Business Mentoring to Make Working in Your Business Optional
The way out isn't more hours or more staff. It's a higher net profit margin.
40 years in business. 1,067+ businesses mentored. Recommended by accountants.
One free call. One profit leak found. No obligation.
Have You Made Significant, Measurable Progress in the Last Six Months?
It's the question I ask owners I meet. Most can't point to any — not because they aren't working hard enough. Working hard isn't the same as progress.
Most of the businesses I'm called into have stopped growing.
The ones that are still growing have a quieter problem.
Of the hundreds of Profit & Loss statements I've been through, more than 90% show a Net Profit Margin slipping year on year — and almost none of those owners had noticed.
Income was up from last year. Profit dollars were up from last year. Everything looked good.
Growth hides it. You can grow your revenue, grow your profit, and be running a steadily less profitable business the whole time.
What you notice is a decrease in cash. It gets harder to pay bills on time.
Income is what arrives. Net profit is what's left after the bills are paid. Only one of them is yours.
Recommendation for you: Compare this year's net profit margin to last year's. It takes two minutes, and for most owners, the number isn't what they expected.
After 28 years and more than a thousand businesses, both problems come down to the same thing — and most owners have three of them at once.
The Big 5 Challenges of Business Ownership
You have no time. You work fifty to seventy hours a week, and you have to be there every day or things don't happen.
You can't hire good people — or keep them accountable once you do. The good ones cost a fortune and the rest won't take responsibility.
Cash never builds up. This is almost always a low margin problem. Cash flow challenges are the symptom of low margins.
Marketing doesn't produce leads. Despite spending money on ads and agencies. Still quoting the same price shoppers.
Achieving your goals. Not having to be there all the time — never gets closer.
That last one has a name. I've called it Business Freedom since 2007, where there's no stress, and no frustration. You are free of all of that.
You love your business and your life. And it is the only thing on this page that matters. The other four are what stand in its way.
He Was Away From His Business - For 6 Years
The client was an electrical contractor in Townsville, working 80 hours a week with three employees. When his wife first suggested he talk to me, he said he didn't have the time.
It began with a Strategy Planning Meeting to identify his growth priorities, not his workload. That resulted in building the team. Rewriting the marketing he already had — no new spend. Sharpened how he sold his services.
His income tripled and the business grew to ten people - one fully functioning, accountable team.
The weekly team meetings and the metrics did what they are designed to do: the business stopped needing him. He bought investment properties in a town 430km away and moved there to work on them. A year later, he bought a motorhome and took his wife and two kids around Australia - three times. All the while his business kept operating - without him. All thanks to the structure put in place.
He isn't the Only One
Chris Hislop, electrical contracting. Took two months off in remote Indonesia with no internet access. The business ran without him. Revenue went from $1.5M to $4M, net margin from 8% to 25%, the team from 8 to 26 — and his own week from 65 hours to 32.
Allan Baggs, Precision Powder Coating. From $18–30k a month and one employee (when we met) to twelve employees and over $2M. When he isn't there, he's with his family, fishing, or restoring motorcycles.
“The best money I've ever spent. Invest in yourself, get some freedom, because that's what you're going to get.”
“Now that I have a full time manager, I don't have to be working in my business. I choose to work in the business.”
A retail music shop owner. Six months after starting, his team were running things so well they asked him to stop coming in. So he stopped — and started a second business.
You Can't Hire Your Way Out at 5% Net Profit
Low net profit margins are one of the biggest challenges in business. It hurts cash reserves, and unfortunately, the figure decreases as income rises because overheads and expenses increase with it.
Increasing net profit margins by reducing expenses may add 1% to 3%, but when it's at 5% or under 10%, that's not enough to move it to the recommended figure - 15%, when yearly income is over $800,000.
Most owners who want out of the day-to-day management consider a manager. Someone to run it for them, but then look at what a manager costs, and look at what's left at the bottom of the Profit & Loss and realise they can't afford one.
I've been through hundreds of Profit & Loss statements. Among established service businesses turning over more than $800,000, nine in ten run on less than 10% net profit. At 5% on a million dollars of revenue, that is $50,000 for the entire year. You cannot pay a general manager out of that.
At 5% net profit
$100,000 short of a manager.
At 15% net profit
$150,000 left over after the manager.
Without that margin increase, you stay on the tools or in the manager role. The business stays dependent on you. And nothing changes, no matter how hard you work.
Net profit margin is the closest thing there is to a scorecard for how well a business is run. Unlike income, it is comparable to every other business in your industry.
Before I compare financial figures to anything, I adjust for the owner's wage. A $1.5 Million business paying its owner $200,000 isn't necessarily badly run if the net profit margin is low, even if it just looks that way on paper. Put that wage back into what the manager's job would cost to fill, and the real margin appears. That's one of a few checks I carry out before deciding on the true margin and performance of the business.
Your margin isn't a vanity metric. It is the thing that buys your way out.
The Freedom Goal: Ten People, $2 Million
The point where the business earns enough to pay someone else to run it
With around ten people seven are doing income-producing work, one or two are in admin, and one is estimating.
In Australia, that is a business near $2 million. At a 15% net margin — a minimum I aim for with most clients — that is a $300,000 net profit.
With that net profit, the business can pay a general manager $150,000 and still have profit left over.
That is the point at which working becomes optional.
Most owners have never been given a target like that. They have been told to grow, without anyone explaining what they are growing towards.
What I aim for, and what it costs you
My minimum goal for every client is a 50% increase in net profit, or $50,000, inside twelve months.
And my aim is to be free as a cost — to increase your net profit by considerably more than you pay me.
I can't promise that, and I won't pretend otherwise: what you get depends on what you implement. But it is the standard I hold myself to, and the results further down this page are what it looks like when an owner commits.
One free call. One profit leak found. No obligation.
The Profit is Already in Your Business. It's Leaking.
Picture your business as a bucket with bucket size being income. Leads pour in the top. And as the business grows it develops inefficiencies — leaks — and every one of them takes something off your net profit.
Every hole is a leak you are already paying for.
Same water in. Corks cost nothing.
What do most owners do to grow? They pour in more water. More leads, more marketing, more staff, more hours. The leaks stay exactly where they are.
Not a great plan.
It's a common belief that increasing leads is how to grow a business. It is. It's just not a profit margin increasing way. Or a profit leak reduction way. And the leaks get bigger with income growth as your own energy to hold people accountable is 'diluted' with each additional employee.
What I look for are the corks. The strategies that, when applied, reduce the profit leaks and increase the net profit margin.
They cost nothing to put in, and once the leaks are plugged your income and margin both rise without chasing a single extra lead. No gambling money on advertising that may not work. No SEO as a 'long-term' questionable lead generation strategy.
Five businesses that gained margin without adding anything
Metal engineering
$6.2M income
4.8% → 9.8%
Six months, six fewer employees, and around $310,000 more in operating profit.
Mechanical repairs
$1.9M → $2.3M income
14% → 27%
Three years, and not one extra income-producing employee.
Fibre optic services
$757k → $1.5M income
8% → 22%
Net profit $63,000 to $330,000 — without using marketing.
Vehicle radiators
$2.1M → $2.4M income
5% → 16.6%
Operating profit $106k to $404k — close to four times over.
Mortgage broking
A team of four
9.6% → 18.6%
Without hiring anyone or running a single ad.
Security sales and service
$750,000 income
−5% → 15%
Losing money, then 10% — and 15% in the final two months. Same number of staff.
None of these results came from adding. It came from finding what was already leaking — through pricing that had never been tested, job types that had never been measured separately, and teams with no accountability structure.
How These Results Are Achieved
Clarity Through Measurement
Most owners don’t know their real margins or one of a few.
Clients access a full management reporting system, in Airtable system that shows gross profit, job-level performance, and true WIP - in real time.
Team Development with Metrics
A weekly accountability structure is introduced where your team see their performance, own their outcomes, and becomes more autonomous while enjoying their work more.
Proven attraction + Selection System
Growing a business requires hiring more employees.
Clients receive a proven ad to attract the best candidates, 1st and 2nd stage interview questions and a personality profiling tool. This is a complete system.
Marketing Selection & Implementation
From identifying your best lead sources, what works, and what doesn't, to measuring before and after implementing the strategy.
You'll learn advanced insights as your leads and sales increase.
Each Strategy is Powerful. Combined, they are Transformational
"Now that I have a full time manager I don't have to be working in my business"
Precision Powdercoating
Trusted by Accountants Who Have Seen the Net Profit Results - First Hand
Colin Gair - Principal of Wheeler Accounting - Sydney
"Tim delivers what most coaches promise but rarely produce. His strategies are timeless, practical and immediately improve team alignment, productivity and cash flow."
"Sounds unbelievable - that’s what I thought as well until I experienced it."
Ken Robertson - Principal - Nexia Accountants Brisbane
"Tim is the best adviser and business mentor I have worked with in my 30+ years in the accountancy profession.
He brings substance, systems and profit tools - not hype.
"Tim is the real thing with experience and tools that actually grow profits."
Achieve Your Ultimate Business & Lifestyle Goals
How to Grow Your Net Profit by 50% in the First Year
1. Competitors Hurt Prices
Nearly every business has this challenge but there are solutions based on facts. Measuring certain key areas reveals those facts as opportunities - that are obvious to the trained, experienced eye. Being able to win sales at higher prices is both a marketing and selling skill.
2. Can't Find Good Employees
This can stop many businesses from growing. Constant testing of ads has identified the ideal content for recruitment ads. Tim's mentoring provides the custom written ad to attract the best employees.
3. Profit Margins are Low, Hurting Cash Levels
Working with hundreds of businesses and seeing their Profit & Loss Statements has shown that 90% of established businesses operate with less than 10% net profit. This is the key focus of Tim's business mentoring. Using facts from certain key metrics, identifies risk-free ways to increase prices, without lowering net profit.
4. Systems and KPIs
Few businesses have complete systems or all KPIs for every role. Without certain systems, the business can't grow, and leverage your time, so as employee numbers increase, net profit margins decrease. Systems are a core strategy of business growth to increase and maintain margins.
5. Key Metrics
Many businesses measure activities, but miss the opportunities of profit increase from key metrics. Identifying job types and measuring all gross margins is over a month is one key metric. It reveals obvious ways to increase margins, risk free and cost free, instantly.
6. Leveraging time as the Business Grows
Employees provide the opportunity to leverage your time, only if you have 'accountability mechanisms' in place. Without them you can have 10 or 50+ employees and still have no time. An example is not being aware of the ideal DISC Profile suitability for a role, and the person doesn't perform, costing profits, and your time.
7. No Accountability Mechanisms
For higher productivity, which leads to higher profit margins, accountability mechanisms are essential. Commonly, businesses employ 'butt-kickers' such as supervisors or managers. That adds overhead and reduces margins.
Weekly team meetings with a unique structure, combined with metrics being discussed and a task based job descriptions with 3 columns, increases accountability as a mechanism to increase employee performance and productivity, to increase net profits.
Accountable for Results
How Mentoring Results Are Measured
Business mentoring focuses on these figures...
Net Profit / Margin Increases
This is the most important figure in any business. A 5% increase on $1 Million income is a $50,000 net profit increase, and regularly is achieved with clients in months.
Every business has the potential to increase the Net Profit Margin from 3% to 32%, which clients regularly see achieved. A 3% increase is $30,000 more in Net Profit, per million dollars of revenue.
Revenue
Increased revenue seen in Profit & Loss Statements is an easy way to see financial improvement. When margins are increased first, a revenue increase significantly increases Net Profit and cash in the bank, solving cash flow issues permanently.
Hours of Working In Your Business
How many hours you work in your business is a great way to determine progress towards a fantastic lifestyle - where working at all is optional.
B2C results are best achieved with Facebook, measured by...
Business Page Likes
Page Likes for $0.90 to $2 is the goal by the second week, and is commonly achieved, to allow for cost-effective boosted posts to generate leads.
Website Visitors from Facebook PPC Ads
Visitors to business websites is a great opportunity for B2C service businesses.
Achieving that for under $1 per click/visitor is commonly seen by clients, even with a $20/day budget.
Results are seen for organic search traffic with Search Console
Organic Search Impressions
Website impressions, Seen in Google Search Console are appearances in search engine results. When impressions increase so does the number of website visitors and usually the number of leads and sales.
A 20% jump in impressions in the first month is common. This rate of increase can usually be maintained for months, unlike many SEO companies that say it takes 6 to 12 months to get results.
Organic Clicks/Website Visitors
Increasing impressions by 20% also increase website visitors, although sometimes not at the same rate. Still, 20% is a worthwhile goal to expect in the first month and beyond.
The Performance & Candidate Numbers from Seek
Marketing results are measured by...
The Number of Leads
Tracking the number of leads by lead sources every week before starting makes it easy to see results, by the numbers. This accountability ensures you're never guessing as to the value of this services.
Number and Income from Sales
By monitoring the number of leads and sales from each lead source, it then provides accurate conversion rates, the number of sales and the income from leads.
Conversion rates can be increased, commonly by 10% to 50% in one to two months with our proven strategies. The same increase in monthly income is the result.
A sequence of strategies to achieve financial goals
Breakthrough Goals Are Set
It starts with a detailed questionnaire to identify frustrations, growth limitations and growth opportunities. From that specific, breakthrough goals are achieved.
Commonly, a 50% to 300% increase in Net Profit is the goal that is set to be achieved in a 12 month or less timeframe. Often that goal is smashed with clients often seeing over 1,000% increase in Net Profit in far less than a year.
Net Profit Increase
A Net Profit increase is the primary focus of the Strategic Planning process. It is checked for increases each month with Profit & Loss Statements.
Margins up. Teams sorted. In their words.
Over the past two years, Tim has played a crucial role in helping my Automotive Repair business increase our turnover by 17.33% and boost our net margin by 32.4%. He is more than just a mentor, at times he feels like a business partner.
I started with one business and a team of three. Through his strategies around profitability, systems, leadership and structure, we grew to two businesses, built a stronger team with two General Managers, and significantly increased our monthly income.
Tim's depth of experience and straight-shooting advice - no fluff, just proven strategies and systems that work. He's responsive, generous with his time, and holds you accountable without the pressure.
I know of very few people that have the depth of knowledge about business that Tim has. If you want to grow your business to the point of not having to work in your business, then Tim's your "go to guy"!
It's not easy to find a good business mentor who also has such extensive marketing expertise. If you want to get better business results and boost your bottom line, I can't recommend Tim highly enough. When you work with Tim you know he's on YOUR team.
I used Tim for business training many years ago and our company has never looked back. I had an issue with a senior manager which Tim helped me sort out in no time - the manager is still with us and performing beyond what I thought possible.
Introducing Tim Stokes
Business Mentor, Profit Multiplier, Marketer, Team Builder & Growth Strategist
Tim Stokes - Founder
SMS Tim a chat request about your business - 0422411369
Business Mentoring & Financial Results
Allan Baggs - Precision Powder Coating & Sandblasting
"Now that I have a full time manager I don't have to be working in my business"
"Until the time we met Tim, the business turning over between $18,000 and $30,000 per month with myself struggling with one employee. Now we have 12 employees and our turnover will be in excess of $2,000,000.
Now that I have a full time manager, I don't have to be working in my business. I choose to work in the business. If I'm not working in the business I spend time with the family, I go fishing and I restore motorcycles. I'm planning on my exit strategy, having a passive income from the business, and all because I put a manager on and trust him to do the job."
Industry: Powder coating & sandblasting
Joanna and Brad Apps - ECConnect
"We went from working 60 to 80 hours per week down to 40"
"Before the business mentoring course, the business was really struggling, with the Net Profit Margin at 1%. We didn't even know what that was. We were just doing the day to day work, but not really making money.
I was really in the trenches, juggling issues, juggling staff, and trying to manage clients and not really running the business. There was a lot of stress and we really needed to do something. Now our net profit margin is running around 16.5%.
Before the course, we had expanded into America, and had a team in Poland, Sydney and Brisbane but we hadn't thought about all the systems we should have.
The best thing about the course was it improved our mindset, helped us to understand people more and gave us tools and systems to use."
Industry: Software development
Chris Hislop - Whitelight Electrical
"My business grew from 8 people to 26"
"My business grew from $1.5 Million to $4 Million and I work 32 hours per week now and it used to be 65.
I'm a lot happier, I have a better lifestyle, have a lot more fun, I really enjoy coming to work and I enjoy the people I work with.
When we first met our net profit margins were up and down, as low as 8%, which was horrific and now at the start of the financial year its running at 25% net profit on a 3 times higher turnover and we have a goal to get to 28% on a $5 Million turnover.
The best money I've ever spent. Invest in yourself, get some freedom, because that's what you're going to get from Tim's business mentoring."
Industry: Electrical contracting
Learn Strategies from Premium Quality Blog Posts
Business Mentoring FAQs
What exactly does a business mentor do?
A business mentor provides clarity, direction, and experience-based guidance to help you make better decisions and grow with fewer mistakes. They don’t run your business for you. Instead, they help you see blind spots, refine strategies, strengthen leadership, and improve profit margins by focusing on the underlying structure of the business, not just tactics.
How is business mentoring different from coaching or consulting?
Coaching focuses on personal performance and mindset. Consulting focuses on delivering expert solutions for specific problems.
Business mentoring sits in the middle. A mentor brings real-world experience, helps you build systems that scale, and teaches you how to think strategically so you become more capable, confident, and independent over time.
What types of businesses benefit most from mentoring?
Any business owner who wants to grow their business substantially, to improve margins, or reduce stress benefits greatly from mentoring. The strongest results tend to come from businesses that have grown past the early startup stage and now need structure, systems, and clearer decision-making to reach the next level without burning out the team or the owner. That said, clients from grown by over 800% to 100% in a year starting mentoring at $10,000/month income.
How long does business mentoring usually take before I see results?
It really does vary, and it depends on the business. Many businesses are not ready to grow by 50% in months, while others are. A client grew from $17,000/month income to $76,000/month income in 5 months as an example. While some clients, like a radiator service business increased net profit by $331,000 in a year, while only increasing revenue by $205,000. So growth can be about profit increase or sales, and what's needed most determines what the strategies are and how fast they can be implemented. All that said, six months can make a world of difference in terms of financial, bottom-line improvement. But results have been seen in weeks, sometimes even days.
What areas of my business can a mentor help improve?
A good mentor helps with:
• Strategy and planning
• Profit margins and pricing
• Leadership and team performance
• Marketing clarity and positioning
• Systemisation and scaling
• Recruitment solutions
• Removing bottlenecks and hidden inefficiencies
It’s not just problem-solving — it’s building a stronger, smarter structure for long-term growth, with freedom.
Do you provide marketing mentoring?
With 30+ years of hands-on marketing creation and implementation, Tim gets results fast. A secret he shares is that premium quality marketing hides in plain sight. Examples of outstanding website designs that convert visitors into sales at 6% to 8%, way above the industry averages, yet to an untrained eye, the website may not seem anything special. Converting more visitors into sales is an area where Tim excels. Without a high-converting website, it's all too easy to burn cash on advertising for little return. Check out the short video on digital marketing results on the marketing mentoring page for example results.
Got More Questions?
Why Consider Tim to Be Your Business and Marketing Mentor?
Tim Stokes is one of Australia's most experienced small business entrepreneurs, coaches and mentors. He's built six businesses over his 40+ years in business and worked with thousands of businesses in six countries- Australia, the USA, Canada, England, New Zealand and India.
He's a researcher into entrepreneurship, extreme business success and setting businesses up so that working can become optional. He has invested over $150,000 in learning from marketing experts, entrepreneurs, business gurus and legends of international business.
With over 20,000 hours of research, development and refinement of his strategies, systems, management tools and methodology, he is respected and recommended by dozens of accounting firms, who see his results in their client's financial reports.
Tim was a pioneer in the business coaching industry being one of the very first, starting in 1997 as a "pilot" franchisee. He became the "Worldwide Business Coach of the Year in 2000" with ActionCoach, the first time they created the award. ActionCoach is the largest business coaching organisation in the world.
Tim has also spoken to thousands of business owners in self-marketed seminars, webinars, workshops, and courses. He has worked one-on-one delivering business mentoring programs to businesses in all industry sectors. He is highly respected by dozens of accounting firms who have been clients or referred hundreds of their clients to his business and marketing mentoring programs.
If you want results that not just improve, but transform your quality of life, your team, your profits, and business, follow him on LinkedIn or Facebook, or talk to Tim about your business, challenges, goals and dreams.
PO Box 789 Kenmore
QLD 4069 Australia
P: +422 411 369
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