Rating: +2
That’s a pretty open ended question … but I’ll go through and address some of the more egregious claims and allegations on the sites that my team have seen that I assume you are referring to, and if I leave anything out, I’m sure you’ll let me know!
Better yet, simply contact any of our current or former franchisees so you can hear all sides of any story. I can say whatever I need to in this forum, but the minute I do there will be responses from every quarter.
It’s far better to go to the people on the ground in our business, or those who have worked it – than to rely on the postings of the anonymous – even if they are posing as people who have “inside knowledge” of our operations.
The fact remains we have been doing business for now 16 years in many countries, and despite the fact that we have literally tens of thousands of very happy clients (and more than 1,000 very happy franchisees), 1 or 2 people out there can now mount a serious attack on the internet and people seem to take it as true.
It’s interesting especially in light of the articles by major magazines, newspapers, TV, radio and serious journalists globally who are bound by journalistic ethics and the great reports we get from those media …
… and when we are interviewed by the judges at some of the world’s largest business competitions who investigate thoroughly we win or are finalists in many of these awards.
Yet, when an anonymous person with no rules about reporting the truth gives their opinion online, people seem to think it’s true, just because it’s negative.
Here are some of the major rumors or allegations we have seen thrown around …
Coach attrition
Some of the negative comments seem to be oriented around claims of coach attrition and success of our franchisees. Like any organization, we have many franchisees stay and some leave.
This is no different to other companies.
When I look at some of the allegations cited and the numbers of people they say are leaving etc., I am amazed … as all the numbers for ActionCOACH as a franchise are audited once a year by outside, independent and objective auditors who have no skin in our game, so to speak, and those numbers are reported to only two outside entities for our franchise disclosure documents and to Entrepreneur.com.
In addition, those reported figures are audited every 12-months during the middle of the year.
All of the other guesstimates by some anonymous person about the total number of our franchisees/coaches leaving the system are just not true.
In fact, my financial team is going through the audit process right now, and any new and/or revised numbers will be part of our next FDD that will be available in the next several months.
By the way, there is no argument around these numbers as they are independently verified and objectively audited numbers that are available from the auditors – so there is no argument.
I have also seen and read some interesting “proof” out there that certain coaches have simply disappeared from our system, as if they have been abducted by UFOs or aliens.
The only thing I can think of here is that we have been moving our IT systems across to a new framework, and coaches websites “disappear” because of re-directs to private sites.
All this said and done, I am not denying that some people do leave our system and some do not renew. You can find them on the internet and in our disclosure documents. Some (in fact many), take on bigger and better opportunities because of what they learned with us or connections they made as a coach. Some retire, and some have health issues that prevent them from coaching (we are a franchise that wants grey hair or no hair aged people with the aged wisdom to coach) and some we have asked to leave. I am a firm believer in Jack Welch’s theory if someone isn’t making it better for their career and your company they should move on. Still other coaches, despite everyone’s best intentions, find coaching was simply not suited to them. Oh, and by the way, every franchise, including the largest franchises in the world, have franchisees in their system that are not successful.
But to get the full and complete picture, outside of my own perspectives, simply speak to coaches past and present and you’ll be able to go to the source to get well-rounded and honest answers to your questions rather than any anonymous internet posts.
New coaches
There’s also been some chatter about the number of coaches entering our franchise system, and someone was poking fun at the idea that “every business day” a new person joins the ActionCOACH team as if it were not true.
Where on earth did we get that number? Well, in 2008 prior to the global economic slowdown, we have averaged a total of 20 new coaches in our training classes. Since there are 20 working days in a month, we can confidently make that claim. In fact, in 2009, we are up to 23 new trainees per month.
Yes, we have been around for more than a decade, but we did not have 20 people in each training class over that time, especially not in the beginning. I don’t think we had 20 in the whole first year, maybe 2 years. We have averaged that number over the course of a year recently and of course some of these people are from re-sale franchises.
Have we been affected by the downturn? Yes, we should be up way higher than we are, and even though we are up on last year, we should and could be far higher. As the credit crunch has continued, there is less capital available to lend and available for franchise development – but compared to other franchise systems, our system has been less affected.
By the way, FranData, who surveys all franchise systems, believes that the credit crisis has affected new franchise openings by some 30%.
One last thought, just check the online monthly newsletters for pictures of all our new coaches.
Earnings
It seems that some of the statements are about the income of our franchisees. First and foremost, what our franchisees make is private information and is never disclosed by us at any point in time to anyone.
Second of all, we simply do not and more to the point, cannot legally make a global earnings claim. We are a franchise and all franchise laws are entirely different in different countries and here in the USA, even different in different states. It seems someone who cannot know the truth is spreading mis-information about earnings of our franchisees, which again has to be a guess as this information is just simply not published outside this building.
Third, the bottom-line here is that we don’t operate by a cash register, and rely on our system of coaches entering their KPI information (Key Performance Indicator information) every month.
Thus even we have trouble getting them to enter all the data, I have no idea how someone else believes they have it completely.
The only thing I can think of (and again it’s only an internal number) that our coaches can see is our internal coach ranking system.
If a coach doesn’t enter KPI’s by the close off date and another were to enter $1 of earnings, that coach would be catapulted in the rankings over coaches who didn’t enter KPI information by the required time and date.
Currency conversions during the credit meltdown when global currency valuations were in flux also affected some of these rankings and reporting, but again, only internal numbers.
In the meantime, we are publishing a list of top coaches in each region every month in our online newsletter.
Overall as a company, this year will prove to be very strong financially, as our marketing efforts and the effects of the downturn in some countries have driven business owners to coaching as an alternative to consulting.
In addition, many of our individual coaches are having their best years ever and our franchise earnings records have been broken in all regions.
Looking ahead, the next year will produce our first-ever million dollar ActionCOACH, meaning we will have at least one person (probably several) in our system who earn one million dollars in fees from his or her services.
Now, does that mean every coach is doing fantastically well?
No, it doesn’t. We have many new coaches who are only just beginning and you cannot expect them to earn like a coach who has been doing this with us for years.
Some of our team are operating in areas incredibly impacted by the recession. Others have more than one company, others are not doing what they need to do and then others are still in their apprenticeship phase.
All that said, there are coaches – even in those regions hit hard by the downturn – who are doing incredibly well. One coach had his entire client base wiped out, only to pick up and move to a different region where he hit every networking event he could find and met with every strategic alliance partner he could schedule with – and is now earning more in fees than ever before.
Again, don’t take my word for it.
Call up any existing or current franchisee and ask the questions for yourself. That’s the only way you will get a true picture for yourself of earnings potential in our franchise.
Even better still speak with some of our clients and get their feedback.
Renewals
In the case of renewals, we have operated in the U.S. for the past eight years. At first, our agreements were for 5 years; today they are for 7 years.
When we first hit the U.S., we had a fair number of coaches who were well along in their careers and were at or near retirement age. They saw coaching as a way to supplement their incomes and a way to work from home. For a majority of these coaches, when their term was up, they decided to truly retire or simply move on.
Others have taken advantage of other business opportunities afforded by their coaching experiences. Coaching is the one industry in the world where as a coach, you can be exposed to dozens of businesses and industries in a short amount of time.
In addition, once you know how business works, you can apply that knowledge to any company – and some of our coaches have done that (quite successfully, I might add).
Others have used their knowledge to get into the “buy, build and sell” strategy of entrepreneurship.
And finally, there are coaches who left our system who simply weren’t successful. Why? There are many reasons.
Just because there is a “system” in place doesn’t mean any franchisee is going to automatically be successful. You still have to do the work and run the system.
There is one thing I know from my years in franchising. While the franchise system does not guarantee success, a franchisee who doesn’t follow the system will not be successful.
Again, each case for non-renewal is different and is unique to the individual.
The best way to discover the reasons why someone didn’t renew is to simply call them and ask.
In fact, if you are doing proper due diligence, you absolutely NEED to ask those questions. It’s just smart business.
I’m confident when you speak to our coaches past and present you will see that overall, our franchise is world-class.
The System
There is also a lot of comments and attacks about our system in general.
Bottom-line here is we need our franchisees to be happy, successful and profitable, otherwise there is no ActionCOACH as a company or a franchise.
On average, it takes a new franchisee a total of 77 days from first inquiry to franchise award in our system.
Remember, that’s average.
Also know during that 77 days, there is a mutual due diligence process, where we check out the potential franchisee as much as he or she looks at us.
During that time, potential franchisees can talk to coaches, attend events and attend our Discovery Day at my office here in Vegas.
Also, in some cases (especially in terms of firms), our Master Licensee (ML) needs to see a business plan for future growth, something we also need to review.
Look – our potential franchisees and current coaches are extremely bright people. More than 80% have some kind of graduate education (many with masters or doctorates), while the remaining 20% have run their own companies and many have headed large divisions of huge corporations or multi-nationals. They are smart business people. Regardless of whether they are book or street smart or both, our coaches have all been successful in business. They come from operational backgrounds, marketing, sales and finance. And they have scrutinized our business for two-and-a-half months. They ask tough questions and expect the right answers. They wouldn’t get into the system unless they felt they had what they needed to progress and succeed.
It simply makes no sense for ActionCOACH as a company to allow anyone off the street with a franchise fee in hand to be a coach. We couldn’t have survived for the past 15 years if we did that.
Not only isn’t it fair to our brand or our network of successful coaches, it wouldn’t be fair to the person off the street, who may or may not have the knowledge, skills or temperament to be a coach.
As far a franchisee satisfaction once they are in the system, we have always made it a focus – ranking #17 in franchisee satisfaction (remember there are more than 8,000 different franchises globally) in the latest independently conducted, third-party survey by Franchise Business Review (FBR).
Not only is the FBR survey anonymous, it is conducted across hundreds of franchise systems. The numbers speak for themselves … and again, if the numbers aren’t good enough, there are coaches both in and out of the system you can talk to for a more complete picture.
The bottom-line is that potential and current franchisees have plenty of opportunity to ask questions and get questions answered – not only from my franchise sales people and executive team, but directly from me.
While I don’t conduct every Discovery Day (I do have other companies and a family), I am always available for Q&A … even from those who have been in the system and have challenges with the system. Those particular individuals may not like what I have to say or may not want to be accountable to what they have or haven’t done, but they all have direct access to me to air their views and have their concerns heard.
At the end of the day, our system and the success of our system is based on results. Plain and simple.
If we are getting results for our clients and they are having success, we’ll be successful – and those coaches coaching successful clients will get more clients via the referral process.
There always will be people who are not as successful as others in any system, and every franchise will have some unhappy franchisees. With more than 1,000 people we have a contractual relationship with, I am sure you understand that we will not always get along perfectly with every single person all the time.
But for anyone who thinks coaching or ActionCOACH doesn’t work, simply go to the archive of YouTube success stories. They were put there for a reason – and I’d challenge you to talk directly to those clients to see how they view their coaching experience.
The link to some of those success stories is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7j7weLt_Kw&feature=related
Finally, I think it’s important to gauge any negative comments in context, you can see that the majority of these comments are being made by a very small – but vocal – minority.
Ask yourself: Is it possible that the conversation happening in a blog could be between a few people with different “user names” in an attempt to ruin our reputation? Our forensic internet specialists have tracked the IP addresses and it’s amazing how many of these “different” people all live in the same house. Or ask yourself if it could be a competitor faced with harder economic times trying to turn people away from our franchise? Again, our forensic people have helped us find amazingly that someone attacking us has an office in the same building as a competitor.
Again, I would say go directly to those in or out of our system to get the full picture of our company rather than believe anonymous online postings.
Number of offices and countries
There have also been a number of allegations about the number of countries in which we operate.
To help clarify, here is the most current list of the 26 countries we claim in our PR materials:
Current country list:
1. Australia
2. Brazil
3. Canada
4. Chile
5. Columbia
6. Dominican Republic
7. England
8. France
9. Hungary
10. Indonesia
11. Ireland
12. Kenya
13. Malaysia
14. Mexico
15. Netherlands Antilles
16. New Zealand
17. Northern Ireland
18. Puerto Rico
19. Philippines
20. Portugal
21. Scotland
22. Singapore
23. South Africa
24. Spain
25. USA
26. Wales
Under our Master Licensee (ML) structure, current MLs also have an option to purchase new territories – which many have done.
If I just took the areas we had a contract to open, I would claim we operate in “50 countries” – because that is truthfully how many countries I have awarded the rights for but are yet to have coaches on the ground working with clients.
We don’t claim to operate in a country in which we don’t have a coach, and all of the foreign MLs in the countries we list initially open a region by actively coaching.
We simply don’t advertise that we operate in a country where we don’t have coaches. Again, why would we? It’s not in our best business interests to do so.
Why I left Australia
Here’s where I have heard the best rumors. I’ve answered this already, but it’s worth repeating.
The main reason I left Australia was due to the growth of our U.S. operations.
The details are here:
http://askbradsugars.com/answers-from-brad-sugars/there-is-a-post-online-that-you-were-forced-to-leave-australia-because-people-were-chasing-you-for-money-true-or-not/
The move to Las Vegas has been great for our company. Not only is Las Vegas a fantastic place to base our training because of the city’s world-class facilities, it is also easily accessible for coaches coming in for training from all over the world.
For those who think I won’t show my face in Oz because people are “chasing me for money,” some other sordid reason, information on my upcoming tour schedule is listed here:
http://www.businessisbooming.biz/
More specifically, the dates are here:
Monday, 10th August, Brisbane
Tuesday, 11th August, Perth
Wednesday, 12th August, Melbourne
Thursday, 13th August, Sydney
Friday, 14th August, Adelaide
My “Business is Booming” tour is free and open to anyone who wants to attend.
Note to all Oz journos: I’ll probably have a couple big steak dinners with my mates next month – and may even pick up the tab!
I find it funny in all of this that some posts say I’m so visible because I’m an ego maniac while a subsequent post will say I’m in hiding because I’m avoiding the law. It’s all laughable when you realize how easy it is to find me with my blog, my Facebook and Twitter presence and all of my public appearances.
It just goes to show you can’t ever please everyone. But I guess I’d rather have people talking about me than not – at least it shows I’m doing something. Better to do and get talked about than do nothing and be invisible, I suppose!
I hope this helps clarify and answer some of the issues which you may be wondering about once and for all.
