I decided that it was time to engage a business coach as I had been working by myself for over ten years and felt that I and my business had started to get stuck in a rut. I needed someone to talk my ideas through, brainstorm, sense check, create structure and then help me follow through and implement the plan.

I chose Oona through past experience of working with her. When I was appointed to the board at Hamptons in 2004, as part of this promotion I was asked to work with Oona so she could give me some management training. What I learnt in those sessions has been instrumental in my career and I never forgot much of what I learnt. So when it came to finding a coach, there was only one person I was going to ask first.

It has been excellent to have someone to bounce ideas off and to get thoughts that were spinning around my head out, onto paper, into a plan and actioned. Within that process Oona was able to add in her advice and experience to ensure the plan worked, made me aware and to think about how the members of my team would see this and to bring some good HR and structure to the process and my business as it grew. For me personally I learnt a lot, I gained confidence in myself and my business, how to grow the business and my ability to grow it to the next level.

The experience in terms of results has been outstanding, from when I started to now, as part of the plan I have successfully targeted and recruited three new members of the team and our revenue is running ahead of plan already at approximately 25% more than it was this time last year.

At the beginning I knew I would benefit from coaching, but I was unsure whether the cost would turn into real results and whether this was a good investment. At the end of the process I can see this was the key to unlocking the door and have no doubt about the value of every penny spent.