A. Business coaching is the process of supporting a business with its short or long term business needs, while simultaneously transferring practical business skills into the key individuals within the organisation. Shirlaws helps any business, regardless of size or market conditions, to establish and maintain growth, with the coaching methodology to ensure that growth can be sustained, internally, for the long term.

We believe cultural and commercial issues impact on each other in a business. Our approach establishes a balance between those issues, and our coaches use a range of tools and frameworks to support businesses at various stages of their development. Our business coaching techniques are designed to lead business owners into a more strategic role, re-energise them and provide more opportunities for staff.

Over the past decade, Shirlaws has developed and evolved Intellectual Property that our coaches use to support our clients at various stages of their development.

A. Our approach to business coaching is based on providing a strategic vision for our clients’ business growth.

Life coaching is concerned with aiding people with transitions in their personal life and in the process of self-actualisation. The two fields are related - both are committed to supporting sustainable change - but generally require different skills sets to deliver different specific goals.

A. Any organisation can benefit from business coaching at any stage in their life cycle.

Our clients are already successful businesses, but they are also businesses that have reached a transition point. They recognise that, going forward, they now need to do things in another way in order to achieve a different set of commercial and cultural outcomes.

While the products, industries and people differ, we see common issues across all our clients. Our job as business coaches is to help clients become clear on the issues affecting their development, help them make conscious choices and help them take action towards achieving their new vision

A. Absolutely not. If you think of the health of a business like an individual's health, then business coaching is a gymnasium, not an emergency room (although we do work with some emergency cases). The vast majority of our clients are strong, healthy businesses that want to be in even better shape, and they're looking to fast track that work by leveraging from somebody else's experience.

A. Shirlaws works with business of various sizes, bringing our experience to their different - and similar - business development needs.

For example, in small and medium sized enterprises (SME - 20 to 1,000 employees) Shirlaws often works directly with the owner or CEO to help articulate vision, improve cashflow and profitability, and ensure the business delivers team members a balanced lifestyle; for our larger clients, which can include publicly listed companies and government departments, we often work with a management team or specific executives on topics such as change management, staff performance, communication skills and business strategy.

Our various coaches also apply their experience to micro businesses, executive coaching, leadership teams and strategic boards.

Our clients come from a variety of industries, including financial services, legal, accounting, IT  real estate, engineering, retail services, architecture and property services.

We work with businesses at all stages of their lifecycle, from start-up and the initial growth phase through to planning for future growth and establishing a sustainable business that will live beyond its founders or current owners.

Shirlaws' highly valued intellectual property allows us to address the specific needs of a single business by bringing into practice the contextual challenges and decisions that are common to all businesses.

A. Shirlaws clients receive both cultural and commercial benefits through their relationship with their coach. Some of these are tangible - revenue and profit growth, marketshare - and some are not - reduced stress, improved communication. We work with all of our clients to ensure they are clear on the specific outcomes they desire from coaching, and then work towards those outcomes. Where relevant to the client, this will include specific tracking and measuring of the outcomes attributable to the coaching. Find out more about coaching ROI as it applies throughout the industry.

A. Shirlaws represents around 160 coaches globally, of which approximately 40 are based throughout Australia. In 2009, Shirlaws worked with an average of 600 businesses and business leaders in each month.

A. Shirlaws has a specially-created business model, a suite of unique Intellectual Property, and a thorough selection requirement for coaches which including continuous mandatory training throughout their career.

From the very beginning, Shirlaws opted away from the traditional franchise model believing in our industry that it detracted from coach development and client outcomes. Instead, coaches are invited to join a team where they can fast track their skill development and begin applying the IP and their experience to coaching clients. Coaches are awarded a licence on the completion of their training, and continue to work in teams to leverage experience from across the business.

A. Shirlaws is redefining the business coaching space, so it is setting new standards for training coaches, not found elsewhere in the coaching industry. Prospective coaches attended several Shirlaws’ events before they are invited to join an induction course.  It takes about nine months for the initial training period, during which time a new coach will be working as part of a team, with more experienced coaches.

Shirlaws believes in continual development and coaches undertake ongoing training throughout their career. Even after the initial Induction program has been completed, our licensed coaches commit to attending at least 12 days of training conferences and external training modules each year.

A. Shirlaws’ coaches are professionals and experienced business executives. Many of them are entrepreneurs and former business owners or high achievers who have worked in major business organisations. Our integrated culture of sharing and a team approach to supporting clients allows us to leverage this range of industry and capability experience to maximise the benefits to our clients.

A. Shirlaws has an aggressive growth strategy and it is constantly looking to recruit suitable coaches. Our entrepreneurial model means we are not restricted to a limit of coaches who can join in any period, a strategy that has twice seen Shirlaws listed as a BRW Fast 100 business.

A. The amount a coach can earn varies depending on factors such as where they are in their training programme, their experience in building business, and how many days in a month they are prepared to work.

Shirlaws accepts professional and experienced business executives as coaches, and many of them entrepreneurs who are used to earning high salaries.  Once trained in Shirlaws IP and coaching skills, they can earn salaries commensurate and higher than in their previous positions. Other coaches join Shirlaws for the lifestyle balance it can provide, which can mean earning less while enjoying more time with family or pursuing other hobbies.

A. Since starting in Australia in 1999, Shirlaws has successfully expanded its operation to New Zealand, the UK and USA, Spain, the UAE and most recently Canada. The company is always looking at the viability of expanding our coaching offering both within these countries and into new markets.