Jordan McFadyen
Founder and Director, Done By Nine
Digital Marketing, New Plymouth 

Kim: I started working with Jordan during Covid 2020 and our work together has centred on helping him to scale and grow to a critical stage. We constantly review what growth looks like, whether its financials goals or operations, because the only way you can grow business is through people, processes and systems. 

What are our systems? How do you induct? And what systems do you put in place before you bring people on board? As you bring new people into a busines, you have to have systems in place to account for individual working styles and to help them succeed and make money for you.

Jordan’s business is really growing and stabilising and he's onboarding new clients all the time, so it’s imperative we keep a close eye on his targets of measuring. 

Much of my work is disciplining Jordan to work on his business and not always in it –
constant reminders around people empowerment, advising Jordan on recruitment, managing existing and onboarding new customers, setting financial deadlines, establishing best practice, reminding him where his best value lives and keeping him on task during our monthly meetings.

He now has new premises in New Plymouth, is recruiting, and improving his financial literacy to be able to make common sense and confident decisions with the big numbers. Jordan was looking for a solid and trusted advisor and I am highly invested in, and excited by, the company’s growth.

Jordan: I first got to know Kim after getting funding through the Regional Business Partner Network in 2020. I had a call with The Icehouse, who provide business coaching services, and I was given a list of names from them.  

Kim had great recommendations, relevant qualifications, and was exactly what I was looking for. She also had a really good understanding and knowledge of where I was at, because she had that prior experience in the type of businesses that she has worked for and run - a background in advertising and media.  
 
Obviously, that is a lot of what I do in the agency space, so she immediately knew the pitfalls to look out for and ways forward for growth. We connected instantly, and it's worked out so well.  
 
I was getting slammed at the time, and one of the major discussions we had was how to manage fast, sudden growth. A lot of the initial sessions we had were based on how to manage client expectations and relationships, while at the same time ensuring that the business was growing as well.  
 
We also did a lot of work around tracking my own time. Not only was I at risk of burnout but I was also at a stage where I was trying to figure out where I could actually put time into the business to get the most value.  
 
So, I took a step back and completed a time report on myself, to enable me to find out where we could make some cuts? How can we deal with clients better? How can I set expectations with clients and make sure that I can still give them good service, but also not as the expense of my own growth?  
 
Another big thing for me was that I've never really been very confident with the numbers; setting targets and so on. I have a good basic knowledge and a great accountant, but Kim showed me the numbers that I needed to know to be able to grow. We checked our figures each month to make sure I was spending the money in the right areas. 

I needed someone who could keep me accountable, and that's one thing I do enjoy with Kim when we meet up - to get advice and a push from someone external who doesn't necessarily have an involvement in the business. 

Kim is very direct and to the point. She doesn't like fluff, she just wants to get in and find out as much as she can, which I really benefit from. I don’t want a business coach who’s just going to talk about nothing for half an hour.   

She’s a straight shooter, an extra voice, she clearly knows what she's talking about, and is a really good person to bounce off ideas. It’s important as an owner to get that validation from someone who really knows what they’re talking about. 

Getting someone who's impartial, to look at an idea and go ‘you haven’t done that right’ or ‘that’s brilliant you need to keep pushing on that’, is really beneficial. 

She comes straight in and keeps us on track, which takes us back to being made accountable, reminding me on things we’d agreed on in prior meetings and asking, ‘how are we doing on that?’ 
Kim has coached me though the move from being a freelancer with a brand, to having two extra staff and an office premises. 

So much changed since that initial meeting. She’s been a good support and advisor during all those decisions, especially when you start to hire employees, for example so, undeniably, there's been a huge change in the business thanks to Kim.