell as a valuable asset.

While ABOS is being installed in your business, your coach is also working on your own growth. ActionCOACH describes this as the Entrepreneurial Ladder:

  1. Student: learning the basics.
  2. Employee: gaining experience in someone else’s business.
  3. Self-employed: running your own business, often doing most of the work yourself.
  4. Manager: leading your own team.
  5. Owner: letting go, so your team runs the business without you.

Each rung takes new skills and a new mindset. Letting go at the top is often the hardest part, which is why the right support matters so much.

CARE: how you grow alongside your business

If ABOS is how your business grows, CARE is how you grow. It stands for four things every owner needs:

  • Community: running a business can be lonely. ActionCOACH brings you together with other owners to learn from and alongside.
  • Accountability: your coach, mastermind groups and peer support keep you focused on profit and growth.
  • Results: a constant focus on the numbers that build your profit and the value of your company.
  • Education: online learning, books, events and quarterly planning sessions, because your business can only grow as fast as you do.

Where do you start?

You don’t have to tackle all six steps at once. Most owners start at Mastery, getting control of their time, numbers and goals before pushing for growth. Others are ready to work on marketing, systems or team straight away. The ABOS Assessment shows you exactly where to begin.

The prize is worth it: more time for your family, your hobbies and the life you started the business for, plus a business that keeps growing while you enjoy it.

Ready to find out where your business stands? Book a complimentary coaching session and we’ll walk you through how ABOS could work for your business.

Introducing our 12-Week MasterCLASS programmes for 2027

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From January 2027, we’re running five 12-week MasterCLASS programmes at our Havant office: Management, Leadership, Sales, Marketing and Business. Each one is CPD-accredited and gives the right person in your business a proven system for their area, plus the weekly coaching to put it into practice.

Most businesses have invested in training at some point. The ideas are good on the day, then the week takes over and nothing changes. These programmes are built to stop that happening.

Why training alone doesn’t stick

Research on the “forgetting curve” shows people can forget up to 90% of new information within a week unless it’s reinforced. That’s why one-off training days so rarely change how a business runs.

Each MasterCLASS combines training with coaching, so new skills are learned, used and kept:

  • Weekly reinforcement: each session builds on the last, so ideas are revisited, not forgotten.
  • Real-world application: attendees apply each lesson to their own role and business between sessions.
  • Accountability: weekly actions and progress tracking keep everyone moving forward.
  • Personal guidance: coaching addresses each attendee’s own challenges and gaps.
  • Lasting results: 12 weeks of practice turns new skills into habits.

 

The five programmes, and who should attend

Each programme is designed for a specific person in your business. Send the person whose role it matches, or come yourself if you’re the owner.

Business MasterCLASS

For: business owners.

Build a business that works and grows without you having to be involved day to day. The 12 weeks cover setting clear goals, managing your time, the five drivers of profit, customer value and loyalty, lead generation, systems, team performance, leadership, and understanding your numbers (profit and loss, cash flow and break-even).

Management MasterCLASS

For: your managers and team leaders.

Build confident, capable managers who keep teams focused and productive. Topics include productivity and workflow, weekly planning and prioritisation, running effective team meetings and one-to-ones, goal-setting with KPIs, 90-day planning, performance reviews and conflict, communication, team-building, and the step from manager to leader.

Leadership MasterCLASS

For: your senior team and leaders.

Develop leaders who inspire, engage and deliver results. The programme covers leading versus managing, culture and values, strategic thinking and execution, leadership communication, emotional intelligence, leading through change, coaching your team, and building a personal leadership brand.

Sales MasterCLASS

For: your head of sales and sales team.

Install a proven sales system and build a team that connects, persuades and closes. Sessions cover the sales mindset, prospecting and qualifying, building rapport, body language and influence, handling objections and negotiating, closing with confidence, tracking sales KPIs, and keeping customers coming back.

Marketing MasterCLASS

For: your head of marketing or whoever runs your marketing.

Turn scattered marketing tactics into a system that brings in a steady flow of leads. Topics include your key marketing numbers, your ideal customer, positioning and the customer journey, margins and average sale, conversion and follow-up, customer loyalty, social media, website and SEO, direct marketing, referrals and alliances, a 90-day marketing calendar, and measuring what works.

 

How it works

Every programme is delivered in person at our Havant office by Matt, our ActionCOACH-certified trainer. Groups are kept small, so everyone gets time to work on their own business.

  
Length12 weeks
WhenFridays, 10am to 11.30am
WhereIn person at our Havant office
FormatWeekly 90-minute facilitated sessions with discussion, goal-setting and hands-on application
Between sessionsWeekly actions to apply what you’ve learned, with progress tracked on key measures
AccreditationCPD-accredited
StartsJanuary 2027, with programmes running throughout the year

Each session builds on the last. By week 12, attendees haven’t just learned a system, they’ve put it in place.

 

The investment

Each programme is £1,200 + VAT per person. That works out at £100 a week for 12 weeks of training and coaching.

With over 30 years of experience helping businesses worldwide, ActionCOACH is confident these programmes work!

 

Register your interest

We’re confirming the order and dates of the programmes now. Places are limited, so tell us which programme interests you and you’ll be the first to hear when dates are released.

Register your interest here

Prefer to talk it through? Call us on 02392 454111 or email info@actioncoachportsmouth.com.

FREE 2 WEEK BUSINESS KICKSTART: Is It Right for You?

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CLICK HERE to claim your FREE 2 WEEK BUSINESS KICKSTART place

Ask most business owners when they last switched off completely, and you’ll usually get a long pause.

Over time, the business that was meant to give them freedom has quietly taken over their evenings, their weekends and their holidays. Not because they’re doing anything wrong, but because they’re too close to it to see a way out.

That’s exactly why we created the FREE 2 WEEK BUSINESS KICKSTART: free, one-to-one business coaching for owners across Hampshire and West Sussex. Over two weeks, we step back from the day-to-day together, look at your business from the outside, and build a clear game plan to grow it and get your time back. Best of all, it costs nothing, and there’s no obligation to carry on afterwards.

In this post, we’ll explain exactly what happens, and how to tell whether it’s right for you.

Why two weeks of free business coaching?

Put simply, two weeks is long enough to see how your business really runs, and short enough that it doesn’t take over your diary.

After all, a single meeting rarely gets past the surface. Typically, you talk about the challenges you already know about, and you leave with a few good ideas that are forgotten by Friday. In contrast, over two weeks we can meet you, see your business in action, think properly about what we’ve found, and come back with a plan that fits how you actually work.

It also means you get a real taste of what working with a business coach is like, rather than a sales pitch about it.

What happens, step by step

The Kickstart has four steps, each building on the last.

Step one: Connect & Coffee

We start with a relaxed, informal chat over a coffee. This is all about you: where the business is today, where you want it to be, and what you want your own life to look like. We’ll ask what’s frustrating you, what’s working well, and what you’d do with more time if you had it.

Above all, there’s no pressure and no hard sell. It’s simply a chance to get to know each other.

Step two: Exploration & On-Site Insight

Next, we come to you. This matters because seeing your business in action tells us far more than any conversation can. We’ll look at how work flows through the business, how the team operates day to day, and where your own time is going.

In fact, owners are often surprised by what an outside pair of eyes picks up. For example, things that have become “just how we do it” can turn out to be where the biggest opportunities are hiding.

Step three: Virtual Strategy Session

Then, using what we’ve learned, we meet online to dig into the detail. Together we’ll pinpoint the handful of areas that would make the biggest difference, whether that’s profit, sales, your team, your systems or your time.

Ultimately, the aim is focus. Rather than trying to fix everything at once, we narrow it down to what matters most right now.

Step four: 90-Minute Game Plan Session

Finally, we bring it all together in a 90-minute session to build your game plan. As a result, you’ll leave with clear priorities, practical next steps and a realistic timeline, written down so you can act on it straight away.

What you walk away with

By the end of the two weeks, you’ll have:

  • A clear picture of where your business stands today, seen from the outside

  • Your biggest opportunities identified, so you know where to focus first

  • A written game plan with priorities, next steps and a timeline

  • A real experience of business coaching, so you can decide whether it’s right for you

Most importantly, the game plan is yours to keep, whatever you decide to do next.

Is it right for you?

Generally, the Kickstart works best for business owners in Hampshire and West Sussex who want things to change and are ready to act on what they learn.

It’s probably a great fit if you:

  • Own and run a business, and feel like it runs you rather than the other way round

  • Are working long hours and missing out on time with family, friends or hobbies

  • Know the business could be more profitable, but aren’t sure where to start

  • Rely on yourself for too much, and want your team to take more ownership

  • Have a growth goal in mind, but no clear plan to get there

  • Are open to an outside view, even when it challenges how things are done

It’s probably not for you if:

  • You’re looking for someone to do the work for you, rather than alongside you

  • You’re not in a position to make changes in the next few months

  • You’d only like to talk through ideas, without acting on any of them

On the other hand, if you’re not sure, that’s fine. Mention it when you apply, and we’ll have an honest conversation about whether the Kickstart is the right next step.

Frequently asked questions

Is it really free? Yes. In fact, there’s no cost for any of the four steps, and you won’t be asked for payment details.

What’s the catch? There isn’t one. We run the Kickstart because the best way to understand what coaching can do is to experience it. If you’d like to keep working together afterwards, we’ll talk about that. If not, you keep your game plan and we part as friends.

How much of my time will it take? Four sessions spread over two weeks, including the 90-minute Game Plan Session. What’s more, we’ll arrange each one around your diary.

Where do the sessions happen? First, the coffee is somewhere convenient for you. After that, the on-site visit is at your business, and the strategy session is online.

Why are places limited? Each Kickstart gets proper one-to-one time, including a visit to your business. As a result, we can only take on a small number each month.

What happens afterwards? That’s up to you. Some owners choose to carry on with coaching, and others take their game plan and run with it. Either way, there’s no obligation.

Ready to work with a business coach?

If you’ve read this far, you probably already know something needs to change. Often, the hardest part is taking the first step, and that’s just a coffee.

Places are limited each month, so if the FREE 2 WEEK BUSINESS KICKSTART sounds right for you, apply today. It takes two minutes, and we’ll be in touch to book your coffee.

CLICK HERE to claim your FREE 2 WEEK BUSINESS KICKSTART place

No cost. No obligation. Just a clear plan to grow your business and get your time back.

3 Signs your business depends on you too much

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Most business owners start out chasing freedom: more time, more control, more choice over how they spend their days.

Somewhere along the way, many end up with the opposite. The business grows, but so do the hours. Evenings go on admin, weekends go on catch-up, and holidays come with a laptop.

If your business can’t run without you, you don’t own a business. You own a job, and a demanding one. Here are three signs it depends on you too much, and what you can do about it.

 

1. Every decision comes through you

Your phone never stops. Your team checks with you before they act, from pricing a job to answering a customer email.

It can feel good to be needed. But when every decision waits for you, you become the bottleneck. Work slows down when you’re busy, and stops completely when you’re away.

Try this:
For one week, note every question your team brings you. Pick the three that come up most and agree a simple rule for each, so your team can decide without you next time.

 

2. You can’t take a proper break

When did you last switch off for a full week? Not checking emails by the pool, not taking “quick” calls on a day out with the family.

If a holiday needs weeks of planning, or you dread what you’ll come back to, your business is relying on you to keep it running day to day. That’s tiring, and it’s risky. If you were ill for a month, what would happen?

Try this:
Book a day off in the next month and put it in the diary now. Then look at what would need to happen for the business to run smoothly that day. That list is where the work starts.

 

3. The know-how lives only in your head

How do you quote for a job? Onboard a new customer? Train a new starter? If the honest answer is “I just do it”, the business only works when you’re there.

Without written systems, every task depends on your memory and your time. Your team can’t step up, and growing means you work even harder.

Try this:
Choose one task you do every week and write down the steps, or record yourself doing it. Hand it to someone else and fine-tune it together. One system a month adds up fast.

 

Building a business that runs without you

Recognise one or more of these signs? You’re not alone, and it can be fixed. It isn’t a time problem. It’s a business design problem.

Through business coaching, we help owners put the right pieces in place:

  • Systems, so the know-how isn’t stuck in your head
  • A team who can make decisions without you
  • Clear numbers, so you know how the business is doing at a glance
  • A plan, with time off put in the diary first

The result is a business that keeps running when you step back, and more time for your family, your hobbies and the life you built it for.

 

Ready to get your time back? Get in touch to book a free, no-obligation chat about where your time is going and what would free up the most of it.

Book a call with Matt now!

Grow Your Business: Fix These 4 Foundations First

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When a business owner tells me they want to grow, my first question isn’t about marketing. It’s about foundations.

In the ActionCOACH Business Operating System, the first stage is mastery: moving from chaos to control. It has four parts, and each one builds on the last. Get them right and growth becomes far easier. Skip them and growth becomes expensive and exhausting.


1. Delivery mastery

Most owners focus on new customers first. I want to know whether you can look after the ones you’ve already got.

Would you run a bath with the hot tap on and the plug out? That’s what chasing new business looks like when existing clients are leaking away. Keeping a customer is seven times cheaper than winning a new one.

The test: can you deliver on time at least 80% of the time, on budget, on scope, with no negative feedback and no late-night panic? First, score yourself out of 10. Then ask what one or two points better would look like.

A simple way to raise the bar is to imagine your favourite celebrity just became a customer. Of course, you’d pull out all the stops. What would you do for them that you’re not doing for everyone?


2. Destination mastery

Simply put, before you build something, you need to know what you’re building.

We spend more time planning our family holiday than planning where our business is going. Nobody turns up at the airport with a backpack and no idea where they’re flying. And nobody builds a dream house by dumping bricks in a field. Instead you’d hire an architect and see the drawings first.

So take two full days. Decide where you want the business to be, what it’ll turn over and which customers it’ll serve. That’s your blueprint.


3. Financial mastery

If you don’t know last month’s net profit, you don’t really know your business.

Every one of my clients reports their numbers to their coach monthly: revenue, gross margin, net profit and average sale. Together they answer one question: are you on track or off track?

Technology makes this easy now. My AI agent pulls our numbers from Xero every Tuesday morning and emails the team a report. As a result, a three-hour job became thirty minutes.

And if your accountant only gives you year-end accounts nine months late, find one who’ll give you monthly numbers.


4. Time mastery

Fortunately, I only ask for two to four hours a week, blocked out, to work on the business.

If you’re not building your business, someone else is. However, it rarely ends up looking the way you wanted.


Where to start

Score yourself out of 10 on each of the four. Pick the lowest two and focus there for the next 90 days. Finally, once those are solid, you’re ready to grow.

Contact us to book your free coaching session.

Take Action. Get Results.