Your Personal and Professional Development.

Before I started out in business I did a lot of research so that I had some idea of what I was doing.  I remember reading a lot about why we need business plans and/or strategic plans.  It all made perfect sense.  We need to know where we are going so that we can plan a way to get there.  Good.  Let’s go…

It is only now that I have been in business for a while that I notice something missing in the planning process.  There was no real reference to a need for business owners to plan for their personal and professional development.  Does that seem odd to you?

If we take the time to plan where we are going and how we intend to get there, why are we not looking at ourselves and assessing whether or not we have the necessary skills and knowledge to allow us to succeed?   The trouble is that if we don’t do it at the beginning we may never do it.  Once your business has begun there will be a lot to keep you busy and keeping track of your skill level is not usually something you will think about.

The difference between success and failure might all come down to you as an individual.  If you don’t have the skills, knowledge and personal qualities needed by people in your area of business then you should go out and get them.  By building in some form of personal assessment into your business plan you will be reminded to stop and take a good look at yourself.  Remember that even though you may have been up-to-date when you started out, things change over time and you need to keep up.

Next time I will show you some of the differences between personal and professional development and how they impact on your business.

Here’s to treasurer software…

Words of wisdom from master entrepreneurs

This week I had the privilege to attend a Master Entrepreneur workshop being run by MAW Action. The format was five round tables of us participants and twenty minutes spent with an entrepreneur who had built a successful global business and then sold it. After twenty minutes the entrepreneur would then move to the next table. Speed dating an entrepreneur was the style of it. They had all read questionnaires submitted by us so moulded their wisdom in the light of the information we had provided about our businesses. We then had opportunity to ask questions. Here are four things Brand Hoff (Tower Software) he has written across the top of his computer screen:-

• People – right people = committed and believe in what you are wanting to achieve.
• Model – win/win business model, better than your competitors
• Value – build in the company ie. brand, credibility
• Execute – build on the foundation of the other three. Do it!

Other gems from him were:

• Have monthly board meetings to look at the big picture
• Be a leading organisation in thought leadership ie. make sure people follow
• Branch into associated products
• Business plans are mostly for the owner to decide if it is realistic
• Only borrow up to the amount of receivables
• If you get a large injection of funds eg.from investor or grant, budget the amount over 24 months
• An investor brings outside eyes to the business.

After the speed dating, there was opportunity for networking and Mary Anne provided each participant with a “Next Actions” sheet based on our questionnaire answers. In some cases that involved meeting up with someone in the room. Each master entrepreneur will now commit to mentoring a participant (or two).

The information shared on the day was very helpful. Mary Anne is partnering with a large accounting firm to roll the program out across Australia. If you hear of this program in your area, take the opportunity to participate and learn from the masters who have been there and done that. I certainly have taken away a lot of practical tips to help me build Admin Bandit to be the industry standard treasurer software for volunteers in the community sector.

Here’s to volunteer treasurer software…

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

… who is the WICkedest of them all.

This question was asked last month at the annual WIC Winter Dinner.  Three women in the ICT industry were finalists for the auspicious title of WICked Woman of the Year. Much to my shock, I was announced as the most WICked of them all for 2009! This award recognises women who have made a significant contribution to the ICT industry. I feel very honoured in such company to be considered WICked Woman of the Year 2009 and look forward to being a speaker at the WIC HOT Breakfast Series early in 2010. The volunteer committee of WIC is very pro-active and are taking the organisation to new heights. The last breakfast had around 100 women (& some men) in attendance at University House at Australian National University in Canberra. If you would like to attend as my guest at one of their monthly breakfasts, please send me a message.

Here’s to volunteer committees…

Benefits of blogging

After winning a Macbook Air in a Twitter competition I was on a high!

Dr Greg Chapman of Empower Business Solutions – Australian Business Coaching was working on increasing traffic to his very educational small business blog. He offered the best three comments on his blog during the month an HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One printer valued at $499. A few weeks after the exciting news of the Kayako competition win, I was delighted to receive notice that I had won this fantastic multi-function printer! Wow, a completely new office set up!

It has been very cathartic re-arranging my office,  re-mapping computers to printers and re-organising what is plugged in where. Have even freed up a double adapter and two extension cords. Thank you to Australian Small Business Blog and to HP for sponsoring such a great prize. The printing is great quality and it is great having it all in one with a flat bed scanner as well.

Have you run competitions to drive traffic to your blog? If so, would be interested to hear how it went?

Here’s to volunteer treasurers..

Gotta be in it to win it – first prize

It has been an exciting time receiving parcels and as a result rearranging the office (and re-orienting moving from a PC life to a Mac life).

Firstly, Kayako – help desk software ran a competition to increase their Twitter followers and Facebook fans. To enter, all that was required was to follow them on Twitter (& Facebook) which I did because we use Kayako as the help desk software to support our volunteer treasurer software and it serves us well. Well knock my socks off, the next day @neridagill was selected as the first prize winner!!! Woohoo! To win first prize in an international competition was fantastic. This prize came in three parts:-

• An updated and upgraded version of their help desk software. This means once it is installed we’ll increase our level of service even further by providing a Live Chat Online option for our treasurers.
• A USD$1000 donated to the charity of my choice. I chose our local volunteer based breast cancer support group Bosom Buddies.
• Last but not least a MacBook Air laptop! Am loving my new laptop. It has replaced my desktop with all my files and work moving over to it. I’ve even moved up to having two screens on my desk. Working in a new computer environment is a bit like being a stranger in a foreign land. I know the move will be great in the end but it will be a bit disorienting for a while.

Well done Kayako for a great competition. All three prizes are fantastic! Benefits all round to our clients with an increased level of service with Live Chat, funds to support breast cancer affected families and greater efficiencies for me in a Mac world. What competitions have you won with such great prizes?

If you are a Mac user. Am keen to hear about your favourite applications and where you got them? Please let me know and help me navigate and get settled in this new world.

Here’s to volunteer treasurers…

Admin Bandit Twitters US$1,000 for Breast Cancer

Winning a prize recently in an international Twitter competition was worthy of a press release, so here it is…..

Canberra-based software company Admin Bandit has won US$1,000 on Twitter for Bosom Buddies, a local volunteer group that supports women living with breast cancer. 

Director Nerida Gill secured the donation on the popular social networking site by entering a competition run by Kayako, an international provider of online help desk software, which invited entrants to nominate a charity to receive a funding boost.

 

“A number of friends and family have suffered from breast cancer, so this cause is close to my heart,” Gill says. “Bosom Buddies provides vital aftercare for women who have undergone painful treatment for a disease that is frightening and often makes them question who they are as women.”

As a provider of volunteer treasurer software in community groups and a user of Kayako, Gill is also pleased to have won funding for an organisation staffed by volunteers. “Everyone at Bosom Buddies gives their time and energy simply because they care,” she says. “This kind of selfless giving is the backbone of our communities.”

Bosom Buddies is delighted with the unexpected windfall: “Nerida’s donation is like a rainbow delivering a pot of gold,” says Marilyn Brookes, chair of the organisation’s breast awareness education subcommittee. “We raise all our own funds, which is time-consuming and hard work.”

 

Brookes says the gift will be used to provide a range of support for those experiencing breast cancer, as well as their families and supporters, including: education materials, 24-hour telephone support, a one-on-one buddy system, hospital visits, and practical surgery aftercare in the form of soft prostheses and cotton shoulder bags to hold post-surgery tubes.

 

Kayako Chief Operating Officer Ryan M Lederman is also pleased to assist such a strong initiative. “We’re glad Admin Bandit chose to donate their US$1,000 to Bosom Buddies,” he says. “Breast cancer is a very important problem facing the world today.”

 

Lederman adds that Twitter was the perfect forum for hosting the competition. “Social networking is hot right now,” he says. “We believe in building relationships that last a lifetime and we want people to know they’re our highest priority. Twitter is one of the best ways we know to do that.”

 

Admin systems a-go

When was the last time you sat back and had a look at the processes in your business or community organisation and evaluated if efficiencies could be gained? Just recently, I’ve completed an Admin Systems assignment as part of my Diploma in Business. One of the reasons I’m studying this course is to provide the discipline to work on the business rather than in the business and look at business issues which may otherwise be put to one side and not addressed. We were encouraged to take a birds eye view and assess if each of the processes in the business were meeting the criteria for good operational systems. Those criteria are:-

• Supports achievement of business goals
• Integrated
• Efficient
• Effective
• Not particular person dependent
• Self-supporting
• Interdependent
• Easy to use
• Cost effective
• Accessible
• Includes contingencies/back up

It was helpful to see where improvements could be made to our administrative systems, even if in some cases it might just be tweaking around the edges or perhaps writing a formal procedure for a process rather than relying on emails. In the craziness of our business lives, perhaps it is a good discipline to run a different system through this criteria each week and make improvements where necessary or celebrate when it is working well. This could be applied in business or not for profit or perhaps to the systems used for volunteering as a treasurer. What improvements could you bring to your administrative systems?

Here’s to volunteer treasurer software..

Cake in a mug, you’re worth it!

No, I’m not kidding. The amazing Amanda over at Real Mums has created a recipe e-book for making a chocolate cake in a mug as the quickest, easiest and most indulgent way to spoil yourself.

Most recipes you just need a good sized mug, a dessert spoon and a microwave (& of course the ingredients) and are ready for eating in under 10 minutes. If you want to get particularly fancy some also involve a spot of alcohol! Looking forward to trying those ones.

Although I’m currently on a diet, I am loathe to recommend something without experiencing it first. As a result, I made the sacrifice and tried the Chocolate Mug Cake on page 4. YUM!!!!!!!!!! Not only do these recipes save you time in preparation and cleaning up but they tantalise the taste buds too! A triple whammy. If you are a volunteer treasurer you could prepare a mug cake for your next committee meeting and torment the rest of the executive.

So get on over and download the Real Mums Chocolate Mug Cake Recipe E-book and try out the recipes. Would love to hear how your taste buds enjoyed the experience.

Here’s to volunteer treasurer software..

Are you the next ActionAid overseas blogger?

If blogging and social meda can give poverty a voice then what a great outcome.

ActionAid Australia is searching for an energetic Australian to be their next outreach blogger to give poverty a voice. Using blogs, Twitter, Facebook and more, the outreach blogger will travel to one of ActionAid’s program countries to help locals harness the power of social media to secure their human rights.

You don’t need to be a blogging expert, you just need to have an open mind and be passionate about fighting the root causes of poverty. Social injustice and poverty are easy to ignore when hidden from view. Your mission will be to help bring attention to the scandal of poverty.

As ActionAid’s outreach blogger, you will give poverty a voice by:

- traveling to a remote area of an ActionAid program country
- training locals to use tools such as Twitter and blogs to shine a light on social injustice and human rights abuses
- reporting on your experiences on your own blog

Click here to see the rest of the article.

Here’s to volunteer treasurers..

 

Picture supplied under Creative Commons licence from publik16.

What has swine flu got to do with you?

I have a friend who is a voracious and fast reader and an astute businessman. His reading extends to pointing me in the direction of helpful material. We joke about how great I am at outsourcing because I’ve even outsourced my reading. :-)

He recently bought me a copy of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell . If you can get your hands on the book it is a great read with some salient points for business or community organisations wanting to spread their message. Malcolm Gladwell tells great stories of Hush Puppies bouncing back when they were on the brink of being phased out, the spread of syphillis in Baltimore and the effectiveness of Paul Revere (& the not-so-effectiveness of his compatriate William Dawes).

Over my next three posts I’m going to give my insights into what I learnt for my own business. As we are in the grip of swine flu and many precautions are being taken to restrict it’s spread, it is an interesting time to be thinking about what we could do to make Admin Bandit Online treasurer software the next epidemic for volunteers.

What ideas have you implemented to make your product or service the latest wildfire idea? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Here’s to volunteer treasurers..