Review of business coaching
From Alex Lamblin
Prolux Electrical Contractors
Review of business coaching for commercial maintenance electrical contractor business, Prolux
When I first started getting business coaching with Tenfold in 2010, Prolux was a very different business.
We were a small team of four, taking on mostly insurance and commercial construction work, turning over about $1.5 million a year. I was on the tools full-time, working 70+ hour weeks and although I was driven to succeed, the cracks were beginning to show.
Burnout was setting in and I couldn’t see a clear path forward that would allow me to step off the tools and grow the business.
Tenfold gave me that path. Their coaching helped me shift from being just a tradesman running a team to a business owner leading a high-performing company.
Business coaching took Prolux from small scale to a national leader
My Tenfold coach, Ash, worked with me to find our niche through detailed sector analysis, modelling profitability and utilisation, forecasting industry trends and assessing our workforce capability.
Armed with that insight, we dedicated all our focus in the commercial and industrial electrical building maintenance space.
By implementing a strategic account management model targeting commercial FMs, over time our revenue from commercial clients went from 15% to 96%. We now work nationally with top-tier clients like Dexus, Charter Hall and CBRE.
Making smarter decisions faster
Having a business coach at Tenfold is like having a business partner. It’s someone who sees the business from the outside, calls out the blind spots and picks up on things that just aren’t visible when you’re involved in the day-to-day operations. The perspective from my business coach has helped me make smarter decisions, faster without the mistakes.
Tenfold business coaching specialises in advanced strategies to take businesses to the next level
The strategic advice from my business coach helped me implement scalable structures like our dual-layer customer management model and instilled the discipline to financially track every part of the business.
We’ve built out specialised services that are a higher margin than general electrical work and difficult to compete with, allowing us to grow steadily, profitably and sustainably.
Today, Prolux is a $17+ million business with 46 staff across the country.
We’ve expanded our offering to include smart building technologies, lighting control, integration, generator maintenance and ACB servicing.
The results of coaching are real and measurable:
- Revenue is $17M+
- Workforce of 46 across Australia
- Higher margins over general electrical work
- Secured multi-year commercial contracts in premium REIT sector
- Long-term retention of high-performing A-grades
- Career development plans for senior team members, service managers, PMs
There’s no better evidence than results like that to prove Tenfold Business Coaching are the best advisors
Leading from the front with the right support
Business coaching with Tenfold has helped me become a stronger leader, build a team aligned to our mission and create a culture where people genuinely want to be on the same bus. That mindset shift alone has been a game changer.
Flashback to 2012: Prolux had been working with Tenfold for 2 years
I’m Alex Lamblin. I run Prolux, an electrical contracting business. We’ve got a lot of insurance customers and we do some large commercial work as well.
Before I started coaching in 2010, my business was all over the place. I didn’t really know where I was heading; I had a team of 4 guys and they were doing all sorts of work.
I didn’t know which of my customers were profitable, which were making me the most money and the least money.
Then I started getting 1 on 1 business coaching from Tenfold. We sat down and really started analysing where the potential profits were and we started growing the business in that area. My coach has taught me to look at the financials. I would push them away and not really understand or want to know about them.
My Tenfold coach has a strong understanding of the fundamentals that make a business tick. That restored my confidence in moving my business forward. I know if I have a query, I can go to Ashley and he will steer me in the right direction.
I went to Tenfold Business Coaching because my business was only growing organically. We went through a business plan and my coach asked me, “Where do you want to go?” We set up a plan and deliberately went for that.
Last year, in the first 12 months of coaching we doubled the business. I put that all down to my hard work with my Tenfold coach. Now we’re working on taking the business to the next level.
If you look at the overall cost of running a business and look at the profits you can gain by fine-tuning your business, at the end of the day I don’t feel that it’s an expense, it’s an investment.
