Success Stories

“There are several great reasons why business owners work with us.”

When was the last time you took time off? Do you shudder at the prospect of taking a vacation because every time you’ve tried to in the past, you end up rushing home to rescue your employees who can’t manage the business on their own?

Are you finally ready to give up the reins and be able to hand the keys over to someone else that will do the job as well as you do? Click here to Chat With Shirley

I took my family to Europe for 8 weeks

“It had been years since I enjoyed time with my family on an extended family holiday. My dream was to take my family to Europe for the entire school Christmas holidays. I didn’t believe it was possible for me to be able to take any time off from the business, let alone an extended vacation. At work, I was responsible for everything. I worked 6 days a week at the office and generally worked late into the evening at home. A friend of the family recommended that my wife and I attend some of the training and personal development programs offered by Shirley. Shirley taught us how to be more assertive. She taught us how to listen; how to ask for what we want and how to lead and manage our team. She helped us to map our processes, create clearly defined position descriptions and develop policies and procedures. She also challenged us to set the goal and tell everyone what we wanted. Here’s a copy of the email I sent to Shirley on 2nd January 2011.
Shirley,
Seasons greetings from Paris. I hope your Christmas went well and you are putting your feet up for a while.
Well we are here living the dream and having a fantastic time. So many stories from a month travelling ….and still a month to go. Highlights include all of Ireland but in particular a little fishing village in Southern Ireland called Kinsale, near Cork. We stayed here for a week and had a good chance to wind down and meet the locals. Attached is a photo taken outside our closest pub. You may recognise the name.
We arrived yesterday in Paris after having Christmas with my cousin in London. Thankfully all the snow had cleared and we managed to get around OK. We have been really lucky with the weather actually. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time but still managed to see how magical the snow can be.
Best go now as the smell of the freshly baked croissants from the patisserie across the road from our apartment is just too much to ignore.
Happy new year and I look forward to seeing you on our return.”

Mark Scanlon
– Parker Scanlon Pty Ltd

We Sailed the Whitsundays for 6 Months

We began working with Dalton Business Systems to analyse our organisation – workflow, roles, systems – to identify problem areas, document procedures and release the business owners to actually have some time off, and also focus on business growth.
Twelve months later, I [Heidi] took 5 weeks off work (the first instalment of long-overdue long service leave) which gave me brain-space to apply focused attention on the expansion of our interstate business.
During my initial absence, our office staff competently followed our detailed procedures, including expanding their roles to take on work I had previously been doing.
When I returned to work, it was not in the same role as before (trapped, processing the work) I was free to focus on business expansion, staff development and system improvement – and I also enjoyed the occasional day off!
Over the next 5 years, we changed our business model, experienced tremendous growth, created additional positions and employed staff.
And my husband and I enjoyed six months sailing the Whitsundays in Queensland on our yacht. We realised our initial goal of owning and running a successful business and not having to work in it.
Working with Dalton Business Systems FAST-TRACKED our progress through the painful stage of CHANGING from a small business that relies on the owners to know and do everything, to a small business that effectively operates with staff processing the work, allowing the owners to concentrate on business growth.
Shirley’s amazing ability to clearly analyse our very detailed business is the key factor in our huge progress.

Thanks Shirley!

Heidi & Greg Turton
– Macquarie Educational Tours

In order to sell your business, you need specific instructions for the new owners so they can easily walk in and carry on the profitability of the company without you.

If you’re ready to sell your business and need to create a manual for your systems, click here to Chat With Shirley

I’m Living My Dream

I was very passionate about renewable energy and with a growing solar market it was an ideal time to start my business, Bellingen Solar.
The business grew and grew and with its growth, so did my stress levels.
I found that the business began to completely run me, I couldn’t go on a holiday without thinking about it. I was never really relaxed and it started to drive me nuts.
I thought I needed some help with structure in my business.
I contacted Shirley Dalton and she helped us to first structure the business so it wasn’t driving me quite so mad. We got all the systems in place and under control.
We were so impressed with that and Shirley’s advice, especially about dealing with staff and communicating and how to get things done, I went further and did a leadership course with Shirley.
That opened up a whole new world to me of communicating and interacting with people on a day to day basis and how we affect them, not just in business but in life.
I kept in touch with Shirley and there were a couple of times when I just didn’t quite know what to do and I was able to call on Shirley and she would ask me the questions to get me to answer my problem, which has just been amazing. Quite often, after a half hour chat with Shirley, I’d walk away thinking that was so easy, why was I struggling with this?
We became good friends and even though the business was under control and it was working, I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t enjoying running the business and I didn’t really want to be there. Basically I would have liked to have been living on a boat and finishing off a novel I had started. Shirley asked, “Why don’t you?” I had a hell of a lot of reasons. I couldn’t afford it. I’d never be able to get rid of the business. There were 1000 reasons why I couldn’t. After talking with Shirley for a half hour or so, it popped in my head, really was there a reason I couldn’t do this?
Six months later I was sitting on board a beautiful catamaran, a Dolphin 46, cruising the Caribbean with my family and living my dreams.
Thanks to Shirley there is no way in the world I would have been there at that time. I might have made it sometime in the future, but without speaking to Shirley on that day, there is no way I would have made it at that time.
Shirley really has helped me to live my dream, not just dream it, but to live my dream.
Thank you Shirley

Steve Doyle
– Founder, Bellingen Solar

When you find yourself uncharacteristically yelling at your staff members or letting them get away with anything, it’s time to take a serious look at how you’re managing people.

If you want to create an environment where employees love to work, and perform at higher levels than you thought possible, click here to Chat With Shirley to learn how you can make a few small changes to streamline your staff’s efficiency

I get the most fulfillment from helping people grow and reach their potential

I was the go-to man if you needed something done, I could get a result where others had failed and I didn’t really care how I achieved the desired outcome or who was in the way. Systems, procedures, process and people were just obstacles that needed to be moved. The outcome from this was that I had little or in some cases no respect from my peers and certainly no internal respect and appreciation.

That all changed for me when I was offered a promotion at age 40 to the role of General Manager. My then Managing Director had seen the results I achieved, but he also saw the mess I left behind and added one condition to his offer – I was to spend four hours a week for the next ten weeks with Shirley Dalton. At the time I thought this was rubbish. I didn’t need coaching, I’m the guy that gets things done. Little did I know this would CHANGE MY LIFE.

The coaching started and I still thought it was rubbish, it was all about me; not running a business, not reading the P & L, not making the big calls. I was forced to look at myself and I didn’t like what I was looking at. I fought this until one evening after a coaching session when I was ranting on about my coach my wife said to me – “I don’t know whether she is right or wrong, but I do know she is in your head and she may have a point” Ouch!

From that moment on I realised “this was about me”. Every session after this I learned more about myself, more about what made me tick and how I had an effect on everybody around me. I started to reflect on my life and what was truly important to me. From here I was able to identify my values and by committing to those values I can live with integrity and from integrity comes fulfillment.

This was the biggest challenge I have faced and the MOST REWARDING. It has made an immeasurable difference to all aspects of my life and gave me the tools to “Decide on Purpose”. I now know I get the most fulfillment from helping people grow and reach their potential. My measure of success is no longer about how much money I have or if I closed that big contract, it comes from knowing my values and living by those values, living with integrity. It comes from within.

Mark See
– Executive Director, Fasteners Business Stream, Inenco Group

Are you micromanaging your staff because no one knows what they’re supposed to do now that the business has grown so quickly?

Are you having trouble filling the orders that are coming in too quickly on your website because there aren’t systems in place to handle the workload?

If you’re ready to put an end to late nights at the office and stop performing the tasks of 3 workers instead of 1,  click here to Chat With Shirley

I was exhausted. I felt trapped

“People asked me how much longer I thought I could go on. I answered, probably twelve months. Their advice was to keep going then sell it. I was afraid. I needed at least $100,000 every month to keep the doors open. At the time I was responsible for bringing in 78% of the company revenue. A colleague referred me to Shirley Dalton. I took his advice. I met with Shirley. I hired an assistant and changed my business model. I went from feeling entrapped, stuck in the business where I couldn’t get out, feeling exhausted to now owning a highly profitable business with an amazing team of people who contribute 94% of the revenue (I now contribute just 6%) and I get to choose if and when I want to work. And we were placed in the top 30 Real Estate Agencies Australia wide in 2014 from over 8,000 agencies.

When I first met Shirley I wanted a business plan. Shirley’s response was to work on me first. I did end up with a business plan, and we’re now on target to reach goals I previously thought were impossible. I learned that in order to have a better business, I needed to become a better leader and a better businessman to attract better people. I have a wonderful team of people and together we have built a culture of congruency, vulnerability and respect. We continue to learn and grow and many of my team have also worked personally with Shirley. And finally, with the additional time, I worked on improving my golf game. I now start from scratch when I’m not enjoying time on my Princess V65 motor cruiser.

Thank You Shirley. Truly, nobody does it better.”

Paul Campbell
LJ Hooker Toronto/Rathmines/Wangi Wangi