Shine Magazine Issue 7 by Fi Mims Photography

Contents

4. 6.

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Letter Contributors

10.

Q&A Di Bunney of P1 Technology

14.

The girl behind Girl Geek Academy with Sarah Moran Interview by Fi Mims

26.

5 common scale-up issues

32.

Like a boss: Managing money in business and life

40.

Q&A Teree Clare of Eve Property

44.

By Tracey Gosling

By Kath Persoglia

Small budget, big impact: How to make the most of your marketing $$ By Liza Simpson

EDITOR’S LETTER

elcome to 2019! I actually can’t believe that it’s July already. The year has started off at a blistering pace. With work being busy and my family moving to the Mornington Peninsula in January, the year is feeling like it’s disappearing very quickly. And it has reminded me why it’s so important to act and change as soon as you feel you need to. Otherwise the months fly by and you’re not going anywhere. It really is easy to feel like you’re standing still. I know most of you will agree that it’s incredibly challenging to grow a small business (particularly for creative types like me, but that’s a topic for another time!). In order to grow we must learn to let go. And that’s often the toughest thing any of us have to do in our business (much tougher than getting in front of the camera haha!!) Bringing other people in to help is scary and risky. Finding the right people can be

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so difficult and it’s a long journey of trial and error. We already run a tight cashflow and work a gazillion hours a week – knowing where and how to spend the money is a huge decision. But if we want the flexibility and freedom that can come from running our own business, then we need to take the leap. Where are you at? Have you taken the risk and managed to jump that hurdle? Or are you still standing at the gate, scared to open it or not sure how? I’ve been stepping through that gate and back into safety for a few years now. Sometimes scared to take the risk, often just not being able to find the right person for the vision I have, but mostly not having the time to look because I’m stuck in the grunt work that pays the bills. Well, this year I am working hard to change that. I don’t want to stand still in my business anymore. I want to grow and try new things, and look back knowing I gave everything my best shot. So I’m already investing in my business this year in a big way. Bigger than ever before. It’s scary, but I know if I don’t do it, I’ll still be standing in the same place in 12 months time. One of my biggest inspirations, Julie Parker, introduced me to a quote from Erma Bomback. When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’

Are you using all your talent? Or are you struggling to find ways to let it shine? It’s my hope that Shine can encourage you to keep going in your business. To help you be inspired by introducing you to women who are growing and not just surviving, but thriving in their business. I also hope it will help you find women who are experts in their field, who can potentially help you to step through the gate in your business.

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But if we want the flexibility and freedom that can come from running our own business, then we need to take the leap.

This issue of Shine is all about highlighting some amazing women who are dominating in technology and other typically male dominated spaces. You’ll love my interview with the incredible Sarah Moran from Girl Geek Academy as she walks me through how she came to start her business, how what she’s doing has transformed the tech space for women (and continues to do so) and shares her tips for scaling up your business. In our spotlight articles, we meet Di Bunney, CEO of P1 Technology, who focuses on making business IT work for the

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w o r g o t r n e r d a r e o l t s In u m we let go. to Fi Mims

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people that use it, as well as commercial property consultant, Teree Clare from Eve Property who is working to support women in the property industry. Kath Persoglia from Girl Boss Finance tells us how she came to focus on helping women get their finances together, growth and transformation strategist Tracey Gosling tells us how we can avoid five common issues when scaling up our business and Liza Simpson from WCM Digital shares some of her best tips including how to take an idea to market quickly. Don’t forget that once you sign up to Shine, you’ll be able to access all the articles, knowledge, interviews and inspiration from all the women featured in previous issues. As women, we’re often growing and nurturing precious human beings in addition to our businesses. So I’d also like to give a huge congrats to Shine editor Amey on the arrival of her gorgeous new baby girl Harriet (a sister for three-year-old Matilda). Enjoy this time with your little ones – they certainly know how to grow quickly! However you’re choosing to grow this year, I hope that Shine Magazine can help you to have the confidence to step into the scary unknown and achieve all the things you know you’re capable of (and maybe even a few things you didn’t!) Love Fi xx

TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT (WHAT YOU REALLY, REALLY WANT) In the spirit of change and growth, I’m super keen to know what you think of Shine Mag. Everything needs to evolve and improve and I’m currently working out if I can do it differently or better. To help me with this, I’d love to get your input. What do you love, what do you want more of, how can I give you more value and do you even have time to read Shine?! I want to know everything! You can help me by completing this short survey. Go on – tell me what you really want.

CLICK HERE Fi Mims | Photographer + Editor shineonlinemagazine

CONTRIBUTORS Liza Simpson An experienced digital marketer on both client and agency side, Liza has worked with enterprise organisations like PTV, Ovarian Cancer Australia and IAG delivering large scale marketing, strategy and technology projects. Over the last three years, she’s led her team at WCM Digital to help small and medium size clients in the online retail and hospitality industries take on digital innovation to reduce their costs and grow their revenue. She’s also a mum of three girls who love the park, museums, the beach and sharing adventures.

Kath Persoglia Kath grew up in the family insurance broking business which her parents ran for over three decades in the coastal town of Noosa. After leaving home for Melbourne at the age of 19, she was determined to build her own wealth and purchased her first property. This was the beginning of Kath’s love for real estate and within three years she had bought two properties and started her ‘apprenticeship’ with Aussie Mortgage Market. Fast forward sixteen years and Kath has helped thousands of clients secure a loan and settled well over $500 million of lending. Her business has a strong focus on educating woman on finance and loan structuring.

Tracey Gosling For more than 25 years, Tracey has led large, complex transformation projects, turnaround sales portfolios, new market entry and been a strategic consultant across a huge range of industries. In her own business, Gosling Innovation Group, she helps businesses to scale up and commercialise their business both in Australia and across the globe. She’s your go-to when you want to achieve the impossible and her team will support yours to do more in strategy, sales, marketing and operations. It’s not surprising that Tracey loves to explore in her spare time and she also loves to go fishing.

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Teree Clare Straight talking and honest, Teree Clare approaches every job with fierce determination. She’s spent her entire professional life working to specialise in the commercial and industrial leasing sector and has managed property portfolios in excess of 500 sites. As the director of Eve Property Group, Teree helps her clients to face the daunting task of negotiating a property lease so they can level the playing field. When she’s not dominating the property leasing arena, Teree loves to explore her local area on the Mornington Peninsula with her husband and three kids, and indulge in some good food and wine.

Di Bunney Di is truly a believer in people first, technology second. You’ll see this from the first moment you meet her and it’s exactly why she’s truly in her element as the CEO of P1 Technology, where she leads a team that helps clients build their business through technology. Never one to be caught standing still, Di has a long history of being active and once even owned a swim school and a personal training business! She also loves hanging out with her family, good food and wine, learning new things and meeting new people.

Sarah Moran Sarah Moran is CEO and co-founder of Girl Geek Academy, a social enterprise on a mission to help inspire one million women into technology by 2025. Learning how to code at the age of five and building websites and digital products throughout her teens, Sarah was confronted by the negative stereotypes around girls and tech within the teaching world. She established Girl Geek Academy in 2014 alongside four fellow co-founders, in 2018 was awarded the Australian Women’s Weekly Woman of the Future Award and also the QUT Young Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alumni Award, and she has also been a finalist for Cosmopolitan Woman of the Year. Sarah’s vision is to challenge the stereotypes and create positive and visible new role models – whether that’s for women within the tech and games industries, making and wearables, building startups, or executive leadership for women in large technology organisations. shineonlinemagazine

Q&A 10

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y e n n u B Di

OF P1 TECHNOLOGY

on trusting your instincts, the excitement of emerging technology and daring greatly. Who are your clients and why did they choose you? Specialist business people in their chosen fields. They know what they need to know to run a successful business. They choose to partner with other specialists to achieve the best outcome. People choose to work with me and my team because they can trust that we are truly committed to providing the best possible solution to improve their business. What do you love most about your work? Providing good tech that enhances what people do, freeing their time to do what’s most important in life. What are you excited about right now? Our potential as a team, business in Australia and global technology at large. It’s fucking amazing!

A woman who inspires you? Too hard to say just one woman, but if I have to, then Rosie Riveter (the cultural icon of World War 2 whose mantra was “We can do it!” What’s the best thing about being a woman in business? You can wear whatever you like. What’s the most challenging thing about being a woman in business? We expect so much of ourselves, and inequality. One piece of advice you’d give to the next generation of women? Trust your instincts and back yourself. If you could go back and start your career again, what’s one thing you’d change? Too hard to answer. I believe everything happens for a reason.

What are you looking forward to? Books or podcasts? Spending uninterrupted time with my I love both! family. I’m a closet self-help junkie.

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Theodore Roosevelt “The Man in the Arena” Your current favourite? Brene Brown – Daring Greatly One quote you live by? It’s more of a passage by Theodore Roosevelt “The Man in the Arena” Your favourite business tool? My blue tooth wireless headphones, because I love to talk If fear didn’t exist, what’s one thing you’d do? Public Speaking on how I overcame adversity. One thing you’ve learnt about yourself through being in business? That I’m more capable than I allow myself to be. Where would we find you on your days off? Walking, doing yoga, hanging with my boys (Luke, Bob and Max) outside. Where would you like to be in 5 years’ time? On an extended vacation with my family where we get back to nature, cook whole slow foods, drink wine and appreciate the basic things in life. What are you most proud of ? Being a mother to my beautiful boys. And my loving husband. What’s your definition of success? Being true to yourself and others.

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“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

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Trust your instincts and back yourself.

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d n i h e B l r i G e Th y m e d a c A k e e G Girl WITH SARAH MORAN

Interview by Fi Mims Fi:

Sarah, I’m so excited to be interviewing you this morning. I heard you speak earlier this year at the Level Up Conference, and you inspired me to put my daughter into Code Camp, which I did and she loved it. As co-founder and chief executive of the Melbourne start-up Girl Geek Academy you’re inspiring thousands of women from the age of five to 95 to educate themselves in tech. Woohoo!

Sarah: Woohoo! Fi:

Before we get into Girl Geek Academy, tell us a little about your journey. I read you started coding at the age of five! How did that happen and what inspired you to start?

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Sarah: At my school, we had a teacher called Mr Cam, and he was in control of the computer classes and all the computers in the school. And he happened to be my teacher in Year One and Year Two. So the computer room was right next to our classroom and we pretty much had open access to the computer room whenever we wanted to go in there. All of the computers were networked together, so it was like our own little mini internet before the internet. As kids we’d want to play games. But to do that, you had to learn how to tell the computer to turn the game on, or you’d make your own game with the code on the computer.

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For me, that was just magical and very social because if you can picture tiny baby kids chairs stacked together with tiny little kids computer screens, we were on top of each other, crawling across saying, “How did you do that? I want to cheat and copy you.” So, to me, coding was always a social activity, which is the exact opposite of what most people think coding is.

I was hooked. I loved tech - I used to go home and just beg my parents to buy a computer and buy games for the computer.

Fi:

So you’re one of those people who just knew - that was it!

Sarah: I loved it. In high school, I entered a computer coding competition, and I was the first girl to do it from my school. But there were a lot of things I did that I was the only girl. So, I was like, “Of course I’m the only girl. I’m used to this now.” Then a teacher who wasn’t a tech teacher gave me a near fail. He said my website didn’t look like

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everyone else’s and so it must be wrong. I was 16 and I’d poured a lot of heart and soul into it. This was pre MySpace, but imagine it was a MySpace glittery crazy page that I loved. It was like my personal space on the internet. And to get shut down for that, I was like, “I’ve read this all wrong. I completely got this just messed up.” I was 16 and that’s when you’re rebelling, right? And how did I rebel? Academically, of course – I’m good at a lot of things. So, I went and did other stuff I was good at, like physics and legal studies.

But it didn’t mean I loved anything else. I kept thinking someone would turn up, knock on the door and go, “Sarah, come back.” But they never did. And I was like, “Oh, they don’t want me.” Not knowing who ‘they’ was, but they don’t want me. Recently I went home and found my report card from that semester. Turns out, in that same term, I was studying advanced computer science with an actual computer science teacher and got a distinction, but I took this other guy’s feedback to heart. I took the wrong feedback on board as how I thought I should behave. Fi: It’s easy to focus on the negative feedback more than the positive feedback.

Sarah: Yeah, for me, in my girl gang, I represent that girl who didn’t make it but had all the right things lined up. Like, to have been into it for so long and then be pushed out by a weird glitch in the system, essentially. But it didn’t mean I loved it any less. And it’s weird to have life regrets at 16, but I knew it was a regretful decision. Then when I went to university, I was studying journalism and YouTube got invented. I was like, “This is the business.” And my teacher said, “We don’t teach that. That’s cool, but that’s not what we’re teaching.” And I was like, “You’re dumb. This is where the internet is going and your business is going to need the internet.” But they just didn’t get it. So, I just learned YouTube, Facebook, they all came out while I was at uni, and I learned about online culture because I could geek out on it. And then, my first job was the social media manager for Virgin. That job allowed me to have very big budgets and learn how the brands were playing with the internet. Fi:

This was social media business – Instagram wasn’t around then?

Sarah: No! I got hired just because I knew how to work Twitter. I was in the right place at the right time with the right person who had a problem. It was a really great learning experience because they had the innovative culture to say, “We need to be first. We’re happy to be wrong, but let’s be first and try.” They were always trying and that

opened up my world. And that drew me back to tech. I was mainly in project management roles, rather than highly technical roles, so I know the value of that role in building the internet. Fi:

And did you work in Silicon Valley?

Sarah: I’ve been there a couple of times to work. I worked on the launch of an Australian not-for-profit that was expanding into the U.S. and Ireland called Reach Out. There was a 42 million dollar ad campaign going live to launch them and they didn’t have the foundation website to take donations. So, I built a website in 48 hours, and I remember getting to the end – I fell asleep on my laptop! That was 2010 and now my co-founder works in Silicon Valley, so I’m there regularly with her building out our programmes with Girl Geek Academy, which is cool. Fi:

What inspired you to start Girl Geek Academy?

Sarah: With my co-founders, we ran an event called She Hacks. Basically it was an excuse for us to get together and do tech with a group of women. And it was an all women hackathon, so building a business in a weekend. Afterwards I said, “Let’s try and meet all the other women running all women hackathons,” and there had been none ever before.

So we were accidentally the first in the world. And I was like, if this is the first time in the world

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this has happened, and this feels so natural to us, what the heck else hasn’t been done yet? We should probably get on with it and start doing it. We also realised quickly, if we’re going to teach other people to make their own businesses, we should probably start our own. We needed to step up and Girl Geek Academy was born. Fi:

You’ve got so many hashtags going on for your programs, I’ve lost track of them. They’re for young girls as well as older established women already working in the industry: #SheHacks, #SheMakesGames, #SheMakes #MissBot, #MissMakesCode … it goes on and on. Can you tell me about a few of them?

Sarah: The reason we have so many programs is that there’s a pipeline problem and one program isn’t going to shift that. So, we were like, “Let’s look at the whole pipeline. Let’s start with your girls at age five and grow them into tech. What would that take? What would it take to fix the leaks in this pipeline?” We started with teaching girls coding, we then teach them cyber security in upper primary. We then use high school to teach them about both playing and making games. And then when they get into university and into industry, we support them in their careers and also to start their own businesses. And what we’re looking at now, is how do you track that over the long-term? How do

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you support one person at a time into a tech career? This is something that we can’t find anybody doing. The schooling system doesn’t work that way. We’re building whole new tech systems to support women into tech programs. I welcome back the same kids to every program, and I’m their tech teacher all the way through. Fi:

Your aim in 10 years’ time is that you’ll have people who’ve been going through your programmes for 10 or 15 years, which will be really cool. And I know you were working with the NAB at one point too.

Sarah: Yeah, I spent a year with them as their Girl Geek in Residence. And now we’re talking to other corporates about similar things. We’ve had a Girl Geek in Residence at ACMI as well, and we’ve also had a Girl Geek in Residence at Corowa Anglican Grammar. But essentially, the idea being you can borrow a Girl Geek and we can work together to create programs. For the Women in Technology programme at NAB, they were already doing well, and that’s part of the reason we came back to build it in Australia, and particularly Victoria, because of all the gender equality stuff that’s happening here, that helps our work succeed. We thought about moving to Silicon Valley, but it’s too hard. I see on Twitter all these women of colour who just can’t get jobs, and they would be the first people to get jobs in Australia.

Fi:

Is Australia fairly progressive in that respect, with the push for gender equality that’s going on at the moment?

had? And maybe what you think the bigger challenges are at the moment?

Sarah: Absolutely. And more to the point, I have competitors. We can divide and conquer the work.

Sarah: There’s a couple of things. The first is that we all need to learn about our unconscious biases. But then once you remove those, what’s next? . With women in particular, you’re either gender negative, gender neutral, or gender positive on the situation. Gender negative is, “It’s bad that I’m a woman in this situation.” Gender neutral is, “It really doesn’t matter whether I’m a woman or not in this situation.” And gender positive is, “As a woman in this situation, I bring X, Y, and Z extra value to this scenario.” So, you sort of change your mindset depending on the situation, but that’s where the progress is pushing at the moment is to help women embrace, “Well what gender mindset am I in right now, and how can I lead into using that?”

Fi:

Sarah: I am absolutely happy to go on the record to say that I would like Australia to be the best place in the world to be a woman building the internet, because Silicon Valley is not. They are not funding women companies, whereas here if you have an idea and you go and pitch it to venture capitalists, you’ve got a reasonable go of getting funded. In America, you just don’t even get the connection to get in the door. Fi:

Are you finding that corporates and schools are really backing these programs now?

Can you tell us a little bit about some of the challenges you’ve

Then the other thing is how do we bring men along in

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the conversation? There’s the male Champions of Change Movement that’s happening, but what I really like is there’s a group of men who said, “I don’t need to be appointed. We are just men championing change.” And so, it’s this real active term, men championing change. They realise that gender inequality is a man’s problem too. It affects all of us. Fi:

I have to ask you a parenting question. Obviously for all parents’ screen time is like a nightmare. So, how do we get the balance right? Because obviously there’s a difference between my kids just want to play games and spend money on buying really cute outfits for their avatars, which blows my mind. But then, you know, I probably spent money on stupid stuff when I was a kid. So, do we just need to chill out a little bit more about screen time? Other than sending them to code camp, how do we make it fun for them and also an educational thing secretly on the side so they don’t realise? Any advice?

Sarah: So, we talk about hackers, hustlers, and hipsters. So, it’s like, yep, there are certain things kids can learn, but are you opening their world up in new ways that aligns to their passions and who they’re going to be when they grow up? If they sit there all day and watch YouTube videos, what YouTube videos are they actually watching, you know? And I don’t know, I’m not a parent

yet. So, I’m in this privileged position of being able to open up the worlds of kids and then give them back to parents. But I think the thing is that this stuff is going to affect these young people regardless. By the time they’re in high school or going for jobs, the tech will look completely different again in the same way that you were spending too much time on your Atari as a kid. Like, sure, it gave you some skills, but those skills will all shift. If you choose to be a parent who has less screen time, the degree to which you’re disadvantaging your child is not so huge because the tech will be different and they can all pick up those tech tools later. Don’t feel guilty about whatever your choice is because we actually just have no idea in this big human experiment of the internet what’s right and what’s wrong. You should do what feels right for you. Fi:

It’s about balance at the end of the day, isn’t it?

Sarah: That’s it. And it’s ... I mean, you can care about the kids’ screen time, but let’s care about all the other time. Like, what are they doing not on their screen, you know? Like, that’s the behaviour that’s resulting from the screen time. It’s not just the screen time in and of itself, I think anyway. Fi:

Good answer! As a branding photographer, I have to touch on branding because you have such a fun personal brand.

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Whenever I see photos of you, you’re immediately recognisable and even though it’s a fun brand I also know you take it quite seriously and you really developed that into your brand, which is so clever. Tell me a little bit about what made you decide to do that and the impact you’ve felt that has made in a positive way. Sarah: Thank you. A big part for me was minimalism started to creep into the internet, like circa 2011-ish. People were blogging about minimalism, saying, “I only have 52 things in my suitcase,” and it would always be dudes. And they’d bust out and they’d have two t-shirts, two pairs of shorts, and one pair of shoes. I’m like, women can’t live like that! That’s not sustainable. That’s never going to be okay. And Steve Jobs had his black turtleneck sweater, his jeans, his sneakers, and his glasses. And that was what he always wore. And I was like, “If a girl created a Steve Jobs brand ...” Like, not the brand, but if they had a Steve Jobs wardrobe, that’s where it started. I was like, “What would be in that for me?” I had all these dresses. You know how you keep your good dresses at the back of the cupboard? Well, I never wore them and then they’d go out of fashion. And I thought, what was I saving the good dresses for? So, I moved them to the front of the cupboard, and then I just started wearing the good dresses every day. And people were like, “I

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really like your dress. I really like your dress.” And I’m like, “I’m on to something.” Fi:

And have you felt that your brand, which flows through to your colourful and fun website, has also helped bring your target market to you?

Sarah: Absolutely. And it’s also helped with the shift that we’re trying to make. So, we’re trying to change who’s building the internet. I have four co-founders, and they all have their own, very strong personal brands as well. And the Girl Geek Academy brand is the combination of all of us developed by my co-founder, Amanda, who’s an amazing designer. But then, when people land on our website and they look at the co-founders, they can see themselves in one of us. The role modelling comes from the photography and the brand. And it’s just as important to feel like you love what we do online for that to convert into what we’re selling, which is, “We want you to build the internet please.” Fi:

Yeah, photography has to become part of your business doesn’t it? And a lot of women are scared to be their brand.

Sarah: Yeah. And some people ... actually, it happens a lot with male founders, they can’t sustain the two brands, or they won’t. They’ll be like, “No, no, no, this is my business.” And then when they go to leave their company, it looks like they don’t exist. And so, I have a number of friends where their brand was the

company brand for so long, but then when they were separated from the company, who are they? Like, you’re a nobody. “ The thing about photography for me, I actually hate getting photos done. But I’ve learned to make it painless by learning what are my best smiles? How can I quickly get to the point of having fun? And then I just know that that will come across. And then the photographer gets out of it really easily. And then they let me off the hook, because the longer you stand there, the more awkward it feels. Fi:

Like you say, it’s learning. Once you get over that first shoot and realise you’re not going to die, that the photos aren’t going to be terrible...

Sarah: But the funny thing is, if you didn’t like the ones you used to have, take more photos. And then you get new ones. I try to use different photos on my social media about once a year. Not only do I think that makes me look like my actual age, but also it updates my brand. And people don’t do that. You look at some people whose head shots are 10 years old because it’s their favourite photo. But then also, their hair looks like you would have had in the late 2000s, you know?! Fi:

Yes definitely! I’ve got some quick-fire questions to finish up. First, what do you think is a woman’s biggest superpower?

Sarah: I think the ability to get a girl gang. Like, it’s other women,

you know? To back you. And if you don’t have that, that’s your kryptonite, I think is the thing. I think there was definitely a phase where women were forced by themselves and by others to compete against each other. I think we’re past that. We know that the way women succeed is with other women. Fi:

If you could wish one thing for women, what would it be?

Sarah: Gender equality. If I could wish one thing for women, it would be probably that there was parental equality, just because I think we still have a long way to go. Fi:

What are you most proud of ?

Sarah: I think I’m pretty proud of moving to Melbourne and staying here. Because I

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remember someone saying to me, “Melbourne is the best city in the world.” And I was like, “No, you just must be saying that because that’s where you are.” But I’ve fallen in love with this city and I’m like, “I’m a Melburnian now.” You know? It’s M-E-L-B-U-R… there ain’t no O in Melburnian, you know? And so, I’m proud of not feeling like the pressure to go to a greener pasture because this pasture’s really green. Fi:

What are you excited about right now?

Sarah: We’re going to hit a hard reset on privacy issues, on what are we going to do with AI? We’re going to hit this phase of the internet where things are going to start bouncing around differently, and I’m really excited about the potential that sits in that, particularly if women have more capacity to be involved in the next phase. I think that’s really cool. I don’t know what it means yet. I want a self-driving house. I’m getting a caravan on the back of my

self-driving car and I’m going to have a self-driving house. But I think crazy things like that. Fi:

Where do you see Girl Geek Academy in five years’ time?

Sarah: We’ll probably be down to the last year or two towards our mission of teaching one million women and girls through our programs. And so, for us, I think our programs will be sustainable. They’ll be global. And I’ll be looking for the next challenge. Fi:

Do you have one bit of advice for women in startups?

Sarah: Yeah, I think you need to find great co-founders. And that’s a hard process, but that’s how you survive, you know? Being a sole founder of a startup at least is really challenging because you have to wear all of the hats. And then as you grow the company, you’re still wearing all of the hats. Whereas, it’s much easier to be an awesome CEO or an awesome head of design or whatever if that’s the one thing you get to focus on and lead.

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n o m m o 5C s e u s s I p U Scale AND HOW TO AVOID THEM By Tracey Gosling

to “collaborate” which is code for information sharing and no real value. Are you busy on the most important items that progress your key objectives? Are you managing a to-do list 20 items long every week? Or enduring email oblivion?

BUSY BEING BUSY?

1. Stop looking at your emails! Set a specific time to action emails and then leave them alone to focus on making business decisions or client and staff engagement which drive outcomes. Anything longer than 2 paragraphs is a conversation, not an email.

t has been wonderful to see the boom in start-up ventures in Australia and the rise of eCommerce expanding small businesses to trade internationally. I love to talk to business owners about their dreams, about their experiences in winning those first few customers where they know they have a valuable product or service to offer and the difficulty of scaling when you’re so busy every day and not earning enough profit to invest in more resources. Hopefully a few tips below can help you avoid common “growing pain” issues.

Its an epidemic of noise with tasks, alerts, vibrations and back to back meetings

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A common issue preventing scale up, is when busy-ness prevents decision making, problem solving and planning. To keep a balanced perspective on macro outcomes and micro tasks, I use three techniques.

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Be sure your product solves an enterprise problem.

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2. Know your “big rocks”! Big rocks fill the bucket quicker, so stop working on small things. Instead of a to-do list, create the top 3 big outcomes you need to hit by end of month and the activities that support getting there each week. Then allocate your time (%) to remaining areas. You will achieve more.

3. Be better at delegating by using this grid. Your staff are keen for the opportunity to grow, so help them take up challenges and do more for the business. Spend your time on high impact items.

URGENCY

IMPACT HIGH

MEDIUM

LOW

1 2 3

D E L E G A T E

M O N I T O R

HIGH MEDIUM LOW

YOUR IDEA IS PROVEN, BUT IS YOUR PRODUCT SCALABLE? In early stages, it is easy to “make do” with processes to meet your first 100 clients but often those ways of working don’t scale to having 500 clients. The biggest mistake to avoid is not knowing which products drive what profit and chasing sales volume in the areas which add to cashflow pain instead of solving it. Run scenarios for each product and its processes, to identify if your resources or costs get out of control as you grow. In particular check your fixed costs by forecasting out 3 – 6 months and consider “gig resources” (such as freelancers, contractors or project based roles) to move to variable costs. I often get asked about how to enter big corporate or government markets. It’s a

big desert to cross and it will need all the grit of Lawrence of Arabia. Be sure your product solves an enterprise problem. Be sure you have the cashflows to cover long sales cycles and proven case studies from other clients. This sector values compliances, reliability, service processes and reporting tools as minimum standards of operations. You will also need an experienced sales manager to provide the 4 – 5 methods of fast tracking outcomes. Increasingly sales people are available as freelancers or agents also. Offering commission and equity can attract great talent to work with your business.

DIGITISE AND AUTOMATE If you haven’t digitised your processes, then there is re-work to share data, lost knowledge when staff leave, lost opportunity if you can’t analyse and difficulty completing compliances to operate. If your business site or region

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has a major physical interruption, you can restart very quickly if you’re digital. Create the capacity and time needed to focus on your core business by digitising and automating processes as much as possible. Look for platforms that integrate multiple functions or different technologies to save you time. One tool like Hootsuite or HubSpot can manage publishing across all your social media marketing channels. Many firms use Financial tools like Xero and MYOB plus add-ons for BAS and receipt capture. An exciting new player is Tactiv who deliver a CRM, contract management CRM, contract management and financials in one software platform. And if you’re tired of wasting time trying to fix your IT, antivirus, malware, email security, website security or PCs, then you’ll be pleased to know there are new

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cyber security platforms which do this in 1 tool using real cyber expertise, not freebie software with PC’s, that is active whilst you’re asleep to keep your operations safe.

GIG-IFY YOUR CASHFLOW AND CAPABILITY Moving from start-up to now generating more sales, you’re still probably just turning a profit but not enough to employ the expertise you really need like B2B sales, a marketing expert, technology help or cyber security. There are many freelance experts available in all these fields who love having a portfolio of clients they do work for – this is the

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Don’t stop believing in your purpose.

flexibility of the GIG economy (short term contracts) which helps your cashflow by avoiding fixed expenses and gives you access to experts you otherwise couldn’t attract to your business on your own. Be careful not to spend all your time managing lots of contracts and look for flexible networks who manage their own performance. Attracting investors as a scale-up can be difficult as you’re too big for Ma & Pa or friends, too big for startup status and too little for the big institutions (>$10mill). A common issue is that firms chase every market to scale and spread their resources too thin. Scaling is about investing in things that will bring multiplier value and generate intensity in specific markets. Things like new partnerships to access a market, as well as customers and pilot projects.

PURPOSE, LEADERSHIP, INTEGRITY AND HEART And most of all, don’t stop believing in your purpose. As businesses grow it is easy to be busy and forget the “why” you started and what you believed in. Others will rely on your ability to provide leadership and structure so they can contribute in their roles. Nurture your staff and early customers as they are the true believers not only in why you do what you do, but also for the way you treat them. The people we remember most and are loyal to are those that had heart, courage and integrity along the journey.

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s s o B Li k e a MANAGING MONEY IN BUSINESS AND LIFE By Kath Persoglia

inance, money and budgeting can be so overwhelming. It’s often put into the ‘too hard basket’ , or often as women we rely on our partner to look after it. Countless times I hear female clients and friends say “I have no idea what rate our home loan is” or “my partner/ husband controls the loan – I just leave it up to him”. Finance has been such a male dominated industry – whether it’s within the bank, within the business or within the household, it has normally been controlled by the male. Since starting out as a mortgage broker at the age of 24, I have seen a large shift with more females entering the finance industry and also a large shift of independent young

woman not relying on or waiting for a partner to create wealth, buy property or invest. When I decided to re-brand my business earlier this year, I was very clear about my target market, who I could help and the service I would provide. Property Before Prada was my way to give back everything I have learnt over the past 16 years in business and investing and help other women achieve their financial goals. In the past, the idea of approaching the bank manager at the local bank has been intimidating. Putting forth a business plan and having the banker actually understand your passion and drive let alone the concept for your business has been overshadowed by a computer generated decline.

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With so many amazing start-up’s stemming from women who have exited the corporate world, believed in themselves and backed their passion, there is a need for flexible lending to support the growth of these businesses and the families behind them. That’s where I add value. Lending for businesses (especially start-ups) is really quite difficult (but NOT impossible). My job is to guide you through the process and find you the right

facility to get you where you need to be. I am not a ‘yes’ person, so if something is just unachievable, I am not going to sugar coat anything, I will be straight up with you and say it how it is. What I can promise you is that there are many creative ways to structure finance and I like to ‘look outside the square box’. I am not the bank manager. I work for you. You are my client and my job is to find you the right finance package. Having access to more then 30 lenders including private funders, there’s not much we can’t do. Do you know you should review your home loan every 18-24 months? With all the changes to investment lending over the past 2 years and banks changing their rates – when was the last time you did a health check on them? If you’re paying mid to high 4’s or even over 5% - you are paying way too much. Do you have credit card debts and personal loans – have you thought of an accelerated payment plan or consolidation strategy to reduce the interest rate and help your monthly cashflow? These are all the things you need to be across. I want women to stop relying on their partner or husband, take control and know exactly where their finances are at. Know your interest rates, understand your monthly commitments and plan for the future.

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Know your interest rates, understand your monthly commitments and plan for the future.

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Girl Boss Finance can assist with your home and investment loan structuring, debt consolidation, asset finance or funding for your business. I love problem solving! My passion is helping people buy their dream home, investing to create wealth and ultimately get the best deal for you. And before you ask… yes, I assist men! As you can imagine, I have helped thousands of clients over the course of 16 years, and 50% would be male.

As I don’t charge a fee for my service, it costs you nothing to reach out to me and ask some questions. It’s worth the small amount of time you need to put in but could save you thousands over the long term. Be smart, be informed, set your standards high and live the life YOU want.

SOME TIPS FOR GETTING A SMALL BUSINESS LOAN APPROVED.

It’s really important to be prepared when applying for a business loan. This means providing a detailed cash flow projection backed by the historical financial data of your business since you started (if you are an existing business). Other things you need to present and understand are your competition and market trends. If you are a brand new start up business, you will most likely need to use your home or property as security for the loan. Most banks and funders will not lend unsecured funds to a brand new business (unless you are buying a franchise). Again, preparation is the absolute key. A clear business plan including cash flow projections, knowing your competition and understanding market trends is imperative when presenting to a funder for finance.

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, t r a m s Be e informed, n b a t s r u o y t e s

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h g i h s d r a e d f n i l e h t e v i na d l you want. Kath Persoglia

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Q&A 40

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e r a l C e Tere

OF EVE PROPERTY

on inspiration, supporting women and dominating in a male dominated industry.

What do you do? We’re commercial property consultants, which I know sounds confusing and we often get questionable looks at dinner parties when asked what we do! We work with tenants of commercial and industrial properties to either source and negotiate on a commercial lease, assist with leasing disputes between tenant and landlord, or helping them to exit a lease. We also manage property portfolios for clients who lease multiple properties. Who are your clients and why did they choose you? Eve Property is very fortunate to have some incredible clients. Our major client is Coles and we look after the portfolio management of their distribution centres nationally. We also work with other industrial and office clients who are looking to relocate. We work with them to ensure their requirements are realistic, then we source the property for them and negotiate the lease. So we can handle negotiations for small sites or huge sites like what Coles have. If you are a commercial property tenant we can help you out somehow! What do you love most about your work?

We generally work for tenants and in the commercial and industrial leasing space, the tenants are generally the underdog. With the Landlord putting forward the terms and conditions and also drafting the lease agreement, most tenants don’t realise that everything is negotiable. Some of the questions we answer in the rent market include should the tenant be getting rent incentives, are the repair and maintenance obligations reasonable, what is the tenant required to do at the end of the lease? We love giving our clients the knowledge of standard leasing practice so they can confidently refuse some really unreasonable conditions put on them by the Landlord or their advisors. In addition, leasing a property can be a really daunting process and we walk the client through the process and make sure it’s as smooth a transition as possible. Our whole aim is to level the playing field and give our clients the best position possible when setting them up with any new property lease for their business. In saying that, we are also very commercial, making sure the Landlord and Tenant relationship is a priority in any negotiations. A woman who inspires you? I have worked for and with some really inspiring women throughout my career.

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One woman that has inspired me in my career is Vicki Sharp from Thomson Geer. I used to work with Vicki years before I had children, and her ability to be a successful lawyer and manage a family really left a mark on me.

One quote you live by? This quote from Dale Carnegie, Author of ‘How to win friends and influence people’ is one of my favourites - “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”

What’s the most challenging thing about being a woman in business? I spent 4 years at uni studying property and my whole adult life working to specialise in the commercial and industrial leasing sector. I’m really passionate about it though and I’m proud of where I’m at now regarding my expertise. It took a battering when I first had to step out of the industry for a year or two when having children and this has been one of the most challenging aspects but since starting my own business and securing some amazing clients who value our service, it’s helped to rebuild my confidence and set me on the right path going forward.

Where would we find you on your days off? My husband runs his own security business and we have three children, so we rarely get a day off! If we have a weekend free we pack up the caravan and head away with friends. We live at Mount Martha so we are lucky to spend a lot of time at the beach.

Books or podcasts? I love books and podcasts! I’m making an effort to spend more time on self education and this includes reading more. I spend three hours a day in the car two days a week so I listen to podcasts then otherwise I would just get frustrated with the traffic. Your current favourite? (from question above) I’ve just finished reading ‘How to win friends and influence people’. It’s incredible that it was written so long ago but is still relevant today. I got a lot out of that, especially for our business as negotiations can often get heated, and I learnt that it’s always best to try to win people over with kindness.

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One piece of advice you’d give to the next generation of women? Supporting working women is something that I’m really passionate about, and in 2018 Eve Property Group started running events for women in property. Our aim of these events is to have an opportunity for those starting out in the industry to meet with leaders and experts with years of experience in a comfortable, safe setting. We want everyone to learn from and encourage one another. I think it’s important for the next generation of women to know that other women are not your competition. The more we support each other, the greater we can achieve.

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I think it’s important for the next generation of women to know that other women are not your competition.

Teree Clare Straight talking and honest, Teree Clare approaches every job with fierce determination. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spent her entire professional life working to specialise in the commercial and industrial leasing sector and has managed property portfolios in excess of 500 sites. As the director of Eve Property Group, Teree helps her clients to face the daunting task of negotiating a property lease so they can level the playing field. When sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not dominating the property leasing arena, Teree loves to explore her local area on the Mornington Peninsula with her husband and three kids, and indulge in some good food and wine. shineonlinemagazine

, t e g B d u Small t c a p m I Big

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR MARKETING $$

By Liza Simpson

hen I first started my agency back in early 2016 my goal was to mirror my experience as head of strategy at a full-service digital agency. Our clients were large corporate organisations, strategies were multichannel and we implemented across all channels. I quickly learnt in my own agency that this model had to change to service small and medium size business. I have always been passionate about marketing, I relish in understanding buyer behaviour and the decision-making path.

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THE MASTERS OF ONE Smaller budgets need a more accurate pathway to results to be effective. The scatter gun approach with average results quickly depletes budget. This led me to focus on a specific area of expertise. Over the last two years I invested heavily in training myself and my team by the best in the world. I wanted us to be the Masters of One. This isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t to say that we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t also develop multi-channel strategies, it is simply that our core implementation skill, where we are able to continually and accurately achieve results, is social advertising.

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Ultimately the goal for your marketing team (or yourself as a business owner) is to establish a budget and deliver leads. In my experience your budget is better applied to the channel that will generate leads first and an agency that kills it in their chosen speciality will have a better handle on maximising your ad spend. Combine this with organic strategies (Partnerships, Organic Content, Referrals, SEO, PR, Outreach) and you will quickly grow the business you have always dreamed of.

THE UPSIDE-DOWN MARKETING APPROACH

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The go to market methods we have been traditionally encouraged to apply, are upside-down. We are encouraged to build a presence (logo, website, social pages) and then go to market. Many businesses who employ this method drain funds by building a presence and quickly have no funds to spend on marketing — they can’t scale or grow because leads are not coming in on tap. They often make the mistake of believing they have failed - they

simply haven’t found their audience or the messages they need to connect with.

RAPID FIRE TESTING One of our unique strategies that gives us (and our clients) an edge in the advertising arena is rapid fire testing. Before we build landing pages or offers, we test. This is the gold that helps us achieve greater results, more rapidly. That very first moment you have that light bulb moment business idea, is when you need to go to market. HOLD off on a website, create a logo in photoshop (or spend as little as possible), and simply start to build your personas.

Smaller budgets need a more accurate pathway to results to be effective.

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Your value proposition should come from your audiences’ pain and how you can solve this pain.

Find your audience, ask them what they need and want, capture their details. Only when you are generating leads based on a specific offer will you be ready to build a website. (Note this will be different for e-commerce but testing products can and should be applied). This is the juicy part, start by finding your potential audiences. List every possible persona, there should be multiple, list their pains and gains (or ask them!), list all of the offers that could be used to hook them into your sales process, list all of the messages that answer their needs and TEST THEM. We start by testing audiences, with content and images that are generic. Once we know which audience seems to appeal to our generic message, we test the offer. Only when we know what offer works the most effectively do we build landing pages.

OUR SPECIAL LAUNCH PAD OFFER Every morning I wake up with 30 leads scheduled into my Business Development Manager’s calendar. Why 30? Because each call takes around 45 minutes, so we max it at 6 a day. Around half of the calls that come in are not ready to invest in their future growth and that’s okay. We are some of the best at what we do, so we aren’t cheap. Sometimes I meet sole traders who love the idea of what we do but would rather take the reins, and that’s okay too.

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2019 is the year for kicking serious goals! We offer many pricing models, but never have we offered a Launch Pad Program that packs a punch like this! We will work with you to build your funnel, lead pages and offers, and we packed the program full of juicy organic strategy including a 12-month plan. Over 6 weeks (you can define the schedule) we will also teach you the methods we

use to generate leads every day for our clients! And if you decide you just don’t have time to run it yourself you can jump onto a monthly retainer (or pay by the hour). There are seriously limited places available (we’re only taking 5 businesses). So if you’re interested, you can checkout what’s included and book in your strategy call here.

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Your value proposition should come from your audiences’ pain and how you can solve this pain.

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Liza Simpson An experienced digital marketer on both client and agency side, Liza has worked with enterprise organisations like PTV, Ovarian Cancer Australia and IAG delivering large scale marketing, strategy and technology projects. Over the last three years, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s led her team at WCM Digital to help small and medium size clients in the online retail and hospitality industries take on digital innovation to reduce their costs and grow their revenue. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a mum of three girls who love the park, museums, the beach and sharing adventures.

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Shine Magazine is edited by Amey Lee from Heart Content.

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