Dynamic Business

Three years after he moved ActionCOACH to Las Vegas, Australia’s favourite entrepreneur Brad Sugars says Australians are some of the best businesspeople in the world. He shares his advice for SME owners with editor Jen Bishop as he prepares to step down as CEO.

Brad Sugars is something of a celebrity in the Australian small business community. His international business coaching franchise, which moved its headquarters to the USA three years ago, is a multimillion-dollar success story.

But Sugars is known as much for his flashy lifestyle, love of fast cars and captivating charisma as he is for his business acumen. ActionCOACH is, he admits, built on the foundations of Brand Brad. He’s also a bestselling author of several books, including Billionaire in Training, and a sought-after speaker.

Back down under

Last month he was back in Oz, entertaining his many fans during a five-cities-in-five-days Business Is Booming tour. “It was great to be back in Australia,” says Sugars. “The energy from the Australian businesspeople was really invigorating. I hadn’t done any speaking in Australia for almost three years so I was keen to do it. Because of the state of the economy, I also really wanted to tell people what I think is going on. All they hear from the media is the negative side of things and there’s a lot of misrepresentation. I asked people to put their hands up if their business was actually doing better in the last year and I’d say more than half of them did.”

So, are small-to-medium businesses in a better position to survive the downturn? “They should be,” Sugars says, “because of their flexibility and ability to change, but most of them aren’t well educated enough in business to take advantage of the negative situation.”

He adds: “SMEs should definitely be better placed to take advantage of a negative cycle than big businesses. The problem is, there are a lot of small business owners out there who spent all their money when times were good.”

SMEs need to wise up

Sugars also says most small business owners in Australia today have never experienced a recession, or any kind of downturn, before. “Those of us who have been around longer know these negative cycles come around and, when they do, you get your cows in the shed and get ready for winter. It doesn’t take a genius to know you have to change your marketing as well. Those who don’t are going to be in trouble.”

He adds: “Too many small business owners cut costs in the wrong areas, like staffing. That’s the worst thing you can do. You spend years training and developing these people so getting rid of them should be the last resort. Maybe don’t replace people who do leave, but don’t get rid of staff unless you really have to.”

Australia riding the downturn

Not surprisingly, he says business in Australia is in a far better place than the USA, which is now starting to feel like home to him and his family. “America’s the epicentre of the negativity,” he says. “But it’s also the epicentre of opportunity.”

And business is good for ActionCOACH, with coaches’ average earnings up 40 percent on last year, and enquiries up 150 percent. The biggest problem is recruiting enough coaches to service the demand.

The business coaching sector is certainly one profiting from the GFC. As Sugars says: “It’s times like these that people realise they need help. When times are good you can hide a lot of things, but right now you have to take the help and advice and do better to stay in business.”

Why he loves the USA

His move to Las Vegas was largely for geographical reasons as ActionCOACH is now present in 26 countries and Australia is nowhere near the middle of them. He now does close to 40 percent of his business in Europe and a nine-hour flight to London is much preferable to a 24-hour, two-part trip. He’s been welcomed with open arms in the USA, where he was recently named in the top five CEOs in the country. Not bad for a 38 year old from Brisbane who landed there just three years ago.

While he hasn’t ruled out coming back to Australia one day (“My mum keeps asking me that!”), and still has a house in Hamilton Island, Sugars says there are some things he doesn’t miss. “You can keep your tall poppy syndrome,” he says.

This perhaps isn’t surprising from someone who has suffered his fair share of negative press and rumour-mongering from people who weren’t happy to share in his success. “What I really like about the US is it’s a country that congratulates success rather than beating people up about doing well,” he adds. “I enjoy that part of life. It’s different to Australia.”