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When Tom and Lilly came into IGNITE, Ultra Fab wasn’t a bad business that needed rescuing.

Tom had already built something really good.

He’s highly skilled, works incredibly hard and has built a reputation around the highest quality and taking on fabrication work that other people often consider too difficult.

But that strength had also created one of the biggest questions hanging over the business.

Could Ultra Fab ever become bigger than Tom?

Tom believed there was a natural ceiling because customers came to him for his thinking, problem-solving and ability to create something different.

Over our time together, we challenged whether that was the whole truth, or whether Tom’s belief about what only he could do was also helping create the limitation he was worried about.

Before we could work out what Ultra Fab needed to become, we needed to get clear on what Tom and Lilly actually wanted from it.

They wanted more choice over their time, the ability to enjoy life outside the business and financial security for their future.

Tom also wanted to build something he could be proud of, a business known for taking on the jobs other people said were too hard.

So we worked backwards.

If that’s the life you want, what does the business need to become to create it?

We reviewed where Ultra Fab had come from, what was working, what wasn’t, the numbers, pricing, profitability, Tom’s role, the team, systems and where his time was actually going.

Some important things became visible.

Pricing and margins needed greater attention. Planning needed to happen earlier so more work could be delegated. The structure and roles within the team needed to evolve.

And Tom needed to progressively move from being the person with all the answers to becoming the leader who developed other people to think, make decisions and take responsibility themselves in line with Ultra Fab’s core values and standards.

From there, we built the next stage around four priorities:

Leadership. Structure. Team. Financials.

Tom first needs to continue developing himself as the leader.

Then build better systems and structure around how Ultra Fab operates.

Develop and attract the right people.

And allow stronger financial performance to become the result.

But perhaps the biggest shift wasn’t in the plan.

It was Tom beginning to question some of the limits he had unconsciously placed around himself and the business.

That’s where the conversation came back to something I believe strongly:

The business will rarely evolve beyond the thinking of the owner.

If Tom continues seeing himself primarily as the fabricator who has to solve every difficult problem, Ultra Fab will continue being built around him.

If he develops into the leader who can teach other people how to think, builds the right structure around them and holds them accountable for the outcome, the possibilities become very different.

That’s what IGNITE gave Tom and Lilly.

Not a magical two-day fix.

Not another hundred things to add to an already busy life.

But a clearer understanding of what they actually want, what Ultra Fab needs to become to create it, what’s currently getting in the way and what needs to happen over the next 12 months.

Now comes the most important part.

Execution.

Because as we discussed during the two days:

The greatest plan in the world is worthless if you don’t execute it.

Tom and Lilly now have the direction.

The next stage is taking consistent action, developing Tom as the leader and building the structure and people around him.

And I suspect some of the limits Tom walked into the room believing were fixed may turn out not to be limits at all.