Here’s just some of the people that we have been honoured to work with over the years.
These businesses represent a diverse range of industries and a diverse range of business experience – ranging from ‘start-ups’ to ‘multi million dollar’ companies
Here’s what they say or what we have achieved with them…
The team at Better Business Now, have been working with our 2 Accounting practices for the past 8 months.
We have had a dramatic increase in both new clients and income following Brian's advice and systems. However, saying this perhaps the best thing to come out of our working together is the fantastic relationships Brian has been able to form with us and other business owners.
We thoroughly recommend him as an essential resource to both new and established businesses.
Michelle - 2 x Accountancy Practices & Financial Services Practice
David has been assisting our family owned painting business for just over a month now and in that time we have increased our quoting success rate by 35% which is a fantastic achievement in such a short time. We can now see our business growing and moving in the right direction. David has helped us with tracking where our leads are coming from and this has allowed us to spend money on marketing and advertising that we now know works and it has also increased our profits.
David is very approachable and a great coach who has allowed us to bounce ideas off him and we would highly recommend him to anyone that wants to expand and grow their business.
We are a family owned and managed furniture relocation and Storage Company that has been in business for 19 years.
In the early days it was quite simple to pick up work, all you really needed to do was have the biggest yellow page ad and you were making money. Times have now changed and the last few years we found ourselves going backwards and spending more money to get fewer enquiries and didn't know what to do.
We tried some different methods but found these to be very expensive and constantly found we had to keep lowering our prices just to stay competitive.
I decided it was time to get some outside help (or close the business); I contacted ‘Better Business Now' and meet with Brian who had a look over our business and came up with an action plan. We now have been with BBN for over 6 months and have noticed a huge difference! By implementing some of their modern strategies we are now getting far more enquiries, for a lot less money and a higher conversion rate, plus we have been able to increase our prices back (some of our competitors are wondering how we are winning jobs priced higher then theirs).
Our business is back on track and with Brian's help we are developing systems to streamline the business and work less time in it.
I highly recommend having a talk with them to see what they can do for your business, what have you got to loose?
Mathew - Owner of a Domestic / Commercial local & interstate furniture relocation and Storage Company
My small business is an education consultancy delivering professional development to school educators. In 2010 I made the decision to take the business in a direction that would allow me in the future to do less at the ‘coalface' if I choose to. My expertise is in education not business so I employed the services of Brian Brown from BetterBusinessNow.
Working with Brian has given me the confidence to build this consultancy through training more consultants and refining marketing strategies including building a new website. Brian was ‘hands on' from the first meeting with designers of the website to supporting me currently in using it correctly to improve the business.
In 2010 there were three consultants including myself delivering professional development . Now, midway through 2011 there are eight. We still have processes to refine and I look forward to continuing my association with Brian. His encouragement and expertise have been invaluable.
In the past we have worked with other coaches that haven't produced results, they educated us on business but not on how to get actual results.
I decided to get in contact with Simon from ‘Better Business Now' who my dad uses, and straight away he came to us with a plan!
Our enquiry rate has now gone from 2 a week to 10, our classes have grown from 25 to nearly 50 and we are about to have a record week.
Sean & Matt - owners of a personal training studio
After meeting Brian from Better Business Now, we knew that he had something to offer us in terms of moving our business forward. We have started several businesses over the past 12 years and achieved relative success with all of them.
With our current concrete resurfacing business we had taken it as for as we could on our own. We knew that we wanted to achieve much more with the business that we had built, but really didn't know how to do it. Brian was able to help us with many different aspects of the business from business cards, branding, tracking systems, sales process and converting a much higher percentage of leads into jobs.
Brian helped us create a system that we can now duplicate many times over to expand our business, far beyond what we could have imagined. He has also helped us to work smarter by reducing our advertising costs to a fraction of what we used to spend while at the same time increasing profit levels.
What we have learnt with Brian and the 'Better Business Now program' has been invaluable and we will benefit from it far into the future.
Jason & Rachel - Concrete Resurfacing Business
footnote: Just using some very simple and easy to implement systems that we helped the owners with, we were able to drop their current advertising costs from over $2,000 per month to less than $40 a month while increasing profits margins. Another simple technique we introduced into this business allows them to win more work at a higher rate than their competitors are charging.
Most business owners are good at what they do but are not specialists in business development and marketing - just using some simple techniques can change a business dramatically...
We are now in the process of helping Jason & Rachel franchise their business.
Brian Brown has been my business coach for the past 6 months.
During that time, my company has improved it's bottom line significantly. In fact, the last quarter was our best ever for both sales, and more importantly, profit...in a so called recession!
I put this down to Brian's advice and guidance in the area of low cost marketing that produces outstanding results. With Brian's help, we've actually reduced the amount of money we're spending on marketing, yet increased sales!
We've been taught how to test and measure all of our marketing so we know exactly which mediums are producing the best results. Prior to working with Brian, we were "flying blind" to a large degree.
I highly recommend Brian as a business coach to anyone who's serious about increasing sales and profits in their business.
Justin - Professional Roof Restoration Company
footnote: Business has been so successful that we are now helping Justin to franchise - from documentation, helping with legal docs, developing sales material and looking for potential franchisees. We have our 1st franchisee in under 3 months
Our roofing business appointed Brian Brown from Better Business Now as our Business Coach for a period of 12 months during a time of steady growth. We felt because of the husband/wife team scenario with a small number of employees we needed an outside professional to offer constructive analysis into the running of our business and to assist us with improving our processes and procedures and fulfilling our goals.
Brian has vast experience in many different areas and was adaptable to what our needs were throughout the 12 months. During our time with Brian our company attained certifications in many areas that I still believe we may not have had if it wasn't for his persistence.
With the help from many of Brian's contacts we were able to develop in some key areas that in the past we were not addressing. We were very time poor and Brian had us focusing in the important areas we need to and was very good at directing us in prioritising.
I would highly recommend Brian to any growing business that requires the expertise of a very pro-active business coach and gives 150%.
I commenced my own financial planning business in early 2008 and the idea of having a business coach never crossed my mind. Not long after I attended a seminar presented by Brian, heard his stories and the ways in which he had helped people like me succeed in business, I enlisted the aid of Brian Brown.
I wasn't too sure what to expect or what we would achieve - just 6 months later and my expectations had been met 10 fold.
The way in which I thought about business, my goals and overall professional development had been considerably altered and I was now in the frame of mind to tackle any challenge as well as pursue any prospect. Brian's complete process to look into marketing, strategic alliances plus setting in place policies, procedures and processes had meant that I can take my business in any direction and reach any size.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Brian and I look forward to our continued success.
As a carpet cleaner, phone conversions are very important (converting enquiring people into customers).
With some simple strategies and help from my advisor Simon, I have gone from booking 30% of phone calls to 80% of phone calls. So there for I have doubled my work load without spending anymore on advertising than what I already have. More income for less money spent. A big thank you to Simon for what he has taught me in just the first 4 weeks!
Glenn - Residential & Commercial Carpet Cleaning Business
footnote: even though this may sound 'unbelievable' - it's actually quite common and very simple to get results like these (and it's no cost). A lot of business owners are unaware of how many potential customers they are actually loosing. Using user friendly simple systems to record results, we can then look at some conversion strategies to improve...
As a new business owner I had spent the first 2 yrs building my business from scratch, no contacts, no contracts just hard work, 6 days a week 15hr days and Sundays doing bookwork, Proposals etc. I could not seem to break out of this cycle, in reality I found that to grow any further I would need more hrs in the day and more days in the week.
I needed a plan, a new way of working that would allow me to grow, expand and finally get off the tools and start enjoying life. I needed help.
I phoned and spoke to Brian Brown of "Better Business Now", Brian arranged for a free, no obligation meeting. From that meeting, well to say I was impressed would be an understatement.
I signed Brian up as my business coach straight away. What Brian has to offer is not rocket science but time tested, basic, proven procedures to growing your business.
Well It's now almost 12 months latter, Brian is still coaching me, I have employed my first trainee, my profits are up, physical work hrs are down, (although Brian's homework for me seems to grow) and a plan has been formulated to grow the business even further.
Brian has the knowledge and skills to help any business, I'm sure glad he took the time to help me.
Peter - Residential & Commercial Pest Control Company
footnote: recent message from Peter (it is now Peter's 3rd year with us!):
Brian, just wanted to wish you and your family a very Merry and Safe Christmas, thank you for sticking with me this year I appreciate the advice and the professional level that you have helped my business grow to, I look forward to working with you in the new year and to growing to greater heights.
We have been in our Smash repair business for the past 5 years mostly on our own with no direction and through Simon's coaching over the last few months we now have 2 staff and a workshop constantly full of work. We now have direction and we are able to have dinner as a family with our two young children most nights instead of working 15 hours or more per day. With this too we have been able to start up a second business in our spare time.
Simon is a man of his word who is full of energy, highly trained and is motivated and committed to other peoples goals of success.
With Simons coaching we have learned that anything REALLY is POSSIBLE!!!!!!
A big THANK YOU and we can't wait to see what changes are ahead for us over the next few months of working with you.
As a not-for-profit community organisation, our main focus from a ‘business' perspective is to increase our membership numbers through awareness.
Better Business Now has gone above and beyond to ensure that we build a strong reputation with potential consumers, through local advertising and an online presence. They listened to our ideas, and were able to guide us in the right direction in regards to targeting our message to the appropriate audience.
They developed our website http://www.runcornparkphysie.com, which has been one of the most beneficial tools in our marketing, along with the flyers and banners which they provided.
Brian continues to exceed our expectations as a sponsor, in his ability to incorporate our ideas into a successful marketing approach.
Miss Stephanie (as called by her students) - Physical Culture Dance Club
Footnote: It's an absolute pleasure to be able to help 20 year old Stephanie (sorry, Miss Stephanie) acheive her dream of having her own dance club for young girls and be able to teach them with her passion and love of the sport.
Physie (Physical Culture) is a unique dance sport for girls and women from 4 years, which aims to build confidence, good posture, strength, fitness and flexibility through exercise. As a final note: if you have a young daughter, do yourself and them a favour and find a Physie club location near you, you'll be glad you did...
I have owned the business for over 6 years and I feel that if I had done this 6 years ago I wouldn’t have went through half what I have been through, wouldn’t have spent half the money I did that was just a waste, and it would have made my life so much easier…
One strategy we set up a VIP club which increased the average sale by 16%.
Brian has made me more motivated with his own enthusiasm and motivation which has then rubbed off on the staff too
Owning our business for the past few years with steady growth, we felt it was time to look for outside assistance to help give our business a boost. With Brian’s advice we implemented some simple strategies which made a marked improvement in our business.
Just a few of our achievements were; An increase of nearly 280% in our phone conversion rate and 190% increase in winning more quotes, and one simple idea that picked up a $20k contract. We met our projected 3 year business target in less than 1 year
I have been using the services of Better Business Now for over 2 years. Other companies I know who use professional Business Coaches I tell them; “it must be terrible to settle for second best”… because I have the best.
Without their help and guidance I would hate to think where we would be. Running a business at times can be tuff, like a lot of other businesses issues and problems come up and with their help I have confidently worked through them (I know if the shit hits the fan Brian is there to help sort it out). Business is great, we have employed staff and we enjoy working with good quality customers, while at the same time freeing up some of my time
Thanks for coming into our business and teaching and assisting us in implementing simplified systems that have contributed to accelerating our business growth.
Here are a few things Brian taught us;
• A simple strategy that returns on average $4,000 for an outlay of only $13 which can work time and time again
• Simple ways that increased our average sale that results in more profit for us
• A technique that makes our customers stay loyal, and refers their friends to us by using other businesses services provided free.
Brian was there every step of the way with help and advice and not to mention he has a special ability to make written material sound fantastic.
Thanks to Brian’s involvement in our business we have accelerated our business growth with extremely low cost and effective marketing techniques that worked into our business strategy with ease.
From a small unknown start up business to one of the market leaders within 1 year and a offer of a ‘buy out’ because they were seen as a proactive up and coming company
• Yellow pages ad restructured and written that generated more qualified callers ready to buy
• Phone answering strategy that converted close to 93% of callers from a previous 46%
• Using better targeting and quoting methods were able to increase the average sale by over 400%
• Straight up Increase of close to 70% in average sales within the first 3 weeks
• Business could run on minimal effort within 4 months
Locksmith Business
Footnote: The boys won 'The 2008 Quest Business Achievers Award' - congradulations!
We use and will only use the services of 'Better Business Now'. From their sourced design team though to their ability to write excellent marketing material and taught sales processes. Truly wonderful gifted team that produces results
When we started our business, the water tank industry was booming mainly due to Government rebates available to customers. Wanting to build our business we took on the services of Brian to help us. Unfortunately, within weeks some of the Government rebates were dropped which resulted in a collapse of the industry and we watched as others were closing down or went broke.
Brian helped us develop a friendly, professional image for our family business; one of his simple methods he used gave us ongoing work and is growing.
Business has grown that much that we are flat out keeping up, and are now looking for bigger premises and staff
Cliff & Christine – Water Tank Manufacturers
footnote: this family business was great to work with and Cliff was a real aussie larakin - real people, real businesses...
My husband and I have a small family business and although we knew we were at a point where we wanted to grow the business we really didn't know how best to approach the whole process, so we engaged the service of a Business Development Company.
To be totally honest, neither of us knew what to expect from such a company but we knew that we didn't want someone coming in and taking over because it was "our" business, we just needed some guidance. Well we weren't disappointed, because with Brian from Better Business Now we got just what we needed. He gave us great advertising and marketing ideas, he got us set up on the web (which is something we would never have even thought of, whether it be out of fear or ignorance I couldn't tell you) and he gave us a variety of leads to follow, and all this with never once making us feel as though he was taking over. I found that I could ring Brian any time or as many times as I needed and not once did he ever make me feel that I was being a bother, and he would always have an answer or idea and if he ever had to look into something for me, I could rest assured that he would always get back to me with an answer.
Although we haven't become wealthy overnight (I wish), our business is definitely moving in the right direction and we are getting the right systems in place so that as the work load increase our ability to handle it will be there as well and I feel this is greatly due to the knowledge and guidance of Brian from Better Business Now.
So thank you Brian, not just for all your help and guidance but for your patience as well.
Several times now I have used your service to attract more clients to my business, I am always very pleased with the result I have had from your ads as they have always attracted the right sort of person I was after. You come up with things that I would never have thought of and found it much easier to give the task to you and I know it is going to work.
BetterBusinessNow was recommended to me by a business associate after I had tried a few coaches without any real success... and what a difference Brian (my coach) has made.
The difference is that he has built many businesses personally, so he "walks the talk". In just one month he has slashed my previous marketing budget almost in half and almost doubled traffic to the business.
If that was not enough incentive, his fees were under half of what I had been paying. At these rates no business cannot afford not to be coached!
Michael - marine aquarium
footnote: our client had previously been using coaches from franchise systems, hence a higher fee price he was paying to cover their franchise fees - we are not a franchise, so we don't need to pass on additional fees - but anyway, it's not really about the fees, it's the value that you receive...
Business growth was static (not going anyway) as other supply companies were opening and general landscaping companies were jumping on the band wagon
• Yellow pages ad revised and rewritten - more qualified enquiries
• Simple direct mail campaign set up to generate more clients (contractors) – resulted in new clients
• Newsletter developed for their members to keeping touch and to constantly remind them of ‘other products’ available – resulted in more sales
• More sales generated for all products, clearer vision for the business, understanding that simple low / no cost ideas can made a huge impact
Being the marketing person and owner of a beauty/cosmetic salon in Adelaide. I originally coached dance students, ballet to be exact so I understood the benefits of having a coach to get me to where I wanted to go. Why did I go from dance students to beauty well I use to go to that beauty salon and liked it so much decided to buy the business.
Cathy Pihir has been working with me now for 3 months before that it was hit and miss with different ideas and not really knowing if they were going to work and make me money let alone a profit. Now we get together once a week and have put 5 strategies in place and I know I'm not wasting my money.
Cathy has taken the whole salon out of their comfort zone but to get better results we had to learn new strategies. Since engaging her services we are on track to achieving one of our many goals of an increase of at least $100k per year. It took a mere 3 months for us to recoup our initial investment. I would highly recommend Cathy to any business owner who is committed and dedicated to take their business to the next level. Cathy passion and drive makes your business her business.
I would like to take this opportunity in thanking you in helping me improve my business. You not only helped me refine my marketing ideas, you also helped us improve our cash flow by introducing a visa credit system which we had not thought possible.
Your wealth of knowledge and amount of contacts has been of great benefit to my business.
I have already recommended some of my advertisers get in contact with you so you can help them refine and redesign their business.
Thanks for all your help
Steve - publisher of a Business magazine
footnote: With some simple ideas and 'outside of the box' thinking, we developed the business so it stands above all the other magazines and is uniquely different. Now the owner has people regularly calling him to advertise, according to himself this has not happened in the previous 17 years...
Just a very brief note to inform you of our business progress to date.
We have had some what of a slow start to the year, with motivation on my behalf being the major issues. With some kind words of reassurance from yourself the last time we made contact, progress has been made on making my business bigger and better.
Although enduring some financial issues faced with setting up this business, I still look forward to using Better Business Now to help expand our business and most of all my knowledge in the marketing and business world.
Please stay in contact, and be assured that once a little more financial I will be using the BBN system and products
Thanking you in advance for your patience and time.
Russell - Importing help service (start-up business)
Footnote: I received this letter from Russell, thanking us for our help and support. With some businesses that come to us we can't help them straight away, but instead give them some information and pointers to head them in the right direction intill such times that we can help them. Our goal is to help business owners, not to take their money for nothing - hence, we will only take on businesses that we beleive that we can get a good result for.
When I made the decision to move forward with the Better Business Now program all I wanted to do was increase my bottom line by getting more clients, hence make more money.
Well I got that & much, much more!
What I did get was clarity & a whole different ways of looking at things. I was able to substantially increase my work flow by working smarter & having the correct systems put in place. I now really got the concept of leverage & practical help in how to implement that into my business. I was encouraged every step of the way & guided with every decision that I made. When I needed someone just to talk to Brian was there offering his support. Now I have a contract that I could have only dreamt about & not only is my work life better but so is my personal life.
I feel that I have been given a chance to start again in business & have the tools to do it, as well as the support & friendship of Brian.
Yellow pages, is where a lot of money can be wasted. In years passed we have left it up to the reps to design the ads for us, thinking to ourselves that they should know what to do? Each year we get talked into ‘up-sizing’ and increasing the number of ads we have. The reps tell us “you need a bigger ad so people remember the name, next year will work better” – but, unfortunately all we seem to do is spend more money and not see all these crowds of new customers as promised by the reps.
Frustrated with poor results it was time to get serious. We contracted ‘Better Business Now’ to help us.
Part of their services, they showed us by using just a few simple tricks how we could rewrite our ads and what sizes were needed.
The end result – we were able to increase the amount of ads, while saving over $10,000! Plus, the phone enquiry rate skyrocketed by over 20%
Angela & Ian – Podiatrist Clinics
footnote: the yellow pages campaign was so successful that the owners had complaints from their 'competitors' requesting them to change the ad because they were losing business and felt it unfair.
Thank you Brian for your support. I must say and I'll be the first to admit when we first took on your services I was skeptical as to how much it could actually benefit our business. But over time you have proven your worth and we are truly grateful.
I would highly and do highly recommend anyone in business to utilise the services of Brian Brown and the Better Business Now team. Their support and training have helped us make a difference in our business why not employ them and try them for yourself. Honestly you won't know unless you try!
Shen - Web Development Company
footnote: We find it quite common for some business owners to be skeptical at first, and why shouldn't they? Like most business owners they are used to doing what they know best and that is generally working in the business. It's only when an outsider comes in and views the business from 'another perspective' and can provide the knowledge, skill and support to help the business move forward. - In this particular business, we worked on their sales processes, internal work flow and developing systems as the business lacked in these areas and was seriously holding back future growth and killing profits.
