Small-Business Profile

Consultants help firms reach potential

By Danielle Birkin / Contributing Writer

Doug Beckley is owner of the Beckley Group. Photo by R. Marsh Starks

Doug Beckley knows a thing or two about what makes companies tick -- and he is committed to helping ensure the businesses he serves run like clockwork.

Beckley is the founder and president of The Beckley Group, which provides customized training and management consulting services to myriad clients in Southern Nevada. He attributes the genesis of the 5-year-old firm to his success in operating four local Mail Boxes Etc. outlets, the first of which he purchased in 1993.

"We put in some unique programs to fire up and motivate employees -- all different kinds of things aimed at making them really partners in the business so when they increased sales or brought in new sales that added to their paycheck," said Beckley, who holds a business degree from the University of the Pacific and began his career in banking.

"This led to The Beckley Group because it worked. We really saw a powerful increase in revenue and profitability as a result of those programs, and the other thing was that we were having a ball. So I got the bright idea that if we could do it for our own company we could do it for other companies," he said.

With that in mind, he founded The Beckley Group in 2000, eventually selling off all of his Mail Boxes Etc. stores (which became UPS Stores).

He said The Beckley Group focuses on customized training and management consulting.

"Basically, what that means is we work with small- and medium-sized businesses to help them achieve their goals and improve performance," he said.

The Beckley Group Owner: Doug Beckley Year founded: 2000 Address: 2880 W. Sahara Ave. Type of business: Customized training and management consulting Workforce: five

"This usually means working with them to help them grow and become more profitable, and the way we do that is by helping them get their people to a point where they are working as close to their potential as possible. That can be difficult -- every company and every client is different -- but what that means in our work is that we do strategic planning, leadership development, team development and different kinds of employee training and development."

Beckley said his processes differ from those of traditional employee training programs.

"We don't believe in the concept of the one-size-fits-all training whereby you go to a three-day seminar or a two-day workshop and some guy will jump up and down and you'll get a big binder of stuff. Then you go back to work and usually the binder of stuff makes its way to a shelf somewhere, and you're not doing anything different than before the training," he said.

"We created a model where the first step in the process is to sit down with the owners or leaders of the company and talk to them about their company. What are their goals? What are their problems? What areas of the company are working and which areas aren't? We investigate and question them about specific circumstances within their company, then based on those conversations we will tailor-make a training and consulting process that is designed specifically for them."

He said he prefers to meet with clients once a week for three or so hours at a time for eight weeks. (One half-day session costs $1,500.) The purpose of those training sessions is to help the participants improve their personal performance so they can better contribute to the realization of the company's goals. Beckley will also impart which leadership methods have been successful for some of the country's top companies.

"More important within our sessions, we'll actually apply those methods and make it very applicable to their job and their company," Beckley said. "There are a number of very interactive discussions, exercises and role plays. The other component that's a little bit different is throughout the process we devise measurements to ensure that the work that we do has tangible business results for the company. We don't want them to spend money on training and not have the company be better off when we're done."

For example, if a measurement is to reduce employee turnover, both The Beckley Group and the client must be committed and accountable for creating changes that will achieve that result, he said. This may include improved hiring processes, more effective leadership and a greater sense of empowerment from within the staff. The latter typically tends to be the most significant component, according to Beckley.

"We have found that when it comes to your people, yes, they want to be compensated well, and yes, they want the perks that come along with the job, but the most important thing to an employee is that they feel they are making a contribution and that their work has importance," he said. "That will motivate most people far more than money ever will."

Beckley said his company has made a substantial investment in its curriculum and methodology and has purchased the rights to training and consulting programs that have been used by leading Fortune 500 companies, such as Proctor & Gamble, IBM and even NASA. He said The Beckley Group works with companies in most major industries.

Southwest Title is among the firm's clients.

"We've asked them to consult with us on a number of issues, and Doug and his group have come in and worked with our marketing department and given us a lot of good suggestions and direction," said Ed Angelica, executive vice president and chief operating officer. "They also attended our management retreat this year and have done some individual coaching with some of our key employees and that has just given us excellent results in terms of leadership, hiring practices, time management and things of that nature."

Angelica said he first learned about The Beckley Group when he attended a free seminar Beckley hosted about a year ago regarding hiring practices.

"We were so impressed we invited him to come and talk to our management team as to how they might be able to help Southwest Title, and that meeting gave way to everything he's doing for us currently," Angelica said. "One of the things I really like is it's not a canned program -- they really custom-tailor it so the training is much more on point. And his rates are extremely reasonable compared to the group we had dealt with previously."

Steve Byrne, who owns a UPS Store franchise at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, is also a client.

"He's done sales and management training, and helped us set up compensation and scheduling strategies -- just kind of the basic stuff," said Byrne. "We just started the business about a year ago and we needed help with a lot of those things so they came in and set up a series of training modules we ran our people through and helped us create some procedural manuals. We are still using a lot of his advice and techniques and the disciplines he helped us set up."

Among the challenges to operating his company, Beckley cited self-promotion as the primary burden.

"I love the consulting and the teaching side of the business, but I didn't anticipate the amount of time I would have to spend selling it," he said. "As with any small-business owner, I am also the head salesperson, and that is an extraordinarily time-consuming aspect of my work and quite frankly the least enjoyable aspect. But we are very passionate about this work, and I have been very blessed to be able to make a living doing something that I love."

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