I have used Action Coach and they are truly superb at helping businesses. I run a public relations company and joined one of Action's 'Profit Clubs' after meeting coach Sally Rainbow-Ockwell. She has been like a non exec director for my company - www.morganpr.co.uk for those interested in visiting!

I have seen my turnover double and profit increase by even more thanks to her guidance and hands on advice and it has certainly more than paid for itself.

I have just got back from Las Vegas after attending an 'Entrepreneur's Masterclass' with Brad Sugars, the founder of Action Coach and that was on Sally's recommendation. It was fantastic, straightforward and practical ideas to take my business to the next level and to improve my personal life too.

I would say that not all coaches are created equal, so seek out references and ask to speak to former clients - I did and discovered they were only former because they had become so successful they no longer needed help!

I am an Action Coach and the Action system works exceptionally well. I could have started a coaching firm from scratch, but I found that The Action Coach system had everything that I needed to help business owners take their businesses to the next level. So why reinvent the wheel? We are getting massive results for our clients; generally posting a positive ROI in the first 3-6 months. I would suggest that anyone who owns a business go to the find a coach section of our website at actioncoach.com and do just that. By the way, we practice what we preach-I have an Action Coach as well.

I am a Master Licensee with ActionCOACH in the UK and have been a Franchisee with ActionCOACH in New Zealand. Having coaches well over 100 Business Owners now in our methodologies...and having achieved great success myself through the application of our methodologies, I can truely say that what we help people achieve is oustanding 'abundance' in your life....

If you want to Earn more...one has to Learn more.....and take Action with that knowledge - excuse the pun!

I have to say that in order for any coaching mthodologies to work, one has to actually do the work!

I look forward to other non-action people whom have been coached by us making comments..

Jason,

I've owned my ActionCOACH practice in North Central Ohio since Nov06. Imagine what will happen iwhen I've been able to touch 10% of my local businesses? The positive ripple effect into the communities from the owners to the employees, to the tax base, to the schools and other public institutions will be noticed! I love helping my business clients discover and work through their time, team and money issues to the point where their business is now supporting their PERSONAL goals and dreams rather than the other way around.

Hi Jason,

 I am a Master Licensee with ActionCOACH in Nevada.  I suggest the best way for you to learn about Action is to get in touch with your local coaches if you have not already talked to them.  There are two in Boise, Marc Smith at (208) 287 8312 and Julie Larson at (208) 867 0429. 

 Sincerely, Peter

I have been an ActionCOACH for 2 years.   I am associated with an incredible organization and the colleuges that are on the ActionCOACH team are first class.  The thing I enjoy about being involved with Action is the increadible difference that I make in the lives of the clients that I serve.  The other coaches on our team share that passion.  I would encourage you get involved with a coach in your area and let him help you get the results you desire in your business.

Reggie Shropshire
ActionCOACH
Wilmington NC

I'm an Action Coach in Australia - the following was written by one of my clients some time ago but he wrote it for his own published magazine so it was his own genuine story. 

Business Coaching - Just One Perspective
Author: Marc Rushton

Owning and starting your own business is becoming increasingly popular as we head towards a technologically advanced era; one in which time seems to slip away from us and the trend towards self employment and personal success becomes desired by many.

Thanks to the resources and technology available to us today, a home based business can set up operations in no time at all, combined with the exposure of the internet and availability of professional telephone services (such as live operators, 1300/1800 numbers), leading a business has become easier than ever.

With this in mind, an explosion in small businesses has seen an increased demand for business to business services and one of these is in the area of 'Business Coaching'. Undoubtedly one of the largest and biggest success stories in business coaching is Action International. Established in 1993 by Brad Sugars and now operating in 19 countries and consistently ranking in the Top 20 Home Based Franchise Businesses by Entrepreneur Magazine.

My first experience with business coaching was in 2002 as I entered into a partnership in a retail venture. A business coach called on us shortly after with the usual story about increased turnover, more profit and a healthier business. Being very sceptical I immediately had a negative attitude towards someone who thought they could tell me what I believed I had a natural knack for!

Jotting some loose figures down on paper, increasing the leads and increasing the conversions, along with some more mathematical equations resulted in much healthier profit. Funnily enough, while seeming somewhat glorified in theory it all made sense. Did the coach really have the knowledge to back up these claims though? Did these claims justify the costs of hiring a business coach, and more importantly did I want to hire someone to tell me what I thought I already knew? These were the thoughts running through my mind as I stared poker-faced at the notepad in front of me.

With the usual brush off to give us time to think about what had been put forward to us the outcome was that while it did sound worthwhile, let's wait a couple of months and free up some cashflow to allocate towards this.

Well sure enough, this particular coach did call upon us some time later, after which we had moved into a much bigger, high exposure (and overheads!) premises. True to our word we entered into the shortest term contract available. For me, the key factor in going ahead with this was the confidence of the coach himself, his experience in management, and his motivation and apparent dedication.

A short time was spent on establishing where we were with our business, what our business practices were like, along with our skills, particularly in the sales area. Another interesting component of this was the profiling of our personalities which appears to be very accurate.

One of the features of this particular companies coaching style was the ability to choose the level of coaching. Various packages reflected how often the coach meets with the client, and the rate at which the program progresses. This would appeal to different businesses (and their cashflow).

I'm often asked what the business coach actually does. I believe that what the business coach does varies from business to business and individual to individual. For me, the importance of the coach was to be able to bounce ideas and scenarios off in regards to existing and future marketing, but more importantly having someone who knows me, knows the business and will not hesitate to criticise you if they see things differently as an outside party. In my few years in business I find that is essential as in the business owner's eyes, every idea you have is a good one and sometimes we fall victim to influences or clouded judgement (ego, competitors etc).

Business coaches are trained professionals who have been taught the best skills required to own, and manage a successful business. How do we know that? Well they are essentially running their own business too! The success of their business relies on the success of your business. We were fortunate in the fact that I believed (and still do) that we had a damn clever coach and all round likeable bloke.

It's not my intention for this article to come across as some sort of advertorial for Action International or business coaching in general, but it is my intention to put forward a real perspective of someone who has been coached and benefited from that.

A business coach teaches you the importance of many components to successful business, and/or the areas in which you are perhaps spending too much time (and money) that are in fact distractions and not profitable. They also teach you to test and measure everything where possible and the massive importance of this. They guide you from their own experience as to what works and what doesn't typically in advertising and marketing. Planning, goals both short term and long term, systemising the business, and the big one, working ON and not IN the business and the theory behind that.

Of course this is only touching the surface of what a coach can do, but as mentioned previously it varies from each business and each person what they need, and what they can take from coaching.

Was it beneficial to me? Absolutely. I'm a big thinker and a go getter but was forever being distracted and not seeing things through. My skills have been refined, and new seeds were planted in my way of thinking that I still use today. This website itself is part of a big plan and employs many of the methods, skills and theories learnt.

Will it work for you? I believe so, but do have some advice to offer. You will justify the costs of your business coach if you have an existing profitable business, or honestly believe that it could be. If you cannot find the cash to cover coaching then solve your immediate cash flow problems first. Start budgeting, right down to every possible cent. Work hard and chase the profit. I don't recommend committing to anything at all if you are already suffering cash flow problems. However, once you believe you can justify the cost, go for it but be prepared to do the work to follow through with coach's advice. Remember they don't work for you. They are a consultant, advisor and critic. They won't pat you on the back and butter you up.

Give business coaching a go as I believe the skills and techniques learnt you will keep for life. You will apply them to every different business you own, and each and every industry you work in.

I worked with an Action Coach one-to-one for three years and in Profit Club for a year following that.  Bluntly, working with him took my practice from TERMINAL to PROFITABLE!  I was depressed, weighed down and ready to close my practice because the money pressure was too much.  I was a great chiropractor, but a disastrous business person.  My Action Coach, Russ Hall, taught me how to think like a business owner and become the person I am now, the person who runs a fantastic (profitable!) operation with great staff and a happy environment.  My business is supporting me now instead of me supporting it!

Definitely check it out! 

Hi Jason, glad we can help.  I found ActionCOACH 16 months ago after 25 years of corporate sales.  My last position was a Channel Manager for a medical software company.  I was the liason between them and 148 independant business owners in 22 states helping them grow their business, hire and fire, train team, sales training, leasing, tradeshows etc. When I lost my job after being bought out twice in 6 months I wanted to find something simular but w/o corporate.  I found the ActionCOACH franchise and became the first female owner in CA. My most recent client success stories are these: Owner of a business for 12 years in Estate Sales had plateaued and had lost his vision of the future. He hired me in March and last month told me he has made more money in the last 2 months than he made all last year!!!  We have 19 marketing strategies in place and he is working a 90 day Action plan consistently. He is amazed how well he is doing in such a short amount of time. Having a plan and having someone hold you accountable!!

The second is a European Baker here in business 23 years. The business was loosing customers slowly. We began working on consistancy in Delivery and Team issues.  In Sept. he took his wife on a 3 week vacation and the business ran w/o him being there.  This week He delivered a pastry/croissant order to a Hyatt Hotel for a special order.  Later in the day he got a call from Bill Cosby thanking him and telling him they were the best croissants he had ever had!!  The restaurant/Bakery was also just voted Best Hamburger in Sacramento, the business is booming.  Systems are being implemented and the TEAM is making a difference!!!  I hope that helps!!

Total SCAM artists. Any of the stuff they tell you can be readily found on the internet for FREE. Don't waste your time and money on these frauds.

Iam seriously looking at Actioncoach and how it could help my business, BUT, for a company that is found in 30 odd difderent country's with 1000's of franchises why can I not find even a handfull of independent customer reviews?

I can find hundreds of reviews from actioncoach business coaches and hundreds of review's from actioncoach official websites but only 1 review after 2 hours of looking (that was from Ben Johnson office solutions) and that was a comment in an end of year review thanking his coach.

Please don't take this the wrong way as I quiet like the concept but can't find any one to substantiate what I would achieve from a substantial outlay!

Jim Tyler hit it on the head.

Another one for scambusters.com ?

Why would someone need to pay an extraordinary amount of money to coach SME's ?

Were I to choose this career path I'm quite capable of contacting clients, assembling training material and directing it appropriately should I wish.

Why would that cost me £75,000 to undertake, as it would with Action COACH ?

All the alarm bells ring here for me.

I am a franchise operator in Wilmington, NC.  I invested a large amount to own an ActionCOACH franchise and I feel like it has been worth every penny and more.  I have received an incredible ROI. I received not only an incredible system that helps small business owners but also an education and personal growth that has far exceeded the amount I invested in the company.  With an 80% failure rate in small business, my market is endless.

Bemused (interesting name) - I have had several MBA's tell me after ActionCOACH's 10 day training that they received a more useful and practical business education from Action than they did from their MBA program.  Quite honestly, that is this the start of your education process.  From there if you follow the 'system' that Action teaches you, you will continue to grow daily.  Yes you could assemble all the training material, put together the systems, contact clients but if you can pay a fee to instantly acquire what has already proved to be successful, why would you?  Once you assemble the information, then you have to figure out what works and what doesn't work.  Action provides me with a network of over 1,000 coaches all over the world that I can leverage to get the 'cliff's notes' on what works and what doesn't work which gets me results far greater that I would on my own. 

I assure you that ActionCOACH is not a scam.  It is a World Class Organization who has received numerous awarads and recognitician for helping small businesses all over the world.  It is not the right business for everyone but for those that have the heart and passion to be a great coach then there is not finer organization out there.  I am greatful for the opprotunity to be an ActionCOACH and I have full intentions to 'renew' my franchise liscence in 18 months when it expires.

I hope this helps you in some way.

Coach Reggie Shropshire

Wilmington, NC

P.S. If you would like to see some testimonials of clients that have worked with me personally, please feel free to visit my LinkedIn page at   http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?trk=hb_side_pro

There I have 15 recommendations from people in my local community that have been involved in ActionCOACH programs.

For those looking for real live testimonials, go to my website www.actioncoach.com/davidbeam and read and call them if you like.

As far as much of our stuff being available free on the web, I would heartily agree.  In fact, we give away lots of stuff at www.actioncoach.com .  Feel free to go download heaps.  Also, on youtube, Brad Sugars himself teaches many of the principles and strategies that we use in our coaching  FREE FREE FREE to use to everyone.

So why do people pay me for coaching?  Because they lack clarity and focus from all of the information overload, and want the accountability.  Do you think that Tiger Woods could get great free golfing tips on the internet?  I'm sure he can.  But he chooses to hire and use coaches.  Isn't that interesting?

Bottom line is most small business owners won't use all of the free stuff they can get.  People don't primarily hire me for the stuff, they want coaching, not consulting.  Hope this brings some clarity.

I'm looking into becoming a coach. I do not doubt that a number of ActionCOACH coaches are doing well, even extremely well. But what percentage of ActionCOACH coaches are making in excess of 150K / year? Can any of the many coaches / ML's here answer this? How is that for a reality test?

Cheers,

John

Excellent question the one from John Brown. What percentage of ActionCOACH coaches are making over 150K / year? If the system is as good as it is claimed by some then you will surely have a good percentage of coaches making that amount of money, right?

Amy

I have been (and am currently) a "workout" officer for major banks and financial institutions for 25+ years. Workout officers manage problem commercial loans ("special assets") to maximize the bank's return on business loans which are non-performing. You can rest assured there are many business people who need advice. Considering retirement in the near future, ActionCOACH seems like a logical next career choice. Right now, I am in the due diligence phase of assessing the opportunity.  Although, I feel fully equipped to offer business coaching services, the ActionCOACH franchise seems to offer systems, training, name recognition, marketing assistance and more to enable me to maximize my income and help helpless business people not only survive but also flourish. I'll let you know what I decide. 

I'd advise against it. Esp if you plan on buying the franchise. Please check the links here to see 300+ comments about ActionCoach and Brad Sugars.

http://www.soulcast.com/post/show/248750/Brad-Action-Coach

http://www.soulcast.com/post/show/221264/Actioncoach-is-a-Scam

http://www.angryfranchisee.com/

http://www.angryfranchisee.com/actioncoach/actioncoach-share_your_experiences/

These threads have been going on for years.

Maybe someone can make the links live for me.

Having been with ActionCOACH for more than 7 yrs now (I am in a 2nd contract term), I've been through it all.  I've seen massive success and failure.  Bottom line is, our systems and programs work and work well - if we have the right people delivering them!  We get great results with our clients and the clients truly love what we do and the pure results we bring.  Hands down we are the best in class in our industry, bar none!  I've seen other coaches (independents and other franchises) and in general they don't hold a candle to what we have. 

To be sure, we've had people that didn't work out, but in every case the person did not do what they needed to do to be successful.  Like any good franchise, you're told what the keys are to success and those that don't or won't do them end up not doing so well.  No different than in any industry I've been in prior to this. 

I've seen stuggling coaches choose not to attend conferences, choose not to reach out for help from thier fellow coaches, choose not to learn the intellectual property, choose not to be a a part of the culture (it is for real and those who truly fit do incredibly well - those who don't will fail eventually - again no different than any organization)... in essence they all chose to fail.  On the other hand, those that do well all have some common characterstics... they are willing to learn and grow, are willing to use the training and support, are willing to reach out to the other  Action Coaches who've been there, are willing to step up and do what it takes to be successful, they are above the line and committed to their own success.  That coupled with everything Action provides us is a winning formula every time.

This business has changed my life and the lives of many of my clients.  I can honestly say it's easily the best business decision I've ever made. 

Only do this if you truly fit the culture (if you don't you'll fail), if you have a passion for helping others and for business (that's what we do), are self-motivated and discliplined enough to be self-employed (if not - don't go into any business), are committed to your own on-going growth and development (if not - you will fail), are hard working enough in the beginning to launch a business (it's a start-up and will take time and energy early on - the balance is incredible once off the ground) and if you are willing to learn whatever new things you need to learn to be successful (no different than any career). 

The previous post is 100% spot on. Chances are this site will get hit like all the other sites where people have been trying to gzt the word out on ActionCoach and their very fraudulent business practises.

Anyone looking for some hard facts about ActionCoach should take a look at http://www.bluemaumau.org/brad_sugars_come_down_0

and/or

http://www.ripoffreport.com/Franchisors/Brad-Sugars-ActionCo/brad-sugars-actioncoach-ac-yf669.htm

and/or

http://www.ripoffreport.com/Business-Consulting/ActionCOACH-Business/actioncoach-business-coachinga-46JJA.htm

There are two downloadable files on http://www.bluemaumau.org/brad_sugars_come_down_0  which make for very interesting reading.

One gives the a complete list of ActionCoach franchisees by country at the present time and the total falls well short of the 1000+ that Action claims all over the place.

The second document gives the list of all those who have quit ActionCoach around the world since August 2006. The number of people who quit is almost as high as the number that was there to begin with.

Very interesting, very interesting indeed... 

"No franchise magic, no amount of binders full of transcripts, no number of podcasts will prepare the wrong person to be an effective coach."

You are absolutely right Jason and that sums up all that looks wrong with ActionCoach which will sell a business coaching franchise to anyone with a heartbeat and a checkbook while simultaneously doing everything in it's power to prevent that person from making a serious appraisal of what he or she is getting themselves in to.

The stuff on BlueMauMau really closes the argument : it looks pretty evident that most people make little or no money with Action Coach and end out quitting within a couple of years. This has been suspected by many for quite some time but now, unless ActionCoach comes back with a much better story than Brads usual spin, there is little room for any doubt.   

So, in spite of all Brad Sugars efforts to prevent the word getting out, it is getting out and all to the good. That should mean a few less people and hopefully a lot less people taking a very nasty hit to both their wallet and their self-esteem. 

I think that there is truth on both sides of this conversation. As with most opportunities in life the responsibility for success lies in the hands of the individual and not any support organization. A franchise such as this can offer tools and tips but cannot do the work. The people that are successful in this endeavor would probably be successful in anything that they did. That said, based on the comments, and the type of comments from those that have not succeeded it appears to me that the criteria for inclusion as an ActionCoach is not capability but the ability to pay. That is a concern. I am just starting my investigation and the fact that this is the first thing that I see suggests that any potential client of mine that is smart enough to do his due diligence will find the same information. I am not sure that I want my name associated with an organization that does not have integrity and competence as a foundation.

My own due diligence continues.

Good post Ron and since you are just starting your investigation you have plenty of time to look at what's available before making a choice. If you are a self starter, which I think you have to be no matter what outfit you join, it would make sense for you to look at businesscoach.com

I have no direct experience with them but wish I had taken a closer look before signing up with ActionCoach. The upfront cost are far lower and the systems proposed look very similar. I also found no negative material about them on the web. Still a lot of hype though!

Your ongoing inputon what you find during would be very welcome.

I just became a member of Execunet and within less than 24 hrs I had an email asking if I would be interested in a career with ActionCoach, I did some quick Googling and came across too much bad press to even consider taking the next step and getting the overview package. Like a previous poster said 'potential clients' have access to the same bad press.

I'd also stay away from a career at IPA Consulting, they have similar bad press and are in the process of changing their name to something like GPS to avoid their bad press showing up first on search engines.

T

Jason. It is funny to see that you started this blog back in April 2007, made the decision to join ActionCoach and have since quit along with Marc Smith and Julie Larson who are mentioned in Peter Williamson's post and Rich Herb who did his own post. I happen to know that at least one of the other contributors is also struggling but I cannot mention the name.

It is also funny to note that almost all the recommendations were posted on the few days, 26- 28 Oct 07. Makes it look like it was orchestrated but maybe I'm just being cynical.

It's even more interesting to note that after a long blackout, this blog started coming to life again in 2009 and has picked up a bit of late.

My guess is that this is a direct result of Brad Sugars attempts to close down all the other sites where people could get third party info about ActionCoach. People are not as stupid as ActionCoach seems to think and though they have succeeded in disabling some of the blogs that were most active in 2009, other sites have already come to the fore to replace them.  

The problem ActionCoach has is that as long as it indulges in systematic misrepresentation of franchise numbers, lying by omission about average franchise earnings, over-selling and squeezing every possible cent out of their franchisees, there will be people who are pissed off enough to be very motivated about insuring other people get to hear the story.

A couple of the most recent posts show that there is real value in doing this since some prospects  actually do some research and can learn a lot from these blogs.

Based on all that has happened over the last year, we can probably still expect ActionCoach to have a go at this blog but the more of them that are around, the more difficult it is for them and sites such as ripoffreport.com and bluemaumau.com are not that easy to attack.

I almost think that the great majorty of peope who invested in the ActionCoach franchise over the years and who lost their investment have a moral duty to insure that those are looking at this outfit today get to hear the other side of the story.   

This whole thread has been fascinating to say the least......  I do consulting for companies on how to integrate blog, social media, etc., among other things.  I have a client who sells top tier MLM (Multi Level Marketing) software and he was telling me coaching is the new big fad.  At the time I thought that was odd because all my clients have been referrals from other clients, I don't have tons of business but I have enough to have a wonderful pt VA, etc. 

Anyway, at the time I racked my mind wondering who would pay money upfront for the MLM business model to make sense.  I asked him how they "sell" it and he held up a pen and told me you 'sell the sizzle', sell the 'idea of making a lot of money'.  So I thought......  'then you have overhead and a need to make a certain amount of money to pay overhead rather than focus on the client', what if you and the client aren't a good fit?  Would you do it because you 'need the money?'.

Back when he told me I did some homework on his company and some of the MLM payout methods, etc.  And again I wondered who would do this because not everything about being successful has to do with who you sign up with, it's YOU and circumstances, etc.

I have worked for Fortune 50-500 companies and never is "turnover" a good long term business model!!  I took one business from 30 million to 44 million in 18 months, 140 employees to 220 (ish - this number is fuzzy after these years).  I won a 6 figure bonus and top awards, did that with 2 other companies.....  PLUS improved profitability, NBT income, recruited talent to become managers, etc.  When they say "turnover" they may mean they weren't managing and holding their employees accountable before and now they are.  I ususally focused on "losing" the highest paid under-performers first because I could replace them with 2, but a continual state of high turnover is very bad...........  For customers, and everyone............

I was also hired to consult with a telemarketing company in LA, I didn't tell them to increase turnover!  In fact, they have constant ads in papers just to keep staffing up, not all positions have a high turnover, just entry sales.  Entry positions for any industry are usually the highest turnover.

I had an email today from ACTIONCoach that was very flattering and whatnot.  I decided to do some digging myself.......  I don't need anyone to help me......  I would like to join a few other coaches for master minding because it's hard to do by yourself....... I write on giant peices of paper and have them taped everywhere in my basement to keep focused on developing my passive income, etc.  I don't need distractions and extra business when I know what I want to do.

I am glad I found this thread..........  I will not be joining......  Mostly because I don't think the business model they teach businesses is good for long term success for any business, ever.........

Oops!!  Sorry, I was watching TV while typing above.......  The point of the top 3 paragraphs was.......  NOW I know how MLM marketing is taking off with coaching!! It's sad to think of people losing their savings, etc.  Not good............  They obviously were "sold the sizzle"........  And bought........

My other paragraphs are relating to some of the business practices they coach.......Employee engagement, enthusiasm, pride, etc. have to be cultivated...  Most small business need help developing P&P, employee review systems, etc. are most critical.....  People need to be in a consistent enviroment......  Even when I managed very little and only a million dollars in annual volume and a handful of employees I learned all these lessons.......  AND guess what???  I won Rookie of the Year and a big bonus way back then in my 20's!! 

Remember people will ALWAYS sell you the SIZZLE......  Don't GIVE IN!!!  Don't risk your future....  My house and cars are paid for and I wouldn't consider spending a lot of money to gamble.........  Don't gamble.....

I have to say, my dad just bought an ActionCoach franchise (in cash) and all of this is very disheartening.  He recently hired me to do marketing through social media for his franchise, and after looking at the ActionCoach materials he showed me, the first thing I did was type 'ActionCoach franchise scam' into google.  Because, I mean, it just looks like a scam!  The cheesy fox-news typefaces and coloring, overuse of exclamation marks, pictures of their narrowly-targeted demographic (slightly overweight white middle-aged guys) smiling while making business deals and saving the world through small business;  I had determined that my entire marketing strategy would be to make this look legitimate, but gosh do I have my work cut out for me!  The name even sounds scammy, but I'm sure that you're unable to use ActionCoach tactics under any other name--I mean ANY sort of acronym would sound more official.  Just pull three random letters out of a hat, and poof, a name inspiring more confidence than 'ActionCoach' is sure to arise.  YBC consulting, there, sounds awesome. 

Thanks alot ActionCoach, I just got out of college, and instead of moving in with my parents, their broke asses will be packin' up and movin' in to my studio apartment. 

If you'd like to see or hear about what one ActionCoach did with his franchise, I'm happy to share.   Essentialy, this ActionCoach hung out in bars where upwardly mobile professionals would meet, to find predatory opportunities.   Many, if not most of them, women.  If he engaged a man in dialogue, he was relentlessly scanning the bar trying to find the next woman he could approach to throw up all over with emotion-laden questions that confront their thought processes about personal, professional and financial matters.  

In the end analysis, he was trying to find another job because he was only marginally successful at his franchise craft.   In fact he admitted his lack of success for his 1st two years which was followed by deals with two clients who utilized his services for about a year then dumped him.  From there, seeing that he was not generating any real income, found a psychologially "needy" small business owner and convinced him to place his (questionable)  "talents" on their small team.   A move on the part of the small business owner that will only result in additional cash drain on an already tenuous business struggling to maintain, let alone grow.  

In prior professional pursuits, this ActionCoach alienated employers and the teams with whom he worked..., eventually leading to the option of resignation or termination.  

In the end analysis, I watched the model at work with this ActionCoach and found it filled with weak innuendo and hyperbole.   His presentations were amateur-ish and he did a poor job of listening to his clients, often stating that they said things they did not in the sessions.   All this with the stated deliverable to improve the way those clients went to market with their products/services.      

If you're a struggling business, focus on what's good, not-so-good, and bad, then regroup!!   You can do it and the need for someone to point out where you may be deficient is a crutch on which to lean versus that which you already know!!

If you're considering a franchise opportunity, approach it in the vein of taking what is good with the model and then extrapolate on it to deliver a superior product.   In the current framework I saw, admittedly delivered by one soul, the franchise is substantively lacking. 

ActionCoach, Entrepreneur.com & Franchise500

ActionCoach makes a really big deal about all the awards it has received over the years, mostly from Entrepreneur.com where Brad Sugars is a regular contributor...

Because of this incestuous relationship I guess I have always been a bit sceptical about this whole thing but since it is a central element of the ActionCoach promotional strategy , as evidenced by the comments from ActionCoach people on this thread, here is some recent info on this topic posted on another blog

http://actransparency.wordpress.com/2010/10/24/actioncoach-entrepreneur-com-the-franchise-500-ranking/

One can only wonder why Entrepreneur.com allows this to happen.

I waited ten minutes for this link to load and I got nothing out of it. !!@$@!$@!#!@$@!@#!W

One of my best friends is an action coach and it will not take much longer before he declares bankrupcy. Two years ago he lost a very well paid job in marketing in a large multinational. Inspite of an impressive resume he had a hard time finding a job. Then his wife left him.  He had a nervous breakdown. 

Then he was contacted by a "coaching agency that is looking to expand in his region". He got very excited as they were offering a very rewarding career path for the for the lucky person who would pass their all their tests. He was invited to several interviews and gradually "moved up the ladder". He was told that he is now one of the favored candidates and that he impressed them so much that they offered him to buy into the agency. He would be getting a lot of training, full marketing support etc...etc...They claimed to be the worlds most elite in business coaching and had a huge number of offices around the world.

At that point he contacted friends and family to ask us for money to help him buy into this agency.

He is a very good friend of mine and I trusted he knew what he was doing so I lent him the money without looking to deeply into it. I was just so happy that he was coming out of his serious depression.

It was when he got back from an event in Las Vegas and told me he had finished his training and was now looking for clients, that all my alarm bells started ringing.

This is a mock up of our conversation:

"Glad you´re back, how was your workshop?"

"Fantastic, I am so excited so full of energy, it was an incredible experience!"

"Great! How long was it? What did you learn? When is the next work shop?"

At that point he told me about the exciting 10 DAYS he spent in Las Vegas. And that this was all the training he was getting.

I then asked several questions:

"You only get 10 days of training - but now you will spend a year working alongside an experienced coach before you start out on your own, right?" - "Um, no, I have a coach I can contact for questions but they don´t like taking you along to customers" 

"You mean, you will never receive a guided hands on training with a customer???" Um, no. Long silence.

"But we meet up every month and discuss our progress with a coach, all as a group. We also have to write reports in detail about all potential customers" "But how can you approach a customer if you have NEVER coached a business before?? Do you tell the customer you are the first EXPERIENCE???" "No, when the customer asks us we give a vague answer and direct him to the action coach network and website"

I then looked up his website on action coach.

"Your website doesn´t give any details about you. It just says that you "bring your experience as a small business owner into the coaching" - but you have only just registered the business. Do you find this ethical?? ..."Well, our customers are usually very small business owners - plummers, hairdressers, small shop owners. I have managed the marketing of a huge cooperation before and all marketing is the same. So I have enough experience..."

At this point I realized something was seriously, seriously wrong. My friend kept raving how supportive action coach was and would a wonderful energetic vibe they all had. Hm.

More questions:

"How much does action coach cost you?"

" I bought into the franchise at 75k and I pay a monthly sum for support and marketing.They also get a small percentage of my turnover.  I have a seven year contract" "Ok, but over all those seven years - how much are you paying ActionCoach?" "Oh, I haven´t really thought about that, but my business plan covers it all. From the second year I will be making 160 000 USD a year. They only get 5% of that"

"YOU ARE A BUSINESS COACH. YOU MUST KNOW YOUR NUMBERS!! HOW MUCH IS ACTION COACH GETTING IN THOSE SEVEN YEARS?! How much is the monthly fee?!"

"1800 USD" "A month??" "A month"

"You are paying them 226 000 USD plus 5% of your turnover??? - You never told me that!!! And how will you get this amount of money by coaching SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS, who usually can´t even pay the rent???"

I then asked a few more questions about the training:

"Who are the main competitors for ActionCoach in your region? No answer. How much are your direct competitors charging in your region? No answer. How many small business owners does your target market have and what is their yearly turnover and profit? No answer. Which target group is more open to business coaching - small shops or plummers? No answer. What is the success rate of action coaches - how many clients extend their contract? No answer. How many action coaches make 160 000 USD a year?? Answer: all those that are fully commited to work hard to be successful. HOW MANY? No answer."

I didn´t even ask anything more. I then surfed the internet and found the various critical threads. I also couldn´t find a single POSITIVE GENUINE comment from a customers. All I found was promotion websites from action coaches. Tons of them.

Obviously Brad and Co are trying to clean up the internet and actively spamming critical threads. (Chinese spammers who only post in the Action Coach threads - please...)

If the franchise had 1000s of successfull coaches they would have thousands and thousands of clients all posting how successfull coaching was for them.

Nobody comments on actioncoach, because nobody succeeds with them.

I am not in touch with my poor friend at the moment. It is too painful to watch. He still fantasizes about actioncoach, but he has so little money that he can´t even afford his gym and has sold his car.  

I will lose all the money I lent him, but I hope my friend doesn´t lose his life.

Having been in business for 8 years, I could see the construction industry suffering and our profits being squeezed and squeezed. My wife had also become sick over a period of time and I was facing the difficult decision of closing the business if we could not turn thing around (mid 2008).  

For a contacting company I had always been actively marketing our firm with consistent growth of around 14% per year, year on year, over the 8 years. As a company we never used an overdraft and every bill was paid within the agreed terms, but there was less and less left over for me. 

I decided to increase our presence again, increased our networking and one day met a local business coach at a BNI event, we had some interesting conversations and meetings at around £35 per hour, but it seemed that we didnt get anywhere fast and I needed to push harder to turn things around. Desperation set in.

At a local chamber of commerce exhibition, I met a local business coach from ActionCoach. Within minutes I had been booked for my free consultation worth a stunning £375.... where the coach learned about my business, financial troubles, worries etc. and showed me a range of plans where we could work together to improve things. At this stage my head was in a spin and really I was being preyed on as a vunerable character. Knowing that the business was barely breaking even, my coach recommended that I invest heavily in coaching to see greater returns quicker, and signed me up on a coaching program for £1595+vat per month or there abouts.... He would push me to sucess and cost me as little as a secretary.

Off I toddle, wondering where I would find an extra £1600 per month, not really knowing what I would recieve for my money... Surely this master business coach would come into my office, meet my staff, see how we work and diagnose problems..... Well, the next step... orientation... pay him £1500 to come into our office for 1/2 day... er.... no.

I tried to cancel and we met again, I am certain that ActionCoach coaches are trained in NeuroLinguistic Programming to mind wash clients into 'needing' coaching. Within a week I was invited to enjoy a day on a luxury yacht with some of his clients... Of course all these other small business owners spoke highly of him and how well he had transformed their business.. 

I eventually worked with an actioncoach for 14 months, in which time we increased work, borrowed a significant ammount from the bank to invest in the business, looked at other firms to buy and integrate into the company, took on staff, invested in them, worked harder and longer, burnt myself out then eventually ended up putting the company into liquidation to the tune of £108,000 in the red. 

My marriage has suffered, with a divorce imminent. My business has folded and now i face personal bankruptcy due to the directors guarentees etc. Of the 8 people on the yacht that day, none are still clients of the coach, 2 have had a nervous breakdown, I know at least 4 of his clients that have gone banktrupt in the last 6 months.

Ive met Brad Sugars - Mr. B.S - is a flash and false character that may be a millionaire, but neither he, or a lot of his henchmen realise what a hard earned days money is. My coaching consisted of weekly 'coaching sessions' where my coach would cover the same ground, standard information and rarely prepare or do homework on my business, but hand me books to read to educate me. And a training session or two each quarter. He would openly discuss other clients, and our information with others; our ActionCoach even copied the design of our marketing materials to sell to one of their other coaching clients as their own design.... hmmmm... as Brad Sugars would say "isnt that interesting..."

ActionCoach prizes and awards are merely to blow wind up their own Ar*es, and anyone with a good business gifts company locally could knock them up..

My business coach - master business coach, multi award winner, coach of the year, fsb chairman, blah blah blah, was always certain to get his bucks first each month, and made sure you kept coming back. If you suceed, its because of ActionCoach, if you fail, its because you are weak.  ActionCoach taught me the hard way, keep your eyes on the money in your business, trust your instinct first, only gamble what you wish to gamble, and as Brad Sugars says business is a game - like most games there are always cheats and ActionCoach are one of them.

Its a shame we took part in some marketing videos etc. for them as I now regret this. Happy to answer any questions... Total Investment in working with an ActionCoach around £24,000 - total debt in business £108,000 - personal debt £55,000. Cost of ActionCoach = marriage, business, mental health.

I'm glad I found this blog!!! In particular, the previous post was what I was looking for --- all the earlier "franchise scam" info is useful (and disconcerting), _but_ I wanted to know what it's actually like for a CLIENT of an ActionCOACH.

Whether or not the franchise itself has merit (or earning potential) for the coaches themselves is interesting, but putting the system aside, there ARE good coaches out there - and with the right materials, they can definitely help business owners succeed. (Or can they?)

What I'm unsure about is whether the ActionCOACH approach works for the end-user/customer. As a small business owner (web design agency) - can a local ActionCOACH help me succeed, will it be relevant to my business, or will it just cost me $$$ that would be better spent elsewhere?

Here in Australia, I was approached via LinkedIn by a local ActionCoach, who said he was referred to me via one of my clients. Seemed legit, so I went along to a free evening session (normally $400) with about 30 people where the coach ran through some slides, and we did some group exercises, and honestly - it was all quite inspiring. Given my frustration with my business, financial issues etc, I guess I was exactly the type of client (target?) they are looking for. Anyone who went along to that free seminar is probably in the same boat - looking for the silver bullet to solve their business woes.

The first alarm bell should have sounded when they were taking sign-ups on the spot at the end of the presentation - obviously with a discount if you "act now". Working in marketing design ourselves, I understand the power of this technique - and I'm lucky I didn't have a credit card at the time, as even I may have succumbed still. It just sounded that awesome!

I left, and subsequently met with the coach during daylight hours to go through some costs. He said the first step was to have an "alignment session" (about 8.0 hours in a day), for $2750.00 AUD. My wife could come along, to get an understanding of how it all works and be my number one supporter etc. And I have to say that it does still sound pretty good - the coach seems like a nice guy, and if it wasn't for the stuff I've read (and that nagging feeling I've had in the back of my mind) I would have signed up.

Well, I did actually agree. I would have the alignment session, followed by weekly coaching, at around $3K AUD per month. I thought - "surely I can come up with that per month. It's small change for a successful business..."

But, if I was a successful profitable business - I would need coaching like this! So luckily (or unluckily), I wasn't able to come up with the $$$ to proceed. This was in Oct 2010. Due to other circumstances, travel, Xmas etc, I asked to postpone - which was all cool, and their invoice went in the bin.

So then in Jan 2011 this year they get back in touch - I went in for a second meeting, and this time I was given a book written by Brad Sugars, called "The Business Coach". For those that haven't read it, it's basically a "parable" on the ActionCoach programme --- it is written in a third-person narrative style about a couple running a business (a bakery, which reminds me of The E-Myth a little) and their encounter and progress with their "Coach". It's all very surface level - and is quite a good sales pitch for the program. It's a little simplistic, but I can't really fault the book per se, although it certainly doesn't give any deep answers!

So we make a new date for the "alignment session" and I receive a new invoice for the $2750 --- but luckily (again) we just had an awful start to the year, so I've had to postpone AGAIN.

I feel bad, because I think I do want some coaching --- and the coach does seem like a genuine guy. But the cost is a major issue for me, and now all the negative stuff I've read online, really makes me nervous. I just about paid their invoice TODAY to get started, and then thought I should do some more reading - and came across this blog.

So now I'm back at the crossroads!

The previous poster (Disgrunted customer... UK) seems to mirror my experience (at least in the early stages), and I guess my own "inside voice" has prevented me from signing up... so perhaps that is all the answer I really need.

But I'm interested to hear what other people have to share about this - because I'm a smart guy, but clearly the product they are selling seems to solve the pain-points for a lot of SMEs!

Do small business owners have any real success when they follow the program?!?

I am an active ActionCOACH in the easten US.   I have been an ActionCOACH for 5 1/2 years.  I have watched this website for a couple of years now and haven't responded as I didn't want to jump into an unproductive debate.   I could comment honestly from the inside about many of the points that have been discussed from my prespective if time allowed but I stay pretty busy running my practice & raising my family.  As time allows, I will thow in my 2 cents and discuss my successes and challenges of being an ActionCOACH as there has been plenty of both.

I am compelled to respond to this post as it is from a potential client that is on the fence about hiring an ActionCOACH & since I have committed my life to helping business owners & feel like he should get an opinion from someone who has no vested interest but has some experience in this area.   

To Unsure in Oz:

Over the last 5 1/2 years I have helped a lot of business owners grow their business dramaticly.   I have some amazing written and video testimonals from many of them to attest to that.  I have many that tell me that hiring me as an ActionCOACH has saved their business & changed their lives.  I recieve referrals from many of them & I have a increadible reputation in my community.  My average client retention is over 12 months and among my active one on one coaching client list here are is a list of how long some of them have been with me:  58 months, 56 months, 47 months, 46 months, 28 months.   So let me assure you that they would continue to pay me for that long if it didn't work.      

All that being said that not all the clients that I bring on are not success stories. A little of that my be that I am not a strong enough coach to be their 'mentor.'   Doesn't happen alot but it happens every now and then.  I am an above average coach but I am not a superstar by any means.   I am always improving & a lot better than I used to be.  I get results with clients now that I didn't get 3 years ago.  In 3 years I will be much better & get better results with clients than do today.  But that leaves some today that I just am not ready to take on.  

Most of the time, the lack of result's are because they are not willing to make the changes to themselves and their business to help them take their business to the next level.   I an give a business owner all of the great strategies in the world but if they are not willing to execute and don't respond to the accountibility that I provide them, then the program doesn't work.   If someone is not 'coachable' then we clearly see it in the first 2-3 months after the 'honeymoon' peoiod wares off.   So I will be clear in saying that simply writing a check to an ActionCOACH is no gurantee for success.   

So, Unsure in OZ.  The success that you will have as by hiring an ActionCOACH will depend on a few things: #1 The quality of coach that you hire #2 Your willingness to be coached,  be held accountible, and make the changes that need to be made to improve your business #3 Is their untapped potential in your business.   As long as you have all 3 then the ROI from investing in a coach should be pretty easy to achieve & you will have tangible & intagible results that should last a lifetime even after the program ends.

I also wouldn't put to much weight on the info on this website on your decision.   Consider this...There are now around 1,000 coaches world wide.  Most average 8-10 active clients at one time & the average retention is somewhere between  12-18 months depending on the coach.  So over the 15+ years that ActionCOACH has been around, we have worked with a lot of businesses.  When you look at it in that light there is such a miniscule ammount of bad press out there about ActionCOACH.  Has our progam not worked for a lot of business owners, sure.   It has happened to me several times.  But I assure you that if we were scam artists the internet would be loaded with negative stories.   Most of the negative stuff out there is from a very, very small ammount of failed franchisees.   As a franchisee I can understand some of their frustrations and concerns.   As a business coach, I see franchisees of all types fail every day.  I see people who invest their life savings & hopes and dreams in a business and it fail.  Sometimes it's the franchise's fault & many times it is because the person who bought the franchisee who bought it isn't cut out to be a succussful business owner.   Of couse when they fail, most people look for someone to blame other tham themselves.  Some of their finger pointing is legitimate as our franchise is less than perfect & most of it doesn't fairly depict reality.   I have done my share of stuggling & playing the victim at times & my heart goes out to those that haven't been able to pull through & create a successful coaching business.   I am fortunate to have pulled through tough times by working extremely hard & refusing to quit no matter how bad that it got. 

So, Unsure in OZ, I hope this helps give you the info that you need to make an informed decision.   I spent a bit more time than I needed to on this today but I hope it helps you in some way.  Now I am off to coach another business owner.    I would love to hear how it all works out.

This is addressed to the last person who claims to be a Coach in the U.S.  To start with, I hope you don't help your clients with their marketing communication because I have rarely seen such a poorly written post with more spelling mistakes per line than you would generally see in several pages of text. Your use of tired cliches about accountability and willingness to make changes is also seriously pathetic.  Unless you are not a native English speaker, in which case my remark is withdrawn, it's hard to imagine you even graduated from high school.

Moving on from that, why if your story is true, did you not sign off with your real name?  With such a terrific story you could even have provided a link to your website.

Moving on a little more, why serve all the ActionCoach corporate bullshit about more than a thousand coaches in more than 20, 30 or whatever number of countries across the world. BTW, if you really want to do spin, get it right. The corporate spin artists are far more subtle than you because they only claim to have more than a thousand "offices" which is not the same thing at all. Furthermore, if you check it out, which is pretty easy to do, you will find that there are fewer than 800 ActionCoach franchisees around the world but then, what's a lie or two among friends?   

To be really convincing why don't you actually tell a story about what you did with a client or two, the issues you encountered and how, as the brilliant coach that you are, you dealt with them.

Answering the question from "Unsure from Oz" I suggest you shop around it before making a decision. If your gut feeling tells you it doesn't look too good then it probably isn't and as other people have said, it's far more about an individual coach than about the label whether it be ActionCoach or anyone else.

Did the person you met ask you good questions and give you the feeling that he knew what he was talking about?

Did he give you some seriously credible ideas that he thought you could work on or at least highlight credible opportunities which would justify such a significant investment ?

Did he have credible references?

Did he offer any guarantees?

Hope that helps and wishing you the best of luck.

This is exactly why I haven't jumped in on this thread of posts to this point.   I volunteer 45 minutes of my time to give a business owner some facts about my experience with Action and here come the insults & accusations.   I guess no good deed goes unpunished.   Well anonymous poster #51 let me address a couple of points you made...

• Yes you have identified my weakness, spelling and grammar.   Honestly, it isn't within my skill set or interest.   You will be glad to know that I pay people to proofread my copy before it goes public & spell check takes care of about 80% of my mistakes.  If you looking for work, let me know and I will put you on the list the next time I am interviewing.
• Yes, English is my native language & I am a college graduate.   I have done pretty well in both professionally & personally despite my spelling & grammar disability.  I have found that people are much more attracted to the skill sets that I have and that they much more marketable than the few that I don't have.   
• Yes, I am a real coach running a real practice for over 5 years.   My 5 year agreement with Action ended recently & I chose to continue to renew.   It's working for me & it works for my clients or I wouldn't continue nor would they.
• Interesting that I was criticized for posting anonymously by an anonymous poster.   I am sure you have a good reason for not posting your name & I have mine as well.   If you can't figure out why an active coach wouldn't want his name or web site posted then you don't have a good grasp of sales & marketing in the internet age.    
• By the way, the tired cliches about accountability & helping them make changes changes is a big part of what business owners pay me to help them with.   What is cliche to you is a pretty big deal to them and they thank me for it on a regular basis.
• I have plenty of specific strategies & success stories.  My website, Facebook, LinkedIN, blog and the local business community full of those stories.  I assure you that if I posted them here, you wouldn't believe they were real anyway so what is the point.  You don't even believe I am a real coach so are my stories really going to convince you.   Either way, I am going to put my time into more profitable activities.
• It's possible that my number is off about the number of coaches as I really don't keep up with it.  I am pretty busy helping local business owners & don't have much time to keep up with the coach head count.  But even if I go with your number of less than 800 my point still holds true.   Lots of coaches around the world working with a lot of businesses & not a whole lot of bad news out there.  Not bad in a world that any idiot with a Internet connection with a grievance can tell his one-sided story.
• Lastly to 'Unsure in Oz':  After #51 got through attacking my character, intelligence & profession, he offered you some good advice & I would recommend you to follow it.   Just because someone has the label "ActionCOACH" it doesn't mean that they are the right solution for you & your business.  Most ActionCOACHes are great for most businesses...but not always.  If you have good answers to those 4 questions then I would move forward.

Dear Coach in the U.S.

If you had kept your original post to comments about the benefits of coaching you would not have gotten anything like the same reaction. Instead you filled a large part of your post with ActionCoach corporate B.S.   I quote

"Consider this...There are now around 1,000 coaches world wide.  Most average 8-10 active clients at one time & the average retention is somewhere between  12-18 months depending on the coach.  So over the 15+ years that ActionCOACH has been around, we have worked with a lot of businesses.  "

All of that is pure crap and, given the reality on the ground, actually quite offensive . Not only are the coach numbers totally untrue but it is also grossly untrue that most average 8-10 active clients. There is more than enough material published on the web to prove this, including a screen copy from actionmembers.com from June 2009 which shows that fewer than 17% of U.S. coaches are Gold level or above  ie.  grossing more than 12k/month.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/business-consulting/actioncoach-business/actioncoach-business-coachinga-46jja.htm

For more on this subject, including some great input from Jason Cooksey, Action Coach's Legal Counsel, this blog is also very instructive

http://actransparency.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/how-about-some-real-transparency/

Finally, assuming that you are indeed an active coach operating in the east of the U.S. , it is impossible that you haven't noticed how many coaches have quit over the years and the reason is because they don't have the 8-10 active clients you mention and simply aren't able to earn a living from the activity . The majority of ActionCoach franchisees quit well before the end of their contracts, most within one or two years. Your apparent ignorence of these facts would seem to mean that you have been living on different planet to the rest of us.  

So, without asking you to give your name, would you at least care to say what state you are operating in ?  Somewhere far from the crowds like Alaska comes to mind but that's the NW isn't it? 

Regarding the "tired clichés" , this is the passage I was referring  to: 

 "The success that you will have as by hiring an ActionCOACH will depend on a few things: #1 The quality of coach that you hire #2 Your willingness to be coached,  be held accountible, and make the changes that need to be made to improve your business #3 Is their untapped potential in your business."

All of that is basically true (there is truth in most clichés) but you just recited it off like something out of a marketing brochure . Actually your whole post sounded more like a sales pitch for ActionCoach than the sort of advice our friend from Oz was looking for.

Taking a more humorous angle on that, I assume you already heard the joke "How many psychotherapists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the bulb must genuinely want to change..."

Here is another version of that one:  "How many New Age psychotherapists does it take to change a light bulb? None, the bulb will change itself when it is ready..."

Anyway, since I also have other things to do, here's a gentle suggestion for you.  If you are going to spend 45 mins writing a post,  doing something a bit more personal  would be a lot more effective. Leave the spin to Head Office.

All the best.

Another active business coach.

P.S.  For "Unsure in Oz". Jokes aside, genuinely wanting to change and willingness to try new ideas really is a prerequisite for a successful coaching program. However a good coach will also be able to assist you with both of these issues by helping you sort through the clutter in your own mind. If he hasn't homed in on at least some of that  during your first meeting,  providing you with at least one "Eureka" moment, then you should be a bit skeptical about his abilities as a coach.

Wow - this is really still a hot topic, and obviously a global one at that!

"Coach in US" and "Coach in US?" - thank you both for the time and effort you put in, it has really helped clarify things in my mind. You are both very passionate and articulate, and honestly I couldn't have asked for a healthier debate in answer to my question!

As an "outsider" who is new to all this, my take on everything I have read here is this --- it really comes down to the coach themselves. It boils down to developing a trust-based relationship with a coach that you can answer to AND work with, while accepting that there will be hard work involved, and the results won't be instantaneous.

But I think that the coaching programme or system MUST fit within the financial constraints that the client brings to the table, and also match the business practices of the client's industry - or at least in the delicate early stages. Coaching seems to be such a personal/individual thing for a business, that I don't see how a "one size fits all" approach to service delivery and pricing could work efficiently?

When a business may be struggling with cashflow or time management (which ends up being a cashflow issue) - and this is the point where a lot of business owners first start looking for external "help" - then adding the burden of a relatively large, automatically recurring payment, is a really big barrier for engagement. At least it was in my case! In response to my hesitation, for the coach to say "we take personal credit card" seems to me to fly in the face of the "help" I am looking for!

It seems to me that the ActionCOACH system is a commoditized franchise - tick a box, choose a programme, and then if you "work hard enough", you _might_ get results. But regardless, you must keep on paying every month. The goal for the coach then is to sign up as many of these "recurring payments" as possible. I'm sure he will do great work - he needs to in order to keep the clients renewing - but it reminds me of a 12 month gym membership. You sign up, start paying, lose interest or find excuses not to turn up, but you still keep paying because you are either locked in, or too guilty to quite - "I'll go next month, for sure!".

What I have determined from all this is that I will get some professional business coaching, but I think I need to define my requirements and KPIs a little more clearly, and then find a coach that fits!

To "Unsure in Oz"

You are absolutely right about defining your requirements and KPI's before signing up for anything. Something that may help you with this is the change equation by Beckhard & Harris:

D x V + F > R

where

D = Dissatisfaction with how things are now.

V = Vision of what is possible

F = First, concrete steps towards that vision

R = Resistance to change

Going through the different elements of this formula is often an excellent first step before getting into a coaching programme and would go a long way towards helping you answer the questions you raise at the end of your last post.

Best of luck with it!

That's funny that you use the D = V = F >R equation by Beckhard and Harris, because if you believed Brad Sugars he would tell you thar he invented this equation.  Also, if you read Success Principles by Jack Canfield you will find about 25 more principles clamied to be invented by Brad Sugars.  This is what a client pays 2,000 dollars a month for and what coaches pay $1,800 dollars a month to Brad Sugars for "Brad's" intellectual property, that I have heard him say he will sue people if they use it without paying their coaching license fees...stay away from Action Coach! He didn't even write his own books, he brags that he took them from a coach, who left the system and obviously doesn't pay that coach any royalties.  $100 and an amazon account and you can find all the "proprietary info" claimed to be owned by Brad Sugars...save the $75,900 dollars difference plus the $1,800 per month plus 5% royalites for "advertising" errr spam blocking that he uses to save his own name on the internet and buy his convertible purple Rolls Royce that he outbid Sylvester Stallone in an auction for $600,000.  Stay away!

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do a bit of due diligence on the internet and discover that the claims of Actioncoach are not substantiated by FACT.  If it is truly the fastest growing franchise, why do they lose more coaches each year than they gain?  If you add up the number of active coaches on the website, they fall short of the 1000 coach claim.  This has been the case for years, yet they still keep making the same unproven assertions to promote their services.

Regardless of what the coaches and ex coaches are saying above, I would invite each of you to look at the FACTS.  If an organisation has to lie about the number of coaches they have and how much money they make, can YOU trust anything they say?  If Brad is so successful, why did a huge # of his senior executives in Vegas get layed off during the GFC?  He was touring the world giving talks about how successful his business is, yet the FACTS would suggest that they were taking a hit just like almost every other business did at that time.  Profits were WAY down yet he was touring the country with the message that HE was making more money than ever.  Interesting, isn't it?

Do a simple search on the names of some other coaches and coaching organizations out there and you will struggle to find 10% of the negative, inflammatory feedback.  There are other franchises out there who do not seem to have as many disgruntled franchisees.  Why is that?

Where there is smoke, there is a fire.  I would think twice before putting your hard earned cash into a franchise marketed on FACTS that don't add up.  You've got a lot to lose by giving your money away.  If you have any ability to coach, you CAN do it on your own and have $75,000 up your sleeve for start up and marketing funds.  Plus, when you go out to talk to prospective clients, you won't have to spend 15 minutes defending all the garbage they read on the internet about Actioncoach before you showed up for the meeting...

Over the past week I've been looking into buying an ActionCoach franchise in Florida.

As I'm doing my due diligence, I find that a staggering amount of bad or good threads about this ActionCoach are made by " Anonymous". I wonder about what the legitimacy of the threads and more importantly I wonder about the legitimacy of this company.

I would ask anyone with any helpful information to contact me at ericbell813@gmail.com

I'd really appreciate any honest opinion before making a $76K mistake.

Thank you!

franchise Review[...]ss  opportunities

THANK YOU ALL for helping me avoid a potentially lethal decision. I have been struggling to get my business going for 3 years and met with an Action Coach Owner.  I specifically told him I did not need any motivational work, as I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, Consultant and motivational speaker myself. I mainly need someone to assist me with marketing, branding, and PR.  He jumped on me for my saying I was not good in math (which is true) and implied I needed coaching to enhance my self confidence.  He told me he thought my idea was in the forefront for business and that he could help me succeed.  I explained that due to the economy I had been unemployed for two years living off my very meager and rapidly depleting retirement funds.  I have no dental or health insurance and am over 55.  I have no spouse and no one to help pay my bills. After explaining all this, he pushed me and attempted to get me to pay $747 for a course (in 4 days so I was pressured to hurry) which was required prior to his being able to work with me. Then he wanted $1995 for an "alignment" which meant I would be paying him $500 per hour! Then he wanted me to sign a contract for $1200 per month, minimum contract 13 months!  He would only be required to speak with me for a few hours per month over the phone and I did get the impression that I would be educated alot through reading!  He did tell me he was giving me a significant discount.  Well, compared to big business owners who are making over $100,000 a year, I think there should be a model for those of us who are struggling.  All those fees add up to alot of money!  And the sad thing is that I was ready to do it as I have been so financially distressed and desperate. 

After reading this I have decided not to take the chance.  If he could help me, why not help for a few months, why make me sign a 13 month contract?  And I was fearful that he could simply say I was not living up to his directives in order to avoid the money back guarantee he was offering. 

While I do believe he could help me, as he has been in this community for 25 years and seems to have viable  networking connections, it is too much money!

Just far too risky!  BLESS ALL OF YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO HELP US AND WARN US. I feel my money will be better spent elsewhere.

I posted a comment on Aug 8th which I have wanted to remove or revise. I could not find info in FAQ as to how to do this and have not received instructions on how to do so, which I have requested. I fear a negative outcome as I included too detailed information so would be readily identified in my community.  As I am just starting out, I do not want to create any conflict.  Everything I said was true but my fear in writing was mainly due to the fear that I felt at my having nearly spent $20,000 to sign up for this service. While I was urged to sign up for the upcoming seminar and was told I did need to make an immediate decision which did create some urgency (of course) especially when told I should sign up in order for my coach to begin working with me, the fact is that the particular date was set and another was not going to take place until later in the year. I was also told that I could begin working with my coach if I was unable to attend the seminar, although of course I was encouraged to sign up.  So rather than this being a pushy tactic, it was a fact of the business. 

Also, although I still do not understand why if this coaching service is so good they cannot coach you for 3 months, then let you purchase more service (without insisting on a years contract and so much up front money) they have the right to run their business anyway they want. I would submit however, that since their business model is not flexible enough to accomodate my entering their coaching program, I doubt the program could serve my needs.  I also submit they are losing a huge amount of business.  Who cares if you get 4 people who pay you for 3 months service, or 1 wealthy client who pays for a full year. If you are able to help people, they will send you more business so the lack of flexibility really concerns me.

The coach did provide me with the name of some books during our session that may be helpful to me and suggested a direction I might take to access new business.  He also did provide a full hour of business advice which was very valuable prior to our ever meeting.  He did this without any indication that I would ever be setting up a meeting with him.  I did offer to pay for the advice at the time.

Bottom line, although I am relieved I did not sign a contract due to the financial concerns I expressed, I do believe this individual is a good coach who has helped other people. As far as I know his reputation is solid in our community.

I was a long-time franchisee of Action.  By "long-time" I mean that I actually made it to the five-year mark of the franchise agreement, which is quite an amazing feet in this franchise.  90% of my "orientation class" did not make it.  Many of them went broke anywhere from the first drop-out (3 months after training!) to 3 or 4 yrs.  Here's the scoop on actioncoach: 

They're a franchise sales business that happens to sell business coaching franchises.  The quality of the coaching is 95% dependent upon the coach. I read books and listened to audio like a mad man to become a good coach. It's not the "action system" that works.  I work.  I'm good because I got good. 

Brad does take credit for everyone's work. THe formula in post #56 I just learned was not made up by Action (I don't actually believe that any of them are anymore).  Pretty much all of action's intellectual property is stolen from Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield, Jay Abraham, and a few more (the 5 ways is just Jay Abraham's 3 ways with a couple of nuances!- but Brad claims this is his brain child. He seriously deserves to get his ass sued for stealing IP and claiming it as his/action's). 

Action corporate pushes its MLs to sell a franchise to ANYONE with a pulse who can pay.  Up in Minneapolis a poor guy named Alan Hill was swindled for over $500,000. He was sold a "Firm", which is an unproven model where they can sell one person a whole bunch of liscenses at once.  I could have told you after 5 minutes with Alan that he is NOT a good fit for this business.  But his money was too attractive and their greed was too real to say no.  He's bankrupt now.  Lost everything.  I know he's spoken to the attorney general's office about it, but he probably has no money to do anything about it.  

To those of you wondering why we don't include our real names on here: come on.  Brad sugars might be a real jack ass, but he's got more money than us and he'd love to sue someone with it to make a point. The problem is that if he does that it will just cause way more of these posts, which will mean he'll lose a lot more franchise sales than anything he'd stand to gain by trying to hunt down internet posters.  But he and Jody Shaw and a handful of their MLs are seriously without any conscience, and there are people out there who need to hear these realities.  Because they will NEVER EVER EVER get this stuff from anyone inside action- either out of fear of reprisal or because they drank the kook aid.  

The bottom line is: action is right for a very small number of people.  By far most people don't fit what is necessary to be successful at this franchise. But Action doesn't make enough money to suite Brad's desires by selling the small number of franchises that would be possible if they really lived by that, so they sell them to anyone.  P.S. it wasn't long ago that many of the MLs (master license sellers for each territory) were meeting secretly and contributing to a fund to sue Brad/actioncoach in case he decided to do something that would ruin them.  They were all contributing to a fund to sue them if it came down to it, but then Brad was informed about them doing so and they stopped doing it.  What does that fact tell you about this franchise?  If you're looking at buying this franchise, I'd tell you this: there are a lot of options out there now.  Most of them cost nothing like $75k and 7 years of commitment.  Look for them.  action is only right if you're looking for exactly what it is.  And know that you'll never get clients from Action.  And if they don't change their ways it's more and more likely that your prospects will not become clients when they see posts like this about how shady Action and Brad really are.  

Man up Brad.  Do the right thing.  Quit selling franchises to people who could never be successful doing it.  You'll be dead some day just like everyone else and all the jet-setting, fancy games, clothes, cars, women and booze won't mean anything.  You'll have to answer for your greed and willingness to see so many people go bankrupt at your hands (and if you just brush this off as "he's jealous of my money"- which wealthy people love to tell themselves, it seems,  I'm not. I'd take my life, along with my financial state, anytime over yours. I just want to reach out to you cuz you're a sad and lonely man. It's never too late to turn your life around and start doing the right things every day. The amazing thing is you'll realize how much more edifying and awesome life is when you do. And I also recommend to quit the dillusions about saving the world. You're really just making yourself rich at the expense of others and you know it (it doesn't have to be that way though. You could run this company with a lot more integrity and still do well. I also know that you'll probably laugh this off as another person judging you who doesn't know you.  I do know you. Many aquintances and no friends is a sure recipe for a sad and lonely life- with or without all the stuff). 

p.s. I did just fine as a coach- so this is totally not selfishly motivated.  My consience really has been nagging at me to speak out though when I saw so many franchisees live in financial destitution and fear of being sued if they didn't continue to pay their royalties.  It's sickning.  

p.s.s. the kid's post #42 was hillarious where he says "Thanks alot ActionCoach, I just got out of college, and instead of moving in with my parents, their broke asses will be packin' up and movin' in to my studio apartment.

Interesting thread. I was an A/C coach for two years and like so many others, simply run out of money. Why ? quite simple, because I didn't try hard enough, I let my family down....not my words, but the words of my master lisencee. It cost me £45k of my own money, fortunately, the other £40k was lost by the bank. I look in the mirror every morning and despite greyness setting in, I like the look of the person I see. That would be difficult to do if I believed within myself that I didn't try hard enough. You can fool others, but you can't fool yourself. I gave the business everything I had, but it simply wasn't enough to prosper. Take a moment to think about what I've just said. What type of "coach" tries to make you feel worse when you're already at a pretty low point in your life ? Isn't that interesting Brad ?

Many of the risks associated with an A/C franchise are listed above, so I'm not going to repeat them, but what isn't documented that well is that as a franchisee, you don't have a territory. They will sell a lisence to anyone who is willing to buy, even the guy next door. They even try to set up firms in your area that will compete with you and try to convince you that it will help your business. Let's be real, you compete with other actioncoaches who are in your area. You have all invested life savings and / or business loans into getting this thing off the ground, you'll defend it at any cost, after all, you don't want to let your family down !!!!

My advice, study the facts that are presented in this thread. Action has a horrific attrition rate. If you've got the skills to survive the high costs of the franchise, then you don't need Actioncoach in the first place.

I personally work with ActionCoach on and off and I laugh at the majority of these posts.  You guys write these long elaborate responses about being upset and that they are fakes, but ask yourselves this:  When you were working with them, did any of the coaches tell you to take time out of your day to complain and have bitch sessions like you are now.  ActionCoach is a guide, not the end-all-be-all.  There concepts are good, but all of you complainers probably failed because you failed to pay attention to detail which is the main thing they stress.  Find a solution to your problems, and quit blaming someone else for your failures, it was YOUR effort that you put in, not theirs.

Will, I agree with some of your comments above, indeed my failure was down to me and I've made that clear above. You are quite right, the concepts are very good, that's one of the reasons I bought into the franchise in the first place, it's the business model requiring high investment that is the problem preventing more Actioncoaches from succeeding. Is it true for all fields of life that anyone who doesn't achieve a certain standard within a certain time scale (in this case before they run out of money) didn't try hard enough, or could it perhaps be that some people learn slower than others ?

Let's turn the perspective around a little bit. There's been a great many comments like yours blaming others for the negative press that Actioncoach has recieved over the last few years, Brad refers to these people as 'jealous' or 'bitter' because they never succeeded. I consider myself 'reflective' and out to warn others of the advice I failed to get when I looked into buying my franchise. How about Actioncoach taking their own advice and accepting responsibility for this bad press....Communication is the response you get....does that sound familiar ? Brad and his fellow supporters (including yourself Will) have lived firmly in the 'BLAME' camp, that seems somewhat incongruent with Action's preachings !

If Action wanted to take 'Ownership' for the publicity they recieve, then they would benefit from having a strong 'deselection' process to prevent people like myself from joining in the first place (complainers as you refer to them). They would benefit from being up front about the past failure rate of coaches and the "real" average number of clients coaches actually have. That would of certainly prevented me from investing. However, I suspect Action were more concered about taking my £57k. That business model is now costing them in bad publicity.

Action Coach can be reasonabley compared to any sucessful religious organisation.   Brad Sugars is revered with a fervour by his followers, as Jesus is by Christians or Mohamad is by Muslims.

Action Coach's formula is also similar to religous organisations by equating all success to themselves while failures are always the customers fault.

As in any group of followers of something that can't be proved a type of fanatisism develops.  This can be very infectous, not only to themselves but to the non-believers as well.

If you are one that believes in life after death, then you should definetly subscribe to what ever Action Coach is selling.   On the other hand, if you rely on your own common sense then you will do just fine.

Ask yourself, 'when is a scam not a scam'

The answer is always businesses built around religous organisational models.

"Action Coach can be reasonabley compared to any sucessful religious organisation. Brad Sugars is revered with a fervour by his followers, as Jesus is by Christians or Mohamad is by Muslims."

Couldn't agree more and the faithful are held in thrall by levels of disinformation that would do credit to any theocracy or other authoritarian regime.

Here is a very a cute little illustration of how it works:

http://exfranceml.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/open-letter-to-jodie-shaw-actioncoach-ceo-usa-canada/