How an Abundant Experience in Africa Led the Phelps to ActionCOACH
In late 2021, ActionCOACH announced it would be expanding its franchise to Nigeria. This is an extraordinary opportunity for a visionary entrepreneur to partner with a company with a long record of success.
How long? More than 25 years of franchise success in over 70 countries.
But for ActionCOACH franchisees Rick and Mark Phelps, the announcement struck a deeper chord. Africa changed their outlook on life and led them to ActionCOACH.
An African “Sabbatical”
In the early 1990s, Rick Phelps began a three-year sabbatical from his job as an industrial engineer. He didn’t realize it then, but it would forever change his and his family’s lives.
Rick’s idea of “sabbatical” might strike you as unconventional. He took his wife, Sharon, and children, Erika and Mark, on a three-year residence in Masindi, Uganda, to build homes with Habitat For Humanity International.
The Need for a New Model
Habitat for Humanity builds and improves houses for people in need. And they have an interesting business model that allows the organization to continue building more houses.
When a buyer purchases a Habitat For Humanity home, they receive a special no-interest loan with affordable payments. Those payments cycle back into the Fund for Humanity, which funds future construction and renovation. It’s a perpetuating process.
A trained engineer, Rick is always looking for ways to improve efficiency. In Africa, he noticed a problem with the Habitat For Humanity model. It worked really well in a healthy, stable economy. But in rural Uganda, the poverty was more extreme, and people couldn’t make their payments.
Building Businesses Brings Abundance
Rick understood that while homes are important, the people of Masindi badly needed reliable means of income. So he began launching businesses for three reasons:
- To provide members of the community a means to earn an income and lift themselves out of poverty
- To build businesses that would grow and employ multiple community members
- To lower the cost of building houses to make them affordable for a larger portion of the community
Rick began building businesses, and the results were astounding.
Several of the businesses flourished, enabling these budding entrepreneurs to build wealth for the first time. One built their home with the HFHI program, while others removed themselves from the waiting list to build on their own.
The cost of the Habitat For Humanity houses was reduced by over 50%! People could finally afford the homes they were building!
Seeing these businesses’ impact on the community, Rick started teaching others how to start and operate their own businesses. Many of them were successful and further helped the community.
To this day, the primary school and the animal traction business that Rick started with Ugandan partners continue to create wealth and bring prosperity to the entrepreneurs and the community.
The Roots Are in Africa
“It was an amazing few years,” Rick reflects, “and the most rewarding part of it was setting up the businesses—hands down. That’s the root of it.” The “it” Rick is referring to is his new path, the path that led to ActionCOACH.
Though he didn’t realize it at the time, the lessons Rick learned in Africa about business and abundance changed the course of his life.
He left engineering to focus on helping others grow their businesses…with a twist.
Helping Others Become Abundant Business Owners
As a business coach, Rick wanted to instill in his clients that building a business is about much more than making lots of money. “The whole idea of business ownership is to create abundance.”
So, what is abundance? What does a business owner with an abundance mindset do?
Rick explains,
“Abundance comes from giving back. Mark and I strive to work with business owners who have a mindset that is abundant, so that, as they build a business that generates wealth and frees up their time, they will share first with their employees and their customers and, finally, with their community.”
It was only a matter of time before Rick learned about ActionCOACH. When he read the ActionCOACH vision statement, he immediately recognized its alignment with his business beliefs.
The ActionCOACH vision statement reads, “World Abundance Through Business Re-education.”
That’s what it’s all about—abundance.
For Rick and Mark Phelps, it’s inspiring to see ActionCOACH expanding in Africa, the Motherland that connected them with ActionCOACH years ago.
How to Make Your Business Abundant
The good news is that you don’t have to go to Africa to build a thriving business that creates abundance in your life and the lives of those around you.
You can start working with Rick and Mark Phelps by scheduling a free 20-minute consultation call.
Or, register for any of the upcoming ActionCOACH events designed to help you achieve your business goals.
