Together with Emma Brown (Business Chicks) and Narelle Anderson (CBD Enviro Services) I shared my ?how did you become and entrepreneur? story and the American Chamber of Commerce Women in Management evening on 19 July.
What great questions: in fact I?m going to share them separately ? rather than trying to lump them all in to one.
What are the three most important factors to success?
I learned from Verne Harnish in Mastering the Rockefeller Habits book, about what causes a successful business and this we have definitely applied to RedBalloon. Personal success is something different for instance the quantity and quality of hangout-do-nothing-play-monopoly family time being one of the success indicators.
1. Purpose:Having a clearly articulated purpose ? where are you going, why are you in business, what makes this business special, why are we not like other businesses. Our values are the glue that sticks us all together, to make us not a group of disparate people but a team of great players who wins championships.
2. Know the numbers: I celebrate knowing how many people we send off on great experiences. But as Kirsten head of Business Development regularly reminds me ? it is the money that pays our suppliers, our people and keeps the lights on. So knowing what is the right thing to measure is the first place to start.
3. Rhythm: Life runs in cycles, and so do businesses. When I was in corporate life I regularily heard ?We need to improve our communication?. Imagine knowing where and when you are in communication with whom. We have a clearly defined, daily huddle schedule ? the agenda has three items, what is working, not working and where are you stopped. Weekly team meetings, and one on ones. Also monthly company meetings and planning sessions. We gave up communicating by email to large groups ? we use blog and wiki all the time ? we live by it.
Success is in the eye of the beholder? We still have a lot more to achieve.