Mentoring and peer advice transforms business

Rehan had done management courses before, but none had quite hit the mark. What set the Help to Grow: Management Course at Kingston Business School, Kingston University, apart for him was the real-world experience of the tutors.

"The two things that stood out were the course material and the qualified people delivering it. It wasn't purely academic. I wanted real experience, to hear from people who understand how you survive on the last 10k and then build a big company."

As the sole decision-maker in a fast-growing business, he recognised he needed to make space to think.

“As an entrepreneur, you’re firefighting all the time. All the problems had to go through me and I knew that wasn’t sustainable as we got bigger.”

There was one exercise in particular that proved to be a turning point. Rehan was paired with a fellow participant and they were asked to critique each other's websites.

"The feedback was brutal. I came back to my team and said: ‘This isn’t working, we need to change things.’ So we changed our website completely and followed the advice from the course. Since then, we’ve doubled our enquiries from the website. Those two hours changed a lot for me.

"We have more clarity now. When you go to the website you know straight away what we do, who we are.”

Mentoring proved just as valuable, particularly when it came to learning to delegate.

An exercise that dissected roles through an organisation chart, introducing him to the idea of ‘level one’ and ‘level two’ decisions.

"A level two decision isn’t going to break the bank or take the company backwards, so my managers make those decisions now, and I’m comfortable with that. I’ve learned to delegate so much more because if I keep everything in my hands we’re not going to move forward."

As a result, he has far more room to think ahead.

"I’m focusing a lot on strategy - meeting new people, travelling more, exploring new markets, while my team is busy delivering for our clients."

The extra time spent on looking at the overall running of the business has also led to smoother operations, with Rehan implementing lessons he learned on the course around clearly-defined roles and processes.

"Things are more methodical. The roles are more defined, even mine. We’ve got regular meetings, and everyone’s taking ownership of their tasks."

Projects now follow a proper process, with lessons learned carried into the next job, and Rehan holds a one-to-one with every employee at least once a month.

It appears to be paying off.

"We haven’t had any resignations in the last 12 months, and revenue has increased by 40 to 50%. I’m confident we’ll double it again next year at this rate. Help to Grow: Management has had a huge part to play."

Headcount has grown too, with eight new hires since the course, including a dedicated growth manager. A new SEO manager has also joined recently.

Rehan’s message to other business owners considering the course is unequivocal.

"They need to do it. It’s helped myself and my company tremendously, in growth, in processes, in retention. It gets lonely being an entrepreneur, dealing with all the problems yourself, and it’s good to be around other people going through similar situations. Anyone thinking of joining should do it as soon as possible."

Find out how the Help to Grow: Management Course can further your business here.