Think Business Magazine - Issue 1 - COVER FEATURE: MICHALLE FAULKNER by Think Business Magazine

Take Me Home

ISSUE ONE

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BUSINESS

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO WITHIN YOUR FIRST YEAR OF BUSINESS

STEPS TO MARKETING SUCCESS

MONEY

TOOLS TO HELP GET YOUR BUSINESS FINANCIALLY FIT

PROPERTY

Michalle Faulkner

FUTURIST AND SOCIAL COMMENTATOR BERNARD SALT SHARES HIS PREDICTIONS FOR THE SUNSHINE COAST

Take

The woman behind the HR company teaching profit begins with people

WITH RICHARD BRANSON

CHRIS CHILDS WHEELS OF WEALTH Page 20

ALLAN PEASE BODY LANGUAGE IN BUSINESS Page 94

HENZELLS CALOUNDRA THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE LEGACY Page 60

HR CONSULTANTS

• •

RECRUITERS

PAYROLL SERVICES

•

From the editor WELCOME TO THE FIRST ISSUE OF THINK BUSINESS MAGAZINE – A HIGH PROFILE NATIONAL PUBLICATION DEDICATED TO DELIVERING TOP QUALITY BUSINESS CONTENT TO INFORM, EDUCATE AND BRING YOU RIGHT UP TO SPEED WITH THE LATEST FACTS AND FIGURES FROM ACROSS AUSTRALIA. OUR GOAL IS to deliver a top-class read for the most astute business owners and professionals. Aimed at achieving maximum readership and exposure, we are delivering the magazine through both print and digital mediums, and readers can enjoy an expanded version of many of our stories on our website. Whether it’s the latest information on marketing, ﬁnance, property, technology, business news or human resources you’re looking for, we have you covered. Through innovative and cutting edge technology, we are bringing our stories and business information to life with the next big thing in the tech world – augmented reality (you can read all about it in this issue). It’s an exciting time to be in business and we are pushing the boundaries to ensure we are the market leader when it comes to providing you with the best business read. We’ve listened to what our audience wants through comprehensive surveys and we’ve delivered, with engaging feature articles, interesting statistics and informative columns from some of Australia’s best business coaches, marketing experts and writers. With a strong focus on the digital arena, we share the secrets for marketing and growing your business online, as well as some fascinating articles on converting leads to clients, how to double your close rate by following a few simple rules and lots more.

FOUR DIFFERENT COVER STORIES

Same great magazine!

We’ve even sourced the latest gadgets you need to make your working life easier, as well as some of the all time best business books every professional must read.

CHRIS CHILDS Wheels of wealth We discover how this successful entrepreneur is changing people’s lives through wealth education

We are delighted to bring you this jampacked ﬁrst issue of Think Business Magazine and look forward to hearing your feedback! We’re listening.

Ingrid

INGRID NELSON, EDITOR

MICHALLE FAULKNER Proﬁt begins with people We introduce you to the woman behind the HR company putting people ﬁrst

HENZELLS CALOUNDRA The people behind the legacy Meet the team behind one of the Sunshine Coast’s oldest and most respected real estate agencies

ALLAN PEASE Body language in business My Body Language shares his tips for mastering the art of communication

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SCAN THIS PAGE TO MEET EDITOR INGRID NELSON AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THINK BUSINESS MAGAZINE

THINKBUSINESS | 3

PUBLISHER Chris Childs publisher@thinkbusinessmagazine.com.au GENERAL MANAGER Kara de Schot EDITOR IN CHIEF (THINK GROUP OF PUBLICATIONS) Ingrid Nelson ingrid@thinkbusinessmagazine.com.au ART DIRECTOR Johanna Jensen-Brown DIGITAL COORDINATOR What the Fox Creative DESIGN Bobbi Simonds, Danielle Murphy, Chelsea Holliday CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Nicole Fuge, Ingrid Nelson, Tayla Arthur CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHY Paula Brennan, Tanya Chesterton Smith, Rebecca Smith, Rikki Lancaster

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ACCESS EXCITING CONTENT WHEREVER YOU SEE THIS LOGO IN THE MAGAZINE IN EVERY ISSUE

WHEELS OF WEALTH CHRIS CHILDS TALKS BIG PICTURE BUSINESS, MONEY AND PROPERTY

FROM THE EDITOR ..................................3 OUT & ABOUT ..........................................8 NEWS FYI ...............................................10 THE DEBATE ...........................................14 BLOKES ABOUT TOWN..........................86 THE WORD .............................................88 BOOK REVIEW........................................90 FINAL WORD ..........................................98

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CONVERTING LEADS TO CLIENTS MARK MCRAE ON WHY WHAT HAPPENS AFTER ‘OPT IN’ IS CRITICAL

Think the w whats must

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BUSINESS HOW TWITTER CAN SAVE YOUR ‘SOCIAL’ LIFE .................................................................16 ELEVATE YOUR BRAND ......................................................................................................18 WHEELS OF WEALTH - CHRIS CHILDS...............................................................................20 CULTIVATE AN AWESOME BUSINESS ................................................................................22 PEOPLE + PASSION = PROFIT ............................................................................................24 GETTING IT RIGHT...............................................................................................................28 TAKE 10 WITH RICHARD BRANSON ...................................................................................30 CORPORATE JOY, THE NEW ADVANTAGE .........................................................................32 5 REASONS BUSINESSES FAIL . . . AND HOW TO AVOID IT ..............................................34 7 STEPS TO MARKETING SUCCESS ..................................................................................36 11 WAYS TO ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS ON FACEBOOK ............................................38 CONVERTING LEADS TO CLIENTS .....................................................................................42 ONLINE FOR SUCCESS ......................................................................................................72 TED TALKS: LEADERSHIP ...................................................................................................74

HENZELLS THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE LEGACY

BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS ................................................................................................76

GETTING AHEAD .................................................................................................................78 BUILD REAL RELATIONSHIPS .............................................................................................80 STEP AHEAD: ENABLING PEOPLE TO GROW WITH YOUR BUSINESS .............................82 BUILDING BUSINESS ..........................................................................................................84 WHY SHOULD BUSINESSES CONDUCT SURVEYS? ..........................................................92 BODY LANGUAGE IN BUSINESS ........................................................................................94

THE FUTURIST WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR THE SUNSHINE COAST

TED TALKS: LEADERSHIP THE STRATEGIES USED BY SOME OF THE BEST IN THEIR FIELD

PROPERTY THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE HENZELLS LEGACY ................................................................. 60 STATE OF THE NATION REPORT ......................................................................................... 64 THE FUTURIST..................................................................................................................... 66 STRATEGIC STRENGTH ...................................................................................................... 68 5 WAYS TO MAXIMISE A PORTFOLIO ................................................................................. 70

MONEY GET YOUR BUSINESS FINANCIALLY FIT ..............................................................................46 $PEND IT ..............................................................................................................................48 LEARN HOW TO RETIRE FROM YOUR BUSINESS AND STILL HAVE AN INCOME ..............50 HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR PROFITS WITH TESTING ............................................................52

MICHALLE FAULKNER PEOPLE + PASSION = PROFIT

Think Business Magazine is a free publication (subscriptions available) published quarterly by Think Publications Pty Ltd ATF Profile Mag Trust. All rights are reserved and the contents are copyright and may not be reproduced without the written consent of The Publisher, Think Publications Pty Ltd ATF Profile Mag Trust (“The Publisher”). Their related companies and officers hereby disclaim, to the full extent permitted by law, all liability, damages, costs and expenses whatsoever arising from or in connection with copy information or other material in this magazine, any negligence of The Publisher, or any persons actions in reliance thereon. Any dispute or complaint regarding placed advertisements must be made within seven days of publication. Inclusion of any copy must not be taken as any endorsement by The Publisher. Views expressed by contributors are personal views and they are not necessarily endorsed by The Publisher.

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OUT AND ABOUT

DONNA PENNY, KERRY PHAIRS AND KAY WARD

28TH MAY, NOOSA

MANDY HARGREAVES

Beyond Brilliant Foundation Luncheon To mark Brain Cancer Awareness Month, the Beyond Brilliant Foundation held a luncheon on Saturday, 28 May at Noosa Waterfront Restaurant & Bar. In conjunction with the Foundation, Secrets also revealed their Brilliant Beanie, featuring around 1700 Secrets Diamond Simulants and auctioned to raise funds for Carrie Bickmoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Beanies 4 Brain Cancer Foundation. PHOTOS CHERYL NONMUS, ONQ PHOTOGRAPHY

LISA BOWDEN

SUZANNE RILEY AND MARK JOHNS

HAYLEY PARSONS, PAULA DICK, KATE LEAHY AND JANE MEREDITH

CELENA ROSS AND TEENA COMAN

8 | THINKBUSINESS

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SCAN THIS PAGE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT

MY KITCHEN RULES 2016 CONTESTANTS ALEX EBERT AND GARETH COCHRAN

16TH JULY, CALOUNDRA

CORALIE AND TRISTAN KURZ WITH TOM WILLIAMS

Steps Grand Winter Ball As one of the Sunshine Coastâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most anticipated events of the year, The Steps Grand Winter Ball saw guests come together for a night of fun, frivolity and fabulous entertainment by Marissa Burgess Creative, all in the name of raising awareness and funds for charity. Held on Saturday, 16 July, it was a stunning event that had plenty of support, with attendees donning their most glamorous attire for what was a glorious night for all. PHOTOS JASON HAY PHOTOGRAPHY AND ANNA GILBERT PHOTOGRAPHY

ANGELA MILES AND TOM WILLIAMS

SAM COWARD AND CARMEL CROUCH

MARISSA BURGESS

RACHAEL AND MATT YURKO

THINKBUSINESS | 9

NEWS

FYI.

Pokémon Go! Exploding onto the scene in July 2016, Pokémon Go has players of all ages looking to catch virtual Pokémon on the streets. Businesses such as Urban Garden are benefiting from getting on board and riding the new wave, by dropping ‘lures’ at the ‘PokéStop’ right in front of their café. The lures last 30 minutes, attracting the creatures to appear and reappear for longer at these actual, real-life Google Maps landmarks. Players thirsty for Pokémons nearby then flock to this now, super-charged watering hole, and buy a coffee while they’re waiting for new ones to appear!

> MOBILE MEDIA AND SEARCH TIME NOW PASSES THE PC USERS ARE NOW SPENDING MORE OF THEIR TIME CONSUMING DIGITAL MEDIA WITHIN MOBILE APPLICATIONS THAN PC USERS, ACCORDING TO A NEW STUDY RELEASED BY COMSCORE*. That means mobile apps, including Facebook, eat up more of our time than desktop usage or mobile web surﬁng, accounting for 52 per cent of the time spent using digital media. Combined with mobile web, mobile usage as a whole accounts for 60 per cent of time spent, while desktop-based digital media consumption makes up the remaining 40 per cent. Apps today are driving the majority of media consumption activity, the report claims, now accounting for seven out of every eight minutes of media consumption on mobile devices. On smartphones, app activity is even higher, at 88 per cent usage versus 82 per cent on tablets. Google has also reported that, “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers”.

A I

I i p t J b c p m i o a A c t o f d y b

*comScore is an American Internet analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to many of the world’s largest enterprises, agencies, and publishers.

FAST FACTS Players literally have to walk to play this game, by going outside and searching for Pokémon that are on the real world map. In the U.S., some businesses are reserving the rights to catch Pokémon and Pokémon eggs on their property for paying customers only! Players are spending as much time on Pokémon Go as on Facebook and Twitter.

ADVERTISING EXPOSURE ON THE INCREASE In statistics released by MarketingCharts.com, Australia has ranked second only to the United States for advertising spending per capita for 2014. It’s no wonder then, that it is estimated we see between 300 to 700 separate advertising messages each day.

*In

AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS IDEA IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

BLOWING IT WITHOUT KNOWING IT!

If you’ve ever had a wild business idea and disregarded it as just hot air, think again. Two Australian men are proving that sometimes the things we take for granted the most can actually make you money. John Dickinson and Theo Ruygrok are the masterminds behind Green and Clean Air – a business that sells canned air from Australian locations to tourists and people in countries suffering from severe pollution. The men got the idea after returning home from Beijing and immediately noticed the difference in air quality, so set out to capture the fresh air of iconic Australian sites such as Bondi Beach, the Blue Mountains and Tasmania. Available for just under $20 for a can containing 130 to 140 deep breaths, the men aren’t the first to capitalise on the concept, but the response from their Chinese customers demonstrates that if you know your niche, even the craziest business ideas can succeed.

10 MINDLESS WAYS YOU MAY BE WASTING MONEY. 1. Coﬀee $100 per month 2. Credit card interest $60 per month 3. ATM fees $15 per month 4. Throwing out food $75 per month 5. Unused gym membership $80 per month 6. Bottled water $60 per month 7. Cinema candy bar $20 per month 8. Electricity $60 per month

FORBES WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE BRANDS FOR 2016

9. Eating out $100 per month

COMPANY ADVERTISING

BRAND VALUE

COMPANY

THE APPLE BRAND IS NOW WORTH $154.1 BILLION, UP SIX PER CENT FROM 2015. THE BRAND RANKS ON TOP OF FORBES’ LIST OF THE WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE BRANDS FOR THE FIFTH TIME STRAIGHT. BELOW IS THE LIST OF THE TOP FIVE BRANDS. FACEBOOK HITS THE TOP FIVE WITH 281 MILLION IN COMPANY ADVERTISING.

10. Smoking $300 per month

APPLE

GOOGLE

MICROSOFT

COCA-COLA

FACEBOOK

$154.1 BILLION

1.8

BILLION

$82.5 $72.2 $58.5 $52.6 BILLION

BILLION

3.2

1.9

281

BILLION

*Information sourced from Forbes.com

FYI SPONSORED BY:

MILLION

NEWS

FYI.

PATH TO PURCHASE ONLINE

of people use social media platforms to research something they want to buy. Electrical goods were most commonly mentioned, followed by furniture and homeware products. 59 per cent of researches led to purchase, with 71 per cent of those purchasing the product online. *Source: Sensis Social Media Report, May 2016

GLOBAL COMPARISON: WHAT IT COSTS FOR A BIG MAC The fourth edition of the Deutsche Bank Report into world prices provides an insight into our hip pocket. The Big Mac barometer showed the cheapest place to buy the famous burger was the Ukraine at $1.20USD ($1.69AUD) followed by Russia at $1.36USD ($1.91AUD). In Switzerland a single burger will set you back $7.54USD ($10.59AUD)! For the record, a Big Mac in Australia is $4.32USD or $6.07AUD.

THE BIG MAC INDEX

$7.00

$6.50

$6.00

$5.50

$5.00

$4.50

$4.00

$3.50

$3.00

$2.50

$2.00

$1.50

Local currency under (-%) or over (+%) valuation against the dollar

NORWAY SWITZERLAND EURO AREA† AUSTRALIA CANADA BRITAIN US‡ JAPAN SOUTH KOREA MEXICO SOUTH AFRICA TAIWAN RUSSIA THAILAND CHINA

Source: McDonald’s; The Economist *At market exchange rate (5 January) † Weighted average of member countries ‡ Average of four cities

THE NUMBER OF AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES INCREASES! The number of actively trading businesses in Australia increased by one per cent with ABS statistics showing there were 2,100,162 actively trading businesses in Australia at June, 2014 (the latest survey period). The largest number of businesses were in the construction industry (16.1 per cent), followed by professional, scientiﬁc and technical services (11.9 per cent) and rental, hiring and real estate services (10.9 per cent). Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

SWEDEN SHIFTS TOWARDS SHORTER HOURS Having already earnt a reputation as one of the world’s most family-friendly countries, Sweden has taken this focus one step further by shortening business hours from the standard eight-hour day to six. In a move made to enable workers to spend more time with family, Swedish businesses began rolling out the new hours last year and claim that productivity remained the same despite the change, thanks to an increase in morale. But while the Swedes are ﬁnding success with their shorter working days, Australia is moving in the opposite direction, with research showing employees are working longer hours, often in unpaid overtime. Experts have stated that this approach has caused an increase in stress, which can have long-term health risks. It looks like Sweden is onto something.

WHY MINDFULNESS IS A “MUST HAVE” FOR BUSINESS LEADERS An article from the Harvard Business Review (HBR) highlights just how important mindfulness practice can be when it comes to embrace change and manage stress. In the article, Mindfulness Can Literally Change Your Brain, authors Christina Congleton, Britta K. Hölzel and Sara W. Lazar report that, “Recent research provides strong evidence that practicing nonjudgmental, present-moment awareness (a.k.a. mindfulness) changes the brain. It’s a ‘must-have’: a way to keep our brains healthy and to protect ourselves from toxic stress”. Closer to home, law firm Seyfarth Shaw has just opened a meditation room for its staff in Melbourne and Google’s Sydney office opened its meditation room in August last year in response to the lifestyle needs of its workers who had been using the library for meditation.

SIX STATISTICS ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT SHOULD CHANGE THE WAY YOU DO BUSINESS!

INSPIRING STORIES OF TRANSFORMING FAILURE TO SUCCESS

76 per cent of consumers say they view customer service as the true test of how much a company values them.

90 per cent of consumers now expect a brand or organisation to oﬀer a selfservice customer support portal.

• Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded. • Colonel Sanders went to over 1000 places trying to sell his chicken recipe before he found a buyer interested in his 11 herbs and spices. Seven years later, at the age of 75, Colonel Sanders sold his fried chicken company for a finger-lickin’ $15 million! • Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. He also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. • Soichiro Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation after interviewing for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless for quite some time. He started making scooters of his own at home, and spurred on by his neighbours, finally started his own business. • Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn’t read until he was seven. His teacher described him as “mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams”. • The movie Star Wars was rejected by every movie studio in Hollywood before 20th Century Fox finally produced it.

3 4 5

97 per cent of global consumers say that customer service is very important or somewhat important in their choice of and loyalty to a brand. 62 per cent of global consumers have stopped doing business with a brand or organisation due to a poor customer service experience. When it comes to sales, the probability of selling to an existing happy customer is up to 14 times higher than the probability of selling to a new customer.

per cent of consumers have higher for customer service now 6 60expectations than they did just one year ago.

Not every well-known venture started with success. Here are some interesting stories you may not be aware of.

FYI SPONSORED BY:

THE DEBATE THE DEBATE

NETWORKING GROUPS/EVENTS:

ARE THEY OF VALUE TO SMALL TO MEDIUM BUSINESSES ON THE SUNSHINE COAST? PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

little value in “building relationships” if those relationships never eventuate in new sales. Secondly, what if the people you meet at networking events are not your target market? It is time you will never get back. It’s the pot luck of networking. Do we really want to leave the future prosperity of our business down to luck?

LISA EVETT Senior Marketing Manager for ConceroTel

BY FOCUSING ON THE LOCAL MARKET, WE TEND TO FORGET WE EXIST IN A GLOBAL MARKET.”

14 | THINKBUSINESS

THERE ARE THREE main reasons businesses on the Sunshine Coast should question the value of networking. Firstly, if the primary goal of your networking is to expand your business through increased sales, you will need new customers. What if everyone attending the networking event has the same objective – that they are there to sell too? If you have a room full of sellers and no buyers, that’s a problem. When people say the purpose of networking is to build relationships, they are simply justifying the time they have wasted on networking because it has not resulted in any new sales. There is

Finally, and most importantly, local networking restricts business growth. By focusing on the local market, we tend to forget we exist in a global market. Some business people don’t give themselves permission to think big and reach for markets beyond the borders of the Sunshine Coast. There are around 300,000 people on the Sunshine Coast. Your potential global market is 7.2 billion people. But what if my business can only service people on the Sunshine Coast, I hear you ask. Just because you provide a lawn mowing service, does not mean that your knowledge, products, services or processes can’t be monetised for an online customer. Of course there are exceptions, but the lawn mowing company can develop an app to remind customers their lawn needs mowing and connect them to local suppliers, no matter the geographical location. Our world is now digital. You can spend your time networking locally or you can spend your time selling your business to the world.

www.thinkbusinessmagazine.com.au

E GET OUT, BE ACTIVE, THE NEXT EVENT YOU MISS COULD BE THE ONE THAT WINS YOU THAT PROMOTION, JOB OFFER OR CONTRACT.” simple as it sounds, we have to make sure we pick the events that best expose us to the type of people we want to attract or surround ourselves with. RICHARD MOYE Dealer Principal Audi Centre, Sunshine Coast I DEFINITELY AM a positive for eﬀective networking. Running a business can make the most eﬃcient of us time poor, what better way to let your peers, friends and potential partners know how important you value their time, conversation, thoughts and ideas than to get out and be part of your local community. With a family and a hectic schedule how do we know which events to attend? As

We have all seen the benefits directly transfer into mutually beneficial relationships and it always has to be two sided. If you neglect those relationships you are neglecting your business. Get out, be active, the next event you miss could be the one that wins you that promotion, job offer or contract. There aren’t many websites these days advising you to stay at home to promote your business. Getting out and about will turn those relationships into friendships and that is the ultimate reward. Now, social networking ...? That’s a whole other debate.

WANT TO GET INVOLVED IN OUR DEBATE? WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON NETWORKING EVENTS AND THEIR VALUE TO SMALL/MEDIUM SIZED BUSINESSES ON THE SUNSHINE COAST

TO CAST YOUR VOTE: Simply hover your mobile phone over the button below and click on YES or NO. It’s that easy!

Results will be revealed in the next issue of Think Business

THERE AREN’T MANY WEBSITES THESE DAYS ADVISING YOU TO STAY AT HOME TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS. GETTING OUT AND ABOUT WILL TURN THOSE RELATIONSHIPS INTO FRIENDSHIPS AND THAT IS THE ULTIMATE REWARD.” THINKBUSINESS | 15

BUSINESS

How TWITTER can save your

‘Social’ Life WORDS CHRISTINE POTTER, WWW.EAGLEANDCROSSMARKETING.COM.AU

YOU’RE KEEN TO TURN SOCIAL MEDIA INTO AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING TOOL. “ENGAGEMENT” IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE MAGIC BULLET TO DRIVE ORGANIC TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE AND INCREASE SALES. MAYBE YOU ALREADY HAVE A DECENT TWITTER FOLLOWING, BUT IS ANYONE GETTING OFF TWITTER AND ONTO YOU?

TURNING SOCIAL MEDIA engagement into tangible results is easier than you think. Here’s a secret even the heavy hitters themselves don’t believe: it has almost nothing to do with what big brands are doing. But engagement is not a goal in itself. If your social media outreach is not driving brand awareness, opt-ins, and an increase in sales, you need to reassess your approach.

ENGAGEMENT V. SELLING: WHICH ARE YOU DOING? It is critical to remember that all tweets are not created equal. Some tweets establish rapport and brand build, while others are sales eﬀorts. Engagement for its own sake may seem like throwing money away, but your sales won’t exist without it. Straight sales messages, “Buy Now!”, “Special”, etc, is the online equivalent of a cold call. Even if 16 | THINKBUSINESS

they have some idea of who you are, they don’t care and you will be lost in the Twitterverse. Engagement lays the groundwork for every other lead generation eﬀort.

THE LEAD GENERATION EQUATION: CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT

A small business owner can figure Twitter out, follow their policies, learn some tricks, and gain a following. The hard part is creating original content that will drive users to your site, and maybe even to share it. Original content includes a huge variety of things, which can make it a bit easier to create: blogs, articles, e-books, videos, art, and infographics. Make sure any infographic is branded on the PDF file with your logo and URL so that when the art is expanded, someone is seeing your name. In this case, the tab effect works in your favour because the customer

will open a tab to search you. You are probably too busy running your business to sit down and write an article. Instead, you might find someone in your firm who can write and has the time. Or you could hire a content writer or creator. Did you know that over 24 per cent of all verified online Twitter accounts belong to journalists? You could grab global headlines if you get your tweets in front of the right eyes. Original content includes a huge variety of things, which can make it a bit easier to create: blogs, articles, e-books, videos, art, and infographics. Infographics are a fantastic starting point as they are visually appealing, immediately engaging and present information in a way that is an easy digest. If that all seems too hard, try grabbing your mobile and make a quick video of yourself sharing something important to your niche market. www.thinkbusinessmagazine.com.au

D R

SCAN THIS PAGE TO REVEAL MORE TWITTER SECRETS

WHAT DO YOUR 140 CHARACTERS SAY? When you have an infographic or other content, what do you tweet with it?

THE ANATOMY OF AN ENGAGING TWEET:

Keep it short, use eye-catching art, and drive your audience to a website for more information. You don’t have to do much more for a basic tweet that will grab attention. However, to compete with the biggest brands, you might want to step up your game with some of the “secret weapons” oﬀered by Twitter.

NOT SO SECRET (AND COMPLETELY FREE) TWITTER WEAPONS Contained in Twitter’s cache of articles are how-to’s that allow you to do anything from use meta tags to move your content-linked tweets up the news feed, overcome the 140-character limit, and get an extra layer of analytics, to tools that let you spy on your competition, and your customers, with no one the wiser! Among some of the lesser known, and completely free tools Twitter has to help you engage customers, gain retweets, and drive traﬃc to your pages are Twitter Cards. It allow you to: Tweet 140 characters about your content, but also a content preview of your page including summary and art. Tweet photos with clickable URL embeds that take someone straight to your page. When used with pics.twitter.com, they move your art content up front in your followers’ news feeds. When used with Vine, they also do the same for video links. You get a full breakdown including analytics, of which audiences responded best to which type of tweet. Tweet, tweet, and tweet again! You cannot send a single tweet into the world and expect to make a splash. Over 320,000 tweets a minute run on this massive platform, so be prepared to send your tweets out three to 15 times a day.

DID YOU KNOW THAT OVER 24 PER CENT OF ALL VERIFIED ONLINE TWITTER ACCOUNTS BELONG TO JOURNALISTS? YOU COULD GRAB GLOBAL HEADLINES IF YOU GET YOUR TWEETS IN FRONT OF THE RIGHT EYES.

ANOTHER “SECRET WEAPON”: LISTS Knowing Twitter lists will put you far ahead of most social media managers. They make engagement simple and far more eﬀective. You can make them private or public: add someone to a list, and receive every tweet they post in your curated list newsfeed, without following them!

THE BOTTOM LINE Engagement on social media is the opening act, warming up your audience to the idea of buying from you. The starting point in engagement is sincerity: empathy, trust, and credibility. Twitter builds rapport faster than any other medium. If you can connect before you mention your oﬀer, you will be better able to convert engagement into sales.

THINKBUSINESS | 17

BUSINESS

ELEVATE YOUR BRAND WORDS NICOLE FUGE PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

IF A PICTURE TELLS A THOUSAND WORDS – WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR PROFILE PHOTO TO SAY ABOUT YOU? PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER PAULA BRENNAN SHOWS HOW TO BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND USING PROFESSIONAL IMAGERY AND ULTIMATELY ELEVATE YOUR BUSINESS OVERNIGHT. IN TODAY’S SOCIETY, where people form an impression of you from your photo in one tenth of a second, it’s critical you craft the perfect personal brand. Whatever stage of business you are in – from jobseeker to start-up to CEO, the right photos can help you elevate your personal brand. Personal brand photography helps people to relate to you, connect with you and trust you, which means they are going to be more motivated to take action – to hire you, buy your product or listen to you. This is why it’s important to enlist the services of a high-quality professional photographer to capture your images. After all, you want to attract the right kind of clients for your business and ultimately lead to more quality inquiries to generate more proﬁt.

BRANDS DON’T SELL THINGS, PEOPLE DO Presenting yourself as credible, authentic and personable through your branding portraits means you have the best chance of creating the ideal ﬁrst impression, maintaining a high reputation and staying top of mind. “It makes you feel professional in a marketplace, particularly if you’re a service-based industry, which is all about the personality of the people behind the brand. We’re moving away from big and impersonal corporate branding, especially in a place like the Sunshine Coast, which is built on personality and service, rather than execution in a robotic market,” Paula says.

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MORE THAN A HEADSHOT Having professional imagery, that is succinct with your brand, catapults your business to the top of the marketplace. But you need more than a couple of headshots, you need a series of photos in keeping with your brand to bring out your personality and communicate your message clearly and concisely. “Before a shoot, I meet with my clients to get an idea of their personality and application, as well as their goals moving forward. Having the right images is like a mood board and road map in one – they can elevate you to where you want to be instantly.”

KEEP YOUR BRAND LOOKING FRESH Personal branding photography can encompass anything from corporate head shots to a full day shoot exploring and encapsulating the diﬀerent facets of your personality. Paula says the latter works particularly well for solopreneurs – “because you don’t know what side of your personality is going to attract your market”. “A lot of people feel they need to look a certain way in the marketplace, but often it’s the more authentic and connected photographs, which can be laughing into yourself or having fun on the beach, which work the best for your business. For me, a lot of my personal branding is from a photoshoot I had done with my daughter – I use that because I want people to know, this is who I am, I’m a mum in business.”

HOW OFTEN SHOULD I UPDATE MY IMAGERY? • If you’re in the first two years of your business, have one good photo shoot when you launch your brand. • If you have been in business for more than five years, it’s important to update your images at least every 18 months. This includes product shots and photos of team members. You need that cohesion so everyone looks like they’re working as a team. • If you are a medium-sized business, you need to update with the same photographer to keep the same style, and as staff are coming and going, the photos need to be updated on your website. • If you’re a solopreneur or you’re working in a smaller business, a new shoot every couple of years is more than enough. • Running a business in a social media-dominated world means you need to have fresh content and fresh imagery constantly flowing to have that engagement with your audience.

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PAULA BRENNAN, PHOTOGRAPHER Paula grew up watching her father in his photography studio, and learnt the ropes as his protegé. “I grew up in a photography house, we had a studio downstairs and I grew up stamping photos and framing and making albums.

HAVING THE RIGHT IMAGES IS LIKE A MOOD BOARD AND ROAD MAP IN ONE – THEY CAN ELEVATE YOU TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE INSTANTLY.”

“But it wasn’t my passion, it was when the Photoshop element came in, when digital photography started and I could do the artistic side of things, that’s what really got me into photography. “I transitioned fairly quickly from loving being behind a computer to loving being behind a camera – that’s where my gift is, I’m good with people.” Paula went on to become a successful wedding photographer in Sydney and when she reached the top of her game sought a challenge and moved to the Sunshine Coast and re-launched her business. Over the last two years, Paula has found a niche in the market, empowering business women through personal imagery and elevating their brand. PAULA BRENNAN PHOTOGRAPHY PHONE: (07) 5326 1668 INFO@PAULABRENNAN.COM.AU WWW.PAULABRENNAN.COM.AU

PERSONAL BRANDING PORTRAITURE WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW. Know who you are. When you are in business for yourself, it is so important that you be yourself and your personal truths should permeate through all aspects of your business, especially your brand. Make it your truth. When you talk about branding, it is so easy to get caught up in what everyone else looks like, the logos, and pretty packaging, the look – the image. But the power of a brand is in the individual or team it represents, not the paper it was printed on. Branding is values, branding is service, branding is ethics, and core beliefs. Don’t be afraid to own it. When you come in for a portrait shoot, think about who you are, what client you want to attract, especially if you are the face, the life pulse and the brand of your business. This gives the photographer a clear idea of what is needed to create a visual personal proﬁle to match the ideal client you want to attract. Brainstorming. Before your shoot, have a look at images of other people – what do you like about them? What don’t you like about them? Bring a selection of images to your photo shoot, this is a great way to make sure you get what you want.

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WHEELS OF WEALTH SUNSHINE COAST BUSINESSWOMAN, ENTREPRENEUR AND PHILANTHROPIST CHRIS CHILDS EXPLAINS WHY IT IS BETTER TO ACT LIKE A GENERAL PRACTITIONER OF BUSINESS, MONEY AND PROPERTY RATHER THAN BEING A SPECIALIST. THIS ALLOWS HER TO FOCUS MORE ON THE BIG PICTURE, ALLOWING HER A CLEARER VISION TO MAKE THE BEST DECISIONS TO ACCELERATE EACH OF HER BUSINESSES. CHRIS SHARES HER SECRET TO SUCCESS WITH THINK BUSINESS MAGAZINE.

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EACH SPOKE BECOMES THE ‘PIE WEDGE’ OF THE IMPORTANT ITEMS, TASKS AND DEPARTMENTS OF YOUR LIFE. THEY INTURN BECOME A WHEEL OF THEIR OWN.

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I created this method of planning after ﬁnding a dry, dusty written business plan

There are segments allocated for personal, home, kids, social, ﬁnances, holidays, etc. Then there are the

By using this simple method, you achieve a clear vision of the entire picture to discover where needs your GP attention. Before you know it, you have drilled down and planned out your entire life, business, personal and future ﬁnances in an easy-to-manage and easy-to-update life plan.

Imagine the scenario of life as an oldfashioned bicycle wheel. The sort with a silver circle holding the black tyre, held in place by many ﬁne metal spokes all radiating from the small inner wheel or hub. The hub becomes you and the gap between each spoke becomes the ‘pie wedge’ of the important items, tasks and departments of your life.

media would be broken down into Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging, the list goes on.

TIME TO SHAKE OFF THE OCD AND DELEGATE

PERSO

You need to learn be a GP and delegate the detail to a specialist even when you are the expert in your ﬁeld.

However, being a specialist requires a lot of time and leaves little or no time for all of the other really important things that need just as much attention. When you try to be the specialist in each and every area of your business, holding control with an iron ﬁst because you believe only you can make it perfect; you limit your ability to move forward.

You can take this one step further and create another wheel for each of these areas to add even more detail. For example, the business wheel breaks into its own segments such as marketing, sales, administration, ﬁnance, customer service and so on. These then get broken down even further, so marketing would break down into social media, print advertising, website, television, radio, sponsorships. Further still, social

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A specialist on the other hand needs to know the how, why and when in exact detail to create, install and implement every step of the process or project along the way.

business segments and future planning, such as retirement.

IT’S MUCH MORE important to be the GP rather than the specialist (even though you may be one) if you want to achieve the most out of your business. That means knowing a fair bit about many things and not getting too bogged down in the nitty gritty.

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just didn’t work for me. I tried for years to follow convention, and found it was a waste of time and effort. By the time I had finished a traditional business plan, my plan had changed and was worthless. Besides, a business plan is more for impressing someone; it’s rarely used in real life. Most business plans I have seen are created and then filed. By working in wheels, you can segment and work with a much clearer vision, accelerating the business to achieve your goals faster. The hardest part is letting go of the specialist role and becoming the ‘GP’. It’s the first step towards running your business like a business instead of a job. A business will run without you, even when you are not there. Remain the specialist and you will have a ‘job’ for life.

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MEET CHRIS CHILDS: Jack and Chris Childs, together with their daughters, own and run nine successful businesses on the Sunshine Coast. Think Money Wealth Through Property, Think Money (Finance), Think Business Development, Profile Magazine, Think Business Magazine, What the Fox Creative, Think Investment Realty, Queensland Investment Building Corporation and QIBC Building inspections. Chris spent 10 years as a financial planner, before becoming a mortgage broker in 2000. After 16 years specialising in money management and debt reduction strategies, and similar time involved in successful property investments and running businesses, Chris could certainly be considered a specialist in all of those fields – business, money and property.

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Cultivate an AWESOME BUSINESS WORDS CHRIS CHILDS

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THERE IS SOME HARD WORK AND HEAVY LIFTING TO DO IN ORDER TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS THE WELL-OILED MACHINE YOU WANT IT TO BE. THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSWOMAN CHRIS CHILDS HAS LEARNT IS THAT IF YOU WANT TO RUN AND EXPAND A BUSINESS WHILE STAYING SANE, YOU NEED TO BE ORGANISED.

GET THESE RIGHT AND YOUR BUSINESS CAN ‘HIGH FIVE’ ITSELF TO SUCCESS.”

I WORK ON the ‘CANII’ system – Constant And Never Ending Improvement & Innovation – and to stay organised, I apply this thinking constantly to ﬁve key areas of business. Here’s what I call the ‘High Five’.

THE ‘HIGH FIVE”

THE RIGHT PEOPLE

When you find and train the right people, the business runs itself. Sometimes the most difficult thing to see is that you have surrounded yourself with the wrong people, the flow-on effect being that work becomes just that – hard work. With the right people, the passion for business just flows and it can’t help but attract the perfect clients, meaning it must be profitable. People are drawn to businesses that are internally happy and professional.

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THE RIGHT CLIENTS

As soon as you realise your business can’t be all things to all people – that the business has to have a model of a perfect client – the sooner it will be successful. When you ‘need’ to accept all clients that come to your door, you will always have friction and unhappy clients. It is the ability to say no and recognise when a client won’t ﬁt the business model that will elevate your business and bring a level of service that enables you to have exceptionally happy clients. This leads to more client referrals and positive feedback into the community, and in turn generates more business, attracting more of the ‘perfect’ client.

THE RIGHT TOOLS, MARKETING AND PLANNING

While every one of the ﬁve points are important, this point is certainly dear to my heart. Getting your marketing right, testing and measuring the results, keeping your database clean, and working on the business on a weekly basis as well as working in the business, are all vital parts of running a successful business. This, in combination with setting an annual activity and marketing plan and implementing it is vital for business success.

THE RIGHT ETHOS

You need to be the right boss to attract the right people and you need to have the right ethos to attract the right clients. A business owner who has the right intentions, who puts people and clients ﬁrst, and who has an ethos of giving more than taking, will create such a positive environment that the business can’t help but grow and prosper. Create and publish your business ethos for your clients and staﬀ to understand your ‘why’.

THE RIGHT MINDSET

Mindset is a choice; you can be as happy or angry or excited as you decide to be. It really helps if you decide to have a happy, positive and motivational attitude. Staﬀ are more inclined to bring problems, mistakes and issues to you if you have a positive can-do or can-ﬁx attitude, rather than if they think they are going to get a negative or volatile reaction. Mindset also includes a positive look to the future, goal setting, encouraging team spirit and providing leadership. The end result should be that you have much more money and much more time to enjoy it. In other words, you may just get your life back.

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HR TIPS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

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Get your systems in place. Ensure you are protected and set up for any eventuality and staﬃng challenges. Issues such as mediation, workplace injury and disputes all happen and you need processes in place for when they do. Outsource. Your time is precious. Rather than spending time looking for the right person or trying to install complex HR processes, let an expert do it. We know the processes inside out. Be objective in recruitment. Many people tend to gravitate towards people they think they can get along with day-to-day. But the right hire is so much more than that. We skill test and validate all candidates to ﬁnd the right person for the right role at the right time. We have relationships with candidates who are passively looking, so we might already know someone perfect for your role. Seek ads might get 300 to 400 responses, but many of the ideal candidates might not respond, preferring to go through an agency if they are currently employed. Use your networks. Seek ads don’t cut it on their own anymore. When placing a candidate, we use all of our networks, including our extensive LinkedIn connections and other social media platforms.

MICHALLE FAULKNER IS DRESSED BY SUNSHINE PLAZA. HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY MELINA DEE.

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SSED ND

PEOPLE + PASSION = PROFIT BRINGING SECURITY AND PROFITABILITY, EASTCOAST’S END-TO-END RECRUITMENT AND CONSULTANCY SERVICES ARE SOLVING ONE OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES THAT SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS FACE TODAY. WORDS LOUISA OTTAVIANI PHOTOS PAULA BRENNAN

MICHALLE FAULKNER, Managing Director of EastCoast HR Group has helped countless Sunshine Coast businesses through many ups and downs. Providing small businesses with an invaluable full-spectrum service, her 23 years in the industry has led to her building and co-owning one of the Coast’s most respected human resource consulting and recruitment agencies. Today, with an absolute commitment to professionalism and integrity, East Coast HR Group is raising the bar on end-toend recruitment support. So what are Michalle’s secrets to a proﬁtable and successful business?

KNOW AND BELIEVE IN YOUR PRODUCT

Having lived and worked on the Sunshine Coast her whole life, Michalle knows the many challenges of employment and staﬃng here. “In 2005 I stopped to reﬂect on what I was passionate about,” explains Michalle. “I noticed there was a fundamental disconnect in many businesses between getting the HR platform right and bringing the team in. I realised I could add value to those businesses by providing hands-on expertise to develop platforms and to make sure that they made sustainable hiring choices.”

Having the confidence to set up her own consultancy firm, she found the service was in high demand. “Small business owners were crying out for HR support. The Coast is the home of small business. We have some fantastic technicians who are really good at what they do. But suddenly they had to hire people, manage internal affairs … something they know nothing about. Outsourcing to experts in that area was the perfect solution for them.” Her belief in the product was the cornerstone to facing many challenges, such as surviving the GFC. “We couldn’t apply old practices to new economic conditions so we had to reinvent ourselves to have a good balance of business propositions. We fully believed in what we were doing, so had to make sure we continued to be innovative. Every day we ask ourselves, ‘How can we do things better?’. We always focus on being proactive and strategies of prevention.”

DO IT FOR THE RIGHT REASONS

Working ethically is a fundamental part of EastCoast’s philosophy, and Michalle believes this is what truly sets them apart from other agencies. “A wrong hire is incredibly costly for any

business. By using the right agent to find the perfect fit, the employer gets that stellar employee who will add value to the business and the employee really gets to enjoy their role as they are in the right place. It’s a win-win for everyone.” With an exceptional care program for both clients and candidates, EastCoast always ensures both clients and candidates are completely satisfied. “We always put people in place for the right reasons – because they are the right fit. We measure ourselves on our retention, not just fill rate, and have both the candidate’s and the client’s best interests at heart.” Now an approved employer for the Seasonal Worker Program, EastCoast has extended their ethical recruitment services to a sector in high demand. “We saw a genuine issue for those industries. There are lots of unethical labour hire providers so we saw a gap where we could provide an effective, validated labour source for them, and also ensure the workers themselves were protected.” Being fully invested in ensuring clients’ businesses are set up properly, Michalle knows that when she gets the foundations right for a small business, they have the key elements in place to have successful employment relationships, and subsequently a more THINKBUSINESS | 25

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proﬁtable business. “I give my heart and soul to my work and I love it when I ease a burden for a client. Supporting business owners makes me feel like I’m fulﬁlling my purpose in life.”

PEOPLE ARE IMPORTANT

One of the fundamentals of a thriving workplace and something that employers often get wrong is reward and recognition and Michalle believes it should be a key part of any business’s HR strategy. In her book The People Investment, Michalle dedicates a whole chapter to those invaluable two little words, ‘Thank you’, explaining how business owners and supervisors can implement a diverse range of reward and recognition strategies that will retain high performing teams for businesses. “Those two little words are often forgotten. If nobody is complaining, then everything must be ticking along

I GIVE MY HEART AND SOUL TO MY WORK AND I LOVE IT WHEN I EASE A BURDEN FOR A CLIENT.” okay. But personally saying thank you is incredibly important.” As her book describes, rewards don’t have to be expensive. The key is taking the time to discover what motivates your team. If an employee is performing well, but struggles for family time, offer flexible hours. If another loves to exercise, offer a gym membership in their package. “If you empower people within your business and you treat people how you would like to be treated, it can only result in profitability and connectivity to your brand.”

TO DISCUSS WHAT HR SOLUTIONS THEY CAN OFFER YOUR BUSINESS, CALL EAST COAST HR ON 5443 6022, EMAIL MICHALLE@EASTCOASTHR.COM.AU OR FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.EASTCOASTHR.COM.AU

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Practical HR Solutions HR CONSULTANTS

RECRUITERS

PAYROLL SERVICES

Your HR Department Let us give you peace of mind. ‘Your HR Department’ outsourcing package provides you with a fully outsourced HR service. You get to enjoy all the functions of an internal HR department, available when you need them. We provide the opportunity of a fixed rate fee negotiated according to your specific needs. It is simple – Practical HR Solutions that are easy.

We support clients with recognised and accredited methods, products and services. At EastCoast Human Resource Group we leverage existing human resource practices or create a sustainable human resource structure with a robust methodology supporting your business. Contact us to discuss how we can support your business. Phone 5443 6022 or visit www.eastcoasthr.com.au

THE PEOPLE INVESTMENT Are you frustrated by staffing issues that cost you time and money? Do you struggle with managing and motivating your staff? Well, here is your solution! The People Investment is a valuable how-to guide for business owners and operators who wish to understand the secrets behind positive performance strategies in order to propel results in business. This book will appeal to any leader/manager who is looking for practical ways to get the most out of their

team and still maintain a happy, effective workplace. Author Michalle Faulkner knows people. In fact, she bases her business on it! As a highly sought-after expert in human resources, Michalle recognised a need for business operators to gain support and insight into practical solutions around people management. For more info or to purchase visit www.michallefaulkner.com

assistant@eastcoasthr.com.au I 07 5443 6022

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Getting IT right INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CAN BE A CONFUSING AND DAUNTING SUBJECT, BUT THERE IS NO DENYING THE NEED FOR IT IN THE MODERN WORKPLACE. THUS A POWERFUL PARTNERSHIP HAS BEEN FORGED BETWEEN LOCAL ENTERPRISE LUCIDITY IT AND ICT STALWART DIGITAL SENSE, TO PROVIDE STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS BY ‘BRINGING SIMPLICITY TO COMPLEXITY’.

“

IF YOU INVEST IN DECENT CONNECTIVITY, YOU CAN GET ALL OF THE THINGS THAT COME WITH THAT TO TAKE YOUR BUSINESS INTO THE FUTURE. YOU JUST NEED TO BE TALKING TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE.”

WORDS TAYLA ARTHUR PHOTOS RIKKI LANCASTER AND CONTRIBUTED

LUCIDITY (LOO-SID-I-TEE): Free from obscurity and easy to understand; the comprehensibility of clear expression. It’s a term not often seen paired with computers – particularly for those of us who find tech-speak much like a foreign language. But when it comes to the work of the Montville-based boutique strategic IT company bearing the same name, its meaning, and their slogan of ‘bringing simplicity to complexity’ could not be more spot on. When you’re running a business, the last thing you want to do is divert time, staff, resources and money from your mission to service the equipment you use to accomplish that goal. However, in a world where technology reigns supreme and continues to move at a rapid rate, this is an expense many business owners see as inescapable. According to Lance Knight and Michael Tran, this is simply not the case – not if they have anything to do with it. “What we’re about is finding out where you are right now and where you

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LANCE AND KATIE KNIGHT

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actually want to be, and helping you get there,” says Lucidity IT’s Director, Lance. “If you’re a legal company, you don’t want to have an IT department,” adds Michael. “You want to have functioning IT in order to keep you at the forefront of the industry, but you don’t want to be an IT-oriented company – you just want to have IT as a service, not as a division.” Michael is the chief technology officer and managing director of cutting edge IT hosting infrastructure company, Digital Sense. The Brisbane-based innovator began working as Lucidity IT’s cloud provider in 2014, creating what is now one of the most respected and efficient partnerships in the industry. Their long list of loyal clients in every sector, from not-for-profit organisations, local, state and federal governments, and education, through to construction, aged care, aerospace, manufacturing, and utilities, is proof of their success in delivering the best strategic IT services available. As is the incredible growth Lucidity IT has seen in its young life — thanks to wide-spread word-of-mouth recommendations between businesses on the Coast, Lucidity IT is now one of

Digital Sense’s fastest growing partners. So what is it about Lucidity IT and their partnership with Digital Sense that’s causing such a stir? Developed to offer a strategic partnership to businesses, Lucidity IT acts as an objective technical advisor that will not only address their current IT needs, but offer individually-tailored recommendations to achieve their business goals at a faster, yet more affordable and manageable rate. Targeted at businesses ranging from 70 staff through to organisations boasting over 1000 full-time employees, Lucidity (and subsequently Digital Sense) goes beyond that of the stereotypical basement-dwelling IT department. “We offer both on-premise and cloud storage solutions, disaster recovery solutions, web hosting, system administration, strategic engagements, document management systems, auditing for cloud readiness and infrastructure assessments, application assessments, and risk assessments, then make recommendations from that,” explains Lance. “We also offer sharepoint services, technology governance, business continuity planning, business process analysis, enterprise architecture, security solutions, connectivity, and software licensing management.” Where Digital Sense comes into play is in providing the technology that allows Lucidity IT to make it all happen. Their cutting edge data centre in Brisbane is affordable, scalable, secure and resistant to a number of natural and manmade disasters – and thanks to their cloud capabilities and effective connectivity,

forking out thousands of dollars in bulk for hardware that in a few years will be obsolete, is a thing of the past. “We take care of that,” says Lance. “You have a purely operational-based investment and never have to worry about capital expenditure.” Lance says when it comes to IT in business, the biggest mistake made by coastal organisations is believing what they’ve been told by others in the past. “You can get internet – it’s not a mythical thing – the problem we have here is that due to the geographical location and logistics, it’s at a premium. But if you invest in decent connectivity, you can get all of the things that come with that to take your business into the future. You just need to be talking to the right people.” For both Lance and Michael, it’s clear IT – along with all of the amazing possibilities it brings – is their passion, and it’s something they want to share, to help other businesses excel. “We started oﬀ as a small business ourselves and grew, thanks to the support of others,” says Michael. “Our guys live and breathe technology – that’s really the only way to keep up to date because it is forever changing – and that’s what we want to bring to businesses; people who are passionate in this industry and are able to oﬀer the latest cutting edge service to help advance their business and let them get back to doing what they do best.” TO DISCUSS WHAT STRATEGIC IT SOLUTIONS THEY CAN OFFER YOUR BUSINESS, CALL LUCIDITY IT ON 5313 4050, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.LUCIDITYIT.COM.AU.

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TAKE 10 with Richard Branson

PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

IF THERE IS ONE BUSINESSMAN WHO TURNS CONVENTIONAL BUSINESS AND MARKETING ON ITS HEAD, IT’S RICHARD BRANSON. HIS DRIVE, PASSION AND BELIEF IN HIS PEOPLE HAS TAKEN HIM FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH.

DOES THE WORLD’S GREATEST MENTOR HAVE A MENTOR OF HIS OWN? In the past I’ve had some wonderful mentors. Freddy Laker, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and the late Mo Mowlam have all given me great guidance and inspiration. I also listen to all my employees. I believe in them and let them have a go.

YOU HAVE HAD YOUR FAIR SHARE OF CHALLENGES, HOW DO YOU MOVE FORWARD AFTER A SETBACK? It’s important to face these challenges head on. Most importantly don’t beat yourself up if you fail. Just pick yourself up, learn as much as you can from the experience and get on with the next challenge.

WHAT ADVICE CAN YOU GIVE A YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR STARTING WITH NO MONEY? First and foremost, a successful business must have sound knowledge of its market, and work on how its product or service will be diﬀerent, stand out and improve people’s lives. If you can ensure it responds to a real need out there in the marketplace, your business can punch well above its weight.

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SCAN THIS PAGE TO WATCH WATCH RICHARD BRANSON’S TED TALK “LIFE AT 30,000 FEET”

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STUDYING THE QUALITIES THAT ARE PRESENT IN SUCCESSFUL LEADERS IS THE FASTEST WAY TO NURTURE YOUR OWN POTENTIAL.”

UNLIKE WHEN YOU STARTED, DO YOU THINK THE INTERNET HAS LEVELLED THE PLAYING FIELD FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS? Yes, it has certainly made a difference in terms of finding your opportunities and getting your message out there. But ultimately you still need to be focused on refining that core idea that drives your business. After all, no business will succeed on internet exposure alone.

people to lead their projects and take responsibility for them. This adds to their conﬁdence and allows you to take a further step back.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHICH IDEAS TO FOCUS ON? There’s no winning formula to help decide which idea will work and which won’t. I deﬁnitely go on gut instinct but it has to have the backup of research and information. Never be afraid of taking risks and leaping into the unknown. YOU ARE KNOWN AS BEING A GREAT LEADER, WHAT ADVICE CAN YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE TO DEVELOP THAT TRAIT? Studying the qualities that are present in successful leaders is the fastest way to nurture your own potential. Determining the strengths you admire in others, as well as identifying areas for personal development, can help you become a successful leader. FINDING THE RIGHT PEOPLE CAN BE DIFFICULT, HOW DO YOU FIND PEOPLE WHO CAN BE LEADERS IN YOUR BUSINESS? Sometimes they are already there. When employees tell you about their ideas for the business, don’t just ask questions, take notes and follow up. If you can, ask those

IF YOU WERE TO START FROM SCRATCH AND YOU COULD ONLY CHOOSE ONE, WHICH PROJECT OR BUSINESS WOULD YOU CHOOSE? It’s diﬃcult to pick just one, as we have had so many successes to be proud of over the years. For me the triumphs are when Virgin has entered a sector and turned it on its head, like Virgin Atlantic in 1984 and Virgin Trains in 1997, when the doubters and critics are proved wrong. WHAT WOULD BE YOUR FIVE TOP TIPS TO SUCCESS? Search out a good mentor, understand mistakes are inevitable, set goals and pursue them fearlessly, don’t listen to negatives – prove your doubters wrong, surround yourself with a reliable, enthusiastic and energetic team – then trust them. SO, WHAT’S NEXT ON YOUR AGENDA? I am yet to decide what my next big challenge will be. Watch this space.

INFORMATION SOURCED FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH LUCY PIPER IN FOUNDR MAGAZINE

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Corporate joy THE NEW ADVANTAGE PEOPLE ARE 80 PER CENT EMOTIONAL AND 20 PER CENT RATIONAL. WHETHER YOU’RE DEALING WITH EMPLOYEES, COLLEAGUES OR CLIENTS, THEY WILL NEVER FORGET HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL. INTERNATIONALLY-RENOWNED MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER AMANDA GORE, EXPLAINS WHAT CORPORATE JOY IS, WHY IT’S THE NEXT COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND WHY JOY AT WORK REALLY MATTERS TO THE BOTTOM LINE.

WORDS NICOLE FUGE PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

FOR SUCCESS IN THE corporate world, everything is dependent on feelings. How people feel about themselves, their job, their boss, colleagues, company and customers is critical for performance. In the last 12 years, science has revealed new secrets about how humans really function. The world has changed, but in most cases, business has not. We still try to ‘manage’ people in the same old ways, but people are diﬀerent – they demand more. They want to feel valued, to feel that what they do matters and makes a diﬀerence, that there is some purpose and meaning to what they do. They want to feel some sense of autonomy in their work and daily activities, and that they are growing and developing – not just their skills but also as people. They also want to feel that their boss cares for them, that the company they work for is socially responsible, and to feel engaged and enthusiastic about their work, so that their work is not just a job.

JOY AT WORK AND WHY IT MATTERS Engagement, innovation, creativity and inspiration are buzz words that have been focused on, but creating an environment in which people can 32 | THINKBUSINESS

achieve high levels of these is not specifically cultivated. We need to start with a focus on a joy-filled, fear-free workplace. When you feel motivated, inspired, enthusiastic and excited about what you do, you enjoy work – you are engaged. A very successful, multi-billion dollar global company called Barry Wehmiller runs its business on the credo, “We are developing great people to do extraordinary things”. Every decision they make and action they take is filtered through this credo, and it works because everyone believes it and consequently acts on it. It makes people feel good about who they are, what they do and the company. They are genuinely being supported in their growth and development; they feel they belong and are making a contribution, and they help each other in the pursuit of ‘extraordinary things’. The field of positive www.thinkbusinessmagazine.com.au

psychology tells us that positive feelings are critical for ﬂourishing workplaces.

FEAR (THE ENEMY OF PRODUCTIVITY) AND JOY The enemy of joy is fear and a workplace ruled by fear is an unproductive, high turnover, political, miserable place. The elements of joy are gratitude, compassion, hope,

reverence, generosity, listening, laughter, energy and vitality, forgiveness, cheerful enthusiasm, love and equanimity. All of these are essential leadership qualities and can transform a workplace. These words in diﬀerent versions are appearing more and more in business literature because they are the new competitive advantage. If you are a leader and create an environment in which people can feel good about what

they do – feel they belong; can work without fear; have a sense of purpose and meaning; and believe in what they are doing and what the company represents – as well as feel good about themselves, their colleagues, their customers and you, you will create a joyful, super productive workplace. TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT AMANDA VISIT WWW.AMANDAGORE.COM

BUSINESSES WITH JOYFUL WORKERS HAVE:

$ 33% HIGHER PROFITABILITY

42%

MORE PRODUCTIVITY

19%

LESS SICK LEAVE

51%

LOWER TURNOVER

10 WAYS TO BRING JOY TO YOUR BUSINESS AND MAKE IT MORE PRODUCTIVE

1 FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF How you feel about yourself will aﬀect almost every aspect of your life, especially your performance. Feeling good about yourself gives you the opportunity to make others feel good about themselves. This makes for a great colleague and boss.

2 VALUE FEELINGS Success in business is always about feelings; the way we feel about a product, organisation or person inﬂuences our decision of who we conduct business with and what we spend.

3 WORK + JOY = PROFITABILITY Joy at work matters – it is the new competitive advantage, with 2.6 times more growth in earnings per share than those with less engaged workers.

4 CREATE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT Create a work environment that is fear-free and joy-ﬁlled. Fear inhibits performance, creativity and blocks the ability to experience joy at work.

5 RECOGNISE AND ACKNOWLEDGE This is the number one thing people want in life – when employees and their work are valued, their satisfaction and productivity rises and they are motivated to maintain or improve their work.

6 KEEP LEARNING The brain loves and needs change to develop, seek opportunities to grow, learn, and develop at work.

7 BE GRATEFUL Gratitude is the foundation of joy. Gratitude reframes everything that happens in your life. Find ways and things to be grateful for in everyone and everything at work.

8 BE A GOOD FINDER Find good in everyone and every situation. There is always something good to ﬁnd and this habit will change your life. People don’t like working with pessimistic energy suckers.

9 HAVE A PURPOSE Find purpose and meaning in the work you do – of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation and perceptions during a work day, the single most important thing is making progress in meaningful work.

10 LOVE YOUR WORK Most people spend 50 per cent of their lives at work, so it’s critical to ﬁnd purpose, passion and love for it. Be aware of the need to unplug, sleep seven hours a day, exercise, take regular breaks, relax, see friends and eat right. You will live longer and be more productive. THINKBUSINESS | 33

BUSINESS

5 reasons businesses fail … and how to avoid it WORDS GAVIN SEQUEIRA, BUSINESS COACH

TOO OFTEN WE HEAR OF BUSINESSES GOING BANKRUPT AND START-UPS CLOSING THEIR DOORS BECAUSE TIMES ARE TOUGH. OVER 50 PER CENT OF SMALL BUSINESSES FAIL IN THE FIRST YEAR AND 95 PER CENT FAIL WITHIN THE FIRST FIVE YEARS. BUT WHY IS THAT? AND MORE IMPORTANTLY WHAT CAN YOU DO TO AVOID THIS HAPPENING TO YOU?

FAIL 1 NOT ENOUGH EMPHASIS ON THE CUSTOMER Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. Simply ﬂogging a product or service and not taking the time to evaluate your customer’s wants and needs will lead to failure. As a business owner you have to stay focused on what your customers are saying and asking for. Are you on top of market trends? Are you watching your competitors? Are you keeping up with technology and using it to your advantage? If you haven’t done this, then make this a priority. Customers = business.

FAIL 2 LACK OF LEADERSHIP FROM THE TOP As a business owner, you are the CEO of your ship. You need to be able to direct it in the right direction. However we are not all born leaders and you may need help in the form of a management team or board of directors to properly guide the business. If you have staﬀ, then you need to be able to share your vision so they are committed to your cause. Every great business has a great leader at the helm, they rose to the occasion and were able to get the right support

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AS A BUSINESS OWNER YOU HAVE TO STAY FOCUSED ON WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE SAYING AND ASKING FOR. ARE YOU ON TOP OF MARKET TRENDS? ARE YOU WATCHING YOUR COMPETITORS?”

behind them to make their vision a reality. One of the reasons a business will fail early on is because of a lack of focus and direction and poor leadership from the business owner/CEO and resulting management team.

FAIL 3 LACK OF INNOVATION AND DIFFERENTIATION Quite often the challenge in business is to constantly innovate and diﬀerentiate your business, products and services from your competitors so it stands out. With the advent of technology, social media and intense online competition, the need to innovate, stay sharp, focused and ahead of the curve, has never been more important. Failing to recognise where the market is heading and being prepared to innovate to stay ahead of the times has seen mighty companies go out of business. We live in a rapidly changing environment and as an astute business owner you have to be nimble to move with the market, make the tough calls and stay ahead of the trends, or risk being the dinosaur in your industry!

FAIL 4 LACK OF BUSINESS PLANNING AND STRATEGY Most business owners run their business with a day-to-day survival mentality. It’s not uncommon to find that the majority of business owners have no idea what their level of cash-flow and profitability is and are living off dangerously high levels of debt and credit, with no proper planning on how to grow, scale, leverage and become more profitable. The average business owner does not have a business plan. To make it worse, they are not getting any meaningful advice on FAILING TO PLAN IS how to manage their business. Failing PLANNING TO FAIL.” to plan is planning to fail. Make sure you seek the advice of a mentor or coach, so that you can obtain sound strategic per cent of small businesses make a advice on how to manage and grow profit, 30 per cent come out even, and your business. the remaining 30 per cent lose money. In order to have a successful and thriving business, you as the business owner must be able to account for every last dollar. Not taking your The vast majority of business owners have financials seriously could be costing you a very weak understanding of how to thousands. If managing the financials, manage the financials of a business. Quite including tax, GST, payment terms, often there is a lack of understanding accounts receivable and payables, is between managing cash flow and profit. not a strong point of yours, then get a SmallBizTrends.com states that 40 professional to help.

FAIL 5 POOR FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

THINKBUSINESS | 35

BUSINESS

7 Steps to MARKETING SUCCESS WHEN IT COMES TO FINDING SUCCESS IN BUSINESS, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS IS MARKETING. THE SYSTEM THROUGH WHICH YOU CHOOSE TO MARKET YOUR BRAND AND YOUR PRODUCT HAS THE POWER TO MAKE OR BREAK YOUR BUSINESS, EITHER DRAWING THE ATTENTION OF INVESTORS AND CLIENTS TO IT, OR LEAVING IT TRAILING BEHIND ITS COMPETITORS. The bestselling author, marketing consultant and mastermind behind the Duct Tape Marketing System, John Jantsch has made a name for himself in the marketing world.

recommends ﬁnding your target client by assessing your current clientele, focusing on your best customers, and noting their common demographic characterics.

Jantsch shared with us the seven core steps behind the incredibly successful Duct Tape Marketing System.

Jantsch then advises businesses to discover their distinguishing factor, explaining that asking customers why they chose you can help.

STEP 1 STRATEGY BEFORE TACTICS Jantsch breaks marketing strategy down into two simple components: focussing on the ideal client and differentiating your business. Believe it or not, Jantsch encourages businesses to be pickier with who they take on as clientele, saying that, “While it may seem like growth to take on a new customer, if that customer isn’t a good fit, it can actually stunt real growth”. While Jantsch acknowledges some small businesses are simply looking for people to purchase their product or service, if your business requires working alongside clients in the long term, he suggests looking beyond the client’s will to pay and instead looking at their needs and approach in order to assess whether they are the right fit for your business. To do this, he

36 | THINKBUSINESS

“If prospects can’t tell how the business is diﬀerent, they’re going to use the one measure that makes sense: price,” he says.

STEP 2 THE MARKETING HOURGLASS™ This step takes Jantsch’s deﬁnition of marketing, “getting someone who has a need to know, like and trust you”, and explains how it achieves results. If you can get your customers to know your business (whether that be through advertising or word of mouth), like your business (enough to follow you on social media or request newsletters) and trust your business (by requesting a marketing kit or sales presentation), Jantsch says you’ll be more likely to get them to try your product or service, buy it, become a loyal client and refer you to others.

STEP 3 PUBLISH EDUCATIONAL CONTENT Your business might not be in writing, but Jantsch says that by publishing online content, businesses can build trust and educate their potential clients. An online presence can also make it much easier to be found through search engines. Jantsch suggests maintaining social media accounts across multiple platforms, uploading blogs that share interesting information from your ﬁeld of work, getting clients to upload their reviews and sharing client testimonials to help boost your business’s proﬁle.

STEP 4 CREATE A TOTAL WEB PRESENCE When it comes to adapting marketing to the web, Jantsch says that, “Today’s business must evolve that thinking radically ... or face extinction”. Digital interactivity, he says, is now “the centre of the marketing universe”, with business now having to adopt an “online to oﬄine” approach that ﬁrst interacts with people online before driving them to take action in the real world.

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STEP 5 OPERATE A LEAD GENERATION TRIO Lead generation refers to the tactics employed by businesses to find prospective clients, such as advertising and directory listings. Jantsch says traditional avenues of finding leads are being used by less businesses due to their costs and a drop in their efficiency. “Message and information overload, technology to block ads (Caller ID, TiVo, XM Radio) and the availability of information may make traditional and more expensive outbound marketing efforts a thing of the past,” he explains. Instead of simply using tactics to find those looking for your products and services, Jantsch suggests businesses “must think more in terms of being found” and instead make it easier for those looking for those particular services to find you. By combining advertising (using education-based content), public relations (where your business has a relationship with local press contacts that publish stories about you) and referrals (both from loyal, happy customers and other small businesses you may work with), Jantsch says businesses will be more successful in generating leads.

“

THE AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION MAY MAKE TRADITIONAL AND MORE EXPENSIVE OUTBOUND MARKETING EFFORTS A THING OF THE PAST.”

“

IF PROSPECTS CAN’T TELL HOW THE BUSINESS IS DIFFERENT, THEY’RE GOING TO USE THE ONE MEASURE THAT MAKES SENSE: PRICE.”

STEP 6 MAKE SELLING A SYSTEM

STEP 7 LIVING BY THE CALENDAR

If a business has followed the previous steps, Jantsch says they will have, “dramatically reduced the number of leads they are chasing (decreased expense) while also dramatically increasing the number of leads they are converting to customers (increased revenue)”. But in order to close the deal and convert leads to customers, he also emphasises the importance of having a system in place to sell.

The ﬁnal step in Jantsch’s repertoire is to make marketing a habit to avoid letting the progress you make slip by the wayside.

Jantsch’s system includes discovery – which involves having a planned response to a lead’s request for more information – presenting leads with useful information appropriate to their situation, nurturing hesitant leads by not pushing them, but instead continuing to educate them and build their trust, continuing to value them after their transaction from lead to paying customer, and reviewing their experience at the end of the process.

“It’s tough to get around to marketing… You didn’t start your business because you were dying to get your hands dirty with blogging, copywriting, and selling. But you soon found out that your business would die if you did not,” explains Jantsch. Jantsch says you can make it a habit by creating monthly themes that focus on accomplishing one marketing need, undertaking weekly reviews looking at what needs doing next, and daily appointments in which you schedule at least some time on your marketing strategy. While it might take some time to get the hang of, as a small business, this is one habit you’ll want to develop, as you will reap the rewards in the long term.

BUSINESS

11 WAYS TO ATTRACT MORE customers on Facebook WORDS NITA CHILDS

BEFORE YOU START POSTING CONTENT YOU THINK IS INTERESTING, GET TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE AND TAKE THE TIME TO UNDERSTAND WHAT CONTENT THEY FIND MOST VALUABLE. Over the last decade, social media has become an integral tool for business owners and marketing strategists, providing an insight into who your customers are and what they want. But while having thousands of followers and a top notch Facebook strategy might look and sound pretty impressive, it’s even more important to know how to convert those likes into real customers and sales – turn the ‘likes’ into love for your business and brand.

SPEND TIME DEVELOPING YOUR STRATEGY

The secret to successful Facebook marketing is having the right strategy. So before you start posting content that you think is interesting, get to know WHO your audience is and take the time to understand WHAT content they ﬁnd most valuable and engaging. Then make sure to utilise Facebook insights and consider WHEN your audience is online to determine when the optimal post times are and work that into your overall strategy.

SCHEDULE POSTS AHEAD OF TIME

It’s no secret that batching tasks is the most eﬃcient way to get them done. What you want to avoid is sitting on Facebook wondering what to post, then clicking around for inspiration/ cat videos for the same amount of time it would have taken to schedule a whole week of posts. If you have your content bank organised in advance and set aside time to schedule a bunch of posts at once, you won’t just save time, you will have better quality posts and therefore more engagement from your audience.

CREATE CONTENT IN BULK

I’m going to let you in on a little secret, you know that Parisian brunch pic posted this morning by that blogger you follow – it was taken three months ago, and she was probably sitting on her couch in her PJs at the time. Businesses can learn a lot from the sneaky world of online content creators. Think of creating content as a separate activity to posting on Facebook. Keep your content bank organised and save buckets of time when implementing your post schedule.

Do you have a goal for how many page likes you want this week, this month, or even this year? If not, then set one. The next step is inviting your friends from your personal page to like your business page. Then kindly send your most supportive and connected friends a message asking them to invite their friends along and share the page as well. Take that to the next level by targetting your desired audience by using Facebook’s ‘promote your page’ tool.

SCAN THIS PAGE FOR A TUTORIAL ON HOW TO USE FACEBOOK INSIGHTS

U S E FAC E B O O K INSIGHTS TO LEARN MORE A B O U T YO U R AU D I E N C E watch the tutorial

GROW YOUR FOLLOWING, GROW IT MORE

BUSINESS

SCAN THIS PAGE TO LEARN HOW TO SCHEDULE POSTS

ENGAGE YOUR COMMUNITY DAILY

As much as we use Facebook as a business tool, we must remember that it is primarily a social media platform. You can’t be social without conversation. If you are doing all of the right things with your content and posting strategy, people will show up and start talking. But it’s important they feel appreciated, so check your page morning and night to address notiﬁcations, reply to comments and respond to messages.

BRANDED, ORIGINAL CONTENT

Building trust is essential if you want an engaged audience who is likely to purchase from you. On Facebook, trust is established through the authenticity and authority of your content. If you just post other people’s content, you are missing an opportunity to develop a relationship with your audience. Your audience will be much more likely to respond to a call to action, if you create original content to inspire, educate and entertain.

TO O B USY

LAYAR Animation

F O R FAC E B O O K ? SCHEDULE POSTS & S AV E T I M E ! watch the tutorial

BE ‘BESTIES’ WITH FACEBOOK INSIGHTS

Always remember – data is your friend. And how you source that golden data is through Facebook’s inbuilt analytics, which will give you an even deeper insight into who your audience is and their behaviour, so that you can post more of what they are interested in. This kind of measurement functionality allows you to experiment with diﬀerent styles of post content and assess their popularity, identify what time your audience is online and keep an eye on new page likes/unlikes.

MAKE YOUR PROFILE LOOK EXTRA FOXY

Your business page should showcase your brand in the foxiest way possible. Someone visiting your Facebook page, who has never heard of your business before, should be able to get an instant sense of what your brand is about. No one gets excited about blurry cover artwork, nor does it make a very good ﬁrst impression, so make sure you upload beautiful, branded cover artwork that tells your brand story, or promotes your product/service oﬀering.

GROW YOUR AUDIENCE WITH FACEBOOK – WATCH THESE FOXY TUTORIALS AND MORE AT: WWW.WHATTHEFOX.COM.AU/FAC

BE CONSISTENT BE CONSISTENT BE CONSISTENT

When your followers scroll through their newsfeed, they should be able to recognise that it’s your post before they have even seen your page name. Every photo, artwork, font, video and meme must be consistent with your brand’s visual identity. The way you write and speak to your audience must be synonymous with the tone of voice your customers experience in an actual, oﬄine conversation with the people in your business.

ADVERTISE TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS

Facebook advertising is all about objectives. Before starting a campaign, identify the goal you are trying to achieve and how much money you are willing to spend to achieve it. Figure out who you are targeting, where they are in the world, what they are interested in and what you want them to do when they see the ad. Always measure the progress of a campaign and reﬁne the message until you are happy with the results.

MAKE YOUR FOLLOWERS CUSTOMERS

It’s all well and good to have a killer facebook strategy and thousands of likes – but how do you turn those likes into real customers? Once you’ve attracted potential customers to your page with awesome content, kept them engaged with more awesome content. You need to give them the opportunity to convert. Make them an oﬀer in exchange for contact details. Or entice them to your website or even better, a landing page where they can claim your oﬀer.

SCAN THIS PAGE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TARGETED FACEBOOK AD CAMPAIGNS

S E T YO U R P R E F E R R E D AU D I E N C E T O S E E H OW M A N Y P E O P L E A R E I N YO U R TA R G E T DEMOGRAPHIC watch the tutorial

BRANDING • DESIGN • WEBSITES • PRINT • SOCIAL MEDIA • MARKETING • STRATEGY

OX.COM.AU/FACEBOOK

GROW YOUR AUDIENCE WITH FACEBOOK WATCH THESE FOXY TUTORIALS AND MORE AT: WWW.WHATTHEFOX.COM.AU/FACEBOOK

BUSINESS

Converting LEADS to CLIENTS BUSINESSES SPEND A LOT OF TIME WORRYING OVER THEIR SALES PROCESSES AND THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT TO DO SO. BUT WHAT HAPPENS ONCE YOU CONVERT THE IMPRESSION TO A LEAD? IN A CLIENT-BASED BUSINESS, WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THEY’VE ‘OPTED IN’ WILL MAKE OR BREAK YOUR ENTIRE OPERATION. MARK MCRAE

“NOT SO!” YOU SAY. Your sales funnel is on lock; you’re gathering leads through social media, direct email, search engines, advertising and promotions, and referrals. Once you have them, you can market to them forever. What Sunshine Coast entrepreneur Mark McRae asks is, “Why would you want to? If you think your goal is to get them in a funnel and just keep ﬂinging sales messages at them, you’re asking the wrong questions,” says Mark. Questions – the right ones – have been at the core of his companies’ successes for nearly two decades. The energetic CEO advises other companies, including Fortune 500s, on how to streamline their processes, while always keeping the end-game in mind.

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“The goal – the 100,000-foot view – isn’t to retain a lead. It is to convert the lead into a paid client, and retain them.”

client. Once you get in the room (or on the call) with the decision maker, it is all about them.

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU

LAY A STRONG FOUNDATION

If your existing lead generation process is netting you the kind of leads you want but you aren’t seeing the conversion you anticipate, chances are that you have not laid the groundwork for the prospect to say, “Yes!” and convert from prospect to client. According to Mark, the important thing to remember is that they want you to convert them, if you can give them what they need. Remaining focused on the customer’s needs, and helping the customer articulate exactly what those needs are, are among the most important steps in turning a lead into a

You may think the best way to ﬁnd out what the customer needs is to ask them. Sometimes that works, but you might be surprised to ﬁnd out how many successful businesspeople cannot fully articulate what they want, why they want it, or how they might go about getting it. Messaging, from the beginning of your sales funnel to the face-to-face meeting, should be about engaging the prospect in a conversation. Everyone is trying to sell them ‘the solution’. By opening a dialogue with them instead, you are www.thinkbusinessmagazine.com.au

already creating momentum for pulling away from the pack. Do you need to ‘sell’ them? Yes, a little. But if you’ve got the goods (proof, percentage improvements, endorsements, or even guarantees) you won’t have to hit them over the head for them to understand that you are very good at what you do. By opening a conversation, you find out where the customer’s head is at and what is troubling them most about what’s working and not working in their structure. These kinds of regular queries are evident in Mark’s marketing machine in various businesses. His firms employ detailed customer surveys, photo contests, giveaways, and have teams on call 24/7 to converse with customers anywhere in the world to meet their needs. Those kinds of surveys are blunt instruments in any lead conversion process. What they do, however, is create a sense of familiarity – of engagement with the prospect – that sets up everything that comes after. When they enter a contest or respond to a survey, they are in effect giving you the first strong “Yes!” of the conversion process.

BEFORE YOU ‘GET IN THE ROOM’ You can’t get the big yes if you don’t get in the room, and it is tempting to rush headlong into a meeting as soon as you can. However, Mark cautions entrepreneurs to prepare at least a basic strategy.

Knowing your answers to most of these questions changes the balance of power before you even walk in the door. You will have to dedicate time, expertise and resources to take on this client, and you are there on a factfinding mission. That shifts your internal perception of the meeting, so that your confidence and demeanor change from ‘asking’ to ‘assessing’. If you feel your services and their needs are not a good fit, understanding that while you might like them, you don’t need them, makes it much easier for you to accurately gauge your side of the equation. Most businesses are advised to think that as long as you have a client questionnaire to assess the prospect’s needs, that you counter by offering your personal answers to perceived weaknesses in their processes, you’re doing it right. It was the standard, and if that’s how you’re doing things, it’s probably why you’re reading now.

INSTEAD ‘GET ACTIVE!’ Instead of a sheaf of documents and a canned presentation, Mark advises you to “get active” with your decision maker. You may have technology there and use it to demonstrate from time to time, but where the rubber meets the road in Mark’s process is in mapping.

Instead of just a laptop, bring along a whiteboard or a large size pad of paper and a marker. It doesn’t matter if you can draw or print well, what matters is you are going to actively engage your prospect in designing their own plan of action. The best way to manage the room is to set yourself up near a corner of the table and invite the decision maker to take the seat at the other side of the corner. That way you’re in a collaborative space. If you need to use a presentation board or pad on a tripod, invite the decision maker to sit right at the front of the table, facing you, eliminating the barrier altogether. In a virtual meeting environment, it is worth investing in visual conferencing software like Go To Meeting, using free software like Skype, where you can show your notepad on webcam, or sharing your screen and drawing out the plan on a virtual whiteboard.

THE PROSPECT CREATES THE BLUEPRINT This active information gathering makes the prospect feel that they designed the solution. Because it’s their blueprint on the table when you’re done, they have pride of ownership and buy into the ideas you provide. By maintaining an active process with the potential client, you change their emotional

WHAT MATTERS IS YOU ARE GOING TO ACTIVELY ENGAGE YOUR PROSPECT IN DESIGNING THEIR OWN PLAN OF ACTION.”

“80 per cent of all businesses fail because of improper planning,” says Mark. • Who will be the lead team member to fulﬁl the contract? • How many people will dedicate how much time and manpower to this particular client? • How much will you be asked to bring to the table to help them in exchange for their signature on the dotted line and a cheque?

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BUSINESS

and mental state, so they are already saying yes to you during the process, priming the pump for the ‘big yes”. Mark approaches his clients the same way he approaches his employees. “If I can give them what they most want, what they need, they will give me what I need,” he says. What you’re after now is the lead’s story: a snapshot of where they are now, a vision of where they want to be, and the process they’ve used to get to where they are today. Your personality or the variety of business you are in may alter the questions a bit, but if you ask the basics and follow up correctly, you will start eliciting agreements. Your questions should always be informational, not yes or no — at least at this stage. Instead of “Do you know your gross sales for last year? Last month?” ask, “What were your gross sales last year?”. You’ll get a very clear picture of how much your prospect knows about how their business operates and what it takes to be successful. If they can’t answer, you may either decide to rejoice or to run away because they have just shown you one of the biggest issues in their efforts is a lack of engagement. As you ask each question, box it out on your map and write the answers below. If something occurs to you about a solution, make a note of it so you can come back to it. Remember, it’s about the prospect and their needs, not about you and your solutions yet. Periodically, you want to ask for confirmation that you have the numbers, or your understanding of their process, right. It’s their first chance to start saying yes.

PROCESS You do the same kind of map to answer the questions surrounding, “Tell me about your process”. Whether it’s a sales funnel or manufacturing, process is process, and since you’re an expert in what they need, as they talk (and you continue to map), you will find inevitable holes in their chain. Just note them on the map, do not talk about them yet. Follow up with specifics. If they say, “Well, the customer comes in, and we sell them plastic flamingoes”. Ask, “And how did they know you sell flamingoes?

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Where are those ads placed? How did you decide to allocate advertising to television instead of online?” and any other relevant questions until you have unpacked the process on your map.

MORE QUESTIONS… If you have determined this lead may be a good potential ﬁt as a client, this is where your game shifts subtly. If you do it well, it seems like the same level of information gathering you’ve already spent a few minutes mapping. Because you are an expert, you have likely identiﬁed several spots in their processes that with just a small tweak could improve their whole operation. It’s important to remember that just like you, your prospect is focused on increasing the bottom line and doing more and better with less. So this is where you start getting the prospect to see themselves as a partner in the process, not someone to be sold something.

FOLLOW THE MAP TO CLOSE THE CLIENT Remember all the notes you wrote beside elements where you knew your expertise could help the customer? This is when you start pulling those tools out of your toolkit. Go back to each stage of the map and start discussing the solutions you could provide, but again, in question form. For example, “If you were able to sell 250 more flamingoes a month, based on your figures, wouldn’t that increase your gross by 25 per cent a year?” Notice this question is designed to elicit a yes. If the prospect starts saying no here, there’s a disconnect, and you may want to reassess whether you want them as a client. They don’t have to agree to everything you suggest either. Remember, you’re fact-finding. You only need to implement one or two of the items you identified to help them increase their bottom line. If you have specialties, be sure during this phase to discuss how they’d fit into the process, again by asking questions. Recap all of your potential solutions and ask for confirmation as you go. According to Mark, when you close with this mapping method, you are already in position as the authority who just

showed them how they could up their gross proﬁts by 35 per cent or more a year. Use that authority to assume they are signing on with you and start talking about how to implement your business relationship. You can ask outright if you would like, or practice what is called the assumptive close, where you give them a concrete expectation of your next contact time, give them homework and a due date (next meeting), and remind them of the goal. Most of the world’s top businessmen who have to sell anything, rely on a similar method because it has shown as much as an 80 per cent success rate. If a prospect throws his hands up and objects at this stage of the game, you can either handle the objection, or not. So, let me ask you a question. If you implemented Mark’s active conversion strategy, could you increase your lead conversion to as much as 80 per cent?

YOU’VE GOT ‘EM, NOW KEEP ‘EM When you ﬁnalise a deal, you may feel like you’ve scaled Everest, and could be tempted to let the client relationship unfold organically. While every business relationship has its own personality, the end game remains constant and as the newly crowned expert in your client’s eyes, you cannot aﬀord to drop the ball. “How you onboard a client, the way you bring them into your organisational environment, can break or make your relationship for life,” says Mark. www.thinkbusinessmagazine.com.au

As Eric Pratt said in a recent Hubspot article, “Failing to properly onboard new clients has consequences that can ripple through the life of the engagement. Without the proper plan in place, execution becomes misguided, and the campaign has no direction. A campaign without clear direction and complete buy-in on both sides doesn’t stand much of a chance”. One of the great things about Mark’s active approach is that he eliminates almost two-thirds of the average ﬁrm’s onboarding issues in the initial client pitch. Using the active approach, you already know a great deal about the client’s assets, current situation, structure, and what existing processes they are already using. Here are the basics of what you need to clarify with a client before you begin implementing your campaign or procedures: • Clear expectations regarding deliverables, creatives, billing, payment and execution. • Complete access to whatever internals the client has that you need to work with. • An accurate accounting of the ﬁgures and access to who is responsible for them. • A point person, for both teams. It might be you and the client, or it might be your lieutenants. However you structure it, both teams need to know who is accountable on either side.

ONCE EVERYONE HAS SAID HELLO AND YOU’VE RUN THROUGH THE OBJECTIVES, BREAK DOWN INTERIM AND LONG-TERM GOALS, AND THEN GET OUT OF THE MEETING AND ONTO THE WORK!”

BUILD YOUR TEAM AND GIVE THEM WINGS You may not have a deep bench when it comes to building your team, but if you are fortunate enough to have a decently sized staff, make sure you line up your team based on temperament. Rapport is almost more important than the work at this stage of the game. If your team and the client get along, you can surmount almost any issue. Give your team time to get on board, and give them all the background information they need to do so. Depending on the type of work, that could be a day or a month, but make sure your creatives and problem solvers have time to wrap their brains around the problems and come up with ways to solve them. Schedule a team meeting with both sides. Since they’ve had lots of preparation time, you are much more assured of presenting your client with a whole fleet of competent experts instead of a top-down firm where there’s only one person ‘in the know’. Like the meeting with the decision maker, this meeting should be carefully structured and should be no more than

an hour. Once everyone has said hello and you’ve run through the objectives, break down interim and long-term goals, and then get out of the meeting and onto the work! Meet every interim goal either ahead of deadline or under budget if you can manage it, and communicate any deviation and adjustments that need to be made as soon as possible. Mark operates most of his ﬁrms in the online world, and as he says, “A week is like a year in internet time”. So communication is king from this point on. Be transparent and complete, every step of the way. You should schedule client follow-up calls at least every 30 days, where you walk the client through the map to show where you are in the process and adjust as needed. If you follow Mark’s active engagement model, you should see an immediate impact in your conversion rates.

MARK MCRAE PHONE: (07) 54529 849 WWW.MARKMCRAE.COM

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MONEY

Get your business FINANCIALLY FIT WORDS MELISSA BROWNE, FINANCE EXPERT

BUSINESS STRATEGY EXPERT AND FOUNDER OF THE A&TA AND THE MONEY BARRE, MELISSA BROWNE SHARES HER ADVICE FOR ACHIEVING GOLDEN OUTCOMES IN BUSINESS.

I LOVE WATCHING the Olympics. It’s usually on the couch with chocolate but nonetheless, I’m in awe of the determination it takes to get to that elite level. Of course, the athletes don’t get there by crossing their ﬁngers and hoping or by waking up in the morning and deciding it’s too hard and hitting the snooze button. Instead they set up a series of daily habits and rituals that cover everything to help ensure success and the achievement of their long term goals. It’s the same for us mere mortals. Too often business owners see me and want the magic formula that will guarantee success, but sadly there’s no such thing. However, by working out what is important to you, what your goals are, and how you can create activity and track those goals, you can set up a series of rituals and habits that will ensure you become, perhaps not quite an Olympic athlete, but certainly a stronger business owner.

1. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS You need to understand what your current numbers are so you know what you have to work with.

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2. KNOW WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO BE Knowing your numbers is great, but working out a goal for what you want them to be is even more important. Once you’ve worked out your retention rate, conversion rate, leads, average sale price, number of times customers do business with you, net proﬁt, debtor days, etc., then work out what these numbers should be and by when.

3. KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

Hoping the numbers will improve is not a strategy. Work out the steps you need to take to make it happen and commit it to paper (or computer). Then get started.

IF YOU’RE NOT HITTING YOUR TARGETS, ALTER YOUR ACTIVITY BEFORE YOU ABANDON YOUR TARGETS.”

4. WORK OUT A 90 DAY PLAN

Once you’ve completed step three, it can be daunting to know where to start, so work out the activity that is critical to do first. Break it down into those activities you need to do in your workplace tomorrow. Just figure out the next steps, the date and commit to doing those things in your first 90 days.

5. STAY ON TRACK

Create weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual milestones and then check in weekly to make sure you’re on track. If you’re not hitting your targets, alter your activity before you abandon your targets.

6. START AGAIN

Every 90 days work out your next lot of activity and keep going. That’s because success isn’t a magic pill — it’s a training program committed to and performed daily. It’s a habit. Finally, get help if you need it. There’s a reason why professional athletes have coaches. Sure they might be able to do it by themselves but it’s much easier when there’s someone there pushing them along, helping to correct any imbalances, celebrating with them and keeping them accountable to what they say they are going to do.

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MONEY

$PEND IT IT’S TIME TO SPEND! MAKE WORK EXCITING WITH THE HOTTEST GO-TO GADGETS AND CLEVER CREATIONS THAT WILL MAKE LIFE EASIER AND MORE PRODUCTIVE.

HEAVY WEIGHT The Balanzza Digital Luggage Scale was made with the frequent traveller in mind. It is USB-rechargeable, meaning there’s no need to travel with batteries, and it switches between pounds and kilograms, holding the reading so you can set your bags back down to check their weight. RRP $49.95. Stockist: Global Travel Products, www.globaltravelproducts.com.au

ONLINE FREEDOM F-Secure’s VPN App is particularly good for business travellers. A virtual private network (or VPN) creates a secure internet connection so you can browse online without risking your data privacy, ensuring you can securely connect to public WI-FI. It also protects your personal data from harmful sites and applications. Protect three devices for one year, RRP $79.99, website: www.f-secure. com, stockists: www.f-secure.com. au, Apple App Store, Google Play

LIVE ACTION

STAND UP Research has proven that standing is better for our health than sitting. VARIDESK has found a solution for even the most compact oﬃce space. The Soho White is the smallest standing desk model from the VARIDESK RANGE, with just enough space for the minimalist who needs a stand up desk that’s the right size for their laptop and easy to move. It’s a single ﬂat-deck that’s 76cm wide and pops up or folds down in seconds, RRP $275, available from au.varidesk.com

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The GoPro Hero4 Session is a small cube-shaped compact camera. The smallest and lightest of the GoPro range thus far, the Hero4 Session has specially designed mounts and professional 1440p30 video quality to ensure you capture the perfect footage from any angle. Durable and waterproof to a depth of 10m without any separate housing, the Hero4 Session has easy one-button control and a dual microphone for perfect audio clarity. RRP $298, stockist: Harvey Norman, The Good Guys, JB Hi-Fi and www.shop.gopro.com

SCAN THIS PAGE TO WATCH A REVIEW ON GIZMODO.COM

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MONEY

SCAN THIS PAGE TO WATCH A REVIEW ON GIZMODO.COM

POWER TRIP The award winning PowerCube is the world’s smallest four to five multi-socket power solution. Unlike the standard rectangular powerboards, it has a square design, which takes up 70 per cent less space. It’s currently available in Australia in two variations — the PowerCube Original Extended, which has five power outlets, and PowerCube USB Extended, which comes with two USB ports and four power outlets. RRP from $29.95, stockists: Officeworks, Harvey Norman and Howard’s Storage

FANTASTIC MEMORY The iXpand Memory Case by tech accessory creator SanDisk combines the memory storage capabilities of a mini SD card with a phone case to produce a multifaceted product that protects your phone while ensuring you never run out of room for the most important things on your phone. Created for iPhone 6 and 6s, this nifty case is has a hard exterior lined with soft rubber to protect your phone, while the three storage sizes available – 32GB, 64GB and 128GB – guarantee you’ll have room for all those photos and videos. There’s even the option for an add on battery pack for an extra cost. RRP from $59.99 for 32GB, stockist: www.amazon.com

IGNITE THE SPARK The Wacom Bamboo Spark brings note-taking into the 20 Century, marrying the tactile joy of a traditional ink pen with digital technology in a smartpen and folio that synchronises what users write and sketch to your smart device for fast, simple editing and sharing. Synced to the Wacom Cloud, no idea will ever be lost, and handwritten notes can also be converted to text for more professional use. RRP $249, stockists: JB HiFi, Harvey Norman and the Wacom e-store, www.buywacom.com.au

SUPER SLEEVE The Thule Gauntlet 1.0 Macbook Sleeve provides super tough protection for the Macbook or Macbook Pro. Semi-rigid, highdensity construction provides protection on its own or in a backpack or bag; water resistant and an elastic strap keeps laptops securely in place. Availaible in black, grey and blue, RRP $64.95, Stockists: JB HiFi/ Harvey Norman/ The Good Guys

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MONEY

Learn how to retire from your business and still HAVE AN INCOME WORDS CHRIS CHILDS

THE POWER OF SEPARATING YOUR BUSINESS, YOUR LIFE AND YOUR INVESTMENTS MANY BUSINESS OWNERS view their business as not only providing their income now, but at some time in the future they look to it to provide their major asset to retire on. However we all know that trying to predict future business asset values is not easy. Changing trends, new competitors or even council planning changes can significantly affect our businesses, and many of these impacts are outside of our control. So it probably makes smart financial sense to not just rely on your business to deliver all of your future financial security. It is vital to look at outside business investments to ensure that you have your post retirement wealth being built simultaneously to running your business.

“

SEPARATING YOUR PERSONAL AND BUSINESS SIDES FROM YOUR INVESTMENT SIDE REALLY IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.”

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SCAN THIS PAGE TO LEARN HOW TO COMPARTMENTALISE YOUR FINANCES INTO COLUMNS

“

HAVING THE RIGHT FINANCE PLATFORMS IN PLACE... AND KEEPING YOUR DIFFERENT WORLDS FROM COLLIDING IS THE SECRET TO STRESS-FREE INVESTING.”

Having the right ﬁnance platforms in place to do this, and keeping your diﬀerent worlds from colliding is the secret to stress-free investing. It’s all about being able to separate your life into three or four ‘columns’.

business funds. Having a self-funding portfolio doesn’t require investing in higher risk, positively geared properties. Conservative properties that are negatively geared are just as easy to manage in the right system.

True separation gives your property or investment portfolio a chance to mature and stand on its own. By setting up a ‘buﬀer fund’ you can also protect your lifestyle from the ups and downs of investing as well.

For business owners the columns are personal, business, superannuation and investment. By keeping all of these areas separate, you can quickly gain control and ﬁnd where any ﬁnancial leakage is coming from.

Unfortunately, most people get their banking advice from a bank. Often we go to the bank with hat in hand and we are just grateful they agree to lend us the funds and accept whatever the bank manager says. It’s like asking the mouse where to put the cheese really.

While you may be an expert in your own ﬁeld, you may not have the experience in ﬁnance platforms, cash management and investing to formulate the perfect plan. It is important to take the time to work out what your plan is and what you have to do to achieve it. Have a fresh set of eyes look at your whole picture.

Then you look at strategies to improve lifestyle because let’s face it, lifestyle is everything. First look at the perfect banking structure for all of the sections of your life and business and most people are amazed at the freedom that can be achieved purely by getting organised with their money and accounts. Having the right ﬁnance platform and advice means most are not only on the path to 10 properties in 10 years, but they don’t have any investment costs coming out of their personal or

You need to look at how to make your money work for you, not the bank and concentrate on personal debt reduction, organisation, business cash ﬂow and the ability to invest. Separating your personal and business sides from your investment side really is the key to success. We start on the personal side of things, because this is the perfect place to start. However, the true magic starts when you can concentrate on the investment side.

We often get so busy working in our business or jobs taking care of everyone else we forget to take the time to set our goals and put in place a strategy to be able to comfortably step oﬀ the mouse wheel when it’s time to retire. It’s time to put your own oxygen mask on and work out your money survival plan. CHRIS@THINKMONEY.COM.AU

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MONEY

How to improve your PROFITS with testing WORDS TONY ZANE, WWW.EAGLEANDCROSSMARKETING.COM

SPLIT TESTING OR A/B TESTING IS ONE OF THE EASIEST METHODS OF INCREASING CONVERSIONS AND ADDING A LITTLE MORE R TO YOUR ROI. ALL SORTS OF SAVVY BUSINESSES AND MULTI-NATIONALS USE THESE KILLER TECHNIQUES TO GAIN MASSIVE INSIGHTS ON VISITOR BEHAVIOUR AND CONVERSION RATES.

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“

THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNET, EVER-IMPROVING SOFTWARE AND MOBILE APPS HAVE MADE SPLIT TESTING MORE ACCESSIBLE AND PRACTICAL.”

HOW WOULD A one percent increase in conversions aﬀect your company? What about a ﬁve percent increase in conversions or even a ten percent boost in conversions?

Up to now we’ve discussed just one variant of split testing, A/B Testing, but there are a number of diﬀerent split testing methodologies you can adopt to improve your performance.

Making a positive impression on your conversion rate is priceless and it’s not as complicated as you think. After all, what could be better than ﬁguring out the best online promotional and marketing strategies for your business? Using split testing, we have increased conversion rates for our clients from 22 percent to 40 percent just by changing the background of certain important pages on their websites.

The most popular methods include: • A/B Testing • Multivariate Testing • The Taguchi Method • Web Usability

Split testing allows you to test nearly everything on your website or other marketing materials including headlines, buttons, banners, calls to action (CTA) and so on. Finding an element that performs better than the alternatives will make much better use of your online traﬃc or marketing material. Split testing has existed in some form or another for as long as there have been merchants putting up signs and displaying their wares. So while the concepts themselves are not entirely new, the evolution of the internet, ever-improving software and mobile apps have made split testing more accessible and practical. By the year 2000, tech giant Google was running split tests on everything including the number of search results to display on their search results pages. Today Google’s split tests number well into the tens of thousands.

MULTIVARIATE TESTING This method of testing allows you to carry out many tests concurrently. Testing which headline to use, text, images, prices, oﬀers, and buttons can be conducted in a single test. In a multivariate split test, visitors see diﬀerent combinations of these elements at the same time. The results show which elements perform best and this data provides the info required to create a page featuring only the highest converting elements.

THE TAGUCHI METHOD Named after Mr. Genichi Taguchi, a Japanese engineer and statistician, this method has been applied to everything from automotive R&D to advertising. Taguchi’s multivariate (two or more variable quantities) testing tools can gather results based on fewer tests than classic A/B testing, but the jury is still divided on Taguchi and the validity of results.

SPLIT TESTING SOFTWARE PACKAGES WORTH CHECKING OUT www.vwo.com www.optimizely.com www.kissmetrics.com Start small and run your tests on signiﬁcant segments of your audience to produce valid results. With a little practice, you’ll be boosting your own conversions in no time.

WEB USABILITY A technique used to evaluate a website by testing it on users. This is a great way to improve the user experience on your website. It highlights sticky areas that could be improved. In this type of web testing the idea is to create a scenario wherein a person performs a list of tasks that a ﬁrst time website visitor is likely to perform. These results are in the form of heat maps showing the most clicked or scrolled areas of the site.

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MONEY 152.10%

FOCUS ON THINGS THAT ARE MOST LIKELY TO HAVE A HUGE IMPACT

91.86% 81.92%

With so many options for testing and improving the elements on your web site it can be easy to go overboard. As with many things in life, moderation is key. There’s no need to start testing every element on your website immediately to see an improvement. In fact, this can be counter-productive. Instead, focus on the things that are most likely to have a big impact. Start with the simplest elements you can and work your way through all over time.

HOW ONE SIMPLE CHANGE IMPROVED OUR CONVERSION RATE BY OVER 40 PERCENT Here’s an example of a split test that we conducted for one of our clients. This particular client releases new products on a regular basis and are always keen on us running a few tests for them to determine areas where we can improve their conversions. So this particular test was run across four of their most recent product launches and the results were quite impressive. We picked an element of their website that is usually overlooked. In an attempt to boost conversions, we decided to test three versions of one of their main content pages with three diﬀerent background images.

THIS SIMPLE EXPERIMENT TURNED OUT TO HAVE A MASSIVE IMPACT Here are the parameters of the split test: Essentially, all the content on the three pages remained exactly the same. In fact, all other elements of the web page were identical. The only diﬀerence was the background image being used. During the ﬁrst product launch the test pages were created and added to our split testing software. The split testing software evenly distributed the client’s

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SKYLINE IMAGE

BLACK BACKGROUND

RELATED IMAGE

“

WE DECIDED TO TEST THREE VERSIONS OF ONE OF THEIR MAIN CONTENT PAGES.”

website visitors to one of the three pages with a diﬀerent background image. At the end of the split test, the page with the black background emerged as the strongest (see graph above). Armed with this information, we simply disabled the pages with poor performing background images and let the winning page be shown to all our client’s website visitors.

SPLIT TESTING HELPS YOU GET MORE BANG FOR YOUR MARKETING AND ADVERTISING BUCKS Running a few simple split tests with a sample group allows you to identify the highest converting combination of web page elements on your pages. With your split test data you can tweak your web pages and/or offers and place all the elements on the page in their highest converting configurations before you start pushing large volumes of traffic to your web pages.

www.thinkbusinessmagazine.com.au

IN PROPERTY INVESTMENT… RESEARCH IS THE KEY. Why is Think Investment Realty different? Before presenting any property to a potential investor we look at why to invest. And it starts with research. Property Research is like a Jigsaw puzzle, you only have to be missing one piece and the puzzle is incomplete. At Think Investment Realty we pride ourselves on doing the most comprehensive research available. We have developed a unique Property Scoring System to identify the best properties for you to choose from and to get the market timing right All markets go through periods of growth, periods of ﬂat, time to buy and time to wait.

In assessing every development, we look at: • • • • • • •

Location Population Movements Employment & Economic Growth Demographic Changes Infrastructure Spending Rentability Timing

We have a dedicated team of research experts who utilize these cutting edge research systems. They analyse relevant data from all of these sources to locate the next hot spots and stay ahead of the market. Armed with this research, we then source properties in areas with good rental yields and future demand as well as high capital growth. All of our properties are purpose built to suit the speciﬁc demand of renters in the area making your investment stand out from the others.

JACK CHILDS EXPERIENCED PROPERTY INVESTOR & PRINCIPAL OF THINK INVESTMENT REALTY

To find out more about the best investment property hotspots call Jack on 07 5451 1080 or visit www.thinkinvestmentrealty.com.au

THINKBUSINESS | 55

SENSATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ON OUR BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE COAST

THE OBSERVATORY Buderim Take in the vista of coastal views from your luxury residence in The Observatory. Situated in the heart of Buderim, The Observatory is just a short walk to shops, restaurants, parklands and Buderim State School. Enjoy a relaxed and luxurious atmosphere with breathtaking ocean views from your own private terrace or balcony. • Priced from $569,000 • Ducted air-conditioning throughout • Private terraces, decks and balconies for entertaining • Highset ceilings and open living areas • Quality stainless appliances and high quality ﬁnishes

Buderim ranks as the most popular suburb on the Sunshine Coast – a self-contained community with ample services and amenities on its doorstep. For investors it boasts solid rental yields – the median yields are 5% for houses and 5.5% for units – and low vacancy rates, currently 1.4% (according to SQM Research).

Be quick only 8 exclusive apartments available.

8 EXCLUSIVE RESIDENCES WITH AN ENVIOUS OUTLOOK

SELLING NOW

For a free information pack contact Jack, Troy or Dan on 07 5451 1080

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Property Investment Made Easy

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FROM MOUNTAIN TO THE BEACH

24 BOUTIQUE APARTMENTS 2 MINUTES FROM THE BEACH

SEA BREEZE Mooloolaba The perfect blend of picturesque beachside location and affordable quality residences. Designed for modern living, these boutique apartments are ideally located in the heart of Mooloolaba, only 200 metres to the beach and shopping. Complete with contemporary ﬁ ttings and ﬁxtures, air-conditioned master bedrooms, security access, and with just 24 apartments over 8 levels, SeaBreeze Mooloolaba offers a fantastic lifestyle opportunity. • Unique and sophisticated architecture • 24 apartments all 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom

• Affordable purchase prices with a great return on investment • All apartments have split system airconditioning units • Residents’ entertainment area with BBQ facilities • Construction forecast to start mid 2016, completion mid 2017

2 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom Apartments from $439,000.

• Low Body Corporates charges

SELLING NOW

For a free information pack contact Jack, Troy or Dan on 07 5451 1080

COMING SOON! BRADMAN AVENUE, MAROOCHYDORE

TAKE A 3D TOUR SCAN THIS PAGE WITH THE AUGMENT APP

Be first to find out about the release of this exciting investment opportunity in the heart of Maroochydore by calling Jack on 07 5451 1080.

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FOCUS ON BRISBANE

HABITAT Chermside

HOUSE & LAND Lawnton

5 Quality Apartments just 9km from the CBD. Priced from only $442,000.

4 Bedroom House and land packages priced from only $517,828

Chermside, one of Queensland’s leading retail precincts, major employment nodes and a “principal Activity Centre” under the Government’s initiative for future City hubs - is a highly sought-after location for professionals seeking high quality living near thriving work opportunities.

Only 5km to the new Sunshine Coast University “Petrie Campus”, currently in the ﬁnal stages of planning. The campus will be home to over 10,000 students in the next ten years.

Chermside still offers a signiﬁcantly cheaper price point than neighbouring suburbs, making it a prime location to invest. • Close to Downfall Creek and over 20km of bike and walking paths • Nearby leading health facilities and nine education facilitates within 2km • Westﬁeld Chermside is only 1.6km down the road

• • • • •

28km from Brisbane Airport 25km to Brisbane CBD 10km to North Lakes Lawnton’s current rental vacancy rate is 1.7% Close to Strathpice Centre, with over 150 specialty stores and food outlets, open 7 days • 2.2km to train station • Close to Bulocky Rest on the edge of Lake Samsonvale

ALL SELLING NOW For a free information pack contact Jack, Troy or Dan on 07 5451 1080

A REAL ESTATE AGENCY WITH A DIFFERENCE Think Investment Realty challenge the conventional way people go about property investments. We have a dedicated team who travel all over Queensland and meet with each developer ensuring that each property complies with our high and exacting standards. TO ASSIST PROPERTY INVESTORS, WE PROVIDE: • • • • •

Full market analysis Extensive research on locations Properties sourcing at the right time in the right location Property to maximize growth and yield House and land, units, townhouses and off the plan opportunities

WE MANAGE THE ENTIRE PROCESS FOR YOU: • • • •

Negotiating with developers to get the very best price Keeping the developer on track with the build Checking the planned finish and fi ttings Ensuring a fixed price construction contract

COME TO OUR FREE EVENTS To find out more about how to either start or increase your property portfolio, come to one of our regular property events or make a time to come and have | THINKBUSINESS a58chat with us. Call us on 07 5451 1080 or visit thinkinvestmentrealty.com.au

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PROPERT Y

SCAN THIS PAGE TO UNLOCK EXCLUSIVE VIDEO CONTENT

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE HENZELLS LEGACY WORDS LOUISA OTTAVIANI PHOTOS PAULA BRENNAN

WITH CORE VALUES OF ETHICS, INTEGRITY AND HONESTY, THE 80-YEAR LEGACY OF HENZELLS AGENCY CONTINUES TO DOMINATE COASTAL REAL ESTATE. AS ONE OF the oldest and most respected real estate agencies on the Sunshine Coast, family owned Henzells Agency has been synonymous with Caloundra property for over 80 years. Priding itself on its vision of ‘Real People, Real Service, Real Estate’, at the core of this leading agency’s impressive reputation is its commitment to building a ﬁrst-class, passionate, local team. A team of everyday people who genuinely care about the future of the business and of the industry as a whole, focused on providing a superior service to everyone who comes through the door. Choosing the right people to continue that legacy of integrity is, in their view, the key to success. So who is behind the scenes at Henzells Agency, and why are they so passionate about real estate?

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“

WE ENSURE OUR TEAM IS MADE UP OF THOSE WHO HAVE AN INTEREST IN THE FUTURE OF THE LOCAL AREA AND WHO CAN CARRY ON THE LEGACY THAT WAS STARTED SO MANY YEARS AGO.”

estate or property—my sister, sister-inlaw, cousins, aunties and uncles—so it can be a little dull at family dinners for people not in property!

HAMISH BOLDERSTON, SALES MANAGER

I’ve always had a passion for property, and real estate has been a big part of my life. My grandmother had a real estate agency on the Northern Beaches in Sydney and it was a family run business; at the time she was probably the only woman operating an agency on her own. Any days oﬀ school would be spent there helping out. The majority of my extended family now works in real

KATHERINE ALLAN, OPERATIONS MANAGER

I joined Henzells Agency 11 years ago as an admin assistant and have since worked my way up to Operations Manager. I applied for the admin position because I had a friend who worked here and she told me what a fantastic place it was to work! My job is to make sure processes and procedures are followed, so I’m always looking for better ways of doing things. We want to be a leader in technology, so we’ve gone from an oﬃce where

In a funny way, Henzells Agency chose me! I was working in property in Noosa, when I met with one of the owners of Henzells about possibly joining the team. I liked the idea of being involved in the business—it was family orientated and had a team of people with similar ethics and aspirations to drive the business forward. It felt like it was a place where we could change some of the more outdated systems around technology but maintain that earthy peopleorientated feel about things. I believe this is what we are truly about: providing a superior service to our vendors and

everything was on paper, to having almost all systems running electronically. I’m passionate about driving the business forward. We do a lot of training and I believe our property managers are the best trained on the Coast. They need to be, they need to know the law and the latest processes inside out. I love the operational side of things. No two days are ever the same and my friend was right, it is a great place to work! One of the best things is that it is really family orientated. I can pick up my daughter from school, be involved in the community and feel supported in everything we do. And because the team is so carefully chosen to ensure the right ﬁt, we all get on really well and genuinely enjoy coming to work; there is a great dynamic. My dad was into property development.

clients, by making sure our integrity that has been around for 80 years ﬂows through every area of the business and remains part of the business for the future. A big part of that is choosing the right people for the business. We ensure our team is made up of those who have an interest in the future of the local area and who can carry on the legacy that was started so many years ago. Outside work? I’m married with two young boys, so we live a very outdoorsoriented lifestyle. Being Vice Chair and an Age Manager for Nippers keeps my weekends busy, and I’m also involved in kids’ soccer. But mostly I really like to enjoy that Coastal lifestyle with my family that drew us up from Sydney.

Growing up I’d often have a wallpaper scraper in my hand as he would buy a dilapidated house and we’d do it up. But for me, my move into working in property was more about working at Henzells Agency as a company, rather than being in real estate. My life outside work is busy! I am heavily involved in Irish folk music. My daughter also does Irish dancing so a lot of my spare time is tied back to Irish dancing or folk music.

“

WE DO A LOT OF TRAINING AND I BELIEVE OUR PROPERTY MANAGERS ARE THE BEST TRAINED ON THE COAST.” THINKBUSINESS | 61

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GRANT GOODRUM, RESIDENTIAL SALES PROPERTY CONSULTANT

I’m pretty new to Henzells Agency, having joined the team in early 2016. But I’ve been in real estate for six years—four on the Sunshine Coast and two in Bundaberg, where I am from. When Roy and Garry approached me to join Henzells I jumped at the chance. Henzells Agency has a great reputation, that legacy is something that no one else can oﬀer on the Sunshine Coast. I work with great people. Joining a family-run agency, where some employees have been here for over a decade has been fantastic. They are close-knit and very supportive. Plus the knowledge base they have is incredible. I’m really happy to be a part of that, to expand my own knowledge and contribute to the team. I love to stay abreast of changes in the marketplace and am constantly looking for new and creative ways of selling homes. My days are always full! I like to head to the gym before work, and always try and have breakfast and dinner with the family. With a three-year-old son, I’m very family orientated, and he certainly keeps us busy. Weekends are often spent at the beach with my family, and we love to get home to my parents property in Bundaberg whenever we can.

AMY FECKNER PROPERTY MANAGER

In late 2013 I decided to start my journey in the real estate world. After I completed my course, I spent the first 3 months of my career gaining experience on the Sunshine Coast, before starting with Henzell’s Agency, who believe in training their staff, have procedures for staff to follow, and have the right systems to produce a good working department. I have been with them ever since - the company is well established and has been doing this for over 80 years, so how can you go wrong? I moved to the Coast from Hervey Bay and joined the Henzells team in June, 2014. My role as property manager makes me the owner’s eyes, managing properties on their behalf. My position mostly consists of educating, communicating and negotiating with clients. While Henzells’ professionalism may have been what drew me to them originally, what makes them such a great agency to work for is their family values, great culture and supportive environment. This is important to me as being married with three children – 10-year-old twins and a 13-year-old son – life is really hectic. Outside of work, I love crossfit, training four times a week, while my weekends are devoted to my children, sport, and spending time with my husband.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN JOINING THE AMAZING TEAM AT HENZELLS AGENCY, CALL HAMISH OR KATHERINE ON 5491 2000

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DANIELLE SMITHSON, HOLIDAY TEAM LEADER

I’ve been on the Sunshine Coast most of my life, so I knew Henzells Agency well. In fact I worked for them as a cleaning contractor for ﬁve years prior to joining the team. I noticed a position became available with Henzells 18 months ago so I sent my resume in, met with Katherine for an interview and got the job! I sold my cleaning business and started as a reservation consultant and from there I have progressed to Holiday Team Leader.

“

I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT LOOKING FOR WAYS TO IMPROVE THE DEPARTMENT AND INCREASE OCCUPANCY RATES.”

The holiday department is a perfect fit for me. I’m passionate about looking for ways to improve the department and increase occupancy rates, and management always let me try new things to achieve this. Training is always on offer, and I’ve been to conferences to increase my knowledge, as well as cross training in other departments to expand my experience. It’s hard to find a nice place to work, where you have fun and genuinely enjoy coming to work, so I feel lucky to have found that! Outside work I have a five-year-old and a two-year-old, so my weekends are always busy spending time with them! We’ve just bought a four-wheel-drive so I’m looking forward to heading out in that in the near future!

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“

YOU CAN’T BEAT THE EXPERIENCE OF A COMPANY LIKE HENZELLS, THEY HAVE GREAT LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND ARE SO WELL RESPECTED WITHIN THE COMMUNITY.”

PAUL BELL, COMMERCIAL MANAGER

We moved from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast 13 years ago after I retired from playing first-grade rugby league. A sports colleague at the time worked at Henzells Agency and he scouted me to come and work here too. The integrity of the company resonated with me—the name has been around for a long time, it is family owned and they have good values, plus they give back to the community and are heavily involved in the local area, and that was important to me. So I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to join the team. I was in residential for five years, and then moved into commercial. It was good to do residential first and have that grounding, but I do enjoy being in commercial. Thankfully, the reputation of Henzells Agency makes my job a lot easier! Having been here for 80 years counts for a lot. You can’t beat the experience of a company like Henzells, they have great local knowledge and are so well respected within the community. We have a good portfolio with long-standing relationships, so I am passionate about continuing to foster those relationships as well as look for new business. The standout thing for me at Henzells Agency is the support. Training is always encouraged, so you can always further advance yourself and expand your knowledge. Legislation is always changing and I need to stay on top of that to always do my best for our clients. IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO BUY, SELL OR RENT EITHER A RESIDENTIAL OR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY, CALL THE TEAM AT HENZELLS AGENCY ON 5491 2000 OR POP INTO THEIR OFFICE AT 49 BULLOCK ST, CALOUNDRA TO DISCUSS HOW THEY CAN HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR REAL ESTATE GOALS.

I have three children, so my life outside work is kept busy with them! I play golf when I can and I’m pretty happy that my twelve-year-old enjoys it too, so we can start to play together.

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STATE OF THE NATION REPORT: WORDS TERRY RYDER, DIRECTOR, HOTSPOTTING.COM.AU

SYDNEY’S DAYS AT THE TOP OF THE REAL ESTATE GAME ARE OVER AND MELBOURNE, WHICH HAS TAKEN OVER THAT MANTLE, IS CLOSE TO ITS PEAK. AT THE SAME TIME, MANY CITIES THAT HAVE DELIVERED LITTLE IN THE WAY OF PRICE GROWTH TO DATE ARE POISED FOR BETTER RESULTS. SOME OF AUSTRALIA’S KEY REGIONAL CENTRES ARE ALSO DOING WELL IN 2016. IN MANY WAYS, THIS IS ‘THE YEAR OF THE SMALL CITIES’.

QUEENSLAND MEDIA REPORTS A generalised median price growth ﬁgure for the entire city of Brisbane that indicates prices grew only three to four per cent in 2015, but individual market segments did considerably better.

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THE SUNSHINE COAST IS TRANSITIONING FROM A TOURISM ECONOMY TO ONE WITH A BROADER BASE AND THIS WILL DRIVE REAL ESTATE GROWTH.”

Brisbane Northside saw many record double-digit annual growth in median prices after the area first took off nearly two years ago. Now the momentum has switched to the Southside. Logan City is being targeted for its affordability, infrastructure and jobs, while the Brisbane Southside precinct is also growing. Ipswich City is recovering and looks set to deliver its best growth for several years, while the Gold Coast is rising strongly, with sales volumes increasing on the back of big infrastructure spending. We urge caution in the highrise unit market, which has a terrible track record on capital growth. It’s a different story with the housing markets. Many inland suburbs have strong momentum and prices are starting to grow. The Sunshine Coast is transitioning from a tourism economy to one with a broader base and this will drive real estate growth. Infrastructure and property developments underway or in planning total $15 billion, and this is driving economic activity and jobs growth. A similar process is happening in Cairns.

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NEW SOUTH WALES SALES ACTIVITY IN Sydney peaked towards the end of 2014 and gradually declined throughout 2015. This has been reﬂected in median price data since July 2015, with the annual rate of growth dropping to below 10 per cent. Those still wanting to invest in Sydney should follow the infrastructure trail. The places to target are the Liverpool, Camden and Campbelltown areas in the south-west, and areas in the north-west such as the Rouse Hill precinct. Regional NSW is on the rise, with Newcastle and Hunter Valley regions among the markets to watch. Port Macquarie has been rising steadily for the past two years, boosted by improvement in the tourism industry and spending on infrastructure. Other coastal markets that look to have prospects include Coﬀs Harbour, Forster-Tuncurry, Ballina and Tweed Heads. There are numerous strong centres inland as well, including Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst, Goulburn, Queanbeyan, Wagga Wagga, Lismore and Tamworth.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA THE RELATIVE FEW who achieve great success with property investment are those who buy in good areas when the market is down — meaning there is little competition and they can negotiate a good price. Investors with that mindset will be considering Perth this year. Perth and Darwin were the market leaders in 2012, well ahead of Sydney’s rise. Perth’s market peaked in early 2013 and has been winding down steadily since. Median prices and median rents for both houses and apartments in Perth fell in 2015. This market is still falling and will touch bottom probably some time in 2016, which makes it a good time to consider an investment there.

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NORTHERN TERRITORY DARWIN HAS BY far the weakest market among the capital cities and it’s diﬃcult to see what will turn it around in the next 12 months. All the major research sources record substantial decreases in the median house price, the median unit price, the median house rent and the median unit rent. The vacancy rate is the highest among the capital cities.

PERTH AND DARWIN WERE THE MARKET LEADERS IN 2012, WELL AHEAD OF SYDNEY’S RISE.”

VICTORIA MELBOURNE REMAINS QUITE buoyant and is having another good year in 2016, although this is likely to subside as 2016 progresses. The latest ﬁgures show Melbourne has overtaken Sydney to be the number one city in terms of annual price growth rates, but it’s clear that the Top End of the market has lost its spark. The previously buoyant Middle Ring is moderating, with the most momentum now occurring in the Outer Ring suburbs. Expect good growth in outer areas such as the Whittlesea LGA in the north, the Brimbank LGA in the west, and Wyndham City suburbs such as Point Cook, Werribee and Tarneit in the south-west. Just outside Melbourne, Geelong is the strongest of the regional Victoria markets.

ACT WHILE SYDNEY HAS been raging, Canberra has been stuck in neutral, undermined by Federal Government downsizing of the public service, which has reduced demand and impacted conﬁdence. But there have been improvements in house sales levels over the past 12 months, despite the unit market remaining weak.

TASMANIA

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

HOBART AND TASMANIA may be the surprise packet over the next 12 months.

THE GENERALISED SINGLE ﬁgure provided by sources such as Domain and CoreLogic suggests Adelaide’s house market delivered growth of only two or three per cent in 2015 – but numerous suburbs did much better than that.

There is an accumulation of positive economic indicators and government policies to generate growth and a slow but steady rise in property sales activity. Domain figures show a 7.6 per cent raise in Hobart’s median house price in the 12 months to 30 March, although other sources have different figures.

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HOBART AND TASMANIA MAY BE THE SURPRISE PACKET OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS.”

I’m expecting Tasmania to have a positive year, possibly the best in a decade, as investors realise markets are rising and that the value proposition is attractive. The median dwelling price in Hobart is $330,000.

Largs North (median house price $455,000) grew 14%, Semaphore Park ($470,000) was up 17% and Cheltenham ($540,000) recorded 21%. At the pricier end of the market, Glenelg East (695,000) managed 17%, Henley Beach East ($800,000) 14% and Royston Park ($855,000) 18%. These ﬁgures show that, while Adelaide is perceived to lack population and economic impetus, there is good growth to be found if you know where to look. Adelaide is having a pretty solid year in 2016. There is certainly no boom, but there will be pockets such as the Salisbury, Playford and Okaparinga LGAs around the metropolitan area delivering strong price growth. *Information sourced May 2016 by Terry Ryder

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The

FUTURIST

WORDS TAYLA ARTHUR PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

HE’S THE MAN WHO COINED THE TERM ‘SEACHANGE’ AND HAS BUILT A REPUTATION FOR PREDICTING SOME OF THE BIGGEST CULTURAL AND BUSINESS TRENDS TO TAKE PLACE IN THE LAST DECADE. SO WHEN FUTURIST AND SOCIAL COMMENTATOR BERNARD SALT CAME TO THE SUNSHINE COAST RECENTLY, WE FOUND OUT WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR BUSINESS IN THE REGION. As American business magnate Warren Buﬀett once said, “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago”. When it comes to business, it is those with the foresight to think ahead that tend to succeed; those who envision and anticipate society’s future needs and plant the seeds to address them. As a partner with global advisory ﬁrm KPMG and the founder of specialist advisory business KPMG demographics, Bernard Salt analyses demographics and data sets to predict social and business trends in Australia – a valuable tool for those looking to maximise return on their investments. Here he shares his predictions for the Sunshine Coast region.

TIME OF GROWTH FOR THE SUNSHINE COAST The Sunshine Coast is the ninth most popular location to live in the country – a rank Bernard predicts will maintain 35 years from now. “The Sunshine Coast is now certainly based in the top 10 cities in Australia in terms of population at 300,000 people, and that population will double over the next 30 years by 2050, to grow as big as the Gold Coast is today,” he says. “I’ve looked at demographic data sets through census, through retail sales, and through property sales for 20 plus years, and there is one common denominator that reﬂects a cultural

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truth about the Australian people and how they behave and how they spend money – the fact that we are obsessed with lifestyle.

Toowoomba – 22% run their own business; quite the feat considering only 15% of Australia’s entire population are in this position.

“With the retirement of the baby boomer generation, the pursuit of lifestyle will drive city and urban growth right across Australia, and certainly for the Sunshine Coast.”

“The Sunshine Coast has a can-do culture. You are more entrepreneurial than any other city of the same scale across the continent,” he says.

BREEDING GROUND FOR ENTREPRENEURS “Thanks to the prosperity in GDP (gross domestic product) experienced by Gen Y from the early ‘90s to the present day, a culture of aspiration has been created, with this generation focused around creating start-ups,” he says. “What we have is the most extraordinary era of conﬁdence that is shaping consumers’ thinking.” The Sunshine Coast has the largest percentage of entrepreneurs compared to any other city of its size in Australia, including Brisbane, Gold Coast and

“

But with more people and more competition for jobs and between businesses, Bernard says we must think smarter about the future. “You can be the smartest person in the room, you can work 24/7, but if you’re in the wrong industry, in the wrong place, at the wrong time in history, all your eﬀort, intellect, hard work and application for your working career will be just pushing in the wrong direction. “The currents are in health care, professional services, construction and education, but in order to get a job in the booming industries, you need to be a knowledge worker or need technical training.”

INVESTING IN REGIONAL CITIES While the Sunshine Coast has aﬀordability and lifestyle on its side, Bernard says that in order to drive the region further and maximise the its potential, we must create more jobs on the Coast. “We need to be taking more jobs from the city (Brisbane) and distributing them on the Coast for practical reasons. Seven thousand people at the last census (2011) travelled from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane for work,” he says. “We need decentralisation of jobs. We have too big a canvas, too small a population, and too small a tax base to deal with the current situation. I think at a big picture strategic planning level, this information is compelling. This is an irresistible argument for investment in regional cities with jobs.”

INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND A CAN-DO ATTITUDE WOULD BE THE HALLMARKS OF A PLACE LIKE THE SUNSHINE COAST.”

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Strategic STRENGTH PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

SUNSHINE COAST STATE MEMBER FOR MAROOCHYDORE FIONA SIMPSON SHARES SOME OF THE REASONS BEHIND WHY THERE ARE SO MANY ENTREPRENEURS ON THE SUNSHINE COAST.

FIONA SIMPSON MP STATE MEMBER FOR MAROOCHYDORE WWW.FIONASIMPSON.COM.AU

WHY ARE THERE so many entrepreneurs on the Sunshine Coast? Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) ﬁgures show our region has 22 per cent small business ownership compared to the national average of 15 per cent. Even the Gold Coast, with its image of bright lights and commerce by the sea, has lower business ownership levels at 19.7 per cent Our beautiful region of surf, sand and gloriously green hinterland caught the eye of Captain Cook as he sailed by on his journey of discovery in May 1770. The journey of discovery continues for the 330,498 people who call our region home or who come as visitors. It is estimated that an extra 195,000 people will live here by 2036. As well as our own market opportunities, we have neighbours such as Moreton Bay region (population 408,914), the Gold Coast (551,705) and the state’s capital, Brisbane, (population, 1.13 million). (All population ﬁgures: ABS 2013). That is quite a market! Why wouldn’t you want to base yourself on the Sunshine Coast?

I WOULD LOVE US TO BE KNOWN AS A LEADING REGION FOR LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH” 68 | THINKBUSINESS

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JUNE 2016 AERIAL OF THE SUNSHINE COAST UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL PROJECT, SUPPLIED BY LENDLEASE BUILDING.

SCAN THIS PAGE TO EXPERIENCE AN AERIAL FLYOVER OF THE NEW PUBLIC HOSPITAL IN PROGRESS. AERIAL FOOTAGE COURTESY OF THE FILM TREE AND NEXT LEVEL IMAGING. ANIMATION COURTESY OF SUNSHINE COAST HOSPITAL AND HEALTH SERVICE.

More people are moving into the area, attracted by our beautiful natural environment and healthy lifestyle, the desire to work for themselves rather than a boss, and the need to create an income could attribute to the high levels of entrepreneurship and business ownership we are seeing here. In short, people want a living, as well as lifestyle. Whatever the reason for the high rate of business ownership on the Sunshine Coast, it is important that we grow viable, successful businesses so that people can continue to live, work and raise a family here. Knowing our strategic advantages is part of that. I would love us to be known as a leading region for lifestyle and health. Our new $1.8 billion Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital is a signiﬁcant game-changer in our regional economy. Not only will it employ 2500 additional

OUR NEW $1.8 BILLION SUNSHINE COAST PUBLIC UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IS A SIGNIFICANT GAME-CHANGER IN OUR REGIONAL ECONOMY.” hospital staff when it opens in April 2017, but there will be considerable flow-on effects of an investment of this size rippling through the economy. It will also be a strategic anchor for the Coast’s growing reputation as a centre for education, innovation, health and healthy living. Already people are building new businesses to tap into this opportunity. The Innovation Centre and its business incubator at the University of the Sunshine Coast have more case stories of local entrepreneurs equipping themselves to take good ideas and turn them into great businesses.

Even in the traditional areas of agriculture, there are smart businesses growing new jobs through value-added products such as Palmwoods’ Gourmet Gardens’ wonderful herbs in tubes. This ﬁts our healthy lifestyle image. Tell me what you think our region’s strategic strengths are. Share your stories of how to develop the opportunities and what challenges you face too. We need to shout out the successes, learn from what doesn’t work and celebrate those who are willing to take the risk and reach for a better future by creating businesses and growing jobs.

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5 ways to maximise an investment property portfolio WORDS CHRIS CHILDS

IF YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT CREATING AN INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO TO LOOK AT MORE WAYS TO BUILD YOUR WEALTH, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO MAXIMISE YOUR RETURNS.

BUY NEW NOT OLD…

After years of experience in property, the most important thing I have learned is to buy new not old. There are many reasons for this. Firstly income - new properties are often more attractive to tenants meaning higher rental returns. Secondly growth – the value of a new property often exceeds older properties in the same area. Thirdly tax - one of the most underrated and overlooked tax beneﬁts is depreciation. On a $500,000 property for example, depreciation can be between $10,000 and $25,000 per annum. Lastly maintenance - the costs of which are close to non-existent on new properties as the builder is responsible for correcting any faults for six years.

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DO THE RIGHT RESEARCH

‘TIMING’ THE MARKET AND ‘TIME IN’ THE MARKET

The majority of investors don’t do enough research, or worse still, get incorrect information from the huge amount of data available online. Good research can take weeks to put together and hone down from the right state to the right town, the right suburb and the right property. It is vital to know what is happening with infrastructure spending, demographics, employment, economic growth and supply and demand, to name just a few. Often when someone does a lot of research, they end up getting so confused they do nothing – paralysis by analysis is a common end result.

Two important parts of creating long-term wealth with property are timing the entry point in a market to maximise the capital growth, and time in the market – meaning keeping the property long-term. Timing the market means being brave and bucking the trend. Purchasing a property when the property clock is at six o’clock is one of the hardest things for a novice investor to do. Time in the market is vital for successful wealth creation. Most property averages five to 10 per cent per annum over any 10-year period, however, property doesn’t increase every year. The market usually has two or three years of strong growth, five or six years of flat and even some years of negative growth.

GETTING THE TAX SIDE SORTED

Don’t ever buy a property for the tax beneﬁts. Always buy a property for its growth and income potential. The government can change tax legislation at any time. By treating the tax beneﬁts as a bonus you will never have to worry about those changes.

SCAN THIS PAGE TO FIND OUT WHAT THE BIGGEST HURDLE IN PROPERTY INVESTMENT IS AND TO HOW TO OVERCOME IT

DON’T KILL THE GOLDEN GOOSE – KEEP VS. SELL

Here is the important one. A property long-term will continue to grow in value and increase in rental return. This will give you an ongoing increasing income for the rest of your life – and can be handed down to your kids when the time comes. In comparison to any other investment, property in retirement has proven to be the best return and the least risk. Not only does the rent (your income) continue to increase each year, usually ahead of inﬂation, the capital value goes up over time as well. Almost all of the top 200 wealthiest people in Australia accredit a large part of their wealth to property.

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PROPERTY IN RETIREMENT HAS PROVEN TO BE THE BEST RETURN AND THE LEAST RISK.”

FOR ALL OF YOUR BUSINESS, MONEY AND PROPERTY NEEDS: PHONE: (07) 5430 4777 CHRIS@THINKMONEY.COM.AU WWW.THINKMONEY.COM.AU WWW.CHRISCHILDS.COM.AU THINKBUSINESS | 71

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onLINE for success WORDS INGRID NELSON PHOTOS CHESTERTON SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY

DIGITAL GURU SONYA KEENAN CHATS WITH THINK BUSINESS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION AND THE ESSENTIAL ROLE IT PLAYS IN THE SUCCESS OF YOUR BUSINESS. THERE’S NO DOUBT about it, without a digital presence, businesses these days are going to struggle against their competitors who have moved with the times and embraced the technology. The good news is, it’s never too late to learn. Just ask Sonya Keenan, brand strategist with Omnichannel Media Group (OMG). A self-confessed advocate of the digital movement, Sonya is passionate about helping her clients discover how an online presence can open up a whole new world for their business and bring them into the 21st Century. “I have been passionate about digital since we had dial up,” says Sonya, both of us laughing at the memory of how long it took to search the web. I remember making a cup of tea while waiting, how far we have come! “The barrier used to be cost, you couldn’t aﬀord the CRN system or the servers. Now you can subscribe to a system for $100 per month,” she says. “When I was in the corporate world it would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement so it’s become much more accessible. We work with businesses who want to implement their marketing strategy to use digital to improve the productivity and proﬁtability of the business.” Sonya and her business partner Aussie icon, Deborah Hutton started OMG four years ago, when they discovered a gap in the market to help business owners who were looking to launch their business online. “When you meet people in small business, a lot of them are a bit beaten

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TOO OFTEN COMPANIES TALK ABOUT THE PRODUCT, THEY DON’T TALK ABOUT WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE CUSTOMER.”

up and reluctant to try new things but they know they have to move forward. My job is helping them to take that step,” says Sonya. “Whether you are a retail shop or online you still need digital, it’s how people find you now. If you are not online you are going to be irrelevant. It’s not that you have to be selling things online but you have to be seen online.” Sonya and Deborah first connected when both were working at the Hyatt Regency Coolum, Sonya as sales and marketing manager and Deborah as brand ambassador. “We were looking for a brand ambassador for the hotel and Deb’s name kept coming up. She represented luxury while still being down to earth and Australian,” says Sonya. “We also share a love of golf, so we continued our friendship after I moved to Sydney with Mirvac and I continued to do some work with her before going out on my own five years ago.” As fate would have it, the duo crossed paths again when Deborah’s life took a major change of direction. Not only did she turn the big 5-0, she was also diagnosed with skin cancer. “So many people started contacting Deb after her story was told in the Australian Women’s Weekly asking her about her experience – how did she know, who her surgeon was, how did she cope, how she felt about turning 50, how she managed to be self-accepting? “We realised that so many women 45-plus were looking at what was next in their life, how they could reinvent themselves after being at home raising a

family or how they could find that elusive work/life balance so we developed a program called Balance, which brings together a team of expert coaches to help us unlock the key to a successful and happier life. What started as a website has now become a business in its own right.” While Balance is the duo’s business to consumer platform, OMG was created as a business-to-business platform to help small to medium enterprise reach their full potential by unlocking their story and connecting better with their clients through content marketing. “We created a model using the five Ps. Path – where they want to go? Purpose and Passion – what gets them out of bed every morning? Partnerships – what software they use, virtual assistants etc and Persuasion – helping businesses tell their story through their website, social media etc. “My job is to get the business to understand what it is. Few businesses can give you the old elevator pitch. Once we have established the five Ps we work on FAB – Features, Advantages and Benefits. Too often companies talk about the product, they don’t talk about what’s in it for the customer. You have to have your story but you have to be able to listen to your customers too.”

Driving Sonya’s passion for helping businesses embrace the digital world is a love of learning and a desire to save her clients time and money while enabling them to achieve work/life balance. “I believe being online enables us to learn in a way we were never able to before. I heard Steve Jobs talk decades ago about how the future of computing would be learning and I believe it 100 per cent.” she says. “It’s all about you doing what you are good at in your business and hiring specialists to do the stuff you are not so good at,” she says. “If you are a retail store and your light fitting blows up, you are not going to go on the internet and learn how to do it, you are going to hire an electrician. The same can be said for marketing. “Digital is about allowing people to find their path to be able to do the thing they love that doesn’t feel like work. If they can take their passion and turn it into a purpose, they will be much happier.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: WWW.OMNICHANNELMEDIAGROUP.COM WWW.BALANCEBYDEBORAHHUTTON.COM.AU

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SCAN THIS PAGE TO WATCH SIMON SINEK’S TED TALK DIRECTLY ON YOUR PHONE

talks: leadership LOOKING FOR SOME OF THE BEST TIPS ON HOW TO BE A GREAT LEADER? CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO HEAR THE STRATEGIES USED BY SOME OF THE BEST IN THEIR FIELD.

SIMON SINEK: WHY GOOD LEADERS MAKE YOU FEEL SAFE Fascinated by the leaders who make an impact in the world, companies and politicians with the capacity to inspire, Simon Sinek has discovered some remarkable patterns in how they think, act and communicate. He explores his idea of the Golden Circle, what he calls, “a naturally occurring pattern, grounded in the biology of human decision making, that explains why we are inspired by some people, leaders, messages and organisations over others”.

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STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL: LISTEN, LEARN ... THEN LEAD Four-star general Stanley McChrystal shares what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military. How can you build a sense of shared purpose among people of many ages and skill sets? By listening and learning – and addressing the possibility of failure.

SHERYL SANDBERG: WHY WE HAVE TOO FEW WOMEN LEADERS As the COO at the helm of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg juggles the tasks of monetising the world’s largest social networking site, while keeping its users happy and engaged. Here, she looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions – and oﬀers three powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite.

MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI: FLOW, THE SECRET TO HAPPINESS Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. A leading researcher in positive psychology, he has devoted his life to studying what makes people truly happy, “When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life”. He is the architect of the notion of “ﬂow” – the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake.

SCAN THIS PAGE TO WATCH EACH SPEAKER’S TED TALK ON YOUTUBE

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BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS

WORDS MARIEL DAWSON, DIGITAL CONTENT SPECIALIST

WHEN YOU HAVE A PROBLEM OR THERE IS A QUESTION YOU URGENTLY NEED TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO, WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU DO? YOU GOOGLE IT! GOOD OLD GOOGLE. HOW DID WE LIVE WITHOUT IT? GOOGLE IS BOMBARDED with over three billion search queries a day. That’s a mind-blowing, one trillion searches per year. Being a business owner, it’s safe to assume your target market and potential clients are online searching for answers, ideas, entertainment and solutions.

WHY START A BUSINESS BLOG? Adding blogging to your marketing mix allows you to connect and convert on a worldwide scale. The best part is, it is easy and affordable to implement, no matter how small your organisation is. Here are some interesting stats on the power of content marketing and blogging that business owners can’t afford to ignore. Companies who blog receive 97 per cent more links to their website and links remain a key ranking factor when Google examines your site. By 2020, customers will manage 85 per cent of their purchasing relationships without talking to a human. 92 per cent of companies who blog multiple times per day have acquired customers from their blog. Website conversion rates are nearly six times higher for content marketing adopters. Marketers who have prioritised blogging are 13 times more likely to enjoy a positive return on investment (ROI). Blogging will achieve three things for you business. It will increase your website traffic, boost customer engagement and build trust and authority in your market.

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INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC If you want to significantly expand the digital reach of your business then get blogging. Google and other search engines favour original, quality content. The more blogs you publish, the more chances search engines will pick up your content. Develop a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy with help from a SEO professional to boost your page rankings and acquire organic search traffic. For example, Sunshine Coast based accounting and financial planning firm Otium Group started blogging in 2012 publishing a minimum of one blog per week. At first it was just the CEO Drew Grosskreutz, hurriedly writing something on a Friday night ‘just because he had to’. Today, the company works closely with an SEO ninja and its target is a minimum of three blog posts per week. As a result organic visits to the website have tripled.

BOOST CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT Customers will love you for creating content to solve their problems, educate, inform or entertain them. Blogging also gives your business the opportunity to engage and interact with the online community, especially if you use social media to promote your posts.

BUILD AUTHORITY Blogging shows clients and prospective customers that no one knows the industry like you do and gives your business a voice. Posting relevant, useful content on a regular basis expands your following and builds trust. Never fear giving away free information or advice in your posts as this demonstrates you and your team’s expertise through your blog.

GETTING STARTED Have an understanding of what appeals to your target audience. To grab their attention and rise above the noise of the digital world you must prove that your content is worthy of their time.

WHAT TO BLOG ABOUT This thought alone can stop new bloggers in their tracks. The secret is to just start. An SEO expert will be able to do the research on your market and give you some idea of the right keywords to incorporate into your blogs to drive organic search traﬃc and improve your rankings. • Get into the mindset of your target audience • Brainstorm some ideas, pick a topic and start writing what comes to mind. Get all of your thoughts out, aiming for a minimum of 400 words

COMPANIES WHO BLOG RECEIVE 97 PER CENT MORE LINKS TO THEIR WEBSITE AND LINKS REMAIN A KEY RANKING FACTOR WHEN GOOGLE EXAMINES YOUR SITE.”

per post and then go back over your draft and edit it. • Your latest blog post is published and live on your website. Now to sit back and wait for the clicks and leads to start rolling in, right? To increase the reach of your blog you need to promote it. Share your posts across social media channels, link to them in your email marketing and reach out to inﬂuencers, others in your industry who you think will ﬁnd your content interesting.

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT’S WORKING AND WHAT’S NOT? Shares, likes and positive comments are a great indicator of whether your target audience is finding value in what you have to say but using traffic analysis tools similar to Google Analytics allows you to gather data on your website’s performance and can reveal the success of your blogging efforts. For example, at Otium Group important metrics, including unique views, conversions, page bounce rates and average duration (how long our audience spends on each page) are analysed each week and used to improve future content marketing tactics and strategy.

BLOGGING AND THE BOTTOM LINE Get your content strategy right and blogging will draw in new leads, improving the bottom line of your business, but it’s vital to ensure this isn’t the sole reason behind why you do it. The key purpose behind every post you publish must be to add value for the audience. If your reader feels you are just dressing up a sales pitch or constantly talking about how great your service/product is they will lose interest and click away. Modern marketing is about “telling not selling”.

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BUSINESS

GETTING AHEAD WORDS ALAN MANLY, ENTREPRENEUR AND AUTHOR

ENTREPRENEUR AND EXPERIENCED SME OWNER AND MANAGER ALAN MANLY SHARES HIS ADVICE ON THE TOP FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO WITHIN YOUR FIRST YEAR OF BUSINESS IN ORDER TO SUCCEED.

CONSIDER CHANGING WHAT AND HOW YOU DO THINGS TO TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT STEP OF MAKING MONEY. REMEMBER WHEN THINKING ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS, BUSINESS IS BUSINESS.”

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THE FIRST 12 months in business is the best time to refine habits that will lead to your long term success. Celebrating the success of a startup’s launch should be followed by an awareness that not only will this time be exciting, but the opportunity you sought to go out on your own and be successful must not be wasted. Don’t wait for a year to see the results. Review your business’s success after the first three months and then in an ongoing manner. The trends will always be there to indicate what needs immediate focus. Don’t forget, not only is the business a ‘start-up’, so too is any entrepreneur when running a new venture. So, how can you ensure survival after the first year? Here’s five pieces of advice:

1. KEEP NETWORKING Your new status as an entrepreneur, walking the walk, will give you new found gravitas. Some may have seen you as more talk than walk. Now others with experience will take you more seriously. Exploit this opportunity to talk to those who you think could give you some advice. Ask them broad questions about paying tax for instance. Always get conversations going. These conversations with your new ‘fellow travellers’ should lead to further discussions that will allow you to tap into their years of experience. Further opportunities open when, as an active entrepreneur, your name appears on many more email lists. Follow them up for more contacts to oﬀer your services or as sources of business information.

2. FIND A MENTOR

You may well be surprised how often experienced entrepreneurs will oﬀer free

advice based on what would appear to be amusing war stories. These experiences are worth hearing, as they cost someone time and money. Once having found a friendly business veteran, suggest that you may wish to contact them for more advice at a later time. Remember, it is the mentor that should be teaching you. Be bold and ask that dumb question that has been on your mind. Then sit back and do what can be very hard for a driven and newly launched entrepreneur — become a good listener.

3. REVIEW THE BUSINESS PLAN

Read it with the eyes of someone who is now a little more experienced and maybe wiser. The business plan should be a dynamic document. It was your creation written with commitment and passion, but it was not written by a prophet. It may be plain wrong. Circumstances may have changed. You are now in charge of your business and destiny. Make the changes needed and stay in charge. Maybe share the revised business plan with someone new — a potential mentor or advisor for instance.

4. FOLLOW THE MONEY

Most start-ups have a few customers. Evaluate the ﬁnancial value of these customers, not from a position of gratitude for their bravery in having trusted a mere start-up. Are they the customers you really need and can make money from? More bravery is required. Consider changing what and how you do things to take your business to the next step of making money. Remember when thinking about your customers, business is business.

REMEMBER, IT IS THE MENTOR THAT SHOULD BE TEACHING YOU. BE BOLD AND ASK THAT DUMB QUESTION THAT HAS BEEN ON YOUR MIND.”

5. BALANCE THE BOOKS Being busy is not being in business. Visit an accountant, preferably not a friend, and show them your income and expenses. Empty the shoe box with all the expenses for everything. So often start-ups find it hard to confront the full cost of doing business. Delayed expenses are easy to overlook in the excitement of ‘setting up’. Massive mobile phone bills and intensive use of the owner’s car will incur costs. These are delayed but they are real. Credit cards need intense management. Delayed payment may free up cash, but they are a real cost. Tax will need to be paid. No matter what the accountant charges, it will be a bargain. The first year in business is the longest and possibly the most demanding. It certainly is the most scariest. Be brave and consider seeking others opinions and maybe even changing direction. Such decision making needs thinking time. Take a break for a cup of coffee with an old friend or family member. Read business magazines to learn what others are doing. Remember the goal in business is to keep trading. This is a marathon that you have entered. After one year, you will be one year older, maybe wiser but most importantly you want to be in a solid position to charge into the second year of your business venture.

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BUSINESS

BUILD REAL RELATIONSHIPS WORDS LUKE KRESTENSEN, IC PRINT

IN TODAY’S WORLD, MANY SMALL BUSINESSES HAVE BEEN SEDUCED BY THE LOW DELIVERY COSTS OF MARKETING SOLELY THROUGH DIGITAL CHANNELS, AND FOCUSING ON THE GREAT ROI PERCENTAGE, YOU CAN EASILY SEE WHY. SO WHY SHOULD YOU STOP EMAILING PROSPECTS TO DEATH AND START BUILDING REAL RELATIONSHIPS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? GETTING A 3000 per cent return on an email campaign sounds like a dream result. But forgetting to mention that the emails cost just ﬁve bucks to send, this means that is only $150 gross return! Not so exciting now, especially when you factor in the time you spent to write the emails and set it all up in the ﬁrst place. For many businesses this is a typical result; less than inspiring but for $5 they just keep it going every month. Others I speak to have had varying results from Facebook ads, some are outstanding, and others quite dismal. Regardless of the marketing platform, I know I always get the highest email open rates and social media engagement from people I have either seen in person recently, spoken to on the phone, sent a personal letter to, or who receive direct mail from me regularly. I have had several digital marketing agencies call recently to start including physical mail pieces in

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their clients’ email follow up campaigns, and here’s why: across the board, contacts that receive a physical posted item spend more. That’s what we are talking about here – turning new prospects and contacts from strangers with a problem you can solve, into trusting acquaintances, then happy clients and ﬁnally, raving fans that share, comment and recommend you to their networks. Throughout this journey there are numerous touch points across multiple channels and platforms. I am a huge fan of automation and the cost reducing beneﬁts, but the thing to focus on in business is not how much money we can save on our marketing costs – it’s actually how to get the highest return on our time and money invested. If it costs $15 in Facebook ads to get a new contact on your email list and then you spend nothing to email them an automated series of responses, you will get some people becoming new clients, some people that are happy to be kept up to date with any promotions or special deals available and, if your

LUKE KRESTENSEN

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“

THESE DAYS YOUR MARKETPLACE KNOW WHEN THEY ARE RECEIVING AUTOMATED SPAM EMAILS THAT DO NOTHING TO SHOW YOU VALUE OR APPRECIATE THEM OR THEIR BUSINESS.”

emails contain valuable, well written content, some people that will also appreciate the information you share. But you will also get some people that feel unappreciated, knowing that you have given them no personal attention – that you have spent no genuine eﬀort valuing them or investing a single second of your time or money in contacting them. These days your marketplace know when they are receiving automated spam emails that do nothing to show you value or appreciate them or their business. There are two proven reasons psychologists have studied as to why a more personal touch works.

REASON 1: THE LAW OF RECIPROCITY

In Robert Childani’s book on influence and persuasion, he goes through many of the human triggers that compel us to take action in a predictable way. The first chapter is about the law of reciprocity. This law states that in human interactions, when someone receives something of value from another person, a primal instinct takes over and they are driven to ‘repay’ the ‘gift’. A great example most of us are familiar with is when we are out with friends and someone either picks up the bill or buys you a drink – you will quickly say, ‘I will get the next one’ and you may even find yourself going out of your way to arrange another social encounter to ensure that you follow

through. Childani goes on to say that this is a necessary part of our social fabric and that without this behaviour, human society could fall apart. I mention it here because it is very relevant to increasing your client’s likelihood of giving you referrals, repeat business and becoming a raving fan. The law only works when the recipient feels that the item is of significant value to them or has cost the giver in either time or money. So you see how contacts repeatedly receiving auto emails and retargeted ads does nothing to trigger a response. On the contrary, you could be seen as an annoying spam business and offend people that are not engaging with your message. By sending a direct or personal message or gift to your clients, it will not only show them how much you appreciate them, but it will also leave them compelled to mention your services to their friends, buy off you more frequently, and engage with your social media posts when they see them.

REASON 2: THE MEREEXPOSURE EFFECT

The mere-exposure eﬀect is a psychological phenomenon where people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. In social psychology, this eﬀect is sometimes called the familiarity principle.

Put simply, by being seen more frequently by your clients, you will become the preferred option for them. Having direct mail, phone calls and other offline mediums included in your follow up or nurture process will not only add value to the relationship, it will also offer extra reasons to make contact – for example, emailing them for address details, sending the physical letter, and calling them up to confirm they received your message adds three additional exposures and gets the mere-exposure effect working for you even sooner. Apart from these two powerful reasons to send real mail to your clients, the last and perhaps most important reason is best summarised by Maya Angelou’s quote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” By sending people personal gifts, thank you cards and letters that are well designed and produced on quality paper, it shows that you value them and their time, which will leave them feeling special, perhaps putting a smile on their face they will remember. IC PRINT AND DESIGN WWW.ICPRINT.COM.AU PHONE: 1800 427 746

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BUSINESS

STEP AHEAD: Enabling people to grow with your business WORDS KAREN GATELY, HR EXPERT

HOW WELL DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE REASONS BEHIND PEOPLE LEAVING YOUR BUSINESS; BOTH THOSE WHO VOLUNTARILY RESIGN THEIR POSITION AND THOSE YOU CHOOSE TO LET GO?

WIDENING CAPABILITY GAPS AND ESCALATING BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES ARE COMMON REASONS PEOPLE STRUGGLE TO SUCCEED OVER TIME.”

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AMONG THE MOST COMMON contributing factors to staﬀ turnover among organisations I work with is a lack of investment in learning and development. Widening capability gaps and escalating behavioural issues are common reasons people struggle to succeed over time. A lack of career development opportunities is among the most common reasons they choose to leave. While the importance of building a team’s capabilities is typically well understood, few leaders place the priority on learning needed. Reﬂect on the extent to which you and every leader in your business take deliberate steps to develop the talents and potential of your people. How well do you enable your team to successfully adapt to the changing demands and expectations of their role? Are you positioning people to take on greater responsibility over time and supporting them to advance in their careers?

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Essential steps to growing people with your business:

1. MAKE TALENT MANAGEMENT A STRATEGIC PRIORITY The ultimate indicator of a strategic approach is how well you are able to access the talent you need when you need it, from within your business. A capable, growing and engaged team is essential to achieving strategic objectives at every step along your organisation’s journey. Begin by understanding how capable the people on your team are of meeting the demands of their role today as well as their potential to step up to the challenges of the future.

EXPECT AND INSPIRE PEOPLE TO STRIVE TO KEEP GROWING THROUGHOUT THEIR EMPLOYMENT, AND INDEED THEIR CAREERS.”

2. PLAN FOR SUCCESS Reﬂect on each of your core strategic objectives and identifying capabilities required to enable success. Develop learning plans for individuals and teams that identify ways in which you will deliberately foster these competencies over time. Expect every leader from supervisors up through the senior leadership ranks to understand and address the learning priorities of their team. Expect that they recognise the knowledge, skills and experience required for each person to successfully contribute to achieving the organisation’s vision.

3. CREATE A LEARNING CULTURE Walk the talk and dedicate the time and resources needed to eﬀectively train and develop your people. Place value on ongoing learning and create an environment where people feel motivated to share their knowledge and support their colleagues to grow. Hold yourself and each member of your team accountable to being open to, and actively pursuing, learning. Expect and inspire people to strive to keep growing throughout their employment, and indeed their careers.

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STEP 3 PUBLISH EDUCATIONAL CONTENT

BUSINESS

Building business WORDS ALAN MANLY, ENTREPRENEUR AND AUTHOR

ENTREPRENEUR AND EXPERIENCED SME MANAGER ALAN MANLY SHARES HIS TOP FOUR MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT STARTING A NEW BUSINESS. MOST PEOPLE HAVE an opinion on what they believe are the best concepts to have in mind when starting up a new business. A list soon develops of what would ensure a start-up can sustain enough growth to become a great company. This generally includes things like: putting customers first; your staff are the best asset; treat suppliers with respect; and only offer the best quality product or service. These concepts are great, but for an entrepreneur starting a new business, grandiose concepts can sometimes hide misconceptions. So let’s take a look in more detail:

PUT CUSTOMERS FIRST

Everyone knows that customers must come first — after all, there is simply no business without customers. The concept here is that everything a customer wants must be delivered; the argument being that customer satisfaction will be assured thus building a happy customer base, which is an asset for the company. The link between unreserved pursuit of customer satisfaction and business success is a misconception. Such a commitment would put the company on an upward spiral of costs that will lead to zero profit. Of course, the customer satisfaction rating must be acceptable, but it needs to be delivered at a market cost that attracts customers and gives you a profit. Satisfied customers and no profit means that you will be broke and the customers will happily move on.

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YOUR STAFF ARE THE NUMBER ONE ASSET Some successful companies preach this concept. It is a loose application of the old adage that success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. If a start-up goes well, there is an expectation that the successful entrepreneur graciously thanks everyone, especially the staff. But if the start-up fails, rest assured it will be the start-up entrepreneur’s fault — that means you. Here’s a simple test regarding the value of staff. If a major brand sacks many of its staff in a cost cutting move, does the company collapse? Often the company does better by reducing the number of staff and the associated costs. Therefore, we must conclude that the staff made redundant were not a number one asset. The misconception here is obvious. Don’t worry too much about your staff — they will look after themselves. You as the entrepreneur are responsible for keeping them motivated and happy. If you fail they will move on. Staff are smart enough to look after themselves. They will be doing what you should be, which is looking after number one.

TREAT SUPPLIERS FAIRLY This misconception is that you and your start-up have power to change supply chains. Why would you need to think about protecting a supplier who probably has more understanding of their business than you? Surely suppliers are in business and can look after themselves. The suppliers have most likely seen start-ups like you come and go. You will be ﬂat out begging a line of credit from these suppliers — the same ones you wish to protect. Invest your time looking after yourself and your start-up.

THE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION RATING MUST BE ACCEPTABLE, BUT IT NEEDS TO BE DELIVERED AT A MARKET COST THAT ATTRACTS CUSTOMERS AND GIVES YOU A PROFIT.”

PROVIDE ONLY THE BEST QUALITY Another subjective concept that misleads start-up entrepreneurs is the subject of quality. Quality is truly in the eye of the beholder. Professional organisations have quality assurance departments. That means that the quality is measured and assured to the required standard. Not too low and not too high. Quality will reﬂect what the cost will allow and still deliver value for money to the customer. These misconceptions can cause a lot of trouble and unnecessary heartache for new businesses. Should you be successful, of course it would be gracious to thank everyone along the way. Meanwhile, until great success comes along, you’re best to stick to making your business a success and looking after number one.

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BLOKES ABOUT TOWN

DREW GROSSKREUTZ

Leadership & decision making WORDS INGRID NELSON PHOTOS CHESTERTON SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY VENUE OCEAN ENDED, MAROOCHYDORE

OWNING OR RUNNING A BUSINESS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED, PARTICULARLY WHEN IT COMES TO EFFECTIVELY LEADING YOUR TEAM TOWARDS GREATNESS. I RECENTLY CAUGHT UP WITH THE BLOKES ABOUT TOWN OVER A DELICIOUS LUNCH AT OCEAN ENDED, MAROOCHYDORE FOR THEIR TAKE ON THE SUBJECT. TONY CHAMBERLAIN

GUY GIBBONS

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NO MATTER WHAT business you are in, regardless of how big or small it is, the ability to lead your team eﬀectively and productively is pivotal to its overall success. Leadership is one of the hottest topics in the business world right now and there have been millions of books written on the subject, however good management and leadership often comes down to experience and learning what doesn’t work. Often it has little to do with seniority or titles but more the ability to inspire and motivate. A good leader leads by example and encourages the team to perform to their optimum at all times. So what are the characteristics of a good leader? Is it a skill we are born with or can it be learned? What are the challenges they face? To get some answers I posed the

questions to a bunch of local business owners who are all great leaders in their own right, for their thoughts on what it takes to successfully lead their team. Joining me for lunch was Guy Gibbons, CEO of Bennett Carroll Solicitors; Drew Grosskreutz, CEO of Otium; Jamie Grigg, CEO of JGI Insurance Brokers; Jack Childs, CEO of Think Investment Realty and Tony Chamberlain, Owner and Instructor at Kumon Kawana Waters Education Centre. WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS YOU MAKE AS A LEADER/OWNER OF YOUR BUSINESS?

Guy: I’m a numbers man so I have seven or eight KPIs I work to. I ﬁnd that’s the easiest way to make decisions.

LEFT TO RIGHT: TONY CHAMBERLAIN, JAMIE GRIGG, DREW GROSSKREUTZ, INGRID NELSON, PAUL HOLMES, GUY GIBBONS, JACK CHILDS

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them a platform to be brave enough to Jack: I’m pretty lucky, I got my first I have to have something to hang on to speak up and to bring up any problems, management role when I was 21 and and to test and measure. issues and concerns. There are times I’m now 65. I have learned a lot about Drew: The leadership I gravitate towards when we have had to change our different management styles over the is followship, so being a leader people years and have used just want to follow. I try and about every one of them practice that as much as WHEN YOU ARE OPERATING AT A CERTAIN LEVEL myself. One of the most possible. I’m passionate important things I learnt about the staff following YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE MISTAKES, YOU ARE a man I worked for someone they respect. If GOING TO GET KNOCKED DOWN AND THAT’S OK.” from 25 years ago was the you have happy staff, you importance of testing and have low turnover of staff business rapidly so a good leader needs measuring and it’s the one thing we do and consistency of message. to be able to adapt to that change. I also better than most. I was lucky enough invest in coaching for my leadership staff to have a couple of good mentors when IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR so they feel confident in what they are I was young who gave me a crack and LEADER WHO INSPIRES YOU doing and I don’t have to second guess taught me stuff you can’t learn from a AND YOUR DECISION MAKING how they are feeling. book. You can also learn a great deal PROCESS? Tony: I always carve out a niche for from younger people too. Guy: To be honest no. I pinch little bits myself wherever I have worked. I had a from everywhere. I see clever people staff of 150 teachers from all over the ARE LEADERS BORN OR MADE? every day doing smart stuff I can adapt world when I worked in education in Jamie: I think some people naturally for my business. Japan. The biggest thing for me as a take charge, you don’t have to tell them Jack: I agree, you don’t have to reinvent leader is the contact. I always liked to be four or five times to do one task. There the wheel you just have to keep your available even if it was via Skype to get are always those individuals who want to eyes open for good ideas. face-to-face with staff. I find that solves a take more responsibility and naturally rise Drew: I get so much great information lot of problems rather than letting things to the top. from Twitter. They have 140 characters to sit and stew. Jack: I believe they develop from impress me, it’s short, sharp interesting Jamie: I think you have to be a bit of a childhood which starts from watching tidbits of information I can use. maverick. For me, it came from working their parents, through to when they start somewhere I felt dissatisfied. I could working and watching the way leaders WHAT TRAITS DO GOOD LEADERS see where changes needed to be made around them work. I believe developing HAVE? but frustrated they weren’t put in place. and learning from other leaders never Drew: For a start they have to want to That’s when I decided to become a stops. be there and that goes back to giving business owner and director. Tony: My view is based on the Japanese idea of “SENSEI”. It literally means one who lives ahead of others. Therefore, I believe ‘effective’ leaders are people who draw on a vast array of skills and experiences built up throughout their lives and thus live ahead of their people; leading by positive example. WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF BEING A LEADER?

SCAN THIS PAGE TO WATCH VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM OUR BLOKE’S LUNCH

Guy: You have to think fast and have the ability to think on your feet. You don’t see that in those who are not natural leaders. Tony: I think it’s important not to be too hard on yourself. When you are operating at a certain level you are going to make mistakes, you are going to get knocked down and that’s ok. Drew: There are challenges every day but I love it. It’s what I thrive on. I love leading a team of mostly women too. They are the most loyal employees.

TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW VISIT WWW.THINKBUSINESSMAGAZINE.COM.AU

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OPINION

How important is it

for businesses to have a sharp SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE? ANGELA MILES STEPS GROUP AUSTRALIA CHARITY MANAGER

AS A GEN X born in the ‘70s, I almost snubbed the inevitable transition from print media to digital technology and now cannot believe the incredible changes that aﬀect my role in so many ways – socially, physically and of course ﬁnancially. Social media is the forum that bridges distance and as a manager with national borders stretching across a lot of Australia, social media and digital interaction allows me to connect with our key stakeholders and supporters by providing up to the minute information. It also allows me to keep abreast of what else is happening within minutes. Social media is no longer a “nice-tohave” in business, it is a “must-have” to remain cutting edge and relevant in today’s emerging society, with many businesses conducting trade and commerce online. Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are fundamental and social media is constantly evolving, therefore I would strongly advocate implementing these or risk the loss of business.

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ESTELLA RODIGHIERO REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AUSTRALIA SUNSHINE COAST INC CEO

A PRESENCE ON social media is not for the faint hearted; however it is essential for your business. Markets are conversations. They allow you to engage with your fans and friends and to leverage on their networks and their networks’ networks. It is inexpensive, aﬀordable, simple and eﬀective in helping gain leads and in spreading the word far and wide. A sharp media presence will develop brand recognition and build loyalty. More importantly, it will allow you to have a direct link and contact with your customers, many of whom are already online, engaging and purchasing on various social media platforms. Choose your social media platforms wisely, based on a thorough understanding of your target audience and then develop regular content that truly adds value. Don’t be left behind. If you haven’t developed a social media presence yet, invest some time in to developing an approach that suits your business. Your competitors are already there!

ROZ WHITE IGA BLI BLI - MT COOLUM MOOLOOLAH PROPRIETOR

IMAGINE A CONVERSATION going on around you that you are excluded from. It’s not a great feeling and imagine if the conversation is about your business! Social media is a global conversation and a vital point of communication on many levels, but more importantly one which may have a fundamental impact on how consumers interact with your business. Make sure you ‘get in’ the conversation through participation. Consumers want multiple touch points with retail being driven by technology through marketing and consumer insights. Uni-channel retail is outdated in consumers’ minds. E-commerce is a component of technology but social media is essential. Consumers are savvy and discerning with mobile technology being pivotal for your business securing local and global reach. Your technology-speak does not have to be complicated, but it does need to be eﬀective.

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The Word SIX EXPERTS IN THEIR FIELD IMPART THEIR OPINION AND KNOWLEDGE

NITA CHILDS WHAT THE FOX CREATIVE OWNER/CREATIVE DIRECTOR

IF YOUR SOCIAL media isn’t branded sharply or professionally in today’s business world, it can be relatively easy for your company’s persona to get swamped into a black hole of other competitor offerings. To avoid being just another faceless business in a sea of desperate followers, follow these few steps to ensure a sharp, unique and successful social media presence: Have a brand aesthetic – you would be surprised at how much visual appeal plays a part in a customer’s decision to either stay or leave your profile. On Facebook, match your profile picture and cover photo, or on Instagram, form a posting theme. In cyberspace, aesthetic is everything. Engage with your followers – creating conversation with your customers and building relationships builds loyalty and business value. Ask them how their day was or even set up fun competitions. Be active – there’s nothing worse than discovering that a business’ last Facebook status was posted a year ago. An up-to-date business page entails a dependable business with passion.

MADALENE BETTEGA FOOD MATTERS BRAND MANAGER

IT’S NO SECRET that social media is changing consumer behaviour and business expectations globally, openly, transparently – and in real time. When Internet consumers discover a brand they know little about, research shows they check social media pages to learn more. Many businesses have static websites that change little, if at all, after being ﬁrst published. Social media pages, on the other hand, are constantly updated with new posts, comments, etc. A website establishes that a brand exists, but a social media page establishes that the brand is active. Similarly, the number of fans shows how popular a brand is and reviews can reassure buyers by showing them that other consumers like them. Mastering the importance of social media for marketing should underscore why these eﬀorts need to be continuous to meet consumer expectations. Social media marketing is something that every business needs to do and needs to do well.

LEISA TOOMEY SCHULTZ TOOMEY O’BRIEN LAWYERS – PART OF THE SLATER AND GORDON GROUP PRACTICE GROUP LEADER

THIS IS QUITE a new area for us, particularly in the legal profession, and there is still a lot we are learning. Whether we like it or not, social media is fast becoming the ﬁrst port of call for a member of the public to reach out to a business. If a consumer searches for you through Facebook or Twitter and your presence is sloppy, lifeless or non-existent, it reﬂects badly on the entire business. The same applies to service – if someone asks a question or leaves feedback on your social channel and you don’t reply satisfactorily within a reasonable timeframe, they’ll likely conclude you are not interested in their business. A sharp social media presence requires informative and entertaining content demonstrating your expertise, and allowing your audience to see the human side of your business. Simply broadcasting your message on social media doesn’t cut it; your followers expect a dynamic two-way discussion, and the same level of customer service they would get on the phone or face-to-face. THINKBUSINESS | 89

BOOK REVIEWS

Reading to MOTIVATE & INSPIRE THE UPWARD SPIRAL BY ALEX KORB REVIEW BY CHARMAINE CHILDS EVERYTHING WE EXPERIENCE has a ripple effect of reactions in the brain. Thoughts, emotions and the choices we make can initiate an upward spiral in the direction of health and happiness and success — or a downward spiral in the direction of depression, anxiety and confusion. We need only make small changes in an upward direction to create enormous changes in our experience of the world. In The Upward Spiral, neuroscientist Alex Korb offers an incredibly accessible and practical insight into recent neuroscientific research. He suggests simple choices we can make every day to rewire our brains, so that we move with increasing momentum towards a happier and successful life.

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Here is some of the best practical advice from The Upward Spiral:

CHOOSE Make choices, be clear and take action. It doesn’t need to be the perfect decision (or even a big decision) just decide. Making decisions is a quick way to relieve anxiety and release chemicals in the brain that make us feel energized and optimistic. Choose always for what you DO want, rather than what you don’t want. The mind has a complex ﬁlter system that will show you more of what you are focusing on. When we choose ﬁnding the solution rather than solving the problem, we see opportunities much faster.

EXERCISE Move your body in a way that feels fun EVERY day. It doesn’t need to be the gym, even a little walk along the beach is great. The impact that exercise has on the brain is immense, releasing many of the same chemicals as antidepressants or other drugs, without any side effects. If you’re trying to control your emotions under stress, lift your mood, or to resist temptation, then a moment of exercise before you take action will put you in a stronger mental state. Some tips on getting the most neurological benefit from your exercise include: making it feel fun and voluntary; exercise that causes variation in your heart rate; writing out a plan and ticking it off; visualising what you are aiming for while exercising; exercising in beautiful surroundings; and doing exercise that has a social element.

SMILE AND LAUGH The brain and the body both inﬂuence each other in a bio-feedback loop. Strong emotions cause physical reactions (eg. tensing of facial muscles if we are stressed). Likewise, if we adjust our physical state, it creates changes in the brain (eg. relaxing the muscles of the face to calm the mind). The brain reacts in the same way when we smile and laugh, whether it is triggered by something pleasing or if you ‘fake’ it, so either way it will start an upward spiral. Smiling, laughing, adopting upright open posture, slowing breathing or relaxing the face and other muscles are all good ways to reduce stress levels and increase happiness. Korb also suggested regular massage and yoga practice as scientiﬁcally proven ways to feel more content and at peace. Smile and make the bio-feedback loop work for you.

GRATITUDE We cannot control what happens around us, or even what thoughts pop up in our mind, but we can choose where to focus our attention. The mind has a negative bias built into its survival mechanism. To gain momentum for an upward spiral we must actively seek things to focus on that feel good: love, fun, appreciation and admiration are all part of gratitude. Scientiﬁc research suggests that a daily gratitude habit, such as keeping a gratitude journal, activates the approach system of the brain. This increases energy and happiness levels, as well as boosting the immune system and even relieving physical pain.

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SEEKING INSPIRATION ON HOW TO HANDLE YOUR CORPORATE CAPERS? HERE ARE OUR TOP PICKS FOR THE BEST BUSINESS BOOKS EVERY PROFESSIONAL SHOULD READ.

#GIRLBOSS SOPHIA AMORUSO

WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? DR. SPENCER JOHNSON

SYNOPSIS: This New York Times bestseller shares author Sophia’s personal story, as well as unique tips for success including knowing which rules to break and how to succeed without taking yourself too seriously.

SYNOPSIS: Penned following the panic in the corporate realm before the new millennium, when work environments introduced new computer and business systems, this book assists people in dealing with unprecedented change.

THE VIRGIN WAY: EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LEADERSHIP RICHARD BRANSON

RICH DAD POOR DAD ROBERT T. KIYOSAKI

SYNOPSIS: The largerthan-life, risk taking business legend shares an inside look at his unique style of leadership. Branson shares personal anecdotes and his observations of those who have inspired him.

SYNOPSIS: Personal-finance author and lecturer Robert T. Kiyosaki has two dads, who both influenced his unique economic perspective. Kiyosaki shares his experiences, his finance philosophy and the lessons they taught him.

STEVE JOBS WALTER ISAACSON

THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE STEPHEN R. COVEY

SYNOPSIS: This authorised biography of the late Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs looks at the powerful visionary and entrepreneur’s life. His story proﬀers valuable lessons of mistakes and determination.

SYNOPSIS: This top-seller has inﬂuenced presidents, CEOs, educators and everyday people. Tapping into the powerful role habits have, it takes the reader through the framework to achieve personal and professional eﬀectiveness.

TO READ THE FULL REVIEWS VISIT WWW.THINKBUSINESS.COM.AU

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Why should businesses

conduct SURVEYS? SURVEYS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR BUSINESS OWNERS ACROSS ALL INDUSTRIES AND ARE AN IMPORTANT TOOL TO TAP INTO THE NEEDS AND WANTS OF YOUR CLIENTS. AFTERALL, HOW WILL YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT UNLESS YOU ASK THEM!

ACCORDING TO SNAP SURVEYS THERE ARE FOUR MAIN REASONS WHY

In a non-intimidating survey environment, you will learn about what motivates survey respondents and what is important to them, and gather meaningful opinions, comments, and feedback. A non-intimidating survey environment is one that best suits the privacy needs of the survey respondent. Respondents are more likely to provide open and honest feedback in a more private survey method. Methods such as online surveys, paper surveys, or mobile surveys are more private and less intimidating than face-to-face survey interviews or telephone surveys.

business decisions. Surveys allow you to collect unbiased data and develop sensible decisions based on analyzed results. By analyzing results, you can immediately address topics of importance, rather than waste time and valuable resources on areas of little or no concern to your audience.

They allow you to compare results. Survey results provide a snapshot of the attitudes and behaviours – including thoughts, opinions, and comments – about your target survey population. This valuable feedback is your baseline to measure and establish a benchmark from which to compare results over time.

“

SURVEYS GIVE YOUR RESPONDENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS IMPORTANT KEY ISSUES.”

To start a discussion. Surveys give your respondents an opportunity to discuss important key issues. By communicating with your audience about the topic, you can dig and incite topics related to your survey within a broader perspective.

You can base your decisions on objective information. Conducting surveys is an unbiased approach to decision-making. You should never rely on gut feelings to make important

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AT THINK BUSINESS MAGAZINE we are passionate about delivering information our audience want to read about so we conducted an extensive survey to discover the key issues that are important to them as business owners and professionals and the results are in. See below for a snapshot of the survey results. To read the full results online, visit: www.eagleandcrossmarketing.com.au/thinkmoneysurvey.php

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BODY LANGUAGE IN BUSINESS WORDS NICOLE FUGE PHOTOS REBECCA SMITH AND CONTRIBUTED

IT TAKES LESS THAN FOUR MINUTES TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION, WHICH IS WHEN PEOPLE DECIDE 90 PER CENT OF THEIR OPINION ABOUT YOU. WHETHER YOUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE OPERATING FROM WITHIN THE WORKPLACE OR INTERACTING WITH OTHER SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS OWNERS, IT PAYS TO BECOME FLUENT IN BODY LANGUAGE.

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ALLAN PEASE, AKA Mr Body Language, has mastered the unspoken communication tool since working in door-to-door sales as a teenager and says, whether you are trying to land a dream job, build morale with your workers or close that big deal, it’s equally important to think about your body language, as well as the message you’re delivering.

over centuries. Similarly to the use of palm power, your handshake tells the other person:

“The workplace is all about making the right first impression, creating a positive work environment and communicating effectively – a significant amount of that ‘communication’ is happening without saying a word,” he says.

LEFT HAND HOLDING

“Body language strategies have the ability to help us improve many areas of our lives and this is especially true when it comes to our career. One of the most popular examples of how body language is important in business is the widely accepted idea that a ﬁrm handshake has positive connotations.”

NAIL THAT FIRST IMPRESSION EVERY TIME PALM POWER

Dominance: ‘This person is trying to dominate me. I’d better be cautious.’ Submission: ‘I can dominate this person. He/she will do what I want.’ Equality: ‘I like the person. We’ll get on well together.’

This strategy may seem obvious at ﬁrst, but few people pay it much attention. Practice holding folders, papers, brief cases and drinks in your left hand. We typically greet each other, open doors, move a chair or wave goodbye with our right hand. So if your right hand is free of objects you’ll avoid looking clumsy.

“

SMILE POWER Smiling is an appeasement gesture to show others that you are nonthreatening. Our research shows the more frequently you smile, the closer others will stand to you, the more eye contact they will give you, the more likely they will be to touch you and the longer they want to stay with you. In other words, smiling is great for your business and personal life (and don’t be afraid to practice your smile in front of the mirror).

TERRITORIAL RESPECT

We each carry a bubble of space around our body known as personal space. Its width depends on population density and what culture the person is from. If you are standing close to someone and

FIRST IMPRESSIONS TAKE PLACE IN UNDER FOUR MINUTES AND IT’S WHEN PEOPLE DECIDE 90 PER CENT OF THEIR OPINION ABOUT YOU.”

When used correctly, palm power invests its user with a degree of authority and silent command. Palm-up is a nonthreatening gesture that’s been used since caveman times to show that the person is not holding any weapons. If you make a presentation and continually use the palm-down position, you’re more likely to suffer rejection from your audience. The pointed finger is a symbolic club with which the speaker figuratively beats the listener into submission. If you are a habitual finger pointer, practice the palm-up and palm-down and you’ll find that a combination of these positions can create a more relaxed atmosphere and you’ll have a more positive effect on your audience.

THE HANDSHAKE

Shaking hands is another relic from caveman days that has been modiﬁed

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you notice them move back, they’re telling you this is the amount of space they need for comfort. Keep your distance and resist moving forward.

practice these techniques you will become more successful at making a positive ﬁrst impression every time,” says Allan.

The secret to appropriate business dress is to ask yourself how your prospect expects you to be dressed. For you to appear credible, approachable, likeable, authoritative, knowledgeable and successful, how would you be dressed in their opinion?

Some gestures are universal, the most widely recognised is the raising or ‘ﬂashing’ of eyebrows, which is a useful tool in business, particularly hospitality, for attracting the attention of and retaining customers.

DRESS FOR SUCCESS

“You never get a second chance to make a ﬁrst impression. But if you

ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS

“For example, if you go to a coﬀee shop and there is a line of people in front of

you, you start debating whether to stay or go,” says Allan. “Shop owners know once you get past six deep, people are going to disappear and they’re going to lose business. One of the things we’ve found is the person serving customers or the person making the coﬀee, all they’ve got to do is get your eye contact and you’ll stay another seven minutes longer before you leave, because you know you’ve been recognised.”

EXUDE POWER, YET REMAIN APPROACHABLE

As people, mostly men, climb the corporate ladder, they show fewer gestures with each promotion and you’ll often notice they keep a straight face when shaking hands. Meanwhile, Allan says, people in less-important positions are not as guarded and are more likely to nod, flash (raise) their eyebrows and reveal their teeth (smile). “By showing my teeth and giving you an eyebrow flash, you instantly feel comfortable and think, ‘this guy won’t threaten me, he’s not intimidating me, he recognises I’m here’. Whereas when someone meets you and shows no expression, they are intimidating,” says Allan. “They’re only little signals but they’re enormously powerful because first impressions take place in under four minutes and it’s when people decide 90 per cent of their opinion about you. You haven’t said much in those four minutes, so they’re looking at you and making assessments as to whether you’re going to be friendly or aggressive.”

Allan Pease and his wife Barbara are internationally-renowned relationship authors, penning a total of 18 best-sellers and presenting sold-out seminars in up to 30 countries every year. Allan’s keynote addresses, books, videos and audio programs, are sought after by everyone from business executives and politicians, to media personalities, royalty and celebrities. Their much-anticipated new book, The Answer, will hit the shelves from November 2016. In The Answer, Allan and Barbara share their experiences with honesty and humour and show you how to make your life what you want it to be. PHONE: 5445 5600 INFO@PEASEINTERNATIONAL.COM WWW.PEASEINTERNATIONAL.COM

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FOUR BODY LANGUAGE STRATEGIES TO GIVE YOU THE EDGE:

KEEP YOUR FINGERS TOGETHER

SCAN THIS PAGE TO WATCH ALLAN DEMONSTRATE THESE FOUR BODY LANGUAGE POSTURES

People who keep their ﬁngers closed and their hands below their chin when they talk command the most attention. Using open ﬁngers or having your hands held above the chin is perceived as less authoritative.

KEEP YOUR ELBOWS OUT

Sitting with your elbows on the armrest of a chair is perceived as a position of power and conveys a strong, upright image. Humble, defeated individuals let their arms drop inside the arms of the chair and they keep their elbows close to their bodies to protect themselves. They are perceived as fearful or negative, so avoid sitting like this

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

Respect the person’s personal space, which will be greatest in the opening minutes of a new meeting. If you move in too close, the person may respond by sitting back, leaning away or using gestures that reveal their irritation, such as drumming their ﬁngers or clicking a pen. Sit closer to familiar people but further back from new ones. Sit closer to those of similar age and further back from signiﬁcantly older or younger ones.

MIRROR THEIR BODY LANGUAGE

Mirroring the other person’s body language and speech patterns builds rapport quickly. In a new meeting with someone, mirror his sitting position, posture, body angle, gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice. Before long, they’ll start to feel that there’s something about you they like – they’ll describe you as easy to be with. When presenting to couples, watch for who mirrors whom to uncover the decision-maker. If the woman makes the initial movements and the man copies, there is little point in asking him for a decision.

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FINAL WORD

PEASE IS AUSTRALIA’S BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT. HAVING STARTED OUT SELLING RUBBER SPONGES DOOR-TODOOR AT THE AGE OF 10, HE HAS GONE ON TO MASTER THE ART OF COMMUNICATION, OFFERING SUCH A UNIQUE INSIGHT INTO HUMAN BEHAVIOUR HE IS NOW SOUGHT AFTER BY SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST RESPECTED AND PROMINENT LEADERS.

ALLAN PEASE PEASE INTERNATIONAL

HOW TO GIVE POWERFUL PRESENTATIONS IF YOU ARE asked to address a group of people at work, it’s important to understand how an audience receives and retains information. When you stand to the audience’s left (the right side of the stage) your information will have a stronger eﬀect on the right brain hemisphere of your audience’s brain, which is the emotional side in most people. Standing to the audience’s right (the left side of stage) impacts the audience’s left brain hemisphere. This is why an audience will laugh more and laugh longer when you use humour and stand to the left side of the stage, and why they respond better to emotional pleas and stories when you deliver them from the right side of the stage. Comedians have known this for decades – make them laugh from the left and cry from the right. Use this strategy in your business presentations and you’ll be sure to get on the right side of your audience.

TOP FIVE POINTERS FOR POWERFUL PRESENTATIONS: ONE. Never tell the audience you feel anxious or over-awed, they’ll start looking for nervous body language and will be sure to ﬁnd it. They’ll never suspect you’re nervous unless you tell them.

TWO.

Use conﬁdence gestures as you speak, even if you’re feeling terriﬁed. Use steeple gestures, open and closed palm positions and keep your arms unfolded.

THREE.

Avoid negative gestures, such as pointing at the audience, arm-crossing, feet-crossing, face-touching and lectern gripping.

FOUR. Be expressive but don’t overdo it. Keep your ﬁngers closed when you gesture, and your hands below chin level.

FIVE.

Look animated. Make sure your facial expressions mirror what you’re saying. People are more likely to believe you and engage with you if your face tells the same story as your words. Take care not to go overboard.

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