Review of business coaching
From Holly West and Luke Stratford,
Quality Energy




Our business was established in 1989 by David, Luke’s father. Luke completed his apprenticeship then went to work in the oil and gas industry overseas. Fifteen years ago, we returned to Australia and rejoined the business.
Given Luke’s ambitious nature, it was decided that he would take over the management of the company. Luke oversees the teams and sales, while Holly handles operations.
Initially, we managed the business on our own. Even though it was an established business, we were new to it and had to learn the ropes. We engaged a couple of business coaches and they were instrumental for us at that stage of the business and our development as leaders. We worked with them for about two years however, as we progressed, we outgrew their coaching and decided to discontinue our sessions.
We managed the business independently for a while
We operated the business independently for several more years, during which time it continued to grow. We were consistently busy and had built a solid reputation, which led to a steady stream of leads. We expanded our manufacturing operations by adding new products and enhancing our services. Luke’s ambitious nature made him eager to take the business even further. However, we found it challenging to stay on top of our financials.
While we regularly review the P&Ls, we weren’t tracking profitability or productivity effectively. To be honest, we didn’t realise we needed to. You don’t know what you don’t know.
Our decision-making was often reactive; for instance, we would hire new staff when we received a surge of leads. This led to ad hoc decisions driven by client demands, putting us under constant pressure. We’d hire more people, but then we’d end up with too many employees, which meant we needed even more work to keep them occupied. This approach lacked control, and we often found ourselves too busy to analyse and plan appropriately.
While our revenue and gross profit looked good, our net profit was very tight, leaving us with little margin for error. That’s simply not sustainable.
We recognised that we needed guidance to scale the business in a more controlled manner.
Getting the right advice to scale up our business
Luke started researching business coaching and came across Tenfold. It turns out that one of the businesses that we’ve been working with for years, Prolux Electrical, is also coached by Tenfold. We’ve seen their business go from strength to strength, so Luke reached out to Tenfold.

Tenfold hits different
Because we’d had coaching with someone else before, we had an idea of what to expect. But when Luke spoke with Tania (the portfolio manager at Tenfold) we knew this was going to be next level. Tania matched us with Darren because he has a background in manufacturing, and as a coach, he specialises in big-picture strategies.
We started working with Darren in January 2023.
Business coaching has been a game changer
Working with Darren has been a game changer. Every part of our business has improved significantly since we’ve been coaching with Tenfold:
We reviewed our quoting in detail, and now we’re quoting more accurately for better margins;
Cash flow has improved because we’re managing our client payments even better;
We’re tracking leads, where they’ve come from, what we’ve quoted, dollar value, when we win deals then we look at conversion rate. We identify who are the time wasters and where the good quality leads are coming from that we can put more time into.
We’re forecasting revenue and being able to plan months in advance for our material costs and labour. It means we can be confident of taking on work that we can deliver to our high standards on time and we can also manage our labour allocation.
Everything we’re doing now is backed by good decisions and we’re in control. We know exactly the right number of quotes we need to submit each month. It shows up in the consistency of the work we win and the margins we make.

The benefit of having business coach for our family business
We’re a husband and wife business and that can be complex at times. You must manage the different relationships – you’re both managers in the business with different responsibilities and you’re also life partners.
There are times when you disagree in business, or you have different ways of making decisions and it’s hard to not let it get personal. Having Darren as our business coach makes it so much easier because the focus is on the business. He can ask questions and hold each of us accountable and because it’s about the business, it’s helpful not hurtful.
Every strategic decision is assessed by interrogating the data. Being able to really analyse the data has been a game changer. I know I said that before but it’s true for so many aspects of our business.
A better way of recruiting the best fit for our business
Recruiting very different now. No one trains you how to recruit in a trades business. You kind of learn as you go but you often feel like you’re winging it. Luke can shoot from the hip, so it means that in the past we’ve sometimes employed the wrong people just because they’re in front of him.
Because Tenfold provides business coaching for trades and construction sector businesses like ours, they have tools and processes for recruiting. We use them and it has changed the way we assess candidates. We’ve put on 3 senior roles using this Tenfold’s process, including recruiting two engineers, and they’re the best fit for our business.
Why I recommend Tenfold to other business owners
To be honest, when we started with Tenfold I was a bit nervous. You need to sign up for 12 months and that was a bit daunting. It’s a reasonable amount to invest so you want to make sure it’s going to pay off.
The proof is in the pudding. It’s the best thing we’ve ever done. If I knew then what I know, I’d jump into business coaching with Tenfold even sooner.
If you’re looking for business coaching for electrical contracting or manufacturing or really any business, I can’t recommend Tenfold and Darren highly enough. See for yourself.