‘To Listen and together find a way’
- Beverlee
Beverlee Rasmussen CEC PCC
The Road To Becoming
A Small Business Coach
Entrepreneur by Necessity
When I quit my job to start my first business, I was a single mom, with no financial support, and I knew nothing about running a business.
With resolve to make a better life for myself and my son and a whole lot of determination, I started Somerville Travel Inc. in 1993.
Named after my great grandmother, I built a Canadian independent travel agency which was topping 3 million in sales annually after two short years.
It was profitable and I was free!
I learned powerful lessons building my company about the importance of systems and how all the elements of leadership, operations, money, team and marketing fit together to create a world class business that could run independent of me.
In 1997 the airlines changed the way travel agencies were paid and in one day we lost 70% of our revenue!
39% of all travel agencies globally, went out of business within three months.
Fortunately, and thanks to systems thinking, we quickly switched to fee for service based pay and we ended our year up 11% in revenue.
For months, I met with my competitors helping them survive this industry disaster. Maybe that is when I first became a business coach?
Two years later I sold my business, at a time you couldn’t give a travel agency away. The new owner bought mine because it was organized and profitable.
In 2004, I met Michael E. Gerber, Author of The E-Myth, Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What To Do About It.
I told Michael about my business and how his booked helped, and well, a long story short, he invited me to join his team.
As an E-Myth Program Advisor, I had the privilege of speaking with over 3000 small business owners globally.
Their stories broke my heart.
97% of the people I spoke with wanted coaching but couldn’t afford it. I made a promise to myself, that someday I would use my own business experience to create a program that was both super easy to apply and one that they could afford.
When I first started helping business owners I did a lot of telling or what I call “consulting” and I couldn’t figure out why no one was doing as they were told.
“The truth is none of us like being told what to do!”
I realized I needed more effective skills to empower my clients to take action.
I learned those skills at Royal Roads University in 2010 and received a Certificate in both Executive Coaching and Organizational Development.
I achieved my goal of becoming an accredited Professional Certified Coach by the International Coach Federation in 2011 and in 2014 won the ICF Vancouver Business Coach of the Year.
Life as a small business owner was initially very difficult and became easier the more systems and structure I put in place. Thanks to the strategic work done to create systems I had my company running independent of me.
Soon after starting my business I met and married my soul mate. I’m a proud mother to three boys, grandma to Terry and Melanie, devoted partner to Brent Rasmussen, peacemaker, entrepreneur, Rotarian, and Professional Certified Coach.
With a two year client waiting list it was time to recruit other coaches to share this journey with me. Interested?
I’m Beverlee Rasmussen, the founder of Systems Business Coach®, and if you ever said to yourself:
- How can I use my coaching skills to make a bigger difference in the world?
- I need better tools to support my small business owner clients
- How can I bridge the gap between consulting and coaching?
- What do I need to do to become a business coach?
- How can I quit my day job so that I can coach full time?
- How am I supposed to make money in this economy?
- How can I coach small business owners if I have never owned one myself?
- How do you build a sold out coaching practice?
