A little late than never - an introduction!

OK so I have had this blog simmering for a while, I add stuff when I feel inspired, that probably won't change - and it occurs to me that I haven't said how it came about or given you any reason at all to listen to me.

Its a blog about business, business done my way - authentically me, so that means slightly unconventionally, with personality, with decisions made by my gut rather than years of formal business training.

In fact, I am doing a diploma in business management right now, but other than this I have no formal business training at all. Everything I have learnt I have done so in the school of life. So if you're looking for bona fide credentials I personally believe there is no better, do you agree?

To give you back ground. I really started this roller coaster back in school. I'm one of those "skaters", I skate through school never really having to put much effort in and getting top marks. I'm not bragging, it comes with a down side - but the plus of this is I am pretty darn good at almost everything I try to do (except high school physics, well specifically electricity, I just don't get it, I don't!). So choosing a career path was hard, nothing particularly stood out as a strength.

I can paint and sketch passably, sing and carry on, I can write, plenty of creative bones, so there were options in this vein and initially this is what I chose to pursue.

I love maths and science, and this serves me well in current career. (At one stage I thought of forensics, no idea what I was thinking, I have the weakest stomach ever; just mention anything dental in front of me and I start heaving).

But I just couldn't decide, so I thought a career in journalism was just what I needed, something where I could try out other jobs and lifestyles and write about them. Wombat was a TV program in my youth where the reporters did just this - perfect!

So it turns out I didn't have the maturity for this and within the first year I was running for the hills.  I would argue there were other factors (boring practical course, a thirst for getting out of school and home....) but ultimately I let it go and kind of "fell" into a very basic minutely creative job at a printing factory. Here I was so bloody fortunate to stand out to the two bosses who both, at one time or another, gave me opportunity to grow.  I started learning "prepress" which is kind of like a less creative version of graphic design, you don't create art from scratch - you work with other peoples art and get it ready to print, in my case printing onto ceramics which are neither flat and straight, nor do they have a normal palette of inks to use.

Here's where my business training began - I have no idea how the role morphed into a sales role - but it seemed natural at the time; I was perfectly positioned at the start of the process to understand the complexity of the work and quote on this basis; this then morphed into an admin role & I learnt the systems of running a business, payroll and accounting systems. One of my bosses was an accountant - a real numbers man, a traditional bean counter (said with love and respect) he taught me the unemotional numbers side of business and the brilliant systems. The other boss was the creative big picture builder and he taught me the emotional intelligence of business, what you do that provides a standout service, how you handle staff, negotiating and sales. I am forever grateful for the background this provided.

The big picture guy introduced me to property and I was hooked! I was pregnant with my first child at the time and so very scared to jump in but I bought my first investment property and the broker I had was RUBBISH!! In every interaction I thought "I could do this so much better!", and then when I saw his income I thought "I want to do this better!", so I set about learning it. 

My maths training coming to the fore. I became a fantastic technician, I could do the work exceptionally well and wanted an avenue to do my work. I looked at employment opportunities and after the birth of my daughter I reassessed how and when I wanted to be employed, and at what cost.

Initially I formed a partnership with another broker and here I applied the systems I had learnt to a real business, where the bottom line was MY pocket, and it's distinctly different. I learnt about structures (trusts, companies, partnerships etc), business growth, marketing, cashflow, profit and expenses,  and compromise, ethics, discongruence and breakdown.  I learnt how to price the business when I was running it (costs vs profit) and again when I was leaving it.

Here I started from scratch again, and I learnt about authenticity and regeneration, marketing, growth and pride. I learnt all is not lost and I learnt about control and responsibility. I pared everything back and looked at every single facet of the work and what I could make better. In essence I practiced the art of perfecting business.

At its core, what I was was a technician, who almost accidentally fell into business. Isn't this so common? You're great at what you do and for whatever reason you end up doing it for yourself, you're in business but you don't necessarily have formal business training. In this I consider myself luckier than most as I had such a solid learning background.

So, if this resonates, if you're still on board, follow me in this exhilarating ride and I'll share the benefit of what is right now 14 years experience in business, learnt on my feet.

Increasing your hourly "worth"

I've spoken before about increasing your hourly "worth" and without ignoring my profit (whats left after I cover my expenses), I focus on this.

In business if you want to earn more you can do one of two things -

• Increase revenue (total income the business makes)
• or reduce your costs

(better yet, a combination of both)

I run a tight ship so for me its about increasing my income, but more specifically, increasing my income per hour, and for me that introduces a third element.

• Reduce the hours you work, personally.

And that, right there, is my aim.

• Increase total revenue
• keep costs tight
• and work less hours.

I look at myself being able to generate $240 / hour, right now. And I want to get this up to $300 an hour. (After that I want to have a profit to me of $300 an hour, after my costs, then $500 / hour... - hey if you're going to have a goal it may as well be huge, right?!)

And I aim to do this in 24 hours a week. Its an industry that can carry this. I work odd hours - after-hours a lot, so I deserve to have some down time during the week.

The things that make me money are the clever stuff, the intricate stuff, the challenging stuff and oh-man I love this kind of stuff!! I love meeting people and finding out their problems and working them through the jigsaw puzzle of lender policies and getting them approved ! Yes!!!! I love the maths!! I love the people! I love what I do!

I love the marketing too - the cute and quirky posts on social media that get people ringing.
I love the networking, again this is $300 an hour stuff. Its great! I meet the best people.

I literally made a list of the stuff I don't want to do.
Like sitting on hold to the bank for 45 minutes at a time - snore - but I can outsource that for $25 an hour....
Like doing my books - blergh, outsourced for $55 an hour
Doing social media tagging and SEO (Search engine optimisation) outsourced. Haven't found a source for this yet so it's not getting done, but it will and it will be a good cost.

All the crap I don't enjoy I can pay someone else to do for much less than I generate per hour, and then I can CHOOSE to work the hour saved, or take it as leisure.

Does this change the way you think??

To challenge this, I asked my friend what was she worth per hour, "Worth? I charge $60 an hour? Is that what you mean", incidentally, no it isn't.

"Do you have staff?" yes she does
"Do those staff work at the same time as you, with other clients, generating a profit for you" yes she does
"Did you draw those clients from your marketing and business owning activities?" ahhh dawning realisation.

As a business owner your worth is not limited by what you charge per hour, but by what you can generate. Make decisions based around this number & tactically increase your profit to catch up!

Understand your costs and you understand your profit.

Have you ever seen a really busy business go under? Its hard to fathom huh, but it can happen. The issue isn't lack of business its either not understand their costs or not understanding cash flow, or a combination of the two.

We bandy about the phrase "cash flow is king", but its absolutely true. If you can't manage your cash flow you're dead in the water. Imagine the thriving business with orders left right and centre, but cash reserves are tight and their customers don't pay on time - soon enough the rent is due and they can't make it & the landlord is talking about changing the locks. The problem here isn't lack of business, its cash flow. And it has to be the most horrible feeling in the world - knowing you can do a great job, but going under anyway.

And it might in part come from misunderstanding your costs, and what you need to have aside in capital terms, the bugger you need in the bank until the clients pay.

Even if this is not your business understanding costs helps you make decisions, daily.

Here's a simple technique I used:

• In my business its very easy to work out an average income per "deal", say $2400
• I know, because I have tracked it, that it takes 10 hours work per "deal" to complete
• I also know my costs very well, it costs me $4500/month to run my business.
• $4500 / the number of hours worked gives me a good "cost per hour"
• and, multiplying this by 10 hours gives me a "cost per deal"
• The difference is my profit or loss, 
• We're all hoping this is a profit!

Expense wise, what does it cost you to run the business in an average month? Your costs needs to include all of the costs of running the business, down to the lighting and postage on an average basis. 

It helps to exclude extraordinary expenses and kind of put them aside - there will always be extraordinary expenses, like replacing a piece of equipment or a one off marketing event, so knowing an average of these separately helps, but for now...keep them as a separate, variable figure.

On this basis I know it costs me $1100 to "do a deal", and if my average deal generates $2400 theres a profit of $1300 to me.

Of course not every deal is average and some actually cost me money (smaller deals take just as long but don't of course generate as much income), and you weigh up a decision - do I do them or not? For me its a resounding yes because I have the capacity and I never know what else might come from it. If you're in retail you wouldn't necessarily make the same decision, you'd kill a line that was costing you money.

Equally it helps me make decisions, can I afford to introduce a new procedure? Will it cost or save me money? Can I afford a new offering? What effect will changing premises have on my income?

Knowledge is powerful stuff hey!

On pricing, or better yet, knowing your worth

Something you need to understand very well is what you can actually make in business (& what it costs you to be in business, but thats a different post.)

I learnt this way back when I started and it helps me make decisions every day.

Now, I will put an asterix on this, when you start out in business you do EVERYTHING because you don't know what you can afford to not DO or outsource. You aren't confident about your worth or where your next business is coming from. Thats ok, its normal, but as you grow start to think about what you're really worth.

• In my business its very easy to work out an average income per "deal", say $2400
• I know, because I have tracked it, that it takes 10 hours work per "deal" to complete
• I also know my costs very well, it costs me $4500/month to run my business.
• I know how many hours I work in an average month, and therefore its a simple matter to divide my costs per month by my hours worked and come at a "cost per hour", and, multiplying this by 10 hours gives me a "cost per deal"
• The difference is my profit.

And again, dividing this by the hours I work comes back to an hourly rate that I 'could' value myself by.


But I don't. I'm worth more than that. For clarity sake lets call this a "profit per hour" or a pay rate.


Another number I understand is my average monthly income, the revenue I generate every month in the hours I work.

I consider this my "worth", because thats exactly what I can generate per hour.

It gives me another perspective on my costs.

If I tell you my aim for this year is to generate $300 an hour (my aim for next year is to profit $300 an hour) and I am not too far off it, then you will understand how I value myself.

If I can generate $300 an hour, would I hesitate to outsource (or insource, I don't mind hiring permanent staff but for me outsourcing works best right now) a task that I don't love, that doesn't generate income, for, say $55 an hour?

What about something I need to pay $100 and hour for?

My accountant is $220 an hour, and although he has a skill set I don't have so I HAVE to pay him to do that work, I still would. It's still value. Because if I COULD muddle through it I am sure in the hour I could have paid him $220 I could have generated $300, and, bloody likely it would have taken me four to his one. So his $880 or my $1200?

The answer is obviously no, no I would not hesitate. Not when I am confident I could get the $300/hour work to do.

If you took the tasks you really excel at, that make you stand out, that make you money. If you focused on only these - what could you possibly generate?

If you had more hours free because you're no longer wasting time doing $25/hour tasks - how much more could you generate? How much could you raise your average monthly income? Or what could you do with your time that you would enjoy more?

If I asked you this question, would you tell me your hourly rate? Or would you understand you're worth so much more than that? Its funny how it changes your perspective. The $11 I pay to have my groceries delivered means to me it now feels ridiculous to even think about heading to a grocery store.

Congratulations and welcome to business, its a hell of a ride!

Today, my friend announced she was successful in winning the tender to continue to manage the business she has been running for a little while. Fantastic! Now the spoils of all her labours are hers. Hers to delight in and be proud of, I am so pleased for her!!

What I said specifically (excluding the name):

"Congrats, well done, welcome to the extraordinary, thrilling, addictive world of business, you're going to love and hate it in equal measure but you'll never be prouder of what you can achieve."

So freakin' true!!


Business is a wild ride! The buck stops with you and there's no certain pay cheque at the end of the week. You have to step up every bloody day, step up and MAKE it. Regardless of how you feel, what you've got going on in the background, what you'd rather be doing.


And oh when you do, the feeling!! The elation, better than any drug! Hit that record month and you're hooked - looking for the next hit, the next high.


Enjoy it babe, it's in your veins now!

On knowing your value - are you worth more than $11 an hour?

I am absolutely LOVING online grocery ordering these days.

In the beginning I was not so enamoured, it took too long, I can remember spending an hour trying and failing to make an order. And then to discover that the first available delivery slot was sometime next month... probably not but it certainly wasn't anywhere near to when I needed my groceries - which was pretty much now. This was in 2001 when my first baby was born and this was my answer to getting groceries done with a newborn.

Fast forward to the iPhone era and I was so excited about the app! Scanning barcodes to create my order - brilliant!! Except it didn't work, the app didn't connect to the online ordering system, it simply created a shopping list for me to take to the store. Fail.

I didn't even give it another thought until much more recently, and the advent of the "loyalty cards" which track my each and every purchase and offer it up to me in a list. Tick tick tick and done! LOVE it. (And no I am not personally concerned about the "Big Brother" effect, I have a whole dissertation on privacy which ends in who the hell am I and do I care who knows what brand of butter I buy, seriously its not that exciting).

What I do know is the loyalty cards offer benefits, real things in order to entice you to join, not that I have a clue what they are as I just don't care. Not a single care is given. I probably have a gazillion points and no clue what to do, its enough for me to not have to think about my order. Theres also one clear winner over the other - I don't want to name names here but one of them can deliver today if I order before 11am (if not its the following day, not two or three days out), and, allows me to track my order so I have a better idea of when its coming in the 3 hour window specified. Unfortunately this is not the one who sells my favourite coffee, sacrifices.

And all for an $11 delivery fee, if you can't snag a waiver.

So what has this to do with business? Well it would take me at least an hour to actually physically attend the store and do my groceries, its a 12 minute drive each way, you're 10 minutes in the checkout and the rest of the time wandering around collecting your bits. I don't know about you but I get analysis paralysis in the grocery store and I can stand in front of the washing powder pondering for ever.

So for $11 I can buy back my hour, and that is absolutely worth it. As a business person I aim to generate $300 an hour, why on earth would I waste an hour doing groceries when it can be outsourced for $11? I am also not selling an hour of my time with my kids for $11, nope. Im not.

When you get this logic you start to apply it to everything in you life. If you truly know and are confident of your hourly rate you look at every little task and cost out outsourcing it. Cleaning? Worth the $143 a fortnight I pay for it. Gardening? He's super talented and only $40/hour.

Value yourself. Value your time. And for heavens sake $11 is nothing, you're worth way more than that any day.

Ordering groceries and eating breakfast, just too
 easy.

(Post Script: I actually don't buy very much at the grocery store, I love fresh local produce & get almost everything I need at a local farmers market on a Saturday morning. This I do with my precious girls and it's quality time spent having coffee, eggs benny, a play in the park etc. At the grocery store I typically only buy cleaning products, the dogs food, milk and toiletries. Here's something funny, at a cooking demo once the woman said when you buy her gizmo you start shopping around the edges - everything you need is in the outside row at the supermarket, have a think about it, it's deadset right! I've never been one to go down every aisle.)

(This is what I am doing right now instead of groceries. They're done, delivered 10 minutes ago. Cheers!)