This Is Me
Welcome to my first blog entry on Flokka. I have to say it is perfect timing to be blogging about business and more particularly being a Mum in business or a “Mumpreneur” as seems to be the new catchphrase I am not exactly sure I like. There are big changes afoot with Mothers Online. I have a new business partner, we are building a new site, we have a whole new strategic plan, I am about to change my live in childcare arrangements and I am really, really, really in the inquiry of what it will take for me to have more life/work balance. (Note I put life first this time!).
So, this first entry is really just to fill you in on what life looks like here as a WAHMIB. We live in a big old house on the Northern side of Lake Rotorua. Our family consists of myself, Dean the lucky man, Harrison aged 8, Molly aged 5, (6 on Friday and we are definitely counting the sleeps), Ashe aged 4, Max aged 2.5, our current Angel (or Au Pair as they are more popularly known), Coco the Labradoodle and Jack the Burmese cat. Also inhabiting our home and sometimes overwhelmingly so is Mothers Online Limited, which I often refer to as my 5th child and am constantly telling myself I should banish from the kitchen.
We moved here 2 years ago after a stint in Westmere, Auckland where our baby was born and Mothers Online launched. While the life of the city is always great,- being pregnant, in a small bungalow in Auckland with no offstreet parking, neighbours within metres and people or cars wherever you looked, was not working for me. So home it was, to what we knew, where I knew I could do children ( 4 under 6 that was) and where the addition of a business to it all would not be quite so stressful. I have to admit as a family we haven’t looked back, but when I arrive in Auckland some trips I wonder what life would have been like if we had hung in there through that first year of Max’s life. Well, hindsight would be torture if we let it be huh?
Anyway, down here we have 5 bedrooms, 3 living spaces, office space, double garaging and sheds and just under 2 acres to race around on. I also get the best of both worlds with frequent trips to Auckland for work and business with enough time squeezed in (hopefully) to shop, eat, drink and catch up with my precious family who almost all live there now.
As a family (the longer I am in business, the longer I think our personal life can be operated like a business) we are working to create an environment where our children first and foremost are nurtured and secure, while giving ourselves the outlets we need to grow and achieve in other areas. Dean works as a Project Manager for a company in Auckland and manages to utilize the home office while travelling around the area. Neither of us think anything of a trip to Auckland and back in a day. It is a regular event in our lives. I am also a Consumer Representative for the NZ College of Midwives in Auckland and BOP/Tairawhiti. We are a very busy household and it does require a good degree of organisation, however, it does not seem all that difficult to manage (most of the time) with the right systems in place. I’ll start on those next time. Please add comments, feedback, jokes or anything you can contribute. I look forward to hanging out with you!
I’m planning to leave you with a thought at the end of each entry that I hope will add something to your day…this week’s thought - “So many fail because they don’t get started - they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia. They don’t begin.” - W.C Clements Stone.
Can your small company hunt whales?
GUEST POST BY Barbara Weaver Smith
People ask us, how big does my company have to be to hunt whales? Or, do The Whale Hunters have anything to offer a really small company? Those are good questions.
Many companies start out as whale hunters, their first customer being a government subcontract, a former employer, a franchiser, or a grant-making agency supporting R&D. Even our smallest clients do business with whales such as Dell, Eli Lilly, Cisco, and Sears.
So the answer to the size question is that any-sized company can hunt whales as a strategy for growth. But you have to follow some important principles in order to be successful.
Implement Process
Whale Hunting is 90% process and only 10% magic. The size of your company matters less than your commitment to building disciplined, replicable processes. Entrepreneurs are often long on passion but short on follow-through. If you are not the process person, build a process-oriented team. Designing and managing a rigorous sales and delivery process is your first order of business.
Seek Clarity
To hunt whales, you need a simple, clear message to the market. Decide who you are and what you do for whales and build your message around that. Entrepreneurs like to meet all the needs of all the prospective customers. It won’t work with whales. As you grow, you can diversify, but clarity is key to whale hunting.
Ask for Help
Whales buy as a team and prefer to buy from a team. They want to know the people who will deliver services to them-the subject matter experts. What if you are too small to “launch a boat?” Here are some people to recruit:
- Your banker can reassure the whale that you will have the necessary capital and cash flow to deliver on the deal.
- Your accountant can attest to your ability to manage the financial arrangements at a high level of credibility.
- A member of your board of advisors can reassure the whale that you professional counsel to grow your business and other successful entrepreneurs are backing you.
- You may be outsourcing many IT functions such as accounting, communications, training platforms, etc. An IT provider can reassure the whale that you have selected high quality, scalable services.
- A current customer, who believes in you and wants to help, adds huge credibility to your team.
Prepare to Deliver
Even if what you sold is a product that is already on your shelf or in your warehouse, the sale of a very big order to a whale will challenge your production capabilities, distribution, accounting, and customer service. Be ready! This will require preparation, investment, and commitment.
Manage Risk
Whale hunting is a strategic decision. We advocate a balanced portfolio of accounts in which whales occupy a special place, but not the only place. You cannot safely build your business with only one whale.
Whale hunting combines vision, strategy, and execution. No matter how small you are, you can think and behave like a whale hunter.
About Barbara Weaver Smith
Barbara Weaver Smith, president and CEO of The Whale Hunters, is an author, consultant, speaker, and coach. Barbara held positions as an English professor, a college dean, and a nonprofit organization president before founding her first company in 1996. Informed by her leadership experiences in all economic sectors, Barbara’s mission is to support women to achieve exceptional growth in their companies and organizations by doing bigger deals with bigger customers and partners.
About Whale Hunting Women
Whale Hunting Women-how women do big deals in business and community. For inspiration, motivation, and direction, this book celebrates women as deal-makers and includes how to “break the minnow mindset” and how to create a fast-growth culture. It documents three cultural transformations that favor women’s leadership styles: the trend to replace competition with collaboration; the need to transform bureaucracy to entrepreneurship; and the value of perceiving a world of abundance rather than a culture of scarcity. The book offers advice on how small companies or organizations can manage their public presence to generate the whales’ confidence that they have the capabilities and professionalism to complete big deals with big customers and partners. The book incorporates a deal-maker’s journal; each chapter includes worksheets to prompt reflections and action plans.
Thank you for visiting this post about Barbara Weaver Smith and Whale Hunting Women. We are offering a free giveaway to two people who comment during the tour. It is simple to be entered in the giveaway - just post a comment on any post about the tour and you will be entered. But, an interesting post is more likely to get our attention. To see the tour schedule visit http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2009/04/whale-hunting-with-barbara-weaver-smith.html
Barbara Weaver Smith’s website - http://www.thewhalehunters.com
Barbara Weaver Smith’s blog - http://blog.thewhalehunters.com
Order your copy of Whale Hunting Women - http://cli.gs/WHWEbook
How aware are you?
Guest post by Sheree Carbery, a flokkaBiz contributor (learn more about Sheree here)
A warm welcome to you who is reading this article, yes I am talking directly to you. Have you ever read something where you have said to yourself internally “gosh this really speaks to me”. Well, my intention is that within this article and the other writings that, something will jump off the page and speak to you so keep reading and see what inspiration or resonance can be created from these words that are on this page.
Have you even noticed how distracted you can get when you are trying to be present with something? Even as you read this, are your thoughts trailing you off to the next task, the next meeting, the phone call you have to make or what you are going to have for dinner? What if you were to simply STOP right now, put the pen or the cup of coffee down and just focus on these words, breaking the words down into letters, then noticing that what you are reading is simply a few black lines on a white page. Does your awareness allow you to experience it this way or are you frowning and wondering what on earth I am on about?
Okay, lets try again. STOP whatever you are doing even if it is completely focused on reading this article, take a breathe and be aware of where you are, are you working from home, are you reading this late at night after a busy day in the office, are you in the busy office wanting to sneak five minutes away to catch up on your Flokka reading. Where are you right now? What are you doing? In our busy lives as working women and/or working mothers we are so busy doing that we sometimes forgot to simply BE. Our awareness is quite often on what we have to get done rather than who we are being.
So right in this moment, could you just BE! What does this mean exactly, I hear you say that you don’t have time to just BE and I’m asking you do you have time for anything other than your work right now. Whether you are self employed or work for someone else, can you take a few moments out to honour yourself. Trust me, I know what it is like to have to meet deadlines, writing this article is one of them and amongst my busy day of emails, solo parenting, seeing clients and packing to move house I get how unaware of me I am right now. And yet as I tune in, I become aware of the excruciating pain in my ovaries as I menstruate and if I were to tune in a little deeper my body would be asking me to take a break and have a rest. Yes we trudge on don’t we, never mind the pain, I’ve got work to do. Well I’m here to bring a new light to our busy lives. Our awareness gets away from us so much that we go through the daily grind and get to the end of the day only to lay down in our beds knowing groundhog day is going to start again tomorrow.
So I’m going to begin by challenging you to take a look at how aware you are of you, how do you honour you and your time. How much do you give out to others, bosses, colleagues, family, friends, children! How aware are you of your own lack of awareness? Would you be willing just for the next couple of days to take a step back and become the observer of you, your communication, your interactions with others and your awareness of it all. What would life look like if you were more aware. What I find useful is that when I get to the end of my day, the work is done, the kids are in bed and I have some space to myself, I sit down in my comfortable chair and expand my awareness outside of my body, expand it outside of the room and take my awareness boundlessly behind me, vast in front, open to all sides, skylike above and ocean like below and just rest in the awareness that just is. See how this works for you, you may just find a silent space that can then be filled with the peace and joy that we sometimes forget is accessible. Have fun with it and I’ll see you next week.
All of life comes to me with Ease and Joy and Glory
Have a magic day
Sheree Carbery - The Butterfly Effect
Business loans that change lives
Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website.
If you’re wondering how you can ‘make a difference’ in the world by actively helping another entrepreneur in a developing country - have a look at www.kiva.org.
Kiva is a brilliant initiative - from the website you can read about various entrepreneurs, choose an entrepreneur and make a loan from $25 - you get updates and get repaid when the business succeeds. These entrepreneurs from Pakistan to Afghanistan only need small loans; to buy a cow or for more inventory for their shop.
As the website says: “The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.”
You can also purchase gift certificates to give to a friend to redeem by lending the funds from the certificate to an entrepreneur of their choice. These gift certificates would make a great client gift!
