Member Article

North East business coach helps small business client win prestigious award

A business coach from the North East has supported one of her national manufacturing clients to win a prestigious industry award.

Gil Devlin’s client Cox London was announced as winners of the coveted ‘Fastest Growing Company’ Award for the European Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region at the Business Excellence Forum and Awards in Telford.

Gil, who is based in Newcastle, said of her client’s triumphant win: “I am hugely proud of Chris and Nicola Cox for what they’ve achieved. They have a great vision for their business and are extremely passionate. My work with business owners to help them significantly grow is exciting enough – for me the real excitement is what the extra money allows business owners to enjoy both in their professional and personal lives. My view is that being in business should give you more life. And for Nicola and Chris Cox that has meant more and longer family holidays together with their daughter.

Cox London design and manufacture lighting and furniture for sale in the UK as well exporting globally. Husband and wife team Chris and Nicola Cox originally started manufacturing products from their garage in 2000, even building a bronze foundry in their garden shed. They formed the company and took on their first employee in 2005 when they realised their shed wasn’t big enough for their business goals.

In the three years that they’ve been working with Gil Devlin Cox London have increased their sales by 116% and their net profit by 336%. This has significantly increased the company’s cashflow enabling them to lease, refurbish and kit out a brand new workshop with state of the art equipment; revamp their existing workshop and equipment; open a retail outlet and increase their team size to 30 full-time members of staff.

Nicola Cox said: “We have grown from being individual makers to a manufacturing and retail business selling internationally while still maintaining the integrity and quality of the work we produce.

Gil has been amazing support and provided constant motivation for how we look at our own goals as well as that of the company. She has introduced us to many different aspects of business that we had no knowledge of before and when we come up against a hurdle she is always on hand with a suggestion or an alternative view. Its all too easy for us to ignore the truth behind running your own company and setting systems in place actually free up your time to achieve your own goals.

Before working with Gil, we did not have a strong overview or vision for the structure and the future ambition of our business. Knowing where you are going is integral to success. Sharing the same vision is crucial to successful growth.

We’re more aware than ever that knowing our figures is central to knowing our business and decision-making and forecasting.

Recruitment processes, team structure, financial monitoring, work flow, generally systems for everything, vision, culture and more have been initiated and encouraged and nurtured by Gil.“

Gil Devlin has been a business coach with ActionCOACH for over ten years initially operating in London. At the end of 2017 Gil relocated her coaching practice to her native North East and in January 2019 Gil and her team were awarded the Best Coach Award for the North East & Cumbria having experienced significant and rapid growth in their own business in 2018.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gil Devlin .