Write a Book they said! It will be fun they said! You can share your message far and wide and help people they said!

and so began my book writing journey…

I have a passion for business, a passion for learning and a passion for helping others to achieve. Having run a variety of businesses for 25 years in the health, distribution and retail industries, I have ‘lived experience’ of what it takes to run a business – or as my accountant introduces me – I have ‘dirt under my fingernails’.

I have had sleepless nights worrying about the business decisions I have made, how I will pay my bills, how to deal with the sudden departure of a valued team member and how to deal with that occasional difficult customer! I have made mistakes, learned from them and gone on to make more mistakes! And along the way I have learned how to run a business effectively, how to scale it and ultimately, when the time is right, to exit the business at a profit. I have also learned the value of clear business goals, strategy and execution of that strategy. Importantly I have built fortitude and resilience that has allowed me to ride the highs and lows of business and hop off the ride still smiling.

I learned very early on that I enjoy the ‘back end’ of business, understanding the nuts and bolts of what makes a business work; the key indicators of success and the levers you can pull to increase that success. Every business has a magic tap you can turn on to increase business revenue when you need it, finding that tap is life-changing. These skills are transferable across Big and Little Businesses alike, they apply across business sectors and industries when viewed with a ‘same, same but different’ lens.

In recent years we have sold our business interests and now I work as a business consultant/coach helping others grow and develop. It’s exciting to see businesses I work with hitting their milestones – growing their team, appointing leadership support, understanding ‘the numbers’, increasing revenue to make that first $million and being profitable enough to draw a decent wage for themselves (contrary to popular belief, many business owners do not pay themselves well!). I coach clients intensely, typically meeting weekly for months on end and giving homework projects to help them grow and develop. I hold them to account on their goals and together, we watch their business grow.

Big Little Business is a practical, ‘how-to’ guide for small business. It takes the strategies used by successful Big Businesses and distils them into easy to understand, practical advice that can be applied to your Little Business to make a very real and very positive difference.

It began with my clients wanting to share my message with friends and colleagues in other businesses. Taking my own advice, I sought out a brilliant mentor, friend and author Dr Lo Lukins who shared with me her writing journey. As I write in my book, a good mentor is worth their weight in gold! Jo assisted me to create the structure and framework needed for writing my book and so it began.

Whilst I never thought writing a book would be easy, I have a newfound appreciation for just how much work goes into the whole process. My logical brain loved creating a book skeleton, ensuring each chapter was relevant to the business owner journey and that each chapter flows to the next, whilst also having value as a stand-alone piece – for when you need a ready reference or refresher. The writing came easy to me from there, as I write what I have lived and breathed for many years and what I now teach. But the editing, imagery and layout process was very ‘task’ oriented and not my forte! I relied heavily on my professional editor as well as my eagle-eyed mother for their expert skills in this area. After many months of hard work, I am pleased to say the end result is worth it and I’m excited to be able to share the secrets of building a Big Little Business with so many more people.

People often ask me how long my book writing journey took – my response is decades in the making, years in the dreaming and months in the writing – and Big Little Business is finally here!