Small Contractor Case Study

The mason who built our ICF basement was Warren Gossage of Cornerstone Construction. We found that he was not only good at his job, but extremely conscientious about the work he did and the people for whom he did the work. On hearing about Business Success Coaching and how it helps people take back the control over their businesses, Warren hired my services.

Why did Warren want to work with a Business Success Coach? "Because I know that something has to change and it sounds like you may be the person who can help me figure out what it is and help me make those changes."

Warren had been in the construction business for some 35 years. He was still working harder and was busier than he imagined he would be. Retirement had to come soon but it didn't seem like it was just around the corner. After all, during these 35 years he had built a good reputation for himself and his business and it was hard to say "no" to people when they wanted to hire his services.

One of the biggest accomplishments we had in our coaching relationship was honouring Warren's core value - family. Warren had realized that his grandchildren were growing up and he didn't even know them as well as he would like to. His oldest grandson was already in University and he was seeing less of the little ones than he liked. We set to work on meeting Warren's need to spend time with his family and that made everything else feel lighter for him. He wasn't "dragging" as much as he had been. It was easier, now, to make other changes.

As an experiment, Warren drastically increased his prices in the next five quotes he gave. Amazingly to him, he didn't lose a single one!

He made changes in his availability to clients on weekends. Then he stopped being a slave to the phone. He turned them off when he went to bed, so it no longer woke up the household at such an early hour. On Fridays, the phones were turned off around 5 p.m. - when he called it a day.

Next were his teams. By Warren spending more time working on the business and less working in it, he had to delegate more to his staff. After a few months he told me that he had the best teams he'd ever had working for him!

If you'd like to ask Warren any questions about his Business Success Coaching experience, you can give him a call at 613-375-6795.