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Before I deal with a business I like to learn as much about them as I can. After all, you are placing your trust, and in many cases, your business's future in somebody else's hands. Needless to say, when it comes to business management it is imperative that the consultant has the knowledge to provide support that is actually beneficial, and the results are evident.
I will never forget a business trainer once telling my parents that many of the results his business achieved for his clients were intangible. Any dictionary will tell you that intangible can mean insubstantial, elusive, vague, subtle, indefinable or indescribable. It must be wonderful, I remember thinking at the time, that a consultant can charge exuberant fees without being able to show, or even describe, the result of their consultation.
Alas this person wasn't hired to help my parents, although his visit did have a profound effect on me. Soon after... I enrolled in University and I have been helping my parents, amongst others, ever since. However, unlike the gentleman mentioned above, I expect you to see instant results - real results - from my assistance. In my experience business owners and managers know their businesses pretty well, and if you can't see the difference, generally there isn't one.
Therefore this section is for you to learn a little about myself, my experience, my education, my training, and my background. I have deliberately decided to avoid a bland outline of my experiences, instead opting for a narrative approach. Again, I hope it helps you better understand the person you are (potentially) dealing with.
The beginning...
Graduating Year 12 in 1989, is was left with two options:
1. Go to university/TAFE; or
2. Get a job
Luckily I already had casual employment at my local K-Mart, so the second option looked very appealing. In fact I was employed at K-Mart as soon as I was able to legally work, which in the 1980's was 15 y.o. I thoroughly enjoyed my position in the automotive department, working with a wonderful team of people, many of whom have since gone on the bigger things. One man in particular, my manager David O'Neil, was my first mentor and a person whom I quote even to this day. Actually, Mr O'Neil made it quite easy to for me to decide to 'defer' university and accept a fulltime position within his team.
Within 6 months I was promoted to assistant manager at a nearby store, and within 2 years of that I found myself living in a new city, and working at a store that required what can only be described as a major overhaul in both processes and culture. However, as hard as this store was to manage, it is where I my interest in 'business management' began. At the time I knew how to run a store, organise people, invoke change and so on, in other words.. 'WHAT' I was doing, yet I didn't understand 'WHY' I was doing it. That is.. why does this work? Why doesn't that work?
The start of my 'real' education...
Upon returning to Newcastle in the mid nineties I began a search for as much information as I could find on distance education so that I could continue my management role with Coles Myer whilst pursuing further studies. Amongst the mountain of brochures was a course that appealed to my current situation. Monash University had an entire department focused on Retail Management. The choice was obvious. By the way... I would highly recommend this course as it covers all of the basics of not only retail management, but business management in general. Whether you are managing a person, a service or a product the principles are the same.
After receiving my Diploma in Retail Studies I took a years break from study to concentrate on my career. Unfortunately, too much knowledge can be a powerful thing, and I soon found myself disenchanted with the internal workings of a multi-national. When you begin to understand 'WHY' certain business procedures should be adhered to, you also start asking 'WHY AREN'T' they being done, and when upper management either don't know... well... all doesn't look well for those in the engine room.
It was also around this time that I began taking an interest in my parent's business. Belated as it may have been due to my own career commitments, I was genuinely concerned that they were working far too hard for a less than spectacular return. (I have since found this to be a common theme amongst many of my clients). Therefore I began analysing their entire business - everything from cash flows to daily routines. I went on to the worksite (they were in construction at the time) to analysis how they did things, and why they did things. After a few weeks I reported back to my parents with what I had found.
Now many of you reading this who are in family businesses will surely relate to what happened next. Nothing! Why? Simply because the advice was coming from a family member. I eventually overcame this with a combination of persistence and facts, because in the end, facts never lie, and in business you should never follow emotion, only the facts. I am happy to report that my parents are now doing well, working less, and yes... I still run their business.
Putting my skills to good use...
Through the connections I had made whilst managing our construction business I began helping a few of our suppliers do their bookkeeping. The common problem I found... the GST had forced them into using accounting software that they simply didn't know how to use correctly, and some of the stories I heard about trainers (both MYOB & QuickBooks) had me scratching my head in amazement. Initially what started with one or two clients a couple of times a months turned into several clients a week. I therefore had to make a choice regarding what software package I would concentrate on.
Having used MYOB for many years, and QuickBooks for only a couple of months, the choice should of been an easy one. However I was very impressed with the ease at which so-called "computer illiterates" could use QuickBooks whereas MYOB has always been an accountancy based program relying heavily on ledgers and journals. The only reason you use a journal in QuickBooks is if you have made a mistake. Therefore I approached Quicken to become an accredited trainer in 2005.
More to follow...
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