Mid Market Matters Craig West

Amreeta Abbott started her career as an Accountant and Financial Advisor back in 2004, when technology solutions were rare, slow, and frustrating. She quickly realised her clients wanted to focus on flexibility and the ability to control their investments, and that technology to support this was underserved. So, when she started her own practice in 2005, she specialised and founded SMSF Strategies, with the vision to use technology to address the traditional friction points within the SMSF. Historically, manual processing made giving and implementing advice slow and expensive, and Amreeta sought to provide better solutions. This transitioned into a documentation process using world class technology and was further broadened to create Now Infinity – which was acquired by an ASX Listed Company in 2020 for $25 million. Amreeta discusses this exit strategy in detail, underlining the emotional struggle and process involved when selling your business.

Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed a rise in demand for tech-savvy accountants. Amreeta stresses how the methodology of valuing a business has drastically changed, with a constantly evolving range of tools and visibility now available. Her latest business venture, Annature, was built in mind for partners requiring an e-signing solution - such as real-estate agents & Xero. Released in July 2020, Annature quickly became Australia’s leading digital signature provider, purpose built for all industries. Annature saw huge success during Melbourne’s second lockdown last year, as companies which had never considered e-signatures as an option scrambled to adopt such technology.

The co-founders of Polyture, Jared Zhao and Kyle Foley join this week’s episode. Polyture is the first fully-featured, easy to use data infrastructure platform specifically designed for the mid-market, facilitating the company to become a modern, data driven enterprise. Aiming to modernise mid-market companies and empower small teams within large enterprises, Polyture took similar software that top end companies the likes of Facebook and Google use, and adapted the tools and platform to cater the mid-market. These features include visibility into accounting, CRMs, VRPs and measuring the performance of different initiatives that are taken within the business.

Kyle and Jared identified the reoccurring issue mid-market businesses were consistently facing: an overwhelming amount of data, with no structural organisation or system to sort and refine such masses of information. Recognising the mid-market being underserved with current data solutions, Polyture was founded to be used by those with average data skills and no data-science programming background to integrate masses of information from all systems, with features such as integration, real-time data timelines, insights and forecasts -the applications of Polyture are endless.

CEO and Founder of Appellon Sue Jauncey joins this week’s episode. Not only did Sue grow her company from a small boutique consulting business to a global organisation, but she also has a fascinating career history, working as a forensic Psychologist across the Australian Prison system. Sue gained a deep understanding of human behaviour, and her 25-year experience measuring behavioural and performance outputs has earned her great recognition. Sue has worked with global institutes such as the Royal Australian Navy, Northern Territory Health and The National Health Service, England. She is passionate about supporting individuals who want to live better, healthier, wiser lives and organisations who seek to promote collective achievement, connection and performance innovation.

Sue reflects on the ongoing rise in stress and anxiety in the workforce we have witnessed over the past 20 years. Promoting the need to address this increase as mental health becomes a more prominent topic, especially with the effects of COVID-19 - which has accelerated this discussion. With so many working from home, we are going to see a welcomed hybrid model of the way we work together – however Sue stresses the importance of understanding the science around what constitutes a healthy, productive workforce.

CEO and Strategy Director for Taurus Marketing Sharon Williams joins this week’s episode. As Founder of one of Australia’s longest established integrated Marketing and PR agencies, Sharon’s experience and knowledge is an unbeatable combination. Sharon works with smart clients across all industries, from entrepreneurs, SMEs, to ASX-listed corporations. She has delivered award-winning solutions for over 1000 brands, across 6 continents, over an impressive 25 years. Her solutions are based on her unique, proven methodology, which she named The Taurus Bullseye. Renowned for her unparalleled levels of personalised service and a practical ‘No Bull’ approach that tells you exactly how it is and her international view of marketing in the UK, Hong Kong and Australia, Sharon’s purpose is sharing her experience to fast-track others.

Sharon emphasises the need for communication, stressing the need to critique and elevate communication to target markets: brands with the most reputable, loudest voices are consistently the ones that cut through. Not only is there a need to increase communication, but with the impact of Covid-19, Sharon highlights empathy as a new brand currency. This is especially relevant to mid-market businesses - demonstrating empathy confirms you are genuine, giving your business an edge, not just to staff, but also to clients. If increasing communication isn’t an option for you, then she recommends upping the experience that your clients have with your company, and ensuring you show empathy as you do so. You can find more about Sharon here, or on her Linked In.

Joining the podcast from Babraham in the UK, freelance writer and author Jan Cavelle joins this week’s instalment. As an author, Jan specifically focusses on avoiding the growth pitfalls, something she writes about from personal experience. Jan originally started writing concerning the realities and truths of running a business as an entrepreneur back in 2008. Since then, she has written articles for countless publications, spreading her wisdom, knowledge and latest trends all things entrepreneurial.

Jan strives to help entrepreneurs scale their businesses, providing advice from what she has learned from experts, and her own successes and difficulties. Her first book, Scale For Success, can be pre-ordered here, and more of her articles can be found on her website. For Jan, strategy is a hugely important issue. She has found many people focus too much on growth.

Jan advocates that if you try to grow without strategy, you have none of the frameworks in place to sustain that growth, most importantly the people. With all her research for her book, Jan found people to be the most common denominator. You don’t have to just plan ahead, you have to find the right people to have in place ahead of the growth, and this order is essential for sustained growth.

Corey Rosen is the Founder and Director of The National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) in Oakland, California. Established in 1981, Corey has spent the past 40 years immersed in employee ownership, passionate about creating a thriving environment and supporting the community. Prior to founding the NCEO, Corey worked in The US Senate as a staff aid. This is where he was immediately drawn to employee ownership after seeing a testimony, sold on the idea of creating an economic system both more fair and accessible.

Corey’s vision was a work environment more inclusive, respectful and participating – all of which an ESOP involves. Particularly appealing to Corey was how employee ownership takes the best elements of capitalism; its incentive structure, ability to innovate, grow and be entrepreneurial – but links these foundations to a social objective of broadened ownership and participation for people who are otherwise largely excluded.

The NCEO is a non-profit information, membership and research organisation, with the simple goal of providing objective and reliable information about ESOPs at the lowest practical cost. This is achieved through webinars, published papers and books, seminars and conferences. More details about the NCEO can be found here.