CASE STUDY
Carla Askey and Susan Danker
“Do it! No reservations. It made such an impact on both of us within such a short period of time. As soon as we implemented everything you told us to do, it was a turnaround within our business, our culture, the finances. We got work-life balance.”
– Carla Askey, Speech Language Pathologist, Virginia and Washington
Carla and Susan’s Story…
Susan and Carla ran a highly successful practice they had built up over 20 years. With three offices, 17 therapists, and over $1 million annual turnover, their business was successful – but it was taking almost all their time. Both Susan and Carla had full client caseloads and their evenings and weekends were spent doing administration for the business.Susan and Carla knew they needed to step back and take some time for their families. The income was great, but the cost was that they were tired and had no time for life outside of work.Susan and Carla had tried finding a business coach for years before meeting Sian, but none had seemed a good fit for their business.
Over 12 months working with Sian, Susan and Carla reduced their working hours dramatically and achieved that work-life balance they were looking for. Following Sian’s advice, they also increased their revenue by another $400,000. They achieved this by reducing their hours as therapists, refocusing their time on strategically growing a new income stream based on their experience and knowledge, and developing the skills and roles of their team of therapists.
When Susan and Carla started working with Sian, they knew they needed to change as they had little time for life outside of work, but they were reluctant to let go of their ‘therapist’ roles and had little confidence that their business could run properly unless they were giving it almost 24/7 attention.
Sian worked with them over twelve months, convincing them to reduce the number of hours they were doing clinically and to refocus on building the business in a way that met their goal of finding work-life balance.
Sian realised that Susan and Carla had accumulated a wealth of knowledge around helping children with dyslexia. They had been thinking about creating some sort of course to train other speech pathologists in this specialty but had not had the time to put the thought into action. Sian encouraged Susan and Carla to take time to build the course and provided input which helped them to scale the content into a profitable and manageable course structure, so that people could move from a basic course through to intermediate and advanced courses and an optional mentoring program.
Another key area that Sian focused on with Susan and Carla was to build staff capability and team work, and to ensure new hires were the right fit for the business. Initially, Susan and Carla were skeptical that their business would run as well if they were not actually doing the work themselves. However, taking Sian’s advice, they promoted some staff into leadership positions and worked with their staff to develop team values and training on how to develop their caseloads to match their ideal clients. The results have been amazing, with the team closer than ever, happier, and everyone prepared to pitch in and help each other. The results have confirmed Susan and Carla could step away from much of the day-to-day detail of the business without a negative impact on their practice.
Susan and Carla have completely restructured their days since beginning their work with Sian. Life is more manageable and enjoyable. They are happier in their business, their staff are happier, and they have achieved a work-life balance while increasing their revenue by 40%.
We can create a plan