Started a cereal business using 4,500 acres land bought, now exporting to 12 countries (Pam Brook)
[Music] g'day and welcome to the grow a small business podcast I'm your host Troy Trewin each week we speak with an owner who has grown a business with five to Thirty team members to something bigger diving into their numbers and another thing the pain they've experienced we explore what they did to overcome each barrier and what they would do differently from day one let's get into it we'll have all the show notes and any resources mentioned in the cast on our website with some friends Pam and Martin bought four and a half thousand acres of rainforest with Macadamia trees in beautiful Byron Bay in 1989. Ten Years Later moved from Sydney to finally start the business so no one was adding value to macadamia nuts to launched their serial range started selling in late 2000 at the bangalow farmers market they now exported 12 countries and sell all around Australia but chose to never stock in the duopoly in Coles Woolworths after seeing how they treated suppliers in the 90s Pam state is a part-time dentist for the first few years Martin hit the road selling in 2003 built their own Factory on the farm Sales Group 50 to 100 in the early years now 10 to 12 percent per annum sales grew 50 to 100 in the early years now 10 to 12 per annum from 2fde to now over 70 initially funded from their own Capital then the banks and some grants never taken on investors growing mainly from profits I felt she succeeded when gave up the part-time job as a dentist all in and when they won Telstra Business Awards nationally when they had 17 FTE hardest thing about growing a small business is getting the finance right what Pam would tell herself on day one of starting out is you can do it in focus focus focus focus go back and listen to episode 7 Rod started a small Cafe in 1984 by early 2020 grew to 45 team members across two award-winning restaurants one now with seven premium accommodation rooms above welcome everyone today I'm interviewing Pam Brooke from the lovely Brook Farm in Byron Bay New South Wales thanks for your time today Pam oh pleasure great to be with you Troy let's start off with how we know each other a bit of a break from recent tradition Peter our podcast editor did reach out to you and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the calendly invite pop into my corner it was your name because we met about five years ago the Tasmanian whiskey week the inaugural one for a weekend of golf whiskey up at ratho Farm in the central Highlands here about an hour out of Hobart in the snow wasn't it in the snow that's my three favorite things you know whiskey snow and golf so they were combined together that weekend and great company and it was just a truly memorable weekend yeah it was great and I know that you and Martin had a great time as did myself and Brett who are on a business partner with now in the distillers Institute and online training course for the sellers we've got hundred students in that that's going really well he was there that weekend yeah oh so good so many of the great people in the industry or the entrepreneurs in the industry were there that week and yeah it's a great part of it and you were Martin were down that week not just to sample some great whiskeys and to explore Tasmanian distilling scene down here but also it was a bit of research for you because you then went back and you're planning to open a Distillery which is now Cape Byron Distillery which one of your sons now heads up doesn't he yes our youngest son Eddie Brook heads that up and it's a family business but we're also one of our partners in the business is the wonderful Jim McEwen from Isla in Scotland who's been a world master distiller three times I think now yeah a lovely guys he's a lovely guy he's one of the loveliest guys in the industry I met Jim years ago when I was here at Lark and had lunch with him took him out to lunch at Frogmore and just really impressed by him and he obviously rebooted Brooke laddock back in the late 90s early 2000s I think it's a movie about that whole experience yeah he's an absolute legend in the industry I think by now I think he retired a few years ago but formally it was like in the industry for well over 50 years was an international judge for 30 or 40 of those years I think yes yes an exam to scratch the surfaces you know it's like entering the black hole of whiskey knowledge yeah yeah yes yeah that's what I had the impression I got of him as well and I was in awe when I read the article that you guys were able to NAB him as a partner in the new distillery and uh because he also made the Botanical sorry what's it called oh sorry the botanist yeah yeah because he created the very popular botanist Gene as well as part of brookletic and he's obviously just a master got a great palette and a lovely gentleman so it'd be good to have Eddie on the cast maybe next year to talk about Kate Byron Distillery but today it would be great if we focused on Brook Farm yes excited too so tell us a little bit it's obviously located in Byron Bay so tell us what it does and how it makes money so I'll tell you a bit of the background story we bought land in Byron Bay with some friends Back in 88 89 and you know we were going to move out of Melbourne at that time I was a dentist and Martin was a film producer Martin's my better half and um we were going to move and do that sort of sea change tree change thing then in the early 90s came the recession that we had to have yeah went to 20 22 percent I had my dad on the cast the other week and he took advantage of that I was saying before they put three million dollars on the overnight money market to earn about 600 Grand a year interest from those High interest rates very risky I didn't know my dad took that many risks but yeah that was interesting times back there oh interesting times so good to hear a story of someone who actually won out of it yeah that's the upside isn't there this is usually an upside somewhere yeah but that meant that we couldn't move up here for another 10 years because we were just struggling to keep businesses alive keep the farm going because we planted it out in 89 four and a half thousand Macadamia trees and the rest we'd restored with rainforest and Eucalyptus so we would travel three or four times a year up here to visit and in that time we saw that no one was doing an evaluating to macadamias yeah and we decided that we would do that because no one else was doing it and it was such a clever idea and you know we didn't know anything about the food industry but what could possibly go wrong so we moved up here in January 99 to start a food business evaluating two macadamias and it took a lot longer to get off the ground than we thought a lot more research and development and there wasn't a lot of accessible internet in those days so a lot was done by Post phone call and those things and then in November 2000 we started at the bangalow farmers markets or the monthly markets in Bangalore and um just the two and the boys and so that's really where the business started sales wise was at that market was that that market so we would make it at a food grade Factory in Ballina which is just half an hour south of here and then we package it up and store it at home and the boys in those days would say Mom can you just please move the boxes we can't see the television anymore and things like that I would work part-time as a dentist to keep cash flow going and Martin would be out on the road selling so we sold throughout the local region and then gradually built to sell in to Sydney and Melbourne and then in September 2003 said right you know we built our own food grade Factory on our farm and I said right if this business is going to get to where we want it to be I need to be full time and we knew that the business had the potential and it was doing well but if I went full time then it could really fly because there'd be two of us really involved right yeah and do you have some key numbers I think this is our 20th year right congratulations yeah in 2000 how old were you and Martin when you decided to take the plunge let's see in 99 I was 45 when we moved up here and Martin was 49 yeah great and for some people that's an older age to start a business but we were just so excited we thought we could do this he had great sales and marketing skills and I was a process and systems person as a dentist it's all about attention to detail so we complement each other quite well yeah it sounded like a perfect partnership and sometimes yeah sometimes the family business yeah not when you're putting on the 14th green at ratho in the snow I'm sure do you have some key numbers you can share to illustrate the growth of the business well when we started there was literally just the two of us today we have over 70 employees right 70 full-time yep 70 full-time equivalents we export to over 12 countries around the world some of the big overseas businesses and domestic like Costco we've actually never sold coals and Woolworths that was a key decision early on in our business to avoid that and do things the Hardy mainly because of their domination of the food market in Australia and we wanted to manage areas yeah of the market haven't they the food market in Australia it's massive for those two totally and you know in the beginning back in 2000 and you know between 2000 2005 we know so many businesses that went to the wall in fact a lot of the equipment from businesses that had gone out of business due to failed contracts with a big two so we had a healthy respect for how to manage risk at that time so they haven't gone into either you know there might be another business that would do that but we're also we've got a lot more sophisticated knowledge and would know how to deal with them on a more even level not that you can ever be dealing with the big two on an even level but a lot more skill and knowledge now if another business that we created went in there got it and what about do you know the number of stores you're in now or even percentage growth Top Line over the years in the early years you know you'd grow by 50 or 100 a year early years and then over the last 10 years or so we've maintained a steady 10 12 that's still great for a mature business yeah I mean we've had some challenges along the way we've had some years where it just stopped you know if you lost a major customer overseas that would make a huge dent but sometimes you learn a lot more from those challenging times than you do from the times when everything's going well it makes your comfort zone up yeah as I like to say in the mentoring I've done one Tim palmier from flat tummy tea I interviewed earlier in the year he and back decided to sell out they're going to start up other businesses and I threw a phrase at him which was success as a poor teacher and basically thought about it for a second and we talked about it and I just said just don't get too comfortable that you know everything because you knocked the first one out of the park it was an absolute home run success less than three years I sold over 10 million dollars and you just you know you've got to go back to the next one or two maybe fall over so it's good learning opportunities indeed and for us and once our key got involved in the business and will was passionate about getting into the business then we decided that our business wasn't going to be for sale that wasn't our exit plan we had a succession plan of a generational family business so you measured things differently and you have to really take the long term of what's going to keep this business viable and sustainable in the long term and still continuing to grow how do you always keep it fresh and the people fresh when it's not going to be we're not building it up for sale we're building it up for Success yeah great when was the moment you felt like you'd succeeded I think the moment that we felt we succeeded goes way back to the fact that we decided that it wasn't such a big risk for me to give up what I was doing and go into the business yeah and then every time you succeed like there's been so many things to celebrate over the years you know when you produce a new product that people love when you go into a new country in it do it well when you get great feedback I think when we've expanded our manufacturing operations and real really streamlined that's been a huge success because it makes such a difference to our viability and it just the bottom line that now all of a sudden you set yourself up for the next level I mean like you can measure success in some ways we want a Telstra business of the year in 2007. is that nationally or yeah that was nationally wow congratulations there are only 17 staff in those days and right we were like yeah this is success and then you go to the awards and you meet all these other businesses that literally flew from the time they became business of the year to go on to complete other success so we said well if that's success it's also just the beginning so I think success is celebrating along the way but it's a lifelong journey too yeah great well that answers that next question what does success look like to you I think it's what did Juan fangio say the driver you know when you're driving fast and hanging on but you're just in control driving a racing car or something like that in a way it's a little like that in that you've got control but things are flying is a great thing but it's also success is when you get all those bits and pieces in place that you've been grappling with where it's like herding cats and suddenly get your systems and things right and solve the problems that you've had and you manage to pull them all under control for a while you know then the car takes off again and all of a sudden you've got a whole different set of challenges to get under control but I think it's making sure that you really understand what's making it that's a really great feeling success when that happens I agree on one that way as well number one thing you'd recommend a marketing a fast growing business I think marketing a fast growing business for us in the food industry it's about the brand and the genuineness of our story I think with marketing for us it's always been genuine marketing as in it's a brand that comes from the heart and our story comes from the heart yep so that's really important for us and in this day and age social media and all of those things are really important but living your brand and getting that out to Consumers so that they leave your brand too and every time they touch your brand or anyone in your business outside whether it's a supplier whether it's someone you sell to like a retailer or whether it's a consumer they touch your brand and it's successful for them and it makes a difference to them that's I think one of the key things of marketing a brand yeah then it's all about how you look to people on the shelves and all of that but it's you touch people in your journey that it's a positive experience that's really important because then you Shore up your supply lines you've got consumers who are faithful to you and we'll come back to you if they stray and you're really looking for you measure that loyalty don't you with something like net promoter score what kind of scores are you getting yeah so Clinton who heads up our marketing he came from the sports industry and he bought that with him then that promoter score he loves that so our brand and our shopping experience or they score about 9.1 on The NPS and on the network
motor score and they measure that regularly I think monthly we review that and that's really important that we have that in the shopping experience to customers that great turnaround and service and also as a brand how we perceive yeah that's wonderful numbers after all that side of things yeah how did you fund your business so in the beginning when we moved up from Melbourne we moved up debt free and with some cash in the bank so for us we started with a lot of our own capital and then inevitably the banks also we turned to for that was the next thing in those days we didn't want to take on investors we were small we were tiny and we've grown gradually over the years so the bank has been the best thing and for us but also we had good assets along the way yeah so that made a difference we had our farm and here then we bought land and built food grade factories and food grade facilities and all of that sort of thing so while that's been great gradually over time it becomes a burden and then you need to look at switching your Finance to to be more business related through banks yeah we haven't taken on investors it's always been the business funding itself we intentionally haven't taken on investors as a family business yeah but we would look at outside investment but not in Partners in the business yeah well it's phenomenal if you bought land at Byron Bay in the late 80s 41 years ago the land would have been such good value back then yeah that would have placed you very well a very strong balance sheet yeah in fact we bought the land side unseen at the time you couldn't even see it over the Internet Because the Internet was literally invented in 1989 in CERN in Switzerland by Tim berners-lee so it's not like you could view it online yeah what about grants did you get any grants uh we've had a few grants over the years with Brook Farm grants have been very hard to come by but when we have got them they've been of great support to us but export Market development grants have been great we've used those to the maximum for going into export markets that really drove our early years of export yep and r d grants we've used along the way as well so those things that are more accessible but export Market development Grant was a great one that got us into the USA into the UK and Europe early on yeah wonderful and if you were to start up today with plenty of funding would you go into your industry definitely yeah I love the food industry but I'd also go into other things as well as you have with the food it touches so many other things but yeah food farming food and beverages the whole Paddock to the plate story is how you get that food to people the food Indus is an industry that I love and I love that we make it I love manufacture I love that bite of things too can you outline the most stressful point in your small business growth Journey so our audience can learn from it I think when we lost we were really flying you know we talked earlier in the interview about success and you know not getting too comfortable and we had great success with an overseas export but it was with one large customer and then we lost that customer that really set back our exports by probably up to 50 so that was massive yeah huge yes and so stressful yes but it taught us really importantly about not to be complacent and never take anything for granted and particularly keeping your eyes on the number and the stats because sometimes when things are growing really well you're like yeah we can take more people on yeah we can do this yeah we can do that and you just trust that the money will still continue to come in yeah whereas focusing on what does the business really need and to strategically grow that's what we really learned out of that we're really refocused on back on what we actually needed and what was core to our business and what we didn't need what we'd overspent on so we really managed to cut back a lot in that time and then also we brought in a lot of really good expertise we hired well we changed some stuff around and made sure that we got people who are really well aligned with us and really had that same drive you need a lot of drive to get out of a hole yeah when you've fallen into one and you have to have the right people with to do that that have that same energy I guess oh definitely people are so important we'll talk about that in a minute but what area in business do you feel you've had to work on the most to add the greatest value I think sales and distribution is always one of the most challenging Parts in the food industry you know when you're looking at the big two take over 80 percent and we're dealing with the rest of the 20 plus then to establish a premium brand sales and distribution and getting distribution Partners right and really working with them well once you've got a distributor you don't just say they go you have to work with them as partners because they'll work really well with you if you work really well with them if you've chosen the right ones yeah and I think analytics you know knowing our numbers if every aspect of our business is the other thing that we've really worked on the most understanding every facet of our business just the cost of production of every unit and what's realistic don't take a pie in the sky thing or we can get to this yeah we can get to this so we'll price it diff yeah you might not get there because there's a human factor or a machine Factor you have to take into account yeah and what have you enjoyed at least about managing the fast growth I'm a person that likes to get involved in lots of things so sometimes it take you over too much yeah degree focus and keep yourself balanced I think yeah so it's probably a battle with yourself when you're enjoying something the least is why and say why am I not enjoying this rather than blaming other things look to yourself if you're blaming everybody else you usually have to look to yourself to understand why and then you can work it out from there yeah that's very good self-reflection is a really important time yeah and what do you love most about growing a small business I love the people and seeing the difference that a career and what you do makes to other people whether it's the people who work with us our very first employee when she started with us she lived in a caravan and then by the time she left us she owned her own house oh wonderful and that was way back in 2000 but then it's the difference that you make to people now in the regions it's really important to community the work that we do and our business it connects to community on every level and so creating jobs building the economy of the region putting out good cultural messages and connecting with people is yeah I love being part of the community where we live and I love making a difference to all the people that we work with so it's the people it's the jobs it's making great food I love the food we make I love it great and what's been the biggest mindset shift in your business growth journey I think the mindset shift was probably that focus of you know when you start as just the two of you the mindset shift you have to do is to hire people who are smarter than you at what they do and understand them and trust them appropriately but manage them well too yes so that was a big learning curve for me along the way you know when you start there's just the two of you it's a lot about control and you can't control everything you have to trust your team and you have to hire a great team and also when it's time for you to step aside or take a different direction it's important that to be able to let that go and trust that the people that come along to take over tasks that you were doing yeah that's really important so that's a mindset change of making sure you've done it right but trusting and letting go as well yeah one of the greatest mindset shifts for us also when we experienced you know some tough times is we said we've got all this amazing equipment that we've invested in to make great products and for growth so one of the things we've started to do as well to help us build capacity is we've started doing contract manufacturing for select food producers and that's great because we're also helping others grow it also builds and uses our Machinery to its maximum yes and helps build our employees and their skills so that's been a real mindset shift instead of just doing our own stuff we're also doing some contract manufacturing but learning how to do it well so that it's effective and efficient for those we do it for but also financially successful for us too that's important yeah and that's enabled us to invest in new equipment with Shorty because as we know it's not just ourselves we're relying on but we're also doing it for others too yep what's the number one habit you think a small business owner needs to develop and maintain I think focus and listening focus and listening for me is really important focus on what the issues are because when you have a small business you can work in the business where you just preoccupy with everything day to day or you can work on the business where you really look at it from outside and I think it's really important when you're working in the business to step back and work on the business and look at it from outside otherwise you don't see what's coming and you can't plan ahead so I think that focus of making time to work on the business and really listening to others I'm a great believer in networking with a lot of business people and just talking through issues or every time you meet someone there's often a pearl or great supports and people to discuss things with and just great collaborations that can happen by mixing with others so don't be an island is really important do you love talking small business growth with other owners we have a vibrant online community from many Industries around the world plus we regularly add new tools and resources for community members and host two webinars a month to help you grow your small business crossbowbusiness.com that's great advice can you talk about how you add people to the team some wins mistakes and advice for those listening they say higher slow fire quick someone said that years ago 100 sure about that because sometimes you might be the problem not the person I don't know but make sure that have to hire an attitude like there could be two people with the same skills but one has the right attitude and that's really important and the right cultural fit for your company and for you so if you can't get on with them and your team can't get on with them it's not going to work no matter how good they are in that for longevity so I think attitude's been really important but really good for Senior Team really good skills and for people we're hiring who are starting off down in the business and learning skills attitude is everything yeah and looking after them once you've hired them because once you've hired them that's just the start of the journey and then you've got to give them the flexibility and the freedom but also the responsibility and manage them well so that they know what their job is they know what they're all always and the expectations of them but you give them the freedom to get there yep I totally agree with that and what are some things you'd recommend to building a sustainable and Kick-Ass culture to help with the growth I think part of a called Northern Rivers food and philosophy is you know connect develop and celebrate and I think that's how maybe you do that within a business too you've got to connect with your people you've really got to develop them and you've got to develop the business and you've got to connect with people outside your industry as well and throughout your industry you've got to really work on developing that and celebrate and tell the story don't hide the light under a bush is what they say something like that I forget what things but be proud of what you've done don't go I'm not good enough toot your trumpet it's really important because it'll make the team proud of the business they work for but also for us sustainable as well you know we look very much at everything that we do so running a farm we want to make sure that our farm is around and celebrated 100 years from now and we'd like our business to be the same so what do we do to be here for the longevity and we want to make sure that we're building a business that it's not just on focusing on transits focusing on things that will make a difference to people's daily lives when they buy food and that they are wanting to be with us for a long time so we have to lead with the Innovation as well there too yeah but connect develop and celebrate would be key things for me and to touch on the products you make it's like muesli bars baby cereal porridge and nut mixes Etc yeah so we started off early on with you know I grew up in a skiing family and so we used to have my dad would have 17 jars around the kitchen of different ingredients to make a trail mix and we were looking for that first product to make it no no to um no that was breakfast and then there was a trail mix as well that inspired another product later on but when we were looking around for the first products to make and you know we started with the famous Macadamia mayonnaise that never made it onto the shelves and then we went back to muesli and made a Mac or may Macadamia muesli that was premium quality really delicious and that was our first products and then we looked at what people wanted so very early on we develop up to gluten-free muesli that was different to anything else that was on the market because it actually tasted good and not like cardboard then we've gone on with a whole range of things like our adventure mixes and our brothers blend mixes were based around Trail mixes we made bars for healthy snacking we've done a whole lot of things for people who have to go on sugar-free diets come up with ketogenic food products which was one I developed for a friend who had to go on a ketogenic diet and I went on it with her and I said after three days of bacon and eggs I said I'm gonna make you something I can't live like this so I developed a ketogenic granola four that was sugar-free and yeah and she's still alive today they gave her three months to live at that time so that was pretty good that was eight years ago fantastic that was and recently the baby foods came about because it wasn't just to do baby food but these days there's a huge number of children who develop food allergies and one of the key messages that the pediatricians give is that it's really important to introduce the common food allergens between the age of 6 and 12 months to help kids prevent them developing food allergies so no one else in the baby food industry was adding any allergens everything was free from free from this free from that and we said let's make something that's not free from so we developed a really natural organic baby cereal that included very fine ground nuts like macadamias almonds and made that so it's the first one on the shelf that actually incorporates food allergens in just tiny amounts but yeah really good well that's great so there's always been a reason for that yeah which has always been a driving course yeah it sounds like Innovation and watching market trends is at the heart of your business definitely that's great oh okay yeah if you make it all by ourselves too which is exciting that is great and it's yeah it's made everything we make is made local and made in Australia in the beautiful Byron Bay and now I love my macadamia nuts so I think I'm gonna wear like a used Stockton igas or yeah iga's independent retailers we always say you're stocked in surprising places when Qantas was flying a lot we were on Qantas business and first and domestically and overseas Virgin also throughout yeah in food service and premium hotels but yeah all the independent retailers right yeah you'd find one nearby I'm going to pick some up fantastic yeah to Pam tell our audience how you've handled balance we've touched on this a bit earlier but anything else there to you know help other people with I think well look everyone's idea of balance is different isn't it and so balance for me might not be the same as for others but the things that I need to do certain things like need to make sure I have family time and that we have time for our because we live on a farm it's a great place to just empty your brain and just go for a walk and not think about things yeah and that's really important but making that time going skiing every year is pretty important I've done that since the age of three so that grounds me but I started skiing age four Mount puller I grew up on yeah at least keep black runs now it was Mount bully your mouth uh awesome was my mountain right and yeah it went there from an early age and I ski in Canada a lot now yeah out in the wilderness areas and um I just love the quiet silence that comes with it yeah it's beautiful I think for balance just making sure that you know when the mind is buzzing and you can't sleep your body's telling you that you haven't got balance so family and making time for family like you know in this time of covert we tend to to reflect a little and you've got your health you might lose everything else whatever but if you've got your health and you've got your family that's pretty special so I think you have to come right back to what's really important and make sure you don't forget that but then keeping the balance keeping fit I mean if you're working if you're in business I think you just have to keep fit that's always been my brain works when I'm fit so I will exercise five days of the week at least even if it's just a really long walk or whatever but otherwise yeah it's great Pam it's important to do and it enriches your life it makes you yeah you want to be different as long as possible don't we I hope you do yeah yeah how much professional development did you invest in yourself over the years books podcasts courses training conferences events I think because I was a dentist in the past that was ingrained in me early on to always continuous study so particularly as our business grew you know sometimes there was a lot of knowledge that I didn't have and you know you can get people coming to give you lots of advice as we call Consultants sometimes and went off and I did my MBA because sometimes I didn't understand the advice that my accountant gave me or my lawyer was giving me and I thought I really need to understand I'm going to listen to their advice but I want to make sure I really know what they're talking about so I did do my MBA along the way but I read a lot I read things like the Harvard Business review and things like that along the way but also just lots of other books that are outside business that contribute to your business brain or your business thinking or your just your thought yeah so always gone to lots of conferences and courses and those sort of things and now I'm part of Northern River's food which we started with a whole group of other local businesses in 2012 and so we're always getting together with other food businesses to network and collaborate that's great and that would happen probably on a monthly basis minimum yeah so building those business networks I don't that's like a fast track MBA in itself yeah totally agree it's probably more effective sometimes what about mentors or coaches have you had any along the way any good experiences with them I've got some great mentors and friends locally who've been in other businesses and that I just took waste heads in different areas you know I'm a good friend Jamie at Stoneham wood is a just got a great strategic brain and we often nut out problems together it's one of my favorite beers in Australia the Pacific ale got some great yeah wonderful beer wonderful company and a very good employee-centric attitude you know their employee share scheme and they vowed never to sell out to the big players I've got I'm a big fan of stone and wood on many levels not just the beer yeah no the lads who started that grad Jamie and Ross are still really good friends and we would network with them regularly and in fact when they first started their business we used to rent them the Brook Farm boardroom for a slab of beer that was the uh the rental chair they had their board meetings so I think our business has grown with lots of other businesses in the area and so other mentors might be you know some people in finance or some people in different areas but but mainly locally with the mentors and my dad when he was alive he was a great mentor as well yeah he was in the rag trade for a long time and just had a great approach to business and so I learned a lot from that growing up that's good Martin's an excellent how to foil to me as well so you know we as partners in business we've always tossed a problem around together and I think together we that's provided the real balance in the business yeah right and you have a board of directors or advisors at the moment we have a family board so that's Martin myself and the two boys who will they're not boys anymore they're men now they're um 33 and 30 so yeah but they're always your kids aren't they but so that's our family board now and in the future we may add one or two others to the board but a family board works really well and we run it like a proper board yep all right Pam we're on to the final five questions what do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business initially for us the hardest thing early on was maybe the finance getting that right because you know when you start a small business you often start with passion and Zeal and then when you go to the bank you've got to have the business plan right and all of that sort of things and so some people write their business plan after they've started their business yeah I think I learned a lot from the Telstra Business Awards of really looking into your business and understanding it and so the hardest thing in growing a small business is making sure you're focused on all the nitty-gritty bits because if you haven't then that catches up with you at some stage yep no I agree and then you've got to go back and do it yeah so I think the hardest but the most sometimes the most rewarding thing is to do that and to get Finance for your business you've got to do that you know it's no use then baffled with [ __ ] that works sometimes but nothing to do it with banks they did for aliban didn't it but it did for Ellen Bond what's your favorite Business book which has helped you the most there's been so many along the way the one that's probably transformed my thinking is not a business book it's a book called Cry of the red warbler by Charles Massey and it's about environment and regenerative farming so it's all about for this planet to Survive and Thrive and for our next Generation to live a life that will be livable and they'll enjoy we really have to get our food systems right yep so for me in the free industry making ethical decisions from The Paddock to the plate is really important so that starts with how we grow but then it makes you think about all the ways we sell and the sort of products that we produce so I really recommend that it's a really readable book and it's a a great book on the story of Australian agriculture but also tells you the story of the world food industry and Agriculture and you know every time people buy a piece of food or you know make a shopping Choice they're making a choice that will influence the future of our planet and the way we live so I think it's really important to understand that so that goes core to our business in everything we do so that's probably the most profound difference to me that's a great read too yeah good any great podcasts for online learning tools you use for your own professional development oh I think early on I use the TED Talks quite a bit they were great Simon's Scenic why that's really good and you know we were talking earlier about what makes a difference to a business and your employees is if everyone's on board with the why they're all on board with that so Simon cynic definitely and there's often so many good TED talks about that it you feel unrelated to business but then you take something from them and relate it back so I think in terms of podcasts yes business podcast cursive but also listen follow broadly you know I love the Health Report with Norman Swann I read a lot you know there's genius Talks by Max legavera and a whole lot of things which is about food he gets a bit extreme at times and but it's just what's out there and what's trending yeah keeping the Mind broad but yeah business focus but then looking widely yeah and one tool you'd recommend to help grow small business collaborate with others some people think that it's a sign of weakness to share a problem you'll find that others will be really Keen to help you know don't listen to the ones who don't give you constructive advice constructive criticism listen to the ones that will help build a network don't be an island I think that's the most important thing and that means within your business and outside your business finally my favorite question what would you tell yourself on day one of starting out you can do it as well but Focus yeah focus focus focus focus on what know what you wanted to achieve at the start and stay focused on that you can get diverted by all these other things so eyes on the prize of what you set out to achieve in the beginning and always keep eyes on the prizes to am I getting there is that what I set out to do is are we on track yeah and assess that every week and review and reflect on your successes and your failures yeah well thanks for your time today Pam really enjoyed the chat and I think the audience will get a shitload of value out of that and hearing your journey and congratulations to you and Martin and the boys as well and all the men now I think you've uh it's a phenomenal success story and you've got a really good attitude to business and people and the environment and looking after the planet oh great to talk to you Troy yeah no really enjoyed it now look forward to our next dram and while we're putting on a ratho farm in the snow if you make it down one year otherwise I'll see you in Byron Bay sometime yes other was we could have a game of golf on Mount Buller maybe some stage you know yeah that's it great thanks Pam okay thanks Choi that's it thanks for listening please leave a review in iTunes or whatever platform you listen to us on it means more small business owners will find our cars and help people with their business growth Journey go back and listen to episode seven Rod started a small Cafe in 1984 by early 2020 grew to 45 team members across two award-winning restaurants one now with seven premium accommodation rooms above it
2022-12-17 13:32
