Dec
26
One of the things that always intrigues me is how people become successful.
I’ve read many books on successful leaders, attended seminars and talked with people at length.
I’ve listened to strategies and tactics, things they have done that have worked well, how lucky they feel themselves to be. The problem being, no-one can replicate those things and ensure success. Circumstances are different, contexts are different, upbringing is different.
So, to try to begin (this isn’t exhaustive) to find out what makes successful people tick, we’ve tried to dig into their psyche for a brief moment to try to understand their view of the world.
Our first interview is Miles Burke, CEO of Bam Creative, a web development company in Perth, Western Australia. Miles is also one of the team here at Creative Suit. Miles has also been recently recognized as one of WA’s “Top 40 under 40″ - which gives you a clue to his vintage.
The answers to the following questions are unedited but do provide great insight to how Miles sees himself and his world.
1: Name: Miles Burke
2: Business: Bam Creative
3: Time in Business: 4.5 years with current business
4. How many businesses have you owned? Including my first freelance attempt, four.
5: Do you plan to retire soon? Nope – I’m having too much fun!
When you started your business, did you have a specific objective and, if so, what was it? The original concept was to provide me with a lifestyle where I could afford to spend time with my young family, and to also prove to my peers that you can be successful without becoming a ‘bastard’ – we’re talking solid ethical grounds here.
How did you deal with the challenge of “you have to be different to your competitors”? The main distinction I discovered early on was that I thought of marketing and branding than ‘cool technology’. We’ve got cool technology, but that shouldn’t be a driver for a website project. The fact we’re purposely small and approachable has been a big part of our success.
What was your first setback and how did you deal with it? The first one was cash flow – as with everyone, it took a while for me to discover turnover didn’t mean money in the bank. I was honest with clients – I called a number in that first year and asked them to pay me straight away, as I needed it to pay wages and put food on the table.
What 3 things have you learnt about yourself in business that you like? I’ve learnt that I will happily put a client’s needs before my own – we’ve turned down many a project because we have believed there were better solutions to their needs. Secondly, I have learnt how to be fair but firm in management – a certainly hard skill to learn, and lastly, I have learnt when to say no, which is a very important step towards staying focussed and staying true to your beliefs.
What really annoys you about your industry? The low barrier to entry means that anyone with a basic understanding of some simple software can call themselves a ‘web business’. There is a huge leap between that and best practise systems with sound methodologies and QA. It’s heart breaking when I hear of stories where clients have lost money or faith in our industry through charlatans.
What would you change about you if you could? I’d love to learn how to better wind down after work, and to be able to better define the balance between work and life.
When someone first presents you with a ‘great idea’ how do you respond? I pick it to shreds! I have a grand idea at least daily, so it is an important ritual to pick all of the holes and play ‘devil’s advocate’. If it makes it through my intense stripping back, then it’s worth considering.
What words would describe your approach to your business? Honest and focussed. I’m committed to be as transparent as I possibly can with clients, staff and suppliers, and I am constantly honing our service offering, so we offer only what we’re exceptionally good at. There are a multitude of ‘quick buck’ offerings which we could offer, but I believe in long term gain not short term profits.
Describe one thing about yourself that most people wouldn’t know that might give an insight into your personality. I have volunteered for organisations or charities since I was a teenager. Since starting Bam Creative, we’ve consistently given at least 5% of our gross turnover to charity – meaning we’ve returned more profits back into the community than we’ve actually kept for ourselves in some years. I keep that fact low key nowadays, because with the ‘triple bottom line’ buzz words and social responsibility trends that seem to be sweeping business, the concept sounds marketing driven, when it isn’t.
What is the one thing you wish you could do to improve your business tomorrow? The holy grail of keeping enough work in the pipelines to be busy enough, to make a reasonable profit and provide all of our clients with the turnarounds which they would all love. There’s a hard balance there, with busy periods affecting our responsiveness, and quiet periods affecting our bottom line (although they are rare nowadays).
More interviews to come. If there is someone you know who you would like to discover more about drop a line to us and we’ll try to get in touch with them.
Note: all interviews will be around the same questions to build the profile list as well as deliver consistency. If there are other questions you would like asked, let us know and we’ll try and squeeze them in somewhere.
Dec
2
Staff Engagement Solutions
Filed Under Business, Development, Success | Leave a Comment
A big issue here in Australia is the lack of skilled staff. Both Western Australia and Queensland have been in the middle of a resources boom for the past 3 or so years and it doesn’t look like ending soon. A recent report also suggested that in the next 10 - 15 years Europe is going to be needing 20 million skilled workers for various opportunities.
All of a sudden, our employment competition is on the other side of the world!
This affects everyone. Every IT company, every blogger, every web focused individual. People’s skills are in demand and there are plenty of people with the resources to steal your better staff.
So in a recent HR Forum a few colleagues and I discussed options for attracting and keeping people within your business. It seems that the best way to keep people is to address the basics of human requirements. Maslow was right all along - as was Herzberg!
I learnt in grade 3 that people were social beings. That we needed each other and there was a need to interact. But the type of interaction is also important. It’s no longer Command and Control, “Do as I say” or “you’re lucky to be here.”
People today are realising more and more that they have options. And options provide us with choice and lifestyle. If I don’t like working for you I’ll go and work for someone else. And you can’t stop them.
So, what do you do?
firstly, it really does come back to basics. People want to be recognized for their part in the business, they want to know that what they do makes a real difference and they want to be heard. The Internet opens up so many options today that there are probably more ideas floating around that there was in the whole of last century.
So ask questions. Find out what your staff are thinking and what they are thinking about their jobs. Ask them how you can help them make their job better. Better still, give them the challenge of making their own job better. They’ll have plenty of ideas and they probably won’t cost you anything.
“Back in my day.” Mentally count the times you say or think this. Now pay yourself $10 for evry time you say it and see how it mounts up. That’s how much you’re probably annoying your team. Now ask them what they need to do today. Ask yourself as well but if you’re in a leadership role remember who’s actually going to be doing the work.
Create small project teams. Ask these teams 3 questions:
- what are we doing that we could improve upon?
- what are we doing that we should stop right away? (and I mean today!)
- what are we doing that is good and we should continue to do?
If you ask these 3 questions and nothing else, you will get a huge amount of feedback that will enliven the team, produce results and build a sense of ownership within the group. And once you have ownership with value, they aren’t going to be going anywhere soon.
Oh, one last thing: don’t start these things and not see them through. If you do, your turnover will go through the roof and your profits will go through the floor.
Bill