SMEs and Not-for-Profits

As any equestrian lover will tell you, riding horses is more than just a hobby. It is a way of life, accentuated by the strong connections that one can form with these beautiful animals. For Dannielle Appleford, owner and manager of the Warranwood Equestrian Centre, horse riding has always been a major part of life. Teaching horse riding is what she has done for most of her professional career. As such, operating her very own centre was always in the cards for Dannielle.

For a long time, Dannielle was simply working as an instructor for a variety of people who were running similar businesses. In fact, prior to focusing on her own business, she worked for four different people at the same time. On one hand, this allowed her to gain a lot of knowledge, both in regards to horse riding and business management. After all, she witnessed the many challenges and difficulties faced by horse-riding centres firsthand.

Starting from scratch with a unique skillset

On the other hand, however, this approach was limiting Dannielle’s abilities and her motivation. She found that she missed out on a lot of opportunities to influence things in ways she thought best. Her job was to go in and give lessons according to the philosophies and ideals of each businessman, not to apply her own. As one might expect, this soon led to a point where the interests of all the businessmen, and Dannielle’s, were starting to conflict with each other. At that point, Dannielle decided to take a leap of faith and start her own business.

As if that was not challenging on its own, Dannielle also decided to start entirely from scratch. Like she informed us, it was not appropriate, not good business ethics, to carry her previous students across to her new business. Instead, she focused on developing an entirely new business that she could proudly call her own without any help from outside. At first, she simple leased a property so that she could plan ahead for the next few years and make sure that her own equestrian centre would actually be viable. A few years down the line, however, she understood that location was an extremely important part of the business that she could not neglect. Thankfully, she did find a great location reasonably close to the Melbourne CBD as well as freely accessible to everyone in the eastern suburbs. “If you go too far out from the city, you are limiting your clientele”, says Dannielle.

Teaching horse-riding skills to people with disabilities

Aside from having years of experience as a horse-riding instructor within many different businesses, Dannielle also has an extensive skillset which has allowed her to diversify and place Warranwood Equestrian Centre apart from the competition.

“Starting any business is a challenge. It’s very different to start a business than it is to take over an existing one. Building the clientele is a challenge. I teach people with disabilities as well so I found that there’s a lot of demand for that sort of service. I found that this was one of my strengths. I was able to pick up a lot of clients from that niche market as that clientele was not available to many people who just didn’t have the skillset to do the same. So rather than walking in and taking over an existing business, it’s a lot more challenging to create your own”, says Dannielle.

Aside from working directly with people with disabilities, Dannielle is also involved with various organisations that operate on a similar basis. For instance, there are a number of adult learning centres that access programs through Warranwood Equestrian Centre as well as a school. The centre maintains a strong relationship with the RDA Warrandyte Centre, a not-for-profit organisation that allows people with a variety of disabilities and from many different backgrounds to fulfill their equestrian goals.

Facing the challenges of business ownership

Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to plan everything out very carefully, particularly in regards to financing and budgeting. In addition to that, she is adamant that setting very realistic timeframes is crucial to running a successful business. This philosophy applies to both important events, like opening up the business, and lesser but continuous ones such as positioning new events and sales. The pressure created by not having a realistic timeframe and planning poorly results in a lot of unnecessary stress that can be avoided quite easily. Setting realistic targets and being organised is important for a business too because disappointing people by not meeting their expectations has a negative effect on reputation.

One of the biggest challenges that Dannielle herself had to face was managing her time. Balancing work and life can be difficult even when you are working for someone else but the playing field is much different when you are in business for yourself. Dannielle believes that many people who aspire to own their own business tend to underestimate the time investment and commitment necessary for success. For instance, Dannielle has to work with customer enquiries which means that she must always be available by phone in case someone calls with questions or concerns. Ignoring such crucial aspects of a business is not possible so sacrifices in her personal life have to be made, to a certain degree.

Up until this point, Dannielle has been the person who has done most of the instruction and training sessions along with managing the business. In order to expand further and attract a larger number of clients, however, she needs to train a couple more people. Because of the unique services that she offers, she needs to find like-minded people who share her beliefs and are also very experienced in the field. Even though that will most likely present a considerable challenge, Warranwood Equestrian Centre will surely benefit from other people like Dannielle.

AT A GLANCE

WHO: Dannielle Appleford’s Warranwood Equestrian Centre

WHAT: A centre for horse-riding lessons which caters to people of all abilities, ages and backgrounds

WHERE: 72-84 Husseys Lane, Warrandyte VIC 3113, Australia

WEBSITE: http://warranwoodequestriancentre.com.au/

Providing support for those in need is an increasingly essential need. As is the case with many other countries throughout the world, disadvantage in Australia continues to rise. Each year, for instance, 20 percent of Australians will experience some sort of mental illness. In 2010, it was estimated that 12.5 percent of Australians lived below the poverty line. Though solving those issues at their core should be a priority, supporting people in their time of need is also vital. Thankfully, organisations like Connections UnitingCare are there to support their respective communities.

We talked with Angela Forbes, the CEO of Connections, about the organisation’s work, their core values, and what drives them, starting from their deep historical roots. The organisation’s lifeline can be traced back to the 1920s when a group of people who recognised an increasing need for support in the community established the Presbyterian and Methodist Babies’ Homes. During that post WWI period, poverty in Australia was high so the two groups focused particularly on the inner parts of Melbourne were people were in desperate need of help.

Over time, they realised they could provide even better support for their communities by establishing new methods. As such, they started creating group homes and caring for even more individuals while keeping the focus on vulnerable children and their families. This continued in various iterations until 1998 when Copeland Child and Family Services, who had grown out of the Methodists Babies’ Home, joined with Grassmere Youth Services just like the original groups had. Then, in 2000, they all joined with Canterbury Family Services and Wheelers Hill Family Centre so that they could make more of a difference by coming together and gathering support. Thus, Connections was born.

Growing with strong core values

Since Angela became CEO of Connections in 2006, the organisation has grown tremendously. Their funding, for instance, has grown from $10 million to over $30 million. This, of course, reflects a growing need in the community to help vulnerable families. Angela attributes much of that growth to the core values set out by the organisation since its early days; to be grounded in their purpose and innovative in their work. Connections has an approach of continuous improvement, along with a real commitment to providing quality services to people who need their support.

“We have grown because we have always strived to be the best we could”, explains Angela. The organisation takes a holistic approach to continuous improvement and innovative processes. The organisation’s philosophy is applied across the board, from the staff who are involved in client facing roles to their systems and back offices. One of Angela’s core beliefs is that if an organisation can measure their effectiveness, they can provide a much better service. Connections does this in two ways: they receive feedback directly from their clients through various systems they have developed and they use a sophisticated framework called  the ‘Connections Outcomes Framework’ which they use to measure the effectiveness of their work right down to the worker level.

The admirable work of Connections’ staff

The staff are, after all, the most effective tool that Connections has. Angela has huge admiration for everyone who goes out there every day and works with families who are struggling. Though they always affect change, the results are not always visible quickly. Whenever change is happening slowly, it can be a real struggle for both staff and the families. However, Connections supports their staff to make them see even the tiniest things that make a difference so that they can appreciate the work they are doing. Their work is grounded in evidence-based theory, of course, to ensure they are having an actual impact. Breaking the cycle of poverty and aiding people with a variety of complex issues can be difficult but they are an essential part of what the organisation does.

“Our staff may visit a family once per week or once a fortnight, for example, and they do a very thorough assessment. In almost all the families that we work with, there’s some sort of trauma or life circumstance that has got them to where they are. As such, our staff are all trauma-informed in their approaches and they work with families in whatever they need, in a planned way, to help them achieve their goals. They are not our goals; they are primarily the family’s but they are also joint ones. We receive referrals from places like Child Protection, the police, schools, and from families themselves. Often families are aware of what isn’t working but don’t have the capabilities or resources to work around that”, comments Angela.

A ‘strong culture of support’

The organisation has a strong culture of support, supervision, and accountability. One of their core values revolves around learning and education from both sides of the coin. Internally, they invest heavily into increasing staff qualifications and skills through thorough training and development programs which are open to all staff in the organisation. Externally, they educate the community on their work and what they can do to improve their lives.

This is also applied to their work with vulnerable families: “The bulk of our work is working in what’s called Integrated Family Services. We work with families wherever they are struggling. For instance, in cases where children are clearly seen to be at risk, the parents may be struggling and not meeting their needs so we go in and work with those parents, their children, and whoever else may be a part of that setting to help them start functioning in a way that is healthy for themselves and their children. Also in a way that their children’s well-being in the future can be improved.”

Looking ahead, Angela sees a bright future for Connections. So far, they have overachieved any growth plans and have remained a strong community organisation with a lot of expertise and influence. Now, they are in the process of a merger which will hopefully reinforce their position even further. More opportunities will be provided to support those most in need. The organisation’s view of making lives better will continue to be an absolute commitment across all levels of the organisation.

The beauty industry in Australia continues to grow over the years as both beauticians and their clients readily adopt the latest methods and techniques of the trade. Such trends are supported and influenced by a number of lifestyle changes, either directly or indirectly. For instance, social media is extremely influential in the industry as people wish to look better than ever. One of the more advanced beautification techniques that has grown over the last couple of decades is cosmetic tattooing. Lisa Millington has been involved in the industry for more than 13 years and has witnessed all the changes and evolutions of cosmetic tattooing firsthand.

Before she entered the beauty industry, Lisa was a secretary. However, she came to understand that she wanted to change her career and focus on working for herself instead. After doing a beauty course and opening up a small studio at the back of a hairdressing salon, Lisa decided to come up with a business plan by attending a small business course. Once she learnt more about cosmetic tattooing, she knew that she wanted to concentrate in that particular area. Even though it was not nearly as popular as it is today, Lisa realized the potential of cosmetic tattooing. She slowly but steadily accumulated experience both by working for herself and by working part-time in a prestigious institution.

Building a business through passion and hard work

Though Lisa started with nothing, she had a very clear business plan and a strong passion for cosmetic tattooing as well as the beauty industry overall. Originally, her plan was to do five tattoos per week in order to cover her expenses and start building her business. As things progressed, however, she ended up doing five tattoos per day and evolving her studio much further than expected. Today, she focuses on providing training for anyone who wishes to enter the trade but lack the necessary skills or confidence to take on the world on their own. In addition to that, she does a lot of voluntary work around breast cancer patients as a way to give back to the community.

Four years ago, Lisa started training people for another individual in the same trade. Soon, however, she figured out that she enjoyed the process and was willing to open up her own training school. About a year ago, her efforts culminated into her very own training school which is operated in conjunction with the Lisa Millington Cosmetic Tattooing services. Lisa has travelled all over the world to meet up with trainers and cosmetic tattooists. This has allowed her to accumulate a breadth of knowledge which she shares with her students. Like she says, those who come to her for training spend a considerable sum so she has to make sure that they are receiving the best training possible. Lisa herself has invested almost $20,000 in her own training, after all.

This ideal of providing the best possible service is key to Lisa’s work. One of the key challenges she has faced over the years is making people’s interpretations of what they want to achieve and what Lisa can provide them align. Providing a service which is as close as to what a person might expect is a daunting task but it is a certain way to ensure that the client can walk out the doors feeling happy with the results. On the student side of things, it is often hard to impart the necessary knowledge upon the students within the relatively short training timeframe but Lisa is there to support them both during and after their training has been completed.

The growing industry of cosmetic tattooing

Growing her own business was originally very difficult but she never gave up. Even when she worked 13 or more hours every day, her passion for the industry and her strong feelings about cosmetic tattooing helped her go on. Lisa is a true believer of this thriving industry, particularly because she has seen how it has evolved during her time. When she first started out, about 10 percent of the population even knew what cosmetic tattooing was. Now, that figure is probably closer to 80 percent and she frequently encounters people who are enthusiastic about her work. Today, both men and women do cosmetic tattooing and reap its benefits.

“Cosmetic tattooing is a thriving business. It took over America 10 years ago and is actually taking over Australia now. It’s one of the highest paying jobs you will get in the beauty industry. It does take a lot of artistic work and even though you don’t need to be a beauty therapist, it’s advantageous. There are a lot of new techniques that have come out in the last few years too. The results are much better too which is why a lot more people are interested in it”, Lisa advises to people who wish to enter the industry.

Lisa has evolved her business quite a lot in recent years. Moving into training has been a very rewarding experience and she wants to concentrate on being a mentor to the many individuals who seek out her expertise. Helping them go out into the market and feel more confident in their work is one of the main reasons why she loves training and any expansion plans in the future will certainly focus on that.

Going into business for yourself is a bold move for most people. Those who have no previous experience in business ownership often find it hard to make the transition from being employees to running their very own company, enterprise, or service. For Sandra Toia-Wilson and her husband Paul Wilson, the transition almost fell into their laps. Today, they maintain a successful company called Ratclifff Mathews Real Estate but that was not always part of the couple’s plans.

A few years ago, both Paul and Sandra were completely oblivious to their future career path. Sandra, who had a background in civil engineering, had decided to stay at home and take care of the children while Paul was working in IT, an area he has been involved in for more than 20 years. Because Sandra was always urged by her family to get into real estate, she started a course through correspondence. The couple then decided to switch roles which meant that Sandra soon found herself working at Ratcliff Mathews. After a couple of years, her boss offered to sell the business to her as he wanted to retire and the rest, as they say, is history.

Though Ratcliff Mathews was already an established business, Sandra and Paul were faced with a host of challenges in the beginning. Soon after they decided on acquiring the business, they learnt that the existing facilities were set to be leased to a competitor agency. The couple, however, managed to find a new place in a mere two weeks even though they had never done anything similar before. Despite the difficulties they encountered, they managed the situation very well. This also allowed them to establish themselves and to let their clients know that the only change would be in the base of operations.

According to Paul, going from being employees to owning a business was a big transition. It came with a whole new set of rules that they had to learn quickly if they wanted to operate in an efficient manner. Learning how to operate at that level meant understanding how to manage expenses, handle legislation, and manage virtually every part of the business by themselves. Thankfully, the couple’s skills complement each other which meant they shared the workload and fully trusted each other with their own duties.

Trust and integrity in real estate

Trust plays a big role for Paul and Sandra across every level of the company. Their philosophy is that everyone should pitch in because everyone has each other’s back. The employees that they take in are treated like part of the family as Sandra and Paul maintain the traditional values of a family business. They help their team members achieve goals and then reward them for doing their work well. “While elsewhere you might be considered as an individual seller, here you are part of a team that works together”, they say.

Another thing that differentiates Ratcliff Mathews from other agencies is their belief in home ownership. Sandra believes that to work in real estate, you should own real estate. That way, you will know what you are talking about when you are interacting with clients because you will have already walked in their shoes. An example of this is Robert Ljubic, the company’s Property Manager. The 24-year-old employee is a trusted member of the company, a home owner and investor who treats Ratcliff Mathews like his own business and is highly respected by Paul and Sandra.

Respect and integrity is also a major part of the couple’s corporate philosophy. They are always truthful with their clients and they help them understand the entire process, step-by-step when necessary. They can and do provide their clients with numbers, statistics, and facts so that they can build their confidence through honesty. Paul and Sandra have learnt a lot about interacting with both their clients and their staff since they took over the business and they apply those lessons every day in their work.

Learning more through past experiences

They also offer some of these as advice to aspiring entrepreneurs:

“Do your research. Be prepared and have a little money behind you to get started. You will need to invest money first. The first three to six months will be a rollercoaster; money will have to go out before it comes in. If you have a good business plan, it will give you the chance to succeed so stick to it. As long as the service is good and you do right by people, people will support you”

Though the business is doing very well already, Sandra and Paul would like to expand their reach a bit further in the future. For instance, they will be looking into hiring more people with the right attitude and focus that fits their model. This will also allow them to expand the rental side of the business with another dedicated Property Manager. These objectives are part of a five-year goal but Sandra is adamant in the fact that such plans will only move forward as long as everyone within the company is doing well. Until then, they will strive for continuous improvements both internally and externally.

Alternatives to Western medicinal practices have become increasingly popular in countries like Australia in the past couple of decades. Like every association reports, clinics and practitioners of alternative medicine are overwhelmingly positive in their growth and the general public is now far more accepting of such courses of treatment. A testament to this example is Dr. Saji George, an Ayurvedic Practitioner who has developed one of the most reputable alternative health clinics in Melbourne.

Dr. George initially came to Australia about 11 years ago. Some of his family members had already moved here from India while his wife and daughter also wanted to migrate. After practicing in India for 14 years and building a substantial career there, the decision to leave it all behind was not an easy one. Even so, he decided to start from scratch and move over to a new country with a new future. In the beginning, things were much harder than Dr. George or his family had anticipated. Ayurveda was basically unknown in Australia up until that point and finding a job in that field was a seemingly impossible task.

After searching for a job practicing Ayurveda for seven months to no avail, Dr. George decided to support his family through a processing factory job. Even then, he never gave up his ambitions and kept searching for clinics that would allow him to practice at least some aspects of Ayurveda as a physiotherapist or a massage therapist, for example. After finally landing a part-time job, he continued to work on his language skills and build a reputation. Anyone who actually went through the initial consultation and booked an appointment with him was very likely to come back as his experience made him incredibly confident in his craft.

Building a business and reputation through sheer force of will

By continuously improving his English skills and building a reputation, Dr. George was building towards his ultimate goal of managing his own clinic once more. Through word of mouth and hard work, he established a client base that allowed him to open a clinic with a homeopathy therapist in Melbourne CBD. That 30 Sq. m clinic was all he needed to establish a base of operations that would gradually develop into more. Today, Dr. George owns three different clinics which house ten different practitioners of Ayurveda, homeopathy, and yoga. Building everything from nothing was an incredibly challenging task but his success story is rooted in hard work and determination.

The trick that got Dr. George through was quite simple, as is his advice to anyone who aspires to do the same. Never giving up is key because anyone can achieve what they want as long as they are determined to do so. Initially, Dr. George had to educate people on Ayurveda before he could even begin to think about offering them his skills. During that time, he did not have enough money to invest back into his dream clinic as everything he was earning was going into supporting his family. Despite these and other challenges in setting up, his confidence in his practice allowed him to persevere and come out on top in the end.

All in all, Dr. George has been in the field for more than 24 years. As mentioned above, there were no Ayurveda clinics when he first arrived in Australia. The only mention of the practice was a couple of practitioners here and there who were mostly concerned with providing courses rather than actually practicing. Now, there are 22 clinics in Melbourne alone. “Things have changed and now there’s healthy competition”, says Dr. George. In addition to that, there are at least eight suppliers of Ayurvedic medicine whereas he originally had to import everything he needed by himself.

The benefits of connecting with clients

Another element that Dr. Saji George believes has contributed to his success as a clinical practitioner in Australia is being responsive to clients. Each of his clinics are great at responding to enquiries quickly and efficiently while he also makes himself available to questions even outside of business hours. Responding to his clients’ needs and always being available are two factors that are hugely important to Dr. George as it shows that he cares about his patients. On top of that, his clinics try to provide the most authentic services available across all disciplines including Ayurveda, homeopathy, and yoga.

The same principles can also be applied to a general business philosophy: “I’ve always said that if you are committed and focused, you can succeed very well. If you are committed and focused, then you can sell your services to people. It will just take time. You may need to be patient, but that has been my experience, even back in India. If we do our job sincerely, people will receive that well and understand our sincerity and authenticity”

Expanding Ayurclinic even further

Ayurclinic now serves an average of 500-600 clients per month but Dr. George does not want to stop there. The fact that he has built everything by himself has given him an unparalleled drive to move forward and not stagnate. His plan right now is to search for committed people who share his values in order to fulfil his wishes of starting a clinic in each state of Australia and expand his services to a much wider audience.

Adding to that, his other main goal is to create an overnight facility where people will be able to receive even more dedicated treatments. According to Dr. Saji, there are some intensive treatments that require at least two weeks in a hospital setting. His current facilities do not allow for that as patients have to come and go every time. If he moves at the same rate, however, Dr. George will accomplish most if not all of his goals in the next five years.